94 ScienUJic Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



Roman trade with India are : Robertson/ Renaud/ and Priauls.^ 

 This trade, which succeeded that of the Greeks, came to an end in 

 the sixth century. Besides what has already been independently 

 quoted from the pages of Pliny and Ptolomey, there do not appear 

 to be any records of much importance bearing upon the present 

 subject. 



An account of India, written for Palladius towards the close of 

 the fourth or beginning of the fifth century, makes special reference 

 to the loadstone rocks, possibly quoting from Ptolomey. In the 

 fifth century Hierocles speaks of the Brahmins as being clothed in 

 garments made from a soft and hairy filament obtained from 

 stones. This, it seems most probable, owed its origin to some 

 mistaken notion as to the origin of cotton rather than to the use 

 of woven asbestos, as has been suggested. 



Under the Emperor Justinian, in the sixth century, Cosmos 

 (surnamed Indicopleustes), an Egyptian merchant, made several 

 voyages to India, and recorded his experiences in a work called 

 Christian Topography, in which some account of the export 

 trade of India is given. He mentions how the Persians became 

 rivals of the Romans at the Indian ports, and how the precious 

 commodities were conveyed from thence up the Persian Gulf, and 

 were distributed by means of the Euphrates and Tigris. Gradually 

 the trade to Constantinople, the then seat of the Romans, was 

 thus diverted. 



Eighty years after the death of Justinian, Mahomet published 

 his new religion, and it was not long before the Arabians spread 

 themselves as conquerors over the countries adjoining their own, 

 thence spreading by sea and land over an ever-widening area. To 

 a great extent they wrested the Oriental trade from the Persians ; 

 they established a mart at Bussora, which speedily rose to an 

 importance scarcely exceeded by that of Alexandria in the height 

 of the Greek and Roman period. So little is known of the details 

 of this trade, that there is only barely sufficient evidence for the 



^ Historical Disquisition concerning the Eaowledge which the Ancients had of 

 India. London: 1809. 



^ Eelations Politiques et Commerciales de TEinpire Eoman avec I'Asie Orientale 

 . o . pendant les cinque premiers siecles de 1' ere Chretienne. Jour. Asiatique, 6th ser. , 

 1803, tome 1. 



3 '* Apollonius of Tyana." 



