226 



ON THE ANCIENT 



sea, in Armenia and Persia, and were remarkable for their 

 hardness and beauty. Drinking and eating vessels were 

 generally made out of them. Pompeius Magnus brought 

 in 63 B.C. the first murrhinian drinking vessels to Rome, 

 this happened at his third triumph against Mithridates. 

 A small piece of murrhinum just enough for a small goglet, 

 containing the 48th part of an amphora, was sold at 70 

 talents. The Consul Petronius possessed a large number of 

 such vessels, the Emperor Nero coveted them and took them 

 from the children of Petronius. Nero was able to furnish a 

 whole theatre with them. Among these pieces of vertu was 

 a magnificent scoop, for which Petronius had paid 300 talents ; 

 suspecting the designs of Nero, he broke it to pieces, before 

 he died. 



"We mentioned above that Indian articles were in request 

 among other nations, but that these could not supply in 

 return anything which met with an equal demand from the 

 Hindus, as their wants were moderate, and easily satisfied. 

 In a country where the three necessaries of life food, drink 

 and clothing (Annapanavastrani) amount to so little, where 

 a few grains of rice, some draughts of water and a few 

 yards of cotton suffice for existence, this could not be other- 

 wise. Thus foreigners were obliged to pay in coin for the 

 goods they bought and as precious metals are the universally 

 acknowledged means of interchange, gold and silver coins 

 were imported in great quantities into India* In fact the 

 annual drain of these metals from Europe to India was an 

 object of great anxiety in ancient times. Pliny complains 

 most bitterly about this state of affairs, and is highly 

 indignant that 50 millions of sesterces or two millions 

 sterling were year after year swallowed by India, to pay for 

 Eastern goods, by the selling of which the Western merchants 

 gained at least 100 per cent. Besides gold and silver, copper, 

 lead, and tin also were imported to India, 



