Chap. II 
of the East Indie s. 
Augufius went into Syria , fettled the Affairs of the Empire 
•with the Parthian Monarch, and recovered the Enfigns, 
which he had taken from Crajfus I 
This fpread his Fame over all the Fail, infomuch, that 
.porus, King of India on this fide the Ganges , who had before 
fent an Embaffy to compliment him, thought proper now 
to fend a fecOnd time, from an Apprehenfion, probably* that 
Augufius might imitate Alexander, and attempt to penetrate 
as far as the Indus. Of thefe Embaffadors only three lived 
to execute their Commiffion •, and, finding Augufius at An- 
tioch, there delivered him the Letters of King Porus. It 
appears from hence, that, according to the oriental Cuftom, 
Porus was the common Name of all the Princes of that 
Country ; And it likewife fhews, that there were no great 
Revolutions in thole Parts of the World, fince the fame 
Kingdoms continued for the Space of three hundred Years. 
In this Letter from Porus to Augufius, there was firft fet 
forth the G randeur and Power of the IndiariPxm.ee , which con- 
fided in his having under him fix hundred petty Princes ; which 
feme modern Writers have compared to the Rajahs, now 
■fubjebt to the Great Mogul but I can icarce think, that 
thefe Princes could be fo confiderable ; for then the Empire 
of Porus muft have been very extenfive, and muff confe- 
quently have fwallowed up that" of Sandracottus , which 
makes fo great aFigure in antient Hiftory, and with which 
the Romans could not but be well acquainted. It feems there- 
fore, to me, veiy probable, that thefe fix hundred Princes 
were no more than the Heads or Chiefs of fo many Towns ; 
and, taken in this Senfe, the Empire of Porus was juft twice 
as big as when it was fubbued by Alexander. After this 
Difplay of his own Greatnefs, the Indian Prince acquainted 
Augufius, that he was moved by the Fame of his great 
Actions, to fend this folemn Embaffy to requeft his Friend- 
fhip, and the Acceptance of the Prefen ts, which attended 
it ; defiring him to believe, that he had conceived the 
higheft Refpedt for his Perfon and Power, and that there 
was nothing he could defire of him, with which he would 
not readily comply b . 
The Prefents, which accompanied this Letter, were borne 
by eight Slaves, and confifted of Tygers, which were then 
firft feen by the Romans , Birds of a prodigious Size, Ser- 
pents fifteen Feet long, and Shells of Tortoifes four Feet 
and an half over ; which Prefents feem to have been 
calculated rather to deter, than to invite the Romans into 
the Country from whence they came. Amongft the Em- 
baffadors, that were fent on this Occafion, there was a 
Brachman, whom Dion Cafiius, in his Hiftory c , calls Zar- 
manus •, but Strabo, as we fhall fee, calls him by another 
Name-, who was fo well pleafed with the Reception he met 
with, that he followed Augufius to Athens and there, 
having caufed his funeral Pile to be prepared, he told the 
Emperor, that, having lived to a good old Age, and never 
having experienced the Frowns of Fortune, he judged it 
proper, as a wife Man, to put it out of her Power to give 
him any Inftance of her InConftancy, by voluntarily em- 
bracing Death, while he was yet in the Poffeftion of Health 
and Strength, and, which he valued much more, the full 
Exercife of his Faculties. In all Probability, he emulated, 
in this Adtion, the fteady Bravery of Calanus , who died 
in the like manner, in the Prefence of Alexander the Great. 
However that may be, certain it is, that he fhewed no 
lefs Conftancy and Courage ; for, coming out naked, and 
his Body anointed, as if he had been going to Exercife, 
he mounted the Pile, whereon he laid himfelf down ; and 
Fire being fet thereto, he was confumed to Afhes. The 
Athenians, aftonifned at this Ablion, eredted a Tomb to 
his Memory, which was (landing in the Days of Plutarch, 
who fays nothing, however, of any Infcription ; but Strabo, 
who lived at the very time, has preferved it in his excellent 
Work, and fays it ran thus t Here lies Zaimanochagas, an 
Indian of Bargofa, who, according to the Gufiom of his 
Country, the Indies, voluntarily quits d this Life d . It is very 
clear, from the Whole of this Tranfadlion, that the Fame 
of Augufius had extended itfelf into the moft diftant Parts 
of the Eaft, that were at that Time known to the Euro- 
peans and from hence it is evident, that the Trade car- 
ried on from Egypt to thofe Countries, through the Red 
Sea, inftead of being interrupted or reftrained, was pre- 
ferved and protedfed by the Romans, after they had re- 
duced Egypt into a Province. 
Petronius did not hold the Government of Egypt iorig ; 
for in the Year before Chrili 1 8 . he was fucceeded by /Alius 
G alius * of whofe Expedition into Arabia we have already 1 
given a large Account. This celebrated Governor of 
Egypt was the Patron and Friend of Strabo the Geographer* 
whofe W ork we have already fo often quoted, and which 
we (hall be obliged to mention frequently, before we bring 
this Chapter to a Conclufion. This learned Man was a 
Native of the City of /mafia in Pontus, a Stoic Philo* 
fopher e , and juftly famous for his excellent Geography ; 
to qualify himfelf for writing which, he not only ftudied, 
as his Book plainly fhews, the beft Writers on that Science, 
that were then extant ; but had likewife travelled through 
moft of the Countries, which he deferibes : That is to fay* 
Weftward, from Armenia to that Part of Italy, which is 
oppofite to the Eland of Sardinia and Southward, from 
the Euxine Sea into Ethiopia. This laft Journey he made 
in the Company of AElius Gallus, who went to take a View 
of the Frontiers of Egypt, as far as Syene ail which Cir- 
cumftances of Strabo\ Life we learn from himfelf ; and 
thefe ferve to fhew, that he muft have lived to a very great 
Age, fince he publifhed his Work in the Reign of Liberius, 
and pretty late in that Reign too f . He is alfo thought to 
have written fome other Books, particularly an Hiftory, fome 
Paffages of which are cited by Jofephus ; but this is perifhed 
long ago, to the inexpreffible Lofs of the learned World ; 
for he was lb accurate a Writer, and took care to be fo 
perfectly informed as to every Fa£t he related, that what- 
ever fell from his Pen, muft, on that account, have been 
extremely valuable and ufeful. We may likewife fee, from 
this fecond Expedition of Gallus , how attentive the Ro- 
mans were to the Concerns of this Province, and how de- 
firous of being acquainted with every thing that belonged 
to it. 
Indeed the fecuring to Rome all poffible Advantages from 
fo great anAcceffion of Territory, feems to have been one 
of the principal Objebls of the Policy of Augufius ; for he 
took care to eftablifh a regular Commerce between Roms 
and Alexandria , as well for the fake of a continual Supply 
of Corn, as for the bringing thither the Merchandizes, that 
they acquired by their Indian Traffick ; fo that, as we fhall 
fee hereafter, many of the Romans themfelves, who hitherto 
had not been much addifted to Trade, were, with the Sight 
of thefe rich Commodities, induced to embark their For- 
tunes therein, becoming thereby Principals in this Sort of 
Traffick, and making ule of the Egyptian Merchants as their 
Fa&ors. Thus we have ffiewn, how this Trade came into 
the Hands of the Romans , and what Pains were taken by 
Augufius to fettle and fecure it, by reducing, if it had been 
poffible, the Nations on the oppofite Side of the Arabian 
Gulph, whofe Piracies were the only Evils, to which it 
remained expofed ; and how, by this Care, a new Turn was 
given to the Temper of the Romans , who, in fucceeding 
Times, became as ablive and vigorous in the Management 
of this Bufinefs, as they had been before unattentive to 
any thing of this Nature. But it is time for us to take our 
Leave of the Reign of Augufius, of which we have already 
faid fo much, in order to give the Reader, in as few Words 
as poffible, an Account of fuch Fabts as relate to this Sub- 
jebl, and are recorded in the Hiftories of fucceeding Em- 
perors : After which we fhall proceed to an exabl Defcri- 
ption of the Manner in which this Trade was carried on by 
the Roman Fablers ; and give fome Account of the im- 
menfe Profits that annually refulted from it. 
Liberius , who fucceeded Augufius in the Pofteffion of the 
Roman Empire, was not of a Difpofition to forget or leave 
unimproved any Part of his Dominions, much Ids a Pro- 
vince capable of yielding fuch Advantages as Egypt, in 
the Management of which he fteadily purfued the Maxims 
of his Predeceffbr for io careful was he to prevent any 
Danger, that might arife from the fending a Perfon of 
confiderable Rank to govern that Country, that he made 
a Strabo, hh. vi. p. 288. Tacit. /, nnal . lib. ii. c. 1. ‘Jufiin. lib. xlii. c. I . b 
* ®* on T.aj]uu, ubi fupra. d Strabo , lib. xv. p. 636. Plutarch^ in Alexandra, 
Strabo, lib. ii. p. n6, 1 1 7. xv ii. p. 816. 
■ N o MIX qo. 
•aJ 
Strabo, lib. xv. p. 789. Dion Cafiius, lib. liii. p. 527. 
. c Strabo, lib . xii. Vofi.de Hiji. Greec. lib. ii. 
5 & 
Choice 
