The vine.

try. 2. In the time of Homer the vine grew wild in the island of Sicily, and most probably in the adjacent continent; but it was not improved by the skill, nor did it afford a liquor grateful to the taste, of the savage inhabitants." A thousand years afterwards Italy could boast that, of the fourscore most generous and celebrated wines, more than two thirds were produced from her soil." The blessing was soon communicated to the Narbonnese province of Gaul; but so intense was the cold to the north of the Cevennes, that, in the time of Strabo, it was thought impossible to ripen the grapes in those parts of Gaul." This difficulty, however, was gradually vanquished; and there is some reason to believe that the vineyards of Burgundy are as old as the age of the Antonines." 3. The olive, in the western world, followed the progress of peace, of which it was considered as the symbol. Two centuries after the foundation of Rome, both Italy and Africa were strangers to that useful plant; it was naturalized in those countries, and at length carried into the heart of Spain and Gaul. The timid errors of the ancients, that it required a certain degree. of heat, and could only flourish in the neighborhood of the

The olive.

4 See Homer, Odyss. 1. ix. v. 358.

95 Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xiv. [11, s. 13].

96 Strab. Geograph. 1. iv. p. 223 [178, ed. Casaubon]. Gallic winter was almost proverbial among the ancients.a

The intense cold of a

97 In the beginning of the fourth century, the orator Eumenius (Panegyr. Veter. viii. 6, edit. Delphin. [vii. 6, p. 437, ed. Arntzen]) speaks of the vines in the territory of Autun, which were decayed through age, and the first plantation of which was totally unknown. The Pagus Arebrignus is supposed by M. d'Anville to be the district of Beaune, celebrated, even at present, for one of the first growths of Burgundy,b

a It appears, from the newly discovered treatise of Cicero de Republicâ, that there was a law of the republic prohibiting the culture of the vine and olive beyond the Alps, in order to keep up the value of those in Italy. Nos justissimi homines, qui transalpinas gentes oleam et vitem serere non sinimus, quo pluris sint nostra oliveta nostræque vineæ. Lib. iii. 9. The restrictive law of Domitian was veiled under the decent pretext of encouraging the cultivation of grain. Suet. Dom. 7. It was repealed by Probus. Vopise. Probus, 18.-M.

This is proved by a passage of Pliny the elder, where he speaks of a certain kind of grape (vitis picata, vinum picatum) which grows naturally in the district of Vienne, and had recently been transplanted into the country of the Arverni (Auvergne), of the Helvii (the Vivarais), the Sequani (Burgundy and Franche Compté). Pliny wrote A.D. 77. Hist. Nat. xiv. 1 [s. 3 seq. ]-w.

Flax.

Artificial grasses.

sea, were insensibly exploded by industry and experience." 4. The cultivation of flax was transported from Egypt to Gaul, and enriched the whole country, however it might impoverish the particular lands on which it was sown." 5. The use of artificial grasses became familiar to the farmers both of Italy and the provinces, particularly the lucerne, which derived its name and origin from Media. 100 The assured supply of wholesome and plentiful food for the cattle during winter multiplied the number of the flocks and herds, which in their turn contributed to the fertility of the soil. To all these improvements may be added an assiduous attention to mines and fisheries, which, by employing a multitude of laborious hands, serve to increase the pleasures of the rich and the subsistence of the poor. The elegant treatise of Columella describes the advanced state of the Spanish husbandry under the reign of Tiberius; and it may be observed that those famines which so frequently afflicted the infant republic were seldom or never experienced by the extensive empire of Rome. The accidental scarcity, in any single province, was immediately relieved by the plenty of its more fortunate neighbors.

General plenty.

Agriculture is the foundation of manufactures; since the productions of nature are the materials of art.

Arts of luxury.

Under the Roman empire, the labor of an industrious and ingenious people was variously, but incessantly, employed in the service of the rich. In their dress, their table, their houses, and their furniture, the favorites of fortune united every refinement of conveniency, of elegance, and of splendor, whatever could soothe their pride or gratify their sensuality. Such refinements, under the odious name of luxury, have been severely arraigned by the moralists of every age; and it might, perhaps, be more conducive to the virtue, as well as happiness, of mankind, if all possessed the necessa

98 Plin. Hist. Natur. I. xv. [1]. 99 Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xix. [1, 2]. 100 See the agreeable Essays on Agriculture by Mr. Harte, in which he has col lected all that the ancients and moderns have said of lucerne.

ries, and none the superfluities, of life. But in the present imperfect condition of society, luxury, though it may proceed from vice or folly, seems to be the only means that can correct the unequal distribution of property. The diligent mechanic and the skilful artist, who have obtained no share in the division of the earth, receive a voluntary tax from the possessors of land; and the latter are prompted, by a sense of interest, to improve those estates, with whose produce they may purchase additional pleasures. This operation, the particular effects of which are felt in every society, acted with much more diffusive energy in the Roman world. The provinces would soon have been exhausted of their wealth, if the manufactures and commerce of luxury had not insensibly restored to the industrious subjects the sums which were exacted from them by the arms and authority of Rome. long as the circulation was confined within the bounds of the empire, it impressed the political machine with a new degree of activity, and its consequences, sometimes beneficial, could never become pernicious.

Foreign trade.

101

As

But it is no easy task to confine luxury within the limits of an empire. The most remote countries of the ancient world were ransacked to supply the pomp and delicacy of Rome. The forest of Scythia afforded some valuable furs. Amber was brought overland from the shores of the Baltic to the Danube; and the barbarians were astonished at the price which they received in exchange for so useless a commodity.' There was a considerable demand for Babylonian carpets, and other manufactures of the East; but the most important and unpopular branch of foreign trade was carried on with Arabia and India. Every year, about the time of the summer solstice, a fleet of a hundred and twenty vessels sailed from Myos-hormos, a port of Egypt, on the Red Sea. By the periodical assistance of the monsoons, they traversed the ocean in about forty days. The coast of Mal

101 Tacit. Germania, c. 45. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvii. [7] 11. The latter observed, with some humor, that even fashion had not yet found out the use of amber. Nero sent a Roman knight to purchase great quantities on the spot where it was produced, the coast of modern Prussia.

103

abar, or the island of Ceylon,103 was the usual term of their navigation, and it was in those markets that the merchants from the more remote countries of Asia expected their arrival. The return of the fleet of Egypt was fixed to the months of December or January; and as soon as their rich. cargo had been transported on the backs of camels from the Red Sea to the Nile, and had descended that river as far as Alexandria, it was poured, without delay, into the capital of the empire.' The objects of Oriental traffic were splendid and trifling; silk, a pound of which was esteemed not inferior in value to a pound of gold;10 precious stones, among which the pearl claimed the first rank after the diamond;10 and a variety of aromatics, that were consumed in religious worship and the pomp of funerals. The labor and risk of the voyage was rewarded with almost incredible profit; but the profit was made upon Roman subjects, and a few individuals were enriched at the expense of the public. As the natives of Arabia and India were contented with the productions and manufactures of their own country, silver, on the side of the Romans, was the principal, if not the only, instrument of commerce. It was a complaint worthy

Gold and silver.

a

102 Called Taprobana by the Romans, and Serindib by the Arabs. It was discovered under the reign of Claudius, and gradually became the principal mart of the East.

103 Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. vi. [23, s. 26]. Strabo, l. xvii. [p. 798].

104 Hist. August. p. 224. [Vopisc. Aurel. c. 45.] A silk garment was considered as an ornament to a woman, but as a disgrace to a man.

105 The two great pearl-fisheries were the same as at present, Ormuz and Cape Comorin. As well as we can compare ancient with modern geography, Rome was supplied with diamonds from the mine of Jumelpur, in Bengal, which is described in the Voyages de Tavernier, tom. ii. p. 281.

a Certainly not the only one. The Indians were not so contented with regard to foreign productions. Arrian has a long list of European wares which they received in exchange for their own; Italian and other wines, brass, tin, lead, coral, chrysolith, storax, glass, dresses of one or many colors, zones, etc. See Periplus Maris Erythræi in Hudson, Geogr. Min. i. p. 28.-W. The German translator observes that Gibbon has confined the use of aromatics to religious worship and funerals. His error seems, the omission of other spices, of which the Romans must have consumed great quantities in their cookery. Wenck, however, admits that silver was the chief article of exchange.-M.

In 1787 a peasant (near Nellore, in the Carnatic) struck, in digging, on the remains of a Hindoo temple; he found also a pot which contained Roman coins

106

of the gravity of the senate, that, in the purchase of female ornaments, the wealth of the State was irrecoverably given away to foreign and hostile nations. The annual loss is computed, by a writer of an inquisitive but censorious temper, at upwards of eight hundred thousand pounds sterling. 17 Such was the style of discontent, brooding over the dark prospect of approaching poverty. And yet, if we compare the proportion between gold and silver as it stood in the time of Pliny, and as it was fixed in the reign of Constantine, we shall discover within that period a very considerable increase. There is not the least reason to suppose that gold was become more scarce; it is, therefore, evident that silver was grown more common; that, whatever might be the amount of the Indian and Arabian exports, they were far from exhausting the wealth of the Roman world; and that the produce of the mines abundantly supplied the demands of commerce.

General felicity.

108

Notwithstanding the propensity of mankind to exalt the past and to depreciate the present, the tranquil and prosperous state of the empire was warmly felt and honestly confessed by the provincials as well as Romans. They acknowledged that the true principles of social life, laws, agriculture, and science, which had been first invented by the wisdom of Athens, were now firmly established by the power of Rome, under whose auspicious influence the fiercest barbarians were united by an equal government and common language. They affirm that, with the improvement of arts, the human species was visibly multiplied. They celebrate the increasing splendor of the cities, the beautiful face of the country, cultivated and adorned like an im

106 Tacit. Annal. iii. 53. In a speech of Tiberius.

107 Plin. Hist. Nat. xii. 18 [41]. In another place he computes half that sum ; Quingenties II. S. for India exclusive of Arabia.

108 The proportion, which was 1 to 10 and 12, rose to 14%, the legal regulation of Constantine. See Arbuthnot's Tables of Ancient Coins, ch. 5.

and medals of the second century, mostly Trajans, Hadrians, and Faustinas, all of gold, many of them fresh and beautiful, others defaced or perforated, as if they had been worn as ornaments. Asiatic Researches, ii. 19.-M.