A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xviii Part 5

In his description of the coast between Myos Hormos and Ptolemais, he points out a bay, which, both from the ident.i.ty of the name, and the circ.u.mstances respecting it which he narrates, undoubtedly is the Foul Bay of the moderns. Strabo, who, as we have already stated, borrows freely and frequently from Agatharcides, describes this bay as full of shoals and breakers, and exposed to violent winds; and he adds, that Berenice lies at the bottom of it. The accuracy of our author, even when he is opposed by the testimony of Bruce, is fully proved in what he relates of the coast below Foul Bay: after mentioning two mountains, which he calls the Bulls, he particularly adverts to the dangerous shoals which often proved fatal to the elephant ships on their pa.s.sage to and from Ptolemais. Bruce says no such shoals exist; but, as is justly observed by Dr. Vincent; the correctness of the ancients respecting them, especially Eratosthenes, Agatharcides and Artemidorus, is fully borne out by the danger and loss to which many English ships have been exposed by reason of these very shoals.

The description of Agatharcides of this side of the coast of the Red Sea, reaches no lower down than Ptolemais; this circ.u.mstance is remarkable, since we have seen that, from the inscription found at Aduli there can be no doubt that Ptolemy Euergetes had conquered Abyssinia, and established a commerce considerably lower down than Ptolemais Theron. As, however, we have not the original, and perhaps not the entire work of Agatharcides, we cannot infer any thing, either respecting his ignorance or inattention, from this omission.

Agatharcides, having thus described this coast, returns from Ptolemais to Myos Hormos, and pa.s.sing the Bay of Arsinoe, crosses to Phoenic.u.m, in the Elanitic Gulf, and describes the coast of Arabia as far as Sabea. Almost the very first particular noticed by him in this part of his work, bears evidence to his accuracy as a geographer. He states that, at the entrance of the Elanitic Gulph there are three islands, one of which is dedicated to Isis: he describes them as, "covering several harbours on the Arabian sh.o.r.e. To these islands succeeds the rocky coast of Thamudeni, where, for more than 1000 stadia, there is no harbour, no roadsted in which a vessel could anchor, no bay into which she could run for shelter, no point of land which could protect her; so that those who sail alone this part of the coast are exposed to certain destruction, if they should be overtaken by a storm." Yet these islands lying in such a conspicuous situation, and of such importance to the mariner, and this coast so dangerous to him, do not appear to have been noticed in any European chart or description, till, after the lapse of twenty centuries, they were restored to geography by Mr.

Irwin.

As one of our princ.i.p.al objects is to do justice to the accuracy of the ancient geographers, by pointing out instances of the extreme care which many of them took to obtain correct information we shall adduce one other proof of this accuracy and care in Agatharcides. This author particularly describes the sea as having a white appearance off the coast of Arabia; on this point he was well informed though the circ.u.mstance is treated as fabulous by the ancients, and even by some of the moderns; but more observant modern travellers confirm this phenomenon. It is well observed by Dr. Vincent, that we are every day lessening the bulk of the marvellous imputed to the ancients; and as our knowledge of the east increases, it is possible that the imputation will be altogether removed.

The account which Agatharcides gives of Sabaea is very curious and important; and, as we shall afterwards have occasion to make use of it, in endeavouring to prove that, in very early ages, the Arabians supplied the western world with the productions of the east, we shall extract here what he says of Sabaea from the translation of Dr. Vincent.

"Sabaea, (says Agatharcides,) abounds with every production to make life happy in the extreme: its very air is so perfumed with odours, that the natives are obliged to mitigate the fragrance by scents that have an opposite tendency, as if nature could not support even pleasure in the extreme. Myrrh, frankincense, balsam, cinnamon, and casia are here produced, from trees of extraordinary magnitude. The king, as he is, on the one hand, ent.i.tled to supreme honour, on the other, is obliged to submit to confinement in his palace; but the people are robust, warlike, and able mariners: they sail in very large vessels to the country where the odoriferous commodities are produced; they plant colonies there, and import from thence the larimna, an odour no where else to be found. In fact, there is no nation on the earth so wealthy as the Gerrheans and Sabeans, as being in the centre of all the commerce that pa.s.ses between Asia and Europe.

These are the nations which have enriched the kingdom of Ptolemy: these are the nations that furnish the most profitable agencies to the industry of the Phoenicians, and a variety of advantages which are incalculable. They possess themselves every profusion of luxury, in articles of plate and sculpture, in furniture of beds, tripods, and other household embellishments, far superior in degree to any thing that is seen in Europe: their expence of living rivals the magnificence of princes: their houses are decorated with pillars glistening with gold and silver: their doors are crowned with vases and beset with jewels: the interior of their houses corresponds with the beauty of their outward appearance, and all the riches of other countries are here exhibited in a variety of profusion. Such a nation, and so abounding in superfluity, owes its independence to its distance from Europe; for their luxurious manners would soon render them a prey to the European sovereigns, who have always troops on foot prepared for any conquest; and who, if they could find the means of invasion, would soon reduce the Sabeans to the condition of their agents and factors; whereas they are now obliged to deal with them as princ.i.p.als."

The importance and the bearing of these curious facts, first brought to our notice by Agatharcides, as well as the inferences which may be drawn from them regarding the mode in which the ancients obtained their commodities of India, will call our particular attention afterwards: at present we shall merely notice the characteristic and minute picture which Agatharcides has drawn of the Sabeans, and the just notions he had formed on the nature of a commerce, of which all the other writers of antiquity seemed to have been utterly ignorant.

Beyond Sabaea to the east, Agatharcides possessed no information, though, like all the ancients, he is desirous of supplying his want of it by indulging in the marvellous: it is, however, rather curious that, among other particulars, undoubtedly unfounded, such as placing the Fortunate islands off the coast beyond Sabaea, and his describing the flocks and herds as all white, and the females as polled;--he describes that whiteness of the sea, to which we have already alluded, as confirmed by modern travellers. From these unfounded particulars, our author soon emerges again into the truth; for he describes the appearance of the different constellations, and especially notices that to the south of Sabaea there is no twilight in the morning; but when he adds, that the sun, at rising, appears like a column--that it casts no shadow till it has been risen an hour, and that the evening twilight lasts three hours after it has set; it is obvious that the information of that age (of which we may justly suppose the library of Alexandria was the great depository) did not extend beyond Sabaea.

That Agatharcides had access to and made ample use of the journal of Nearchus (of which we have given such a complete abstract), is evident from various parts of his work; but it is also evident, by comparing his description of those countries and their inhabitants, which had been visited and described by Nearchus, that he had access to other sources of intelligence, by means of which he added to the materials supplied by the latter.

It will be recollected that Nearchus describes in a particular manner, the Icthyophagi of Gadrosia: Agatharcides also describes Icthyophagi, though it is not clear whether he means to confine his description to those of Gadrosia, or to extend it to others on the coast of Arabia and Africa. The mode practised by the Icthyophagi, according to him, is exactly that which was practised by them in catching fish, according to Nearchus: he also coincides with that author in various other particulars respecting the use of the bones of whales, or other large fish, in the construction of their houses; their ignorance and barbarism, their dress and mode of life. All this he probably borrowed from Nearchus; but he adds one circ.u.mstance which indubitably proves, that the knowledge of the eastern part of the world had considerably advanced since the era of Alexander: he expressly states, that beyond the straits that separate Arabia from the opposite coast, there are an immense number of islands, scattered, very small, and scarcely raised above the surface of the ocean. If we may advert to the situation a.s.signed to these islands, on the supposition that the straits which separate Arabia from the opposite coast, mean the entrance to the Gulph of Persia, we shall not be able to ascertain what these islands are; but if in addition to the circ.u.mstances of their being scattered, very small, and very low, we add what Agatharcides also notices, that the natives have no other means of supporting life but by the turtles which are found near them in immense numbers, and of a very large size, we shall be disposed, with Dr. Vincent, to consider these as the Maldive Islands. It may be objected to this supposition, that the Maldives are situated at a very great distance from the straits that separate Arabia from the opposite coast; but a cursory acquaintance with the geographical descriptions of the ancients will convince us, that their information respecting the situation of countries was frequently vague and erroneous, (as indeed it must have been, considering the imperfect means they possessed of measuring or even judging of distances, especially by sea) while, at the same time, their information respecting the nature of the country, the productions of its soil, and the manners, &c. of its inhabitants, was surprisingly full and accurate. In identifying places mentioned by the ancients, we should therefore be guided more by the descriptions they give, than by the locality they a.s.sign to them. Agatharcides, it is true, adds that these islands extend along the sea, which washes Gadrosia and India; but he probably had very confused notions of the extent and form of India; and, at any rate, giving the widest lat.i.tude to the term, the same sea may be said to wash Gadrosia and the Maldive Islands. If these are the islands actually meant by Agatharcides, it is the earliest notice of them extant.

Our concern with Agatharcides relates only to the geographical knowledge which his writings display; and even of that we can only select such parts as are most important, and at the same time point out and prove the advances of geographical knowledge, and of commercial enterprize; before, however, we leave him, we may add one fact, not immediately relating to our peculiar subject, which he records: after stating that the soil of Arabia was, as it were, impregnated with gold, and that lumps of pure gold were found there from the size of an olive to that of a nut, he adds, that iron was twice, and silver ten times, the value of gold. If he is accurate in the proportionate values which he respectively a.s.signs to these metals, it proves the very great abundance of gold; since, in most of the nations of antiquity, the values of gold and silver were the reverse of what they were in Arabia, gold being ten times the value of silver. The comparative high value of iron to gold is still more extraordinary, and seems to indicate not only a great abundance of the latter metal, but also a great scarcity of the former, or a very great demand for it in consequence of the extended and improved state of those arts and manufactures in which iron is an essential requisite, and which indicate an advanced degree of knowledge and civilization. We are not aware of a similar fact, with respect to the proportionate value of iron and silver, being recorded of any other nation of antiquity. It is not to be supposed, however, that the cheapness of gold, measured by iron and silver, could long continue in Arabia, unless we believe that their intercourse with other nations was very limited; because a regular and extensive intercourse would soon a.s.similate, in a great degree at least, the value of gold measured by iron and silver, as it existed in Arabia, to its value, as measured by the same metals in those countries with which Arabia traded.

But to return from this slight digression;--Artemidorus has been already mentioned as a geographer subsequent to Agatharcides, who copied Agatharcides, and from whom Diodorus Siculus and Strabo in their turns copied. There were two ancient writers of this name born at Ephesus; the one to whom we have alluded, is supposed to have lived in the reign of Ptolemy Lathyrus, A.C. 169; by others he is brought down to A.C. 104.

Little is known respecting him; nor does he seem to have added much to geographical science or knowledge: he is said by Pliny to have first applied the terms of length and breadth, or lat.i.tude and longitude. By comparing those parts of Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, which they avowedly copy from him, with the track of Agatharcides: in the Red Sea, we are enabled to discover only a few additions of importance to the geographical knowledge supplied by the former: Agatharcides, it will be remembered, brings his account of the African side of the Red Sea no lower down than Ptolemais: he does not even mention the expedition of Ptolemy Euergetes to Aduli; nor the pa.s.sage of the straits, though Eratosthenes, as cited by Strabo, proves that it was open in his time. In the time of Artemidorus, however, the trade of Egypt on the coast of Africa had reached as low down as the Southern Horn; that this trade was still in its infancy, is apparent from a circ.u.mstance mentioned by Strabo, on the authority of Artemidorus; that at the straits the cargo was transferred from ships to boats; b.a.s.t.a.r.d cinnamon, perhaps casia lignea or hard cinnamon, is specified as one of the princ.i.p.al articles which the Egyptians obtained from the coast of Africa, when they pa.s.sed the straits of Babelmandeb.

The next person belonging to the Alexandrian school, to whom the sciences on which geography rest, as well as geography itself, is greatly indebted, was Hipparchus. Scarcely any particulars are known respecting him: even the exact period in which he flourished, is not accurately fixed; some placing him 159 years, others 149, and others again bringing him down to 129 years before Christ. He was a native of Nice in Bithynia, but spent the greater part of his life at the court of one of the Ptolemies. It is supposed that he quitted his native place in consequence of some ill treatment which he had received from his fellow citizens: at least we are informed by Aurelius Victor, that the emperor Marcus Aurelius obliged the inhabitants of Nice to send yearly to Rome a certain quant.i.ty of corn, for having beaten one of their citizens, by name Hipparchus, a man of great learning and extraordinary accomplishments. They continued to pay this tribute to the time of Constantine, by whom it was remitted. As history does not inform us of any other person of note of this name, a native of Nice in Bithynia, it is highly probable that this was the Hipparchus, the astronomer and geographer. That it was not unusual for conquerors and sovereigns to reward or punish the descendants of those who had behaved well or ill to celebrated men who had flourished long previously, must be well known to those conversant with ancient history. The respect paid to the memory of Pindar, by the Spartans, and by Alexander the Great, when they conquered Thebes, is a striking instance of the truth of this observation.

Hipparchus possessed the true spirit of philosophy: having resolved to devote himself to the study of astronomy, his first general [princ.i.p.al->principle] was to take nothing for granted; but setting aside all that had been taught by former astronomers, to begin anew, and examine and judge for himself: he determined not to admit any results but such as were grounded either in observations and experiments entirely new, made by himself or on a new examination of former observations, conducted with the utmost care and caution. In short, he may justly be regarded as one of the first philosophers of antiquity who had a slight glimpse of the grand maxim, which afterwards immortalized Bacon, and which has introduced modern philosophers to a knowledge of the most secret and most sublime operations of nature.

One of his first endeavours was, to verify the obliquity of the ecliptic, as settled by Eratosthenes: he next fixed, as accurately as possible, the lat.i.tude of Alexandria; but it would lead us far from the object of our work, if we were even briefly to mention his discoveries in the science of pure astronomy. We must confine ourselves to those parts of his discoveries which benefitted geography, either directly or indirectly. After having, as successfully as his means and the state of the science would permit him to do, fixed the position of the stars, he transferred the method which he had employed for this purpose to geography: he was the first who determined the situation of places on the earth, by their lat.i.tudes and longitudes, with any thing like accuracy. The lat.i.tude, indeed, of many places had been fixed before; and the means of doing it were sufficiently simple and obvious: but with respect to some general and safe mode of ascertaining the longitudes, the ancient philosophers before Hipparchus, were ignorant of it. He employed for this purpose the eclipses of the moon. After having ascertained the lat.i.tudes and longitudes of a great many places, he proposed to draw up a catalogue of terrestial lat.i.tudes and longitudes, but this he was not able to accomplish: he had set the example, however and it was followed by subsequent astronomers. He fixed on the Fortunate Islands, which are supposed to be the Canaries, for his first meridian. His princ.i.p.al works most probably were destroyed in the conflagration of the Alexandrian library. His catalogue of the stars is preserved in the Almagest of Ptolemy; and his commentary on Aratus and Eudoxus is still extant.

Such is a brief sketch of the advantages which geography, as founded on astronomy, derived from the labours of Hipparchus. We possess little information respecting his ideas of the form of the earth, or the relative position or extent of the different quarters and countries on the surface of the globe. He seems to have been the first who conceived the idea of a southern continent, uniting Africa and India: he had evidently some information, though very vague and erroneous, of India, beyond the Ganges.

On the east coast of Africa, his knowledge did not extend beyond Cape Guardaferi. On the whole, geography is more indebted to him for his discoveries in astronomy, and, above all, for his setting the example of carefully ascertaining facts, and not indulging, so much as his predecessors had done, in conjectures and hypotheses, than for any actual discoveries or advances he made in it. The eulogium which Pliny has p.r.o.nounced on him is very eloquent, and fully deserved. "Hipparchus can scarcely receive too high praise: he has proved, more satisfactorily than any other philosopher, that man is allied to heaven, and his soul derived from on high. In his time, more than one new star was discovered, or rather appeared for the first time; and this induced him to believe, that future ages might witness stars for the first time moving from the immense regions of s.p.a.ce, within the limits of our observation. But the grandeur and boldness of Hipparchus's mind rested not here: he attempted, and in some measure succeeded in doing, what seems above human knowledge and power: he numbered the stars, laid down rules by which their rising and setting might be ascertained beforehand; and, finally, he constructed an apparatus on which the position of each star was accurately given, and a miniature picture of the heavens, with the motions of the celestial bodies, their rising and setting, increase and diminution. He thus may be said to have left the heavens as a legacy to that man, if any such were to be found, who could rival him and follow his steps."

From the time of Hipparchus to that of Ptolemy the geographer, the Alexandrian school, though rich in philosophers, who devoted their studies and labour to other branches of physical and metaphysical science, did not produce one, who improved geography, or the sciences on which it depends, with the exception of Posidonius. This philosopher, who belonged to the sect of the Stoics, was born at Apamea in Syria: he usually resided at Rhodes, and was the friend of Pompey and Cicero. The former, on his return from Syria, came thither to attend his lectures. Arriving at his house, he forbad his lictor to knock, as was usual, at the door; and paid homage to philosophy, by lowering the fasces at the abode of Posidonius. Pompey, being informed that he was at that time ill of the gout, visited him in his confinement, and expressed himself very much disappointed that he could not have the benefit of his lectures. Posidonius, thus honoured and flattered, in spite of his pain, delivered a lecture in the presence of his n.o.ble visitor; the subject of which was to prove, that nothing is good which is not honourable. Cicero informs us, that he also attended his lectures; and according to Suidas Marcellus, brought him to Rome in the year of the city 702; in this, however, Suidas is not supported by other and contemporary writers.

We are indebted to Cleomedes for most of what we know of his opinions and discoveries; with such as relate to morals or to pure astronomy, we have no concern. But he was of service also to geography. He measured an arc of the terrestrial meridian; but his operation, as far as we can judge by the details which have reached us, was far from exact, and of course his result could not be accurate; it would appear, however, that his object was rather to verify the ancient measures of the earth, particularly that of Eratosthenes, and that he found them to agree nearly with his own. He explained the ebbing and flowing of the sea, from the motion of the moon, and seems to have been the first who observed the law of this phenomenon.

In order to represent the appearance of the heavens, Cicero informs us that he constructed a kind of planetarium, by means of which he exhibited the apparent motion of the sun, moon, and planets round the earth. It is on the authority of Posidonius, that Strabo relates the voyage of Eudoxus of Cyzic.u.m from the Persian Gulf round Africa to Cadiz, which we have already mentioned.

Having thus exhibited a view of the discoveries in geography, the advances in the sciences connected with it, and the commercial enterprises of the Egyptians, while under the dominion of the Ptolemies, it will be proper, before beginning an account of the geographical knowledge and commercial enterprises of the Romans (who, by their conquest of Egypt, may be said to have absorbed all the geographical knowledge, as well as all the commerce of the world, at that period), to recapitulate the extent of the Egyptian geography and commerce, especially towards the east We shall direct our retrospect to this quarter, because the commodities of the east being most prized, it was the grand object of the sovereigns and merchants of Egypt, to extend and facilitate the intercourse with that quarter of the globe as much as possible. And we are induced to undertake the retrospect, because the exact limit of the geographical knowledge and commercial enterprise of the Ptolemies is differently fixed by different authors: some maintaining that the Egyptians had a regular and extensive trade directly with India, and of course, were well acquainted with the seas and coasts beyond the Red Sea; while other authors maintain, that they never pa.s.sed the straits of Babelmandeb, and that even within the straits, their geographical knowledge and commercial enterprises were very limited.

It cannot be doubted that commerce and the spirit of discovery flourished with more vigour, and pushed themselves to a greater distance in the reigns of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and Ptolemy Euergetes, than in the reign of any of their successors. If, therefore, there are no proofs or traces of a direct and regular trade with India in their time, we may safely conclude it did not exist in Egypt, previously to the conquest of that country by the Romans.

We are well aware, that there are great authorities opposed to the opinion which we hold; but these authorities are modern; they are not, we think, supported by the ancient writers, and in opposition to them, we can place the authority of Dr. Vincent, a name of the very greatest weight in questions of this nature. The authorities we alluded to in support of the opinion, that there was a direct trade with India under the Ptolemies, are Huet, in his History of the Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients; Dr.

Robertson, in his Disquisition on India, and Harris, or perhaps, more properly speaking, Dr. Campbell, in his edition of Harris's Collection of Voyages and Travels. Huet, as is justly remarked by Dr. Vincent, drops the prosecution of the question at the very point he ought to introduce it; and afterwards countenances, or seems to countenance, the opposite opinion. Dr.

Robertson bestows much labour, ingenuity, and learning in support of the opinion, that under the Ptolemies, a direct trade was carried on with India; yet, after all, he concludes in this manner: "it is probable that their voyages were circ.u.mscribed within very narrow limits, and that under the Ptolemies no considerable progress was made in the discovery of India:"

and when he comes to the discovery of the Monsoon by Hippalus and the consequent advantage taken of it to trade directly to India, by sailing from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e, he acknowledges that all proofs of a more early existence of such a trade are wanting. Dr. Campbell virtually gives up his support of the opinion, that a direct trade was carried on under the Ptolemies, in the same manner.

We have already remarked, that the strongest spirit of enterprize that distinguished Egypt existed in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus and Ptolemy Euergetes; that these monarchs pushed their discoveries, and extended their commercial connections much farther than any of their predecessors; and that therefore, if a direct and regular communication between Egypt and India did not take place in their reigns, we may be a.s.sured it was unknown to the Egyptians at the period of the Roman conquest. To their reigns, then, we shall princ.i.p.ally direct our enquiries.

That Ptolemy Philadelphus was extremely desirous to improve the navigation of the Red Sea, is evident from his having built Myos Hormos, or rather improved it, because it was more convenient than Arsinoe, on account of the difficulty of navigating the western extremity of that sea: he afterwards fixed on Berenice in preference to Myos Hormos, when the navigation and commerce on this sea was extended and improved, since Berenice being lower down, the navigation towards the straits was shorter, as well as attended with fewer difficulties and dangers. But there is no evidence that his fleets, which sailed from Berenice, were destined for India, or even pa.s.sed the Straits of Babelmandeb. It is, however, not meant to be a.s.serted that no vessels pa.s.sed these straits in the time of this Ptolemy. On the contrary, we know that his admiral, Timosthenes, pa.s.sed the straits as low as Cerne, which is generally supposed to be Madagascar; but commerce, which in our times, directed by much superior skill and knowledge, as well as stimulated by a stronger spirit of enterprize and rivalship, and a more absorbing love of gain, immediately follows in the track of discovery, was then comparatively slow, languid, and timid as well as ignorant; so that it is not surprizing that it did not follow the track of Timosthenes. Ptolemy Philadelphus also pushed his discoveries by land as far as Meroc: he opened the route between Coptus and Berenice, establishing ports and opening wells; and from these and other circ.u.mstances he seems to have been actuated by a stronger wish to extend commerce, and to have formed more plans for this purpose, than any of his successors.

Ptolemy Euergetes directed his thoughts more to conquest than to commerce, though he rendered the former, in some degree, useful and subservient to the latter. After having pa.s.sed the Nile, and subdued the nations which lay on the confines of Egypt, he compelled them to open a road of communication between their country and Egypt. The frankincense country was the next object of his ambition: this he subdued; and having sent a fleet and army across the Red Sea into Arabia, he compelled the inhabitants of the district to maintain the roads free from robbers, and the sea from pirates--a proof that these people had made some advances in seafaring matters, and also of the attention paid by Euergetes to the navigation of the Red Sea, as well as to the protection of land commerce. Indeed the whole of his progress to Aduli, which we have more particularly mentioned in another place, was marked as much by attention to commerce as by the love of conquest; but though by this enterprize he rendered both the coasts of the Red Sea tributary, and thus better adapted to commerce, there is no proof that he pa.s.sed the Straits of Babelmandeb. It is true, indeed, that he visited Mosullon, which lies beyond the straits, but not by sea, having marched by land to that place, through the interior of Abyssinia and Adel.

From the whole of this enterprize of Euergetes we may justly infer, that though he facilitated the intercourse by land between Egypt and those parts of Africa which lay immediately beyond the straits, yet his ships did not pa.s.s the straits, and that in his reign the discoveries of Timosthenes had not been followed up or improved for the purpose of trading by sea with the coast of Africa. The navigation of the whole of the Red Sea, at least on the Arabian side, from Leuake Kome to Sabaea, was undoubtedly known and frequently used at this period; but this was its utmost limit.

In the reign of Ptolemy Philometor, when Agatharcides lived, the commercial enterprizes of the Egyptians had begun rather to languish; on the Arabian side of the Red Sea, they did indeed extend to Sabaea, as in the time of Euergetes; but there is evidence that on the opposite coast they did not go so low, as in the reign of the latter sovereign. Agatharcides makes no mention of Berenice; according to his account, Myos Hormos had again become the emporium, and the only trade from that part seems to have been for elephants to Ptolemais Theron. It may, indeed, be urged that Berenice was not, properly speaking, a harbour, but only an open bay, to which the ships did not come from Myos Hormos, till their cargoes were completely ready.

But that Myos Hormos was the great point of communication with Coptus is evident from the account which Agatharcides gives of the caravan road between these two places. Even so late as the time of Strabo, this road was much more frequented than the road between Coptus and Berenice: of the latter he merely observes, that Philadelphus opened it with his army, established ports, and sunk Wells; whereas he particularly describes the former road, as being seven or eight days' journey, formerly performed on camels in the night, by observation of the stars, and carrying water with them. Latterly, he adds, deep wells had been sunk, and cisterns formed for holding water. Every detail of the road to Berenice is Roman, and relates to periods considerably posterior to the conquest of Egypt by the Romans--a proof that the plan of Philadelphus, of subst.i.tuting Berenice for Myos Hormos, had not been regularly adopted by his successors, nor till the Romans had firmly and permanently fixed themselves in Egypt.

In the extract we have already given from Agatharcides respecting Arabia, he expressly mentions that the Gerrheans and Sabeans are the centre of all the commerce that pa.s.ses between Asia and Europe, and that these are the nations which have enriched the Ptolemais: this statement, taken in conjunction with the fact that his description of the coast of the Red Sea reaches no farther than Sabaea on the one side, and Ptolemais Theron on the other, seems decisive of the truth of the opinion, that in the time of Philometor the Egyptians did not trade directly to India. It may be proper to add, that in the extracts from Agatharcides, given by Photius, it is expressly mentioned that ships from India were met with by the Egyptian ships in the ports of Sabaea. The particulars of this trade between India and Egypt, by means of the Arabians, will be afterwards detailed, and its great antiquity traced and proved; at present we have alluded to it merely to bear us out in our position, that Indian ships, laden with Indian commodities, frequenting the ports of Sabaea, and those ports being described by Agatharcides as the limits of his knowledge of this coast of the Red Sea, we are fully justified in concluding, that, in the reign of Philometor, there was not only no direct trade to India, but no inducement to such trade; and that 146 years after the death of Alexander, the Greek sovereigns of Egypt had done little to complete what that monarch had projected, and in part accomplished by the navigation of Nearchus--the communication by sea between Alexandria and India.

Under the successors of Philometor, the trade in the Red Sea languished rather than increased, and the full benefits of it were not reaped till some time after the Roman conquest. Even in the time of Strabo, the bulk of the trade still pa.s.sed by Coptus to Myos Hormos. We are aware of a pa.s.sage in this author, which, at first, sight seems to contradict the position we have laid down, and to prove, that at least in his time, there was a direct and not unfrequent navigation between the Red Sea and India. He expressly states, that in the course of six or seven years, 120 ships had sailed from Myos Hormos to India: but on this it may be observed, in the first place, that he begins his description of India, with requesting his readers to peruse what he relates concerning it with indulgence, as it was a country very remote, and few persons had visited it; and even with regard to Arabia Felix, he says, that the knowledge of the Romans commenced with the expedition of his friend aelius Gallus into that country;--facts not very consistent with his statement that 120 ships had sailed in six or seven years to India: secondly, he expressly mentions, that formerly scarcely twenty ships dared to navigate the Red Sea, so far as to shew themselves beyond the straits; but we can hardly suppose that skill, enterprize, and knowledge, had increased so rapidly as to extend within a very few years navigation, not merely beyond the straits, but even to India; we say a few years, for certainly, at the time when the Romans conquered Egypt, the straits were not usually pa.s.sed: lastly, the name India was used so vaguely by the ancients, even by Strabo occasionally, that it is not improbable he meant by it, merely the coast of Arabia, beyond the straits. It is well asked by Dr. Vincent, in reference to this account of Strabo, might not that geographer, from knowing the ships brought home Indian commodities, have supposed that they sailed to India, when in reality they went no farther than Hadramant, in Arabia, or Mosullon, on the coast of Africa, where they found the produce of India?

It is not, however, meant to be denied that a few vessels, in the time of Ptolemies, reached some part of India from the Red Sea, by coasting all the way. The author of the Periplus of the Red Sea, informs us that, before the discovery of the monsoon, by Hippalus, small vessels had made a coasting voyage from Cana, in Arabia, to the Indies. But these irregular and trifling voyages are deserving of little consideration, and do not militate against the position we have laid down and endeavoured to prove, that in the time of the Ptolemies the commerce of Egypt was confined within the limits of the Red Sea, partly from the want of skill and enterprize, and from the dangers that were supposed to exist beyond the straits, but princ.i.p.ally because the commodities of India could be procured in the ports of Sabaea.

Many instances have already been given of the patronage which the Ptolemies bestowed on commerce, of the facilities and advantages they afforded, and of the benefits which the science of geography derived from the library and observatory of Alexandria: every instrument which could facilitate the study of astronomy was purchased by the Ptolemies and placed in that observatory, for they were fully aware of the dependency of a full and accurate knowledge of geography, as a science, on a full and accurate knowledge of astronomy. With respect to commerce, the advancement of which, may fairly be supposed to have had some weight in their patronage of these sciences, they encouraged it as much as possible to centre in Alexandria, and with citizens of Egypt, by making it a standing law of the country, that no goods should pa.s.s through the capital, either to India or Europe, without the intervention of an Alexandrian factor, and that even when foreign merchants resided there, they should employ the same agency. The roads and ca.n.a.ls they formed, and the care they took to keep the Red Sea free from pirates, are further proofs of their regard for commerce.

And justly was it held by the Ptolemies in high estimation, for from it they derived their immense wealth. We are informed by Strabo, that the revenue of Alexandria, in the worst of times, was 12,500 talents, equivalent to nearly two millions and a half sterling; and if this was the revenue under the last and most indolent of the Ptolemies, what must it have been under Ptolemy Philadelphus, or Ptolemy Euergetes? But the account given by Appian of the treasure of the Ptolemies is still more extraordinary: the sum he mentions is 740,000 talents, or 191,166,666, according to Dr. Arbuthnot's computation; we should be disposed to doubt the accuracy of this statement, did we not know that Appian was a native of Alexandria, and did he not moreover inform us, that he had extracted his account from the public records of that city. When we consider that this immense sum was acc.u.mulated by only two of the Ptolemies, Ptolemy Soter and Ptolemy Philadelphus, and that the latter maintained two great fleets, one in the Mediterranean, and the other in the Red Sea, besides an army of 200,000 foot, and 40,000 horse; and that he had 300 elephants, 2000 armed chariots, and an armoury at Alexandria, stocked with 300,000 complete suits of armour, and all other necessary weapons and implements of war,--we shall form some idea of the extent and fruitfulness of Egyptian commerce, from which the whole, or nearly the whole, of this immense wealth must have been derived.

Having thus brought our historical sketch of the progress of discovery and commercial enterprize among the Egyptians down to the period of the conquest of Egypt by the Romans, we shall, in the next place, revert to the Romans themselves, in whom, at the date of their conquest of this country, the geographical knowledge and the commerce of the whole world may justly be said to have centered. As, however, we have hitherto only adverted to the Romans, in our account of the discoveries and commerce of the Carthaginians, it will be proper to notice them in a much more detailed and particular manner. We shall, therefore, trace, their geographical knowledge, their discoveries and their commerce, from the foundation of Rome, to the period of their conquest of Egypt; and in the course of this investigation, we shall give a sketch of the commerce of those countries which successively fell under their dominion--omitting such as we have already noticed: by this plan, we shall be enabled to trace the commerce of all the known world at that time, down to the period when Rome absorbed the whole.

The account which Polybius gives, that before the first Carthaginian war the Romans were entirely ignorant of, and inattentive to sea affairs--if by this statement he means to a.s.sert that they were unacquainted with maritime commerce, as well as maritime warfare, is expressly contradicted by the treaties between Rome and Carthage, which we have already given in our account of the commerce of Carthage. The first of those treaties was made 250 years before the first Punic war; and the second, about fifty years before it. Besides, it is not probable that the Romans should have been entirely ignorant of, and inattentive to maritime commerce for so long a period; since several nations of Italy, with which they were at first connected, and which they afterwards conquered, were very conversant in this commerce, and derived great consideration, power, and wealth from it.

The Romans had conquered Etruria, and made themselves masters of the Tuscan powers both by sea and land, before the commencement of the first Punic war; and though at this period, the Tuscans were not so celebrated for their commerce as they had been, yet the shipping and commerce they did possess, must have fallen into the power of the Romans; and we can scarcely suppose that these, together with the facilities which the Tuscans enjoyed for commerce, by means of their ports, and their skill and commercial habits and connections, would be entirely neglected by their conquerors.

Besides, there are several old Roman coins, by some supposed to have been as old as the time of the kings, and certainly prior to the first Punic war, on the reverses of which different parts of ships are visible. Now, as the Roman historians are diffuse in the accounts they give of the wars of the Romans, but take no notice of their commercial transactions, we may safely conclude, from their not mentioning any maritime wars, or expeditions of a date so early as these coins, that the ships at that period preserved by the Romans, and deemed of such consequence as to be struck on their coins, were employed for the purposes of commerce.

The Tuscans and the Grecian colonies in the south of Italy, certainly had made great progress in commerce at an early period; and as,--if their example did not stimulate the Romans to enterprises of the same kind,--the Romans, at least when they conquered them, became possessed of the commerce which they then enjoyed, it will be proper to take a brief view of it.

If we may credit the ancient historians, the Etrurians or Tyrrhenians, even before the reign of Minos, had been for a long time masters of the greatest part of the Mediterranean Sea, and had given their name to the Tyrrhenian Sea, upon which they were situate. Piracy, as well as commerce, was followed by them; and they became at last so expert, successful, and dangerous, for their piracies, that they were attacked, and their maritime power greatly abridged, by the Carthaginians and the Sicilians. Their most famous port was Luna, which was situated on the Macra, a river which, flowing from the Apennines, divided Liguria from Etruria, and fell into the Tyrrhenian Sea. There seems good reason to believe that Luna was a place of great trade before the Trojan war; it was extremely capacious, and in every respect worthy of the commercial enterprise and wealth of the Tuscans.

Populonium, a city which was situate on a high promontory of the same name, that ran a considerable way into the sea, also possessed a very commodious harbour, capable of receiving a great number of ships. It had an a.r.s.enal well supplied with all kinds of naval stores, and a quay for shipping or landing merchandize. One of the princ.i.p.al articles of export consisted in copper vessels, and in arms, machines, utensils, &c. of iron: these metals were at first supplied to the inhabitants from the island of aethalia (now Elba); but the copper-mines there failing, iron alone, from the same island, was imported for the purpose of their various manufactures; the trade in these flourished in very remote times, and continued in the days of Aristotle and Strabo.

But the most direct and unequivocal testimony to the power of the Tuscans, and that that power was princ.i.p.ally, if not entirely, derived from their maritime skill and commerce, is to be found in Livy. This historian informs us, "that before the Roman empire, the Tuscan dominions extended very far both by sea and land, even to the upper and lower sea, by which Italy is surrounded, in form of an island. Their very names are an argument for the vast power of this people; for the Italian natives call the one the Tuscan Sea, and the other the Adriatic, from Adria, a Tuscan colony. The Greeks call them the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Seas. This people, in twelve cities, inhabited the country extending to both seas; and by sending out colonies equal in number to the mother cities, first on this side of the Apennines towards the lower sea, and afterwards as many on the other side, possessed all the country beyond the Po, even to the Alps, except the corner belonging to the Venetians, who dwelt round a bay of the sea." Homer, Heraclides, Aristides, and Diodorus Siculus, all concur in their representations of the maritime power and commercial opulence of the Tuscans at a very early period. Diodorus Siculus expressly says, that they were masters of the sea; and Aristides, that the Indians were the most powerful nation in the east, and the Tuscans in the west.

Of the Grecian colonies in the south of Italy, that of Tarentum was the most celebrated for its commerce. Polybius expressly informs us, that Tarentum, their princ.i.p.al city, was very prosperous and rich, long before Rome made any figure, and that its prosperity and riches were entirely the fruit of the extensive and lucrative trade they carried on, particularly with Greece. The city of Tarentum stood on a peninsula, and the citadel, which was very strong, was built on the narrowest and extremest part of it; on the east was a small bay, on the west the main sea; the harbour is represented by ancient historians as extremely large, beautiful and commodious. Its vicinity to Greece, Sicily, and Africa, afforded it great opportunities and facilities for commerce. The inhabitants are represented by some authors as having been the inventors of a particular kind of ship, which retained in some degree the form of a raft or float. Their government, which at first was aristocratical, was afterwards changed to a democracy; and it is to this popular form of government that their prosperity and wealth are ascribed. The number of people in the whole state amounted to 300,000; Tarentum had twelve other cities under its dominion.

Besides a considerable fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, they had constantly on foot a very large army, princ.i.p.ally of mercenaries. Eighteen years before the first Punic war, the Romans had entered into a maritime treaty with the Tarentines; according to this treaty, neither party were to navigate beyond the Cape of Lacinia. Soon afterwards, however, the Roman fleet accidentally appearing near Tarentum, the inhabitants took the alarm, sunk four of the ships, killed or took prisoners the commander and some other officers, sold the seamen for slaves, and behaved with great insolence to the amba.s.sador whom the Romans sent to remonstrate and demand satisfaction. They were soon, however, obliged to submit to the superior power of the Romans. In the second Punic war, it was finally subdued, and a Roman colony planted there.

The Spinetes, Liburnians, and Locrians, were also celebrated for their skill in naval affairs, and for their commerce, before Rome manifested the slightest wish to distinguish herself in this manner. Indeed, the situation of Italy naturally turned the attention of its inhabitants (especially of those who were early civilized, as the Tuscans, or those who had emigrated from a civilized country, as the nations in the south of Italy,) to naval affairs and maritime commerce. Washed by three seas, the Adriatic on the north-east, the Tyrrhenian on the west, and the Ionian on the south, Italy enjoyed advantages possessed by few nations of antiquity. Of the first of these seas, the Spinetes became masters, of the second the Tuscans, and of the third the Tarentines. The Spinetes, were originally Pelasgi, who had emigrated and settled by chance rather than design, on the south banks of the Po. Spina, their capital, was situated on the north side of the southernmost mouth of that river. We do not possess any particular account of their commerce, but that it rendered them powerful and rich we are a.s.sured; and their dominion over the Adriatic is a decisive proof of the former, while their magnificent offerings to Delphos may as justly be deemed a proof of the latter. Spina was strong both by nature and art, on the sea side, but the reverse on the land side; so that at last it was abandoned by its inhabitants not being able to withstand the attacks of their neighbours, who were either jealous of their prosperity, or attracted to the a.s.sault by the love of plunder. In the reign of Augustus it was reduced to a small village; and the branch of the Po, on which it was situated, had changed its course so much, that it was then upwards of fifteen miles distant from the sea, on the sh.o.r.e of which it had been built. The gradual alteration in the course of the river, it is probable, contributed with the other cause already mentioned to reduce it to comparative insignificance.

Opposite to the Spinetes across the Adriatic, on the coast of Dalmatia, the Liburnians dwelt. In some respects their coast was preferable to that of Italy for maritime affairs, as it is studded with islands, which afforded shelter to ships, and likewise possessed many excellent harbours; but the Liburnians, as well as most of the inhabitants of Illyria, were more eager after piracy than commerce; and, as we shall afterwards see, carried their piracies to such a daring and destructive extent, that the Romans were compelled to attack them. Their devotedness to piracy explains what to Mons. Huet appears unaccountable. He observes, that it is remarkable that neither the Dalmatians, who were powerful at sea by means of their port Salona, which was their capital, nor the Liburnians themselves, according to all appearance, had the use of money among them. Commerce cannot be carried on to great extent, or in a regular and expeditious manner, by natives ignorant of the use of money; but money seems to be not at all requisite to the purposes of piracy. The Liburnian ships, or more properly speaking, those ships which were denominated Liburnian, from having been invented and first employed by this people, were of two kinds; one large, fit for war and long voyages, but at the same time built light and for quick sailing. After the victory of Actium, which Augustus gained in a great measure by means of these ships, few were built by the Romans of any other construction. The other Liburnian vessels were small, for fishing and short voyages; some of these were made with osiers and covered with hides.

But strength and lightness, and quick sailing, were the qualities by which the Liburnian ships were chiefly distinguished and characterised.

At what precise period the Romans directed their attention to maritime affairs we are not accurately informed: that the opinion of Polybius on this subject is not well founded, is evident from several circ.u.mstances. He says, that before the first Punic war the Romans had no thought of the sea; that Sicily was the first country, out of Italy, in which they ever landed; and that, when they went to that island to a.s.sist the Mamertines, the vessels which they employed in that expedition were hired, or borrowed from the Tarentines, the Locrians, &c. He is correct in his statement that Sicily was the first country in which the Romans had any footing; but that he is inaccurate with respect to the period when the Romans first applied themselves to maritime affairs, will appear from the following facts.

In the first place, the Romans (as we have already shown in our account of the Carthaginian commerce,) had several treaties with the Carthaginians, which may properly be called commercial treaties, before the first Punic war. The earliest treaty, according to Polybius himself, was dated about 250 years before the war; and in this treaty the voyages undertaken by the Romans on account of trade to Africa, Sardinia, and that part of Sicily at that time possessed by the Carthaginians, are expressly mentioned and regulated. The second treaty, about 100 years before the first Punic war, is not so specific respecting commerce. The third treaty, occasioned by the invasion of Italy by Pyrrhus, points out a decline in the naval power of the Romans; for it stipulates, that the Carthaginians should furnish them with ships, if required, either for trade or war. Secondly, seventy-four years before the first Punic war, the Romans having subdued the Antiates, and thus become masters of their fleet, among which were six armed with beaks, the tribune was ornamented with these beaks, the ships to which they belonged were burnt, and the others were brought to Rome and laid upon the place allotted to the building and preservation of ships. Lastly, the circ.u.mstances which gave rise to the war between the Romans and Tarentines, to which we have already adverted, plainly prove that Polybius is wrong in his a.s.sertion. Valerius, who commanded the Roman fleet, which was attacked by the Tarentines, according to Livy, was one of the _duumviri navales_, officers who had been already appointed nearly thirty years (that is, nearly fifty years before the first Punic war), on the motion of Decius Mus, expressly for the purpose of equipping, repairing, and maintaining the fleets.

From these circ.u.mstances, it appears that the Romans possessed ships both for war and commerce, previous to the commencement of their wars with the Carthaginians, though it is extremely probable that their commerce was very limited, and for the most part carried on in vessels belonging to the other maritime nations of Italy, and that their ships of war were very small and rude in their construction and equipment.

It is foreign to the object of this work to enter into a detail of the wars between the Romans and the Carthaginians: but as the great efforts of the Romans to become powerful at sea were made during these wars; as these efforts, being successful, laid the foundation of the future commerce of Rome; and as by the destruction of Carthage, in some measure caused by the naval victories gained by the Romans, the most commercial nation of antiquity was utterly ruined, and their commerce transferred to Rome, it will be proper briefly to notice the naval contests between these rival powers during the three wars in which they were engaged.