* Such ships may probably have been owned and perhaps in part manned by Jews ; though the existence of Jewish sailors is not much attested at that time.
t As Philo, de Mon. ii. 3 (ji. 24, Mangey), says. The passage is quoted by Prof. Schiirer in the art. Diaspora, above, § v.
t Moreover, it is quite unnatural to suppose that in the great city of Ephesus the return of a single Jew for a week or so must necessarily be observed.
ix. IMPERIAL TRANSPORT SHIPS. — We have, above, spoken about the Alexandrian corn ships as belonging to the Imperial service. In the strictest point of view that is not quite accurate. Those ships were not government vessels, like men-of-war. They belonged to private owners, or rather great trading companies, who contracted in open market with the Imperial government * for the conveyance of the corn. As in the col- lection of taxes, the government found it easier to give out the work to contract than to organize for itself the enormous machinery in men and equip- ment needed for that great service. But, on the other hand, those ships were exclusively used for the Alexandrian service (as other companies con- tracted for other special services and purposes) ;t the companies received certain subventions from the State (including a free gift of all the wood needed for building), and immunities for all mem- bers from various public burdens ; and thus they were bound in a great degree to the State service, and became almost part of the State equipment. Gradually it was found advisable in the public interest to bind them more closely, until at last they became hereditary servants of the State for that duty, and unable to free themselves from the service, which descended from father to son, and which was remunerated by percentage ¢ at a rate fixed by law, and no longer given out at contract. See Marquardt, Rom. Privatalt. ii. 4065 ff.
x. CORRESPONDENCE.—Communication by letter had been common from remote antiquity. The familiar use of writing leads to correspondence between absent friends as inevitably as the pos- session of articulate speech produces conversation and discussion. Now it is becoming more certain and evident through the progress of discovery that writing was widely and familiarly used from an extremely early period. There was, of course, a very marked line of distinction, in ancient society, between the educated section of the popu- lation, which could read and write, and the un- educated, which could not; and the distinction did not at all correspond to the distinction be- tween free and slave; on the contrary, many of the slaves in households of the educated class were specially highly and carefully educated, when their abilities were such that education would make them more useful to their masters.
With the great development of travel and com- munication in the Roman Imperial period, it might have been expected that communication by letter should have been greatly developed and increased. It is, however, extremely doubtful if that was the case.
The weakest side of the Imperial system always was its comparative carelessness of the intellectual and spiritual well-being of the population. To feed and to amuse (‘ panem et Circenses’) nearly summed up its ideal of treatment for the masses. Real education, which the Greek cities admired and aimed at, grew weaker and poorer as the Empire grew older. The fact that in the purely barbarian provinces, such as Pannonia, Meesia, ete., the in- troduction of the Roman civilization and govern- ment caused an educated class to grow up, should not be allowed to conceal the real fact that the educated class was not enlarged proportionately over the whole Empire.
And, similarly, epistolary correspondence was probably not much, if at all, increased in those
* Ad hastam locamus ut nobis ex transmarinis provineiis advehatur frumentum (Columella, de Re Rust. 1, pr. 20).
t Special ships were built for the transport of the immense blocks and monolithic columns of coloured marble : the nature of the transport required that, and Pliny mentions that naves marmorum causa fiunt (Nat. Hist, xxxvi. 2).
{In the 4th cent. the rate was 4 per cent. of the cargo, and an aureus for every thousand bushels,
showing the PROVINCIAL BOUNDARIES ABOUT AD.50
Explanation Some less important Roads traversed by S*Paul thus —— — | Important Routes — | Boundaries of Provinces or Kingdoms a oalalad Sea Routes thus — also” —-——
| Ar arrow beside a sea-route indicates that it was used | only in one direction, owing to the prevalent winds.
| Scale of English Miles ‘Liat 10: 0 10 20 30 40 60 60
ee 9, e,
- A T a age 4, ses
Tot cté m1 On, Bei ; Sf ~/ ae i ea ttt,
FE Minrgnyye wy es iy ano NSW
RON
witli Aang
su ria rel / i gee , : SS ae "ye
ity TRO
7 \; Ane kote 4 Se ; © ‘., 2
RCW aaeee Fig e. ain aint uc i pe di dn Ay mee ne Ss ES emno s y, oO 5 cas yatira oe. 2 “Amor UsO VI N ‘G Se io f 2 : ee ‘ e ~{% ee, 5 omghe : vo OM s s ate aePzo. R05
A nu Hi AN si . Ay INNA AN wg
ni , My