10. Roman docks, etc. — Rome was itself a hart)Ourtowii, llie i|Uiiys for landing merchandise being at the foot of the Aventine Mount on the Tiber, and calloil the Kmiiorium (iixTrbpiov). This quarter became more and more covere<l with large warehouses {horren}. Much, perhaps most, of the trattic whicli came to Rome by water did not come in ships direct. The great sea-harboiir of Rome was at the mouth of the Tiber, at Ostia (lit. ' mouths '). Ostia is now a mile or two from the sea, owing to the silt thrown up throughout centuries by the yellow river ylavius Til/eris), but the thorough excavation which the site is now undergoing at the hands of the Italian Government has revealed its importance. Horrea were long buildings bounded by a street on each of the longer sides, and divided by a wall longitudinally into two rows of store-rooms, placed back to back. Sometimes they formed the boundaries of a, platea (square). At Ostia they were used to receive the heavy goods, pending their transportation up the Tiber on barges to Rome. From the warehouses in Ron\e, which were partly public and partly private, and not all situated m the Emijoriura quarter, the goods found their way to the taherruB (shops), and thus to the private purchasers. There must have been large warehouses at Alexandria and Puteoli in connexion with the great corn traffic between Egypt and Italy, as well as at other ports (of., in tact, the name Emporia;, of a Greek city in N.E. Spain). We find instances of factories in the West belonging to Easterns. For example, various Syrian and Phmnician cities had factories at Puteoli, Rome, Naples, Portus, Ravenna. The Alexandrians had them at Perinthus (modern Eregli) in Thrace, and at Toniis (near modem Constantza) on the Black Sea.
11. Fairs. — The great fairs held in various parts of the Empire played their part in the dissemina- tion of trade. The Mysteries of Eleusis near Athens and of Samothrace, the Feasts of Dionysus at Argos and of Pythian Apollo at Delphi, the Isthmian Games at Corinth, and the Olympian Games in Elis (Peloponnese), all attracted countless visitors and stimulated trade, being the ancient counterparts of the Stourbridge, Leipzig, and Nijni Novgorod fairs of more modern times. Thus the pursuit of athletics and of religion benelited trade.
12. Customs dues. — The harbour or customs dues in our period are not known. They were probably not high. The Empire was divided into large customs districts, and an ad ualorem duty was charged on goods passing from one of these to another. A uir.esima (■^, i.e. 5 per cent) duty is known for Sicily and Africa, and was probably general ; a quadrorfcsima (^, i.e. 2^ per cent) duty was also in u.se, for example, in the pri)vin<e of Asia, in the Bithynia-Pontus and Paphl.-igonia
group, and in the ' Three Gauls' (Gallia Lugudun- ensis, (lallia Bclgica, Gallia Aquitanica).
13. Trade with distant countries.— (a) Egy/d aud Itidi't. — Some acc<)uiit may now be given in detail of the distant countriis with which trade was carried on by the .Mediterranean i)eoi)les. Egy[)t holds a very important place. Not only did that country supjdy a third ol the corn consumed in Italy ; it was also the home of the papyrus plant, so extensively used as writing material. From there also were exported various building stones (cf. Stat. Si/itae II. ii. 86, Assouan), linen, glass, embroidered stutls, etc. It was, further, the way to East India, the source of pepper, pearls, etc. From Alexaiulria the journey to Coptos up the Nile took twelve days, with a favourable wind. At Coptos the goods were laden on camels and Herenice-Troglodj'tice to the S. E. was reached in eleven or twelve days. Berenice with its ware- houses was a centre for Arabia, India, and Et hiopia, and the trade-routes were guarded by Roman garrisons, which had also dug wells. Doubtless this was the route taken by the eunuch of the Candace mentioned in Ac 8. Thirty days were required to go from Berenice to Ocelis in Arabia at the south end of the Red Sea, or to Cane on the south coast of Arabia. From Cane it was forty days to Muziris on the coast of Malabar, whence goods went to Barace (Barygaza), their ultimate destination. The unloading and loading took little time, and in December they started the return journey. The whole journey from Alexandria to Barace and back took six months. From South Arabia, especially through Adane (Aden), came incense (cf . ' grana turis unius a.ssis, Arabicie arboris lacrimas,' Tert. Apol. 30) and other per- fumes, spices, and precious stones. From the Great Lakes, East Africa, and Somaliland ivory was brought via Abyssinia to the Nile.
(i) Syria. — Syria was itself an important centre of production. The purple dyes of Tyre and Siilon are constantly referred to in ancient literature (cf. Stat. Siluae III. ii. 139, 'qua pretiosa Tyros rubeat, qua purpura suco Sidoniis iterata cadis,' and especially Mayor on Juvenal, Sat. i. '27). Artistic work in glass was also associated with Sidon, and throughout Sj'ria fine linen (Lk IG'", Rev IS'-- '" 19'- ") was woven from the ilax of the country. But Syria's chief signilicance wius as a halfway house for the merchan<lise of the Further East. In addition to the Indian route mentioned in the last paragraph, goods from India could be brought by the port of Charax at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, by the Euphrates, and then by the caravan route passing through Palmj-ra to Damascus. The importance of Palmyra (cf. W. Wright, An Account of Palmyra and Zcnobia, London, 1895) was very great. The tarill' levied by that city brought it the greatest material prosperity (cf. Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. i. ch. xi., ed. J. B. Bury, London, 1905, p. 306). Another trade- route which passed through Syria was that by the head of the Arabian Gulf to Petra through Bostra to Damascus or, for southern Syria, to the port of Gaza.