(c) China. — Silk from China also reached Italy in part throitgh Sj-ria. Yellow silk from Cos (C'o'ce uestes) and from Assyria (bumbycince uestes) made from the cocoon of the wild silk-worm (bombyx) was the first kind known to the Romans, and references to these products abound from the beginning of the Augustan A"e to the seventh decade of the 1st cent. A.D. But this sort was ousted from the market by the sujierior pure white silk of China {.lericm [from Sei-es, the Chinese] or holoscrica- ['all-silk '] uc.itcs [to the examples of the latter word in Lewis and Short's dictionary add pseudo-Augustine, Sermons, cclii. 1, cclxii. 1]).
604 TRADE AND COMMERCE
TR.U3E AND COMMERCE
Raw silk and .silk thread were also exported. Four trade-routes brought the silk products of China to Home : (a) the overland route from Northern China through Chinese Turkestan to Bactria, by the Caspian gates to Media and the Euphrates ; (h) a branch of this, crossing the Pamirs from Kashgar and descending the valley of the Indus to Karachi, thence by sea to the Persian Gulf ; (c) from Central China through Tibet and Nepal to Palibotlira on the Ganges, down the Ganges, and then by sea to Egypt ; {d) from Catti- gara (Tonkin) {Jones, A Companion to Roman History, p. 320).
(d) The Baltic coast. — The amber trade opened up the north of Europe and the Baltic coast. From the latter district it was brought to Italy by a route which eventually passed through Carnuntum, an important military station (now Petronell, near Vienna) on the upper Danube. The discovery of various hoards of Roman coins and articles in Northern Europe suggests that there was a trade in other commodities as well. Certainly timber, iron ore, and gold were obtained in the northern provinces.
(e) Gaal and Britain. — The Romans had entered Gaul, even before Cesar's conquest of it, from the old province of Gallia Narbonensis up the Rhone valley from Marseilles (later from Aries), and from Italy by the Great St. Bernard Pass. A cask of Italian or Narbonese wine bouglit a Gaulish slave, and it seems to have been cbielly wine that the Roman traders brought. Gallic clothing and pottery were also bouglit by the Romans. At the other northern corner of the Empire, at Dioscurias or Sebastopolis in the Caucasus, there was a great trading centre, at which the products of Southern Russia were exchanged. The lead-mines of the Mendip hills and North Wales were worked by the Romans. Iron was extracted in the Weald and the Forest of Dean, and gold in West Wales. A trade-route existed from Britain to the mouth of the Loire. But the most important country for the supply of minerals was Spain, from which copper, lead, silver, gold, and tin were obtained. From this short account, pieced together from scanty data, it is difficult to realize the tremendous commercial activity of Rome in every direction open to her.
14. Centres of distFibution. — Not much is known of the distribution of the goods. Juvenal's words, 'iam pridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes' (Sat. iii. 62), are typical of the whole Empire. At Rome was the greatest distributing mart of the world. There everything that could bo bought for money was obtainable. Other great distributing centres were Corinth (the most natural explana- tion of ' they of Chloe' [1 Co 1"] is that they were business agents of a house trading between Corinth and Ephesus), Alexandria, Syrian Antioch, Arelate (now Aries). Alexandria was a distributing centre for paper, spices, etc. Tin was in stock almost everywhere, though found only in the West in a natural state. Amber was to be found every- where. Iron goods — for example, Roman-made weapons — were universally known. The Italian pattern of stewpan or casserole has been found in various parts of Northern Europe. Greek pottery from the islands of the .i^igean was sold widely, but Western was no less important (the classic work is that by J. D^chelette, Les Vases c6ra- miques ornis de la Gaule romaine — Narbonnaise, Aquitaine et Lyonnaise, 2 voLs., Paris, 1904; see also the literature referred to in P. Gwynne, 7'Ae Guadalquiver : its Personrdity, its People, and its Associations, London, 1912). Each maker had his own hall-mark ; the wares of Saguntum, Arretium, Mutina, Lyons, and other centres can thus be traced over the Western Empire. So also Alex-
andrian glass articles, Syrian fine linen fabrics, Italian wines, sausages, and bams, African carpets, Gaulish, Numidian, Rhietian, and British clothing, Tarentine wool, Cartagena lish-sauce, etc., were on sale in the most unliUely places.
15. Articles of commerce. — (n) Slaves. — But it is now time to pass to a more detailed account of the articles of commerce themselves. The most important of them were the slaves. Of these some of course were born in the house (tierna, ancilla, oUir-qi, olKdrii) of mothers who were already house- slaves, and had for fathers either the master or another slave. By law every such child was a new slave for the master. But the household of slaves was also, and perhaps mainly, added to by purchase. All slaves were valued as representing so much capital, as well as for the service they rendered. Hardly a household existed without one, and no person of the slightest consequence would go out into the street unattended by one or more slaves. There were also grades of slaves, the more important having at their beck and call under-slaves, uicarii. They also varied in stand- ing and cost according to the purpose for which they were bought. For instance, tlie beautiful boy- slave [puer delicatus ; Stat. Siluae II. i. vi., laments for the death of such), as a luxury of the rich, sometimes, if not always, used for immoral pur- poses (cf. jjLoKaKoi, 1 Co 6"), was exceedingly costly. But the rough farm labourer class of slave could be obtained cheap. Town service was much more highly appreciated by the slave class than country service, and a refractory town slave could think of no greater punishment than to be sent to his master's country estate (Horace, Sat. II. vii. 118). Tlie slave born in the house grew up with the master's lawful children, and thus a close rela- tionship was established between them, a sign of which is the fact that the house-slave referred to his master by his ' Christian ' name, prcenomen. The earliest purchased slaves were obtained directly through war, for the word mancipium comes from manu capere, but later through the medium of the slave market, a regular institution of all the ancient States ; slaves reached this slave market generally as booty taken in war. Every successful war in which Rome took part brought in a number of captives as an essential part of the booty. After a victory or the capture of a town, thousands of captives were sold by the qucestor, eitlier on the spot or at the nearest market. Another source of slaves was the robbery of defenceless persons committed by pirates and highwaymen, but this source had greatly dried up by the 1st cent. A.D. Different nationalities were associated with ditl'erent aptitudes and held in various esteem. Phrygians, like Onesimus (in Philemon), were little esteemed, and were com- monly employed to wait at table. Many interest- ing facts with regard to slaves must be omitted here, as we are concerned with them merely as articles of merchandise.