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Of the Ro

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THE progrefs which the Romans made in BOOK navigation and discovery, was ftill more inconfiderable than that of the Greeks. The genius of the Roman people, their military education, and the spirit of their laws, concurred in eftranging them from commerce and naval affairs. It was the neceffity of oppofing a formidable rival, not the defire of extending trade, which firft prompted them to aim at maritime power. Though they foon perceived that in order to acquire the univerfal dominion after which they afpired, it was neceffary to render themselves masters of the fea, they ftill confidered the naval fervice as a fubordinate ftation, and referved for it fuch citizens as were not of a rank to be admitted into the legions *. In the history of the Roman republic, hardly one event occurs, that marks attention to navigation any farther than as it was inftrumental towards conqueft. When the Roman valour and difcipline had fubdued all the maritime ftates known in the ancient world; when Carthage, Greece, and Egypt, had fubmitted to their power, the Romans did not imbibe the commercial spirit of the conquered nations. Among that people of foldiers, to have applied to trade would have Polyb. lib. v.

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BOOK been deemed a degradation of a Roman citizen, They abandoned the mechanical arts, commerce and navigation, to flaves, to freedmen, to provincials, and to citizens of the lowest class. Even after the fubverfion of liberty, when the feverity and haughtiness of ancient manners began to abate, commerce did not rife into high estimation among the Romans. The trade of Greece, Eypt, and the other conquered countries, continued to be carried on in its ufual channels, after they were reduced into the form of Roman provinces. As Rome was the capital of the world, and the feat of govern. ment, all the wealth and valuable productions of the provinces flowed naturally thither. The Romans, fatisfied with this, feem to have fuffered commerce to remain almost entirely in the hands of the natives of the refpective countries. The extent, however, of the Roman power, which reached over the greatest part of the known world, the vigilant inspection of the Roman magistrates, and the fpirit of the Roman government, no lefs intelligent than active, gave fuch additional fecurity to commerce, as animated it with new vigour. The union, among nations was never fo entire, nor the intercourse fo perfect, as within the bounds of this vaft empire. Commerce, under the Roman dominion, was not obftructed by the jea

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loufy of rival states, interrupted by frequent BOOK hoftilities, or limited by partial reftrictions. One fuperintending power moved and regulated the industry of mankind, and enjoyed the fruits of their joint efforts.

NAVIGATION felt this influence, and improved under it. As foon as the Romans acquired a taste for the luxuries of the East, the trade with India through Egypt was pushed with new vigour, and carried on to greater extent. By frequenting the Indian continent, navigators became acquainted with the periodi cal course of the winds, which, in the ocean that separates Africa from India, blow with little variation during one half of the year from the eaft, and during the other half blow with equal fteadiness from the west. Encouraged by obferving this, the pilots who failed from Egypt to India abandoned their ancient flow and dangerous courfe along the coaft, and as foon as the western monsoon set in, took their departure from Ocelis, at the mouth of the Arabian Gulf, and ftretched boldly across the ocean. The uniform direction of the wind, fupplying the place of the compafs, and rendering the guidance of the ftars lefs neceffary, conducted them to the port of Mufiris, on the western fhore of the Indian continent.

› Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 23.

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BOOK There they took on board their cargo, and returning with the eastern monfoon, finished their voyage to the Arabian Gulph within the year. This part of India, now known by the name of the Malabar coast, seems to have been the utmost limit of ancient navigation in that quarter of the globe. What imperfect knowledge the ancients had of the immenfe countries which ftretch beyond this towards the east, they received from a few adventurers, who had vifited them by land. Such excurfions were neither frequent nor extensive, and it is probable, that while the Roman intercourfe with India fubfifted, no traveller ever penetrated farther than to banks of the Ganges". The fleets from Egypt which traded at Mufiris were loaded, it is true, with the fpices and other rich commodities of the continent and islands of the farther India; but these were brought to that port, which became the staple of the commerce between the East and Weft, by the Indians themfelves, in canoes hollowed out of one tree a. The Egyptian and Roman merchants, fatisfied with acquiring those commodities in this manner, did not think it neceffary to explore unknown feas, and venture upon a dangerous navigation, in queft

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z Strab. Geogr. lib. xv. p. 1006. 1010. See NOTE VI, Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. vi. c. 26.

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of the countries which produced them. But BOOK though the discoveries of the Romans in India were fo limited, their commerce there was fuch as will appear confiderable, even to the prefent age, in which the Indian trade has been extended far beyond the practice or conception of any preceding period. We are informed by one author of credit', that the commerce with India drained the Roman empire every year of more than four hundred thousand pounds; and by another, that one hundred and twenty fhips failed annually from the Arabian Gulph to that country c.

THE difcovery of this new method of failing to India, is the moft confiderable improvement in navigation made during the continuance of the Roman power. But in ancient times, the knowledge of remote countries was acquired more frequently by land than by fea; and the Romans, from their peculiar difinclination to naval affairs, may be faid to have neglected totally the latter, though a more eafy and expeditious method of discovery. The progrefs, however, of their victorious armies through a confiderable portion of Europe, Afia, and Africa, contributed greatly to

Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. vi. c. 26.
Strab. Geogr. lib. ii. p. 179.
See NOTE VII.

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