This Article Was Employed As A Manure On The Marshy Land Bordering On The Rhine. Pliny Remarks That Its Effect On The Land Continued Eighty Years.

The principal articles imported into Britain were copper and brass, and utensils made of these metals, earthen ware, salt, &c. The traffic was carried on partly by means of barter, and partly by pieces of brass and iron, unshaped, unstamped, and rated by weight.

The duties paid in Gaul, on the imports and exports of Britain, formed, according to Strabo, the only tribute exacted from the latter country by the Romans in his time.

Of that part of Europe which lies to the north of Gaul, the Romans, at the period of which we are treating, knew little or nothing, though some indirect traffic was carried on with Germany. The feathers of the German geese were preferred to all others at Rome; and amber formed a most important article of traffic. This was found in great abundance on the Baltic shore of Germany: at first, it seems to have been carried the whole length of the continent, to the Veneti, who forwarded it to Rome. Afterwards, in consequence of the great demand for it there, and its high price, the Romans sent people expressly to purchase it in the north of Germany: and their land journies, in search of this article, first made them acquainted with the naval powers of the Baltic. The Estii, a German tribe, who inhabited the amber country, gathered and sold it to the Roman traders, and were astonished at the price they received for it. In Nero's time it was in such high request, that that emperor resolved to send Julianus, a knight, to procure it for him in large quantities: accordingly, a kind of embassy was formed, at the head of which he was placed. He set out from Carnuntum, a fortress on the banks of the Danube, and after travelling, according to Pliny, 600 miles, arrived at the amber coast. There he bought, or received as a present, for the emperor, 13,000 pounds weight, among which was one piece that weighed thirteen pounds. The whole of this immense quantity served for the decoration of one day, on which Nero gave an entertainment of gladiators. In the time of Theodoric, king of the Goths, the Estii sent that monarch a large quantity of amber, as the most likely present by means of which they could obtain his alliance. They informed the ambassadors, whom he sent with a letter acknowledging this present, that they were ignorant whence the amber came, but that it was thrown upon their coast by the sea, a fact which exactly agrees with what occurs at present.

Whether the Estii, with whom the Romans carried on this traffic, were a maritime nation, we are not informed; but there was another nation or tribe of Germans on the Baltic, of whose maritime character some notices are given. These were the Sitones, who, according to Tacitus, had powerful fleets; their ships were built with two prows, so as to steer at both ends, and prevent the necessity of putting about; their oars were not fixed, like those of the Mediterranean vessels, but loose, so that they could easily and quickly be shifted:

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