In The Middle Of The Fourth Century Ammianus Marcellinus Gives Us Some
Important And Curious Information Respecting The Roman Commerce With The
East.
According to him it was customary to hold an annual fair at Batnae, a
town to the east of
Antioch, not far from the banks of the Euphrates.
Merchandize from the East was brought hither overland by caravans, as well
as up the Euphrates; and its value at this fair was so great, that the
Persians made an attempt to plunder it. To the same author we are indebted
for some notices respecting the countries which lay beyond the eastern
limits of the Roman empire, and also for the first clear and undoubted
notice of rhubarb, as an extensive article of commerce for medicinal
purposes.
Towards the end of the fourth century, the naval expeditions of the Saxons
attracted the notice and excited the fears of the Britons and the Gauls:
their vessels apparently were unfit for a long voyage, or for encountering
either the dangers of the sea or of battle; they were flat-bottomed and
slightly constructed of timber, wicker-work, and hides; but such vessels
possessed advantages, which to the Saxons more than compensated for their
defects: they drew so little water that they could proceed 100 miles up the
great rivers; and they could easily and conveniently be carried on waggons
from one river to another.
We have already noticed the itineraries of the Roman empire: of these there
were two kinds, the _annotota_ and the _picta_; the first
containing merely the names of places; the other, besides the names, the
extent of the different provinces, the number of their inhabitants, the
names of the mountains, rivers, seas, &c.; of the first kind, the itinerary
of Antoninus is the most celebrated: to it we have already alluded: to the
second kind belong the Peutingarian tables, which are supposed to have been
drawn up in the reign of Theodosius, about the beginning of the fifth
century, though according to other conjectures, they were constructed at
different periods.
The beginning of the tables is lost, comprising Portugal, Spain, and the
west part of Africa; only the south-east coast of England is inserted.
Towards the east, the Seres, the mouth of the Ganges, and the island of
Ceylon appear, and routes are traced through the heart of India. Dr.
Vincent remarks, that it is a very singular circumstance that these tables
should have the same names in the coast of India as the Periplus, but
reversed. Mention is also made in them of a temple of Augustus or the Roman
emperor: these circumstances, Dr. Vincent justly observes, tend to prove
the continuance of the commerce by sea with India, from the time of
Claudius to Theodosius; a period of above 300 years. In these tables very
few of the countries are set down according to their real position, their
respective limits, or their actual size.
The law of the emperor Theodosius, by which he prohibited his subjects,
under pain of death, from teaching the art of ship-building to the
barbarians, was ineffectual in the attainment of the object which he had in
view; nor did any real service to the empire result from a fleet of 1100
large ships that he fitted out, to act in conjunction with the forces of
the western empire for the protection of Rome against Genseric, king of the
Vandals.
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