When We Consider That This
Immense Sum Was Accumulated By Only Two Of The Ptolemies, Ptolemy Soter And
Ptolemy Philadelphus,
And that the latter maintained two great fleets, one
in the Mediterranean, and the other in the Red Sea, besides
An army of
200,000 foot, and 40,000 horse; and that he had 300 elephants, 2000 armed
chariots, and an armoury at Alexandria, stocked with 300,000 complete suits
of armour, and all other necessary weapons and implements of war, - we shall
form some idea of the extent and fruitfulness of Egyptian commerce, from
which the whole, or nearly the whole, of this immense wealth must have been
derived.
Having thus brought our historical sketch of the progress of discovery and
commercial enterprize among the Egyptians down to the period of the
conquest of Egypt by the Romans, we shall, in the next place, revert to the
Romans themselves, in whom, at the date of their conquest of this country,
the geographical knowledge and the commerce of the whole world may justly
be said to have centered. As, however, we have hitherto only adverted to
the Romans, in our account of the discoveries and commerce of the
Carthaginians, it will be proper to notice them in a much more detailed and
particular manner. We shall, therefore, trace, their geographical
knowledge, their discoveries and their commerce, from the foundation of
Rome, to the period of their conquest of Egypt; and in the course of this
investigation, we shall give a sketch of the commerce of those countries
which successively fell under their dominion - omitting such as we have
already noticed: by this plan, we shall be enabled to trace the commerce of
all the known world at that time, down to the period when Rome absorbed the
whole.
The account which Polybius gives, that before the first Carthaginian war
the Romans were entirely ignorant of, and inattentive to sea affairs - if by
this statement he means to assert that they were unacquainted with maritime
commerce, as well as maritime warfare, is expressly contradicted by the
treaties between Rome and Carthage, which we have already given in our
account of the commerce of Carthage. The first of those treaties was made
250 years before the first Punic war; and the second, about fifty years
before it. Besides, it is not probable that the Romans should have been
entirely ignorant of, and inattentive to maritime commerce for so long a
period; since several nations of Italy, with which they were at first
connected, and which they afterwards conquered, were very conversant in
this commerce, and derived great consideration, power, and wealth from it.
The Romans had conquered Etruria, and made themselves masters of the Tuscan
powers both by sea and land, before the commencement of the first Punic
war; and though at this period, the Tuscans were not so celebrated for
their commerce as they had been, yet the shipping and commerce they did
possess, must have fallen into the power of the Romans; and we can scarcely
suppose that these, together with the facilities which the Tuscans enjoyed
for commerce, by means of their ports, and their skill and commercial
habits and connections, would be entirely neglected by their conquerors.
Besides, there are several old Roman coins, by some supposed to have been
as old as the time of the kings, and certainly prior to the first Punic
war, on the reverses of which different parts of ships are visible. Now, as
the Roman historians are diffuse in the accounts they give of the wars of
the Romans, but take no notice of their commercial transactions, we may
safely conclude, from their not mentioning any maritime wars, or
expeditions of a date so early as these coins, that the ships at that
period preserved by the Romans, and deemed of such consequence as to be
struck on their coins, were employed for the purposes of commerce.
The Tuscans and the Grecian colonies in the south of Italy, certainly had
made great progress in commerce at an early period; and as, - if their
example did not stimulate the Romans to enterprises of the same kind, - the
Romans, at least when they conquered them, became possessed of the commerce
which they then enjoyed, it will be proper to take a brief view of it.
If we may credit the ancient historians, the Etrurians or Tyrrhenians, even
before the reign of Minos, had been for a long time masters of the greatest
part of the Mediterranean Sea, and had given their name to the Tyrrhenian
Sea, upon which they were situate. Piracy, as well as commerce, was
followed by them; and they became at last so expert, successful, and
dangerous, for their piracies, that they were attacked, and their maritime
power greatly abridged, by the Carthaginians and the Sicilians. Their most
famous port was Luna, which was situated on the Macra, a river which,
flowing from the Apennines, divided Liguria from Etruria, and fell into the
Tyrrhenian Sea. There seems good reason to believe that Luna was a place of
great trade before the Trojan war; it was extremely capacious, and in every
respect worthy of the commercial enterprise and wealth of the Tuscans.
Populonium, a city which was situate on a high promontory of the same name,
that ran a considerable way into the sea, also possessed a very commodious
harbour, capable of receiving a great number of ships. It had an arsenal
well supplied with all kinds of naval stores, and a quay for shipping or
landing merchandize. One of the principal articles of export consisted in
copper vessels, and in arms, machines, utensils, &c. of iron: these metals
were at first supplied to the inhabitants from the island of AEthalia (now
Elba); but the copper-mines there failing, iron alone, from the same
island, was imported for the purpose of their various manufactures; the
trade in these flourished in very remote times, and continued in the days
of Aristotle and Strabo.
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