This Is Evident, By The Well Known Fact, Of One Of Their Vessels
Endeavouring To Follow The Course Of A Phoenician Or Carthaginian Vessel,
In Her Voyage To Britain.
The Greeks of Marseilles, according to Polybius,
first followed, successfully, the course of the Phoenicians, and, about 200
years before Christ, began to share with them in the tin trade.
Whether, at
this period, they procured it exclusively by direct trade with Britain, is
not known; but afterwards, as we have already mentioned, Marseilles became
one of the principal depots for this metal, which was conveyed to it
through Gaul, and exported thence by sea.
If we may believe Strabo, the Romans had visited Britain before it was
invaded by Caesar, as he expressly mentions that Publius Crassus made a
voyage thither: if he means P. Crassus the younger, he was one of Caesar's
lieutenants in Gaul; and, as he was stationed in the district of the Vanni,
it is not improbable that he passed from thence into Britain; or he may
have been sent by Caesar, at the same time that Volusenus was sent, and for
the same purpose.
However this may be, there was no regular intercourse between Britain and
Rome till some time after Caesar's invasion; in the time of Tiberius,
however, and probably earlier, the commerce of Britain was considerable.
Strabo, who died at the beginning of that emperor's reign, informs us, that
corn, cattle, gold, silver, tin, lead, hides, and dogs, were the
commodities furnished by the Britons. The tin and lead, he adds, came from
the Cassiterides. According to Camden, 800 vessels, laden with corn, were
freighted annually to the continent; but this assertion rests on very
doubtful authority, and cannot be credited if it applies to Britain, even
very long after the Roman conquest. Though Strabo expressly mentions gold
and silver among the exports, yet Caesar takes notice of neither; and
Cicero, in his epistles, writing to his friend, respecting Britain, states,
on the authority of his brother, who was there, that there were neither of
these metals in the island. The dogs of Britain formed a very considerable
and valuable article of export; they seem to have been known at Rome even
before Caesar's expedition: the Romans employed them in hunting, and the
Gauls in hunting and in their wars: they were of different species. Bears
were also exported for the amphitheatres; but their exportation was not
frequent till after the age of Augustus. Bridle ornaments, chains, amber,
and glass ware, are enumerated by Strabo among the exports from Britain;
but, according to other authors, they were imported into it. Baskets, toys
made of bone, and oysters, were certainly among the exports; and, according
to Solinus, gagates, or jet, of which Britain supplied a great deal of the
best kind. Chalk was also, according to Martial, an article of export:
there seems to have been British merchants whose sole employment was the
exportation of this commodity, as appears by an ancient inscription found
in Zealand, and quoted by Whitaker, in his history of Manchester. 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.
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