Sugar, Also, But Of A Quality Inferior To That Of India, Was Imported From
Arabia, Through Alexandria, Into Rome.
The Indian sugar, which is expressly
mentioned by Pliny, as better and higher priced, was brought to Rome, but
By what route is not exactly known, probably by means of the merchants who
traded to the east coast of Africa; where the Arabians either found it, or
imported it from India. In the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, and likewise
in the rescript of the Roman emperors, relative to the articles imported
into Egypt from the East, which was promulgated by Marcus Aurelius and his
son Commodus, about the year A.D. 176, it is denominated cane-honey,
otherwise called sugar (sacchar). So early, therefore, as the Periplus
(about the year A.D. 73,) the name of sacchar was known to the Romans, and
applied by them to sugar. This word does not occur in any earlier author,
unless Dioscorides lived before that period, which is uncertain. It may be
remarked, that the nature, as well as the proper appellation of sugar, must
have been but imperfectly, and not generally known, even at the time of the
rescript, otherwise the explanatory phrase, honey made from cane, would not
have been employed.
The first information respecting sugar was brought to Europe by Nearchus,
the admiral of Alexander. In a passage quoted from his journal by Strabo,
it is described as honey made from reeds, there being no bees in that part
of India. In a fragment of Theophrastus, preserved by Photius, he mentions,
among other kinds of honey, one that is found in reeds. The first mention
of any preparation, by which the juice of the reed was thickened, occurs in
Eratosthenes, as quoted by Strabo, where he describes roots of large reeds
found in India, which were sweet to the taste, both when raw and boiled.
Dioscorides and Pliny describe it as used chiefly, if not entirely, for
medical purposes. In the time of Galen, A.D. 131, it would appear to have
become more common and cheaper at Rome; for he classes it with medicines
that may be easily procured. It seems probable, that though the Arabians
undoubtedly cultivated the sugar-cane, and supplied Rome with sugar from
it, yet they derived their knowledge of it from India; for the Arabic name,
shuker, which was adopted by the Greeks and Romans, is formed from the two
middle syllables of the Sanskrit word, ich-shu-casa.
But to return from this digression to the view of the imports into Rome:
Ethiopia supplied the capital with cinnamon of an inferior quality; marble,
gems, ivory; the horns of the rhinoceros and tortoiseshell. The last
article was in great demand, and brought a high price: it was used for
ornament, for furniture; as beds, tables, doors, &c.; not only in Italy,
but in Greece and Egypt: the finest sort was sold for its weight of silver.
It was imported not only from Ethiopia but also from the east coast of
Africa, and reached Rome even from Malabar and Malacca. The opsian stone
mentioned in the Periplus, and the opsidian stone described by Pliny, are
stated in both these authors to have come from Ethiopia; but whether they
were the same, and their exact nature, are not known. The opsian is
described as capable of receiving a high polish, and on that account as
having been used by the Emperor Domitian to face a portico. Pliny describes
it as employed to line rooms in the same manner as mirrors; he
distinguishes it from a spurious kind, which was red, but not transparent.
The dye extracted from the purple shell fish was imported into Rome from
Getulia, a country on the south side of Mauritania.
Rome was supplied with the commodities of India chiefly from Egypt; but
there were other routes by which also they reached the capital: of these it
will be proper to take some notice.
The most ancient communication between India and the countries on the
Mediterranean was by the Persian Gulf, through Mesopotamia, to the coasts
of Syria and Palestine. To facilitate the commerce which was carried on by
this route, Solomon is supposed to have built Tadmor in the wilderness, or
Palmyra: the situation of this place, which, though in the midst of barren
sands, is plentifully supplied with water, and has immediately round it a
fertile soil, was peculiarly favorable; as it was only 85 miles from the
Euphrates, and about 117 from the nearest part of the Mediterranean. By
this route the most valuable commodities of India, most of which were of
such small bulk as to beat the expence of a long land carriage, were
conveyed. From the age of Nebuchadnezzar to the Macedonian conquest,
Tiredon on the Euphrates was the city at which this commercial route began,
and which the Babylonians made use of, as the channel of their oriental
trade. After the destruction of Tyre by that monarch, a great part of the
traffic which had passed by Arabia, or the Red Sea, through Idumea and
Egypt, and that city, was diverted to the Persian Gulf, and through his
territories in Mesopotamia it passed by Palmyra and Damascus, through Syria
to the west. After the reduction of Babylon by Cyrus, the Persians, who
paid no attention to commerce, suffered Babylon and Ninevah to sink into
ruin; but Palmyra still remained, and flourished as a commercial city.
Under the Seleucidae it seems to have reached its highest degree of
importance, splendour, and wealth; principally by supplying the Syrians
with Indian commodities. For upwards of two centuries after the conquest of
Syria by the Romans it remained free, and its friendship and alliance were
courted both by them and the Parthians. During this period we have the
express testimony of Appian, that it traded with both these nations, and
that Rome and the other parts of the empire received the commodities of
India from it. In the year A.D. 273, it was reduced and destroyed by
Aurelian, who found in it an immense treasure of gold, silver, silk, and
precious stones.
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