ercial facilities and
advantages, which they might have secured by their conquests. This was most
decidedly the case during the time of the republic. The statue of Victory,
which was erected in the port of Ostia, and the medals of the year of Rome
630, marked on the reverse with two ships and a victory, prove that at this
period the Roman fleets that sailed from this port were chiefly designed
for war. The prefects of the fleet were not employed, nor did they consider
it as their duty to attend to commerce, or to the merchant ships, except so
far as to protect them against the pirates. Of the low opinion entertained
by the Romans respecting commerce we have the direct testimony of Cicero:
writing to his son on the subject of professions, he reprobates and
condemns all retail trade as mean and sordid, which can be carried on
successfully only by means of lying. Even the merchant, unless he deals
very extensively, he views with contempt; if, however, he imports from
every quarter articles of great value and in great abundance, and sells
them in a fair and equitable manner, his profession is not much to be
contemned; especially if, after having made a fortune, he retires from
business, and spends the rest of his life in agricultural pursuits: in this
case, he deserves even positive praise. There is another passage of Cicero,
quoted by Dr. Vincent, in his Periplus, in which the same sentiments are
expressed: he says, "Is such a man, who was a merchant and neighbour of
Scipio, greater than Scipio because he is richer?" Pliny, also, though in
his natural history he expatiates in praise of agriculture and gardening,
medicine, painting and statuary, passes over merchandize with the simple
observation that it was invented by the Phoenicians. In the periplus of the
Erythrean sea, and in the works of Ptolemy, &c. the names of many merchants
and navigators occur; but they are all Greeks. Even after the conquest of
Egypt, which gave a more commercial character to the Roman manners, habits
and mode of thinking than they previously possessed, no Roman was permitted
to engage in the trade of that country.

Although, however, mercantile pursuits were thus underrated and despised by
the warlike portion of the nation, as well as by the philosophers, yet they
were followed by those who regarded gain as the principal object of life.
The wealth of merchants became proverbial: immense numbers of them followed
the armies, and fixed in the provin