itania.

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. From this period, it never revived, or became a place of
the least importance or trade.

On the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, the commercial commu