however, was gradually vanquished, and there is some reason to believe that the vineyards of Burgundy are as old as the age of the Antonines.* 3. The olive, in the western world, followed the progress of peace, of which it was considered as the symbol. Two centuries after the foundation of Rome, both Italy and Africa were strangers to that useful plant; it was naturalized in those countries; and at length carried into the heart of Spain and Gaul. The timid errors of the ancients, that it required a certain degree of heat, and could only flourish in the neighbourhood of the sea, were insensibly exploded by industry and experience.† 4. The cultivation of flax was transported from Egypt to Gaul, and enriched the whole country, however it might impoverish the particular lands on which it was sown. 5. The use of artificial grasses became familiar to the farmers both of Italy and the provinces, particularly the Lucerne, which derived intense cold of a Gallic winter was almost proverbial among the ancients. [Strabo says no more than that grapes did not there ripen readily (ἡ ἄμπελος οὐ ῥᾳδίως τελεσφορεῖ). Attempts had been made in the time of Augustus to introduce vines into northern Gaul, but the climate was found too severe. Diodorus Siculus (ed. Rhodoman. p. 304,) who was Strabo's contemporary, says that Gaul was a very cold country. The cutting down of forests, draining of fens, improvement of the soil by warm manures, and other useful undertakings, have created for Gaul as well as Germany a milder climate, more favourable for bringing fruits to maturity. The same causes are even now producing the same effects in America, wherever lands are brought into cultivation. The later Romans began to be aware of the change that was in progress, but ascribed it to an altered position of the earth, predicted by the astronomer Hipparchus. (Columella, lib. i. c. 1.-WENCK.] * In the beginning of the fourth century, the orator Eumenius (Panegyric. Veter. 8, 6, edit. Delphin.) speaks of the vines in the territory of Autun, which were decayed through age, and the first plantation of which was totally unknown. The Pagus Arebrignus is supposed by M. d'Anville to be the district of Beaune, celebrated, even at present, for one of the first growths of Burgundy. [At a much earlier period, in the seventy-seventh year of our era, Pliny the Elder (Hist. Nat. 1. 14, c. 3) mentioned a vine (vitis picata, vinum picatum, now called raisin de lirre, vin de violette) which was the natural produce of the district of Vienne, and had been recently transplanted into the country of the Arverni (Auvergne), of the Helvii (le Vivarais, in Languedoc), and of the Sequani. As Pliny said this of a scarce vine which he was then describing, we may infer the same of more common sorts. The land of the Sequani was the present county of Burgundy, and bordered on the duchy of the same name. In the twelfth chapter more will be said on the progress of the vine cultivation France. WENCK.] Plin. Hist. Ñatur. 1. 15. Ibid. 1. 19

its name and origin from Media.* The assured supply of wholesome and plentiful food for the cattle during winter, multiplied the number of the flocks and herds, which, in their turn, contributed to the fertility of the soil. To all these improvements may be added, an assiduous attention to mines and fisheries, which, by employing a multitude of laborious hands, serve to increase the pleasures of the rich, and the subsistence of the poor. The elegant treatise of Columella describes the advanced state of the Spanish husbandry, under the reign of Tiberius; and it may be observed, that those famines, which so frequently afflicted the infant republic, were seldom or never experienced by the extensive empire of Rome. The accidental scarcity, in any single province, was immediately relieved by the plenty of its more fortunate neighbours.

Agriculture is the foundation of manufactures, since the productions of nature are the materials of art. Under the Roman empire, the labour of an industrious and ingenious people was variously but incessantly employed in the service of the rich. In their dress, their table, their houses, and their furniture, the favourites of fortune united every refinement of conveniency, of elegance, and of splendour, whatever could soothe their pride, or gratify their sensuality. Such refinements, under the odious name of luxury, have been severely arraigned by the moralists of every age; and it might, perhaps, be more conducive to the virtue, as well as happiness, of mankind, if all possessed the necessaries, and none the superfluities of life. But in the present imperfect condition of society, luxury, though it may proceed from vice or folly, seems to be the only means that can correct the unequal distribution of property. The diligent mechanic, and the skilful artist, who have obtained no share in the division of the earth, receive a voluntary tax from the possessors of land; and the latter are prompted, by a sense of interest, to improve those estates, with whose produce they may purchase additional pleasures. This operation,

* See the agreeable Essays on Agriculture, by Mr. Harte, in which he has collected all that the ancients and moderns have said of Lucerne. + Metals and stones, though "productions of nature," are "materials of art," not furnished by agriculture. But in Gibbon's time, they, did not enter so largely as at present into the foundation of manufactures."-ED.]

the particular effects of which are felt in every society, acted with much more diffusive energy in the Roman world. The provinces would soon have been exhausted of their wealth, if the manufactures and commerce of luxury had not insensibly restored to the industrious subjects the sums which were exacted from them by the arms and authority of Rome. As long as the circulation was confined within the bounds of the empire, it impressed the political machine with a new degree of activity, and its consequences, sometimes beneficial, could never become pernicious.

But it is no easy task to confine luxury within the limits of an empire. The most remote countries of the ancient world were ransacked to supply the pomp and delicacy of Rome. The forest of Scythia afforded some valuable furs. Amber was brought overland from the shores of the Baltic to the Danube; and the barbarians were astonished at the price which they received in exchange for so useless a commodity.* * There was a considerable demand for Babylonian carpets and other manufactures of the east; but the most important and unpopular branch of foreign trade was carried on with Arabia and India. Every year, about the time of the summer solstice, a fleet of a hundred and twenty vessels sailed from Myos-hormos, a port of Egypt on the Red Sea. By the periodical assistance of the monsoons, they traversed the ocean in about forty days. The coast of Malabar, or the island of Ceylon,t was the usual term of their navigation, and it was in those markets that the merchants from the more remote countries of Asia expected their arrival. The return of the fleet of Egypt was fixed to the months of December or January; and as soon as their rich cargo had been transported, on the backs of camels, from the Red Sea to the Nile, and had descended that river as far as Alexandria, it was poured without delay into the capital of the empire. The objects of oriental traffic were splendid and trifling: silk, a pound of which was esteemed

*Tacit. Germania, c. 45. Plin. Hist. Natur. 37, 13. The latter observed, with some humour, that even fashion had not yet found out the use of amber. Nero sent a Roman knight to purchase great quantities on the spot where it was produced-the coast of modern Prussia. + Called Taprobana by the Romans, and Serendib by the Arabs. It was discovered under the reign of Claudius, and gradually became the principal mart of the east. Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. 6. Strabo, 1. 17.

not inferior in value to a pound of gold;* precious stones, among which the pearl claimed the first rank after the diamond; and a variety of aromatics, that were consumed in religious worship and the pomp of funerals. The labour and risk of the voyage were rewarded with almost incredible profit; but the profit was made upon Roman subjects, and a few individuals were enriched at the expense of the public. As the natives of Arabia and India were contented with the productions and manufactures of their own country, silver, on the side of the Romans, was the principal, if not the only, instrument of commerce. It was a

complaint worthy of the gravity of the senate, that in the purchase of female ornaments the wealth of the State was irrecoverably given away to foreign and hostile nations.§ The annual loss is computed, by a writer of an inquisitive but censorious temper, at upwards of 800,000l. sterling. Such was the style of discontent, brooding over the dark prospect of approaching poverty. And yet if we

* Hist. August. p. 224. A silk garment was considered as an ornament to a woman, but as a disgrace to a man. + The two great pearl fisheries were the same as at present-Ormus and Cape Comorin. As well as we can compare ancient with modern geography, Rome was supplied with diamonds from the mine of Jumelpur, in Bengal, which is described in the Voyages de Tavernier, tom. 2, p. 281. [Silver was certainly not the only instrument of this commerce. The Indians were not altogether indifferent to the wares of Europe. Arrian enumerates those which they received in exchange for their own, and among them the wines of Italy, copper, lead, tin, coral, chrysolite, storax, glass, articles of dress, &c. (See the Periplus of the Erythrean sea, in Hudson's Geogr. minor, vol. i. p. 27, and following.) No inconsiderable profit was also made by the exchange of Indian money for Roman denarii. But as all these were not sufficient to pay for the costly wares of the east, a large proportion of silver was added, even as at the present day the same is still the case. Why did Gibbon restrict the consumption of Indian aromatics to "religious worship and the pomp of funerals?" When the subjugation of Egypt to Roman power was completed, Augustus made excellent fiscal arrangements for deriving advantage from Oriental commerce. The merchants of Alexandria at that time were the carriers of East India commodities to the port of Puteoli for the use of the Romans. After the reign of Claudius, the latter took a more immediate and active part in this traffic. (See Eichhorn's History of the East Indian Trade, before the time of Mahomet, 8vo. Gotha, 1775, p. 39 and following.)-WENCK.]

§ Tacit. Annal. 3, 53. In a speech of Tiberius. Plin. Hist. Natur. 12, 18. In another place he computes half that sum; Quingerties H. S. for India, exclusive of Arabia.

compare the proportion between gold and silver as it stood in the time of Pliny, and as it was fixed in the reign of Constantine, we shall discover within that period a very considerable increase.* There is not the least reason to suppose that gold was become more scarce; it is therefore evident that silver was grown more common; that whatever might be the amount of the Indian and Arabian exports, they were far from exhausting the wealth of the Roman world; and that the produce of the mines abundantly supplied the demands of commerce.

Notwithstanding the propensity of mankind to exalt the past, and to depreciate the present, the tranquil and prosperous state of the empire was warmly felt, and honestly confessed, by the provincials as well as Romans. "They acknowledged that the true principles of social life, laws, agriculture, and science, which had been first invented by the wisdom of Athens, were now firmly established by the power of Rome, under whose auspicious influence the fiercest barbarians were united by an equal government and common language. They affirm, that with the improvement of arts, the human species was visibly multiplied. They celebrate the increasing splendour of the cities, the beautiful face of the country, cultivated and adorned like an immense garden; and the long festival of peace, which was enjoyed by so many nations, forgetful of their ancient animosities, and delivered from the apprehension of future danger."+ Whatever suspicions may be suggested by the air of rhetoric and declamation, which seems to prevail in these passages, the substance of them is perfectly agreeable to historic truth.

It was scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption. This long peace, and the uniform. government of the Romans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated. The natives of Europe were brave and robust. Spain, Gaul,

* The proportion, which was one to ten, and twelve and a half, rose to fourteen and two-fifths, the legal regulation of Constantine. See Arbuthnot's Tables of Ancient Coins, c. 5. Among many other passages, see Pliny (Hist. Natur. 3, 5). Aristides (de Urbe Româ), and Tertullian (de Animâ, c. 30).