pensive for men, and was at first appropriated only to women of rank and opulence. Elagabalus was the first who disregarded this ancient and settled rule, and who made it the dress of men. It was for a long time obtained from China, and constituted an important item in the commerce that was carried on through Western Asia. Till the reign of Justinian the silk worms which feed on the white mulberry tree were confined to China: those of the pine, of the oak, and the ash were common in the forests of both Asia and Europe, but their culture was generally neglected, except in the little island of Ceos near to the coast of Attica. Virgil seems to have supposed that it was a soft wool that was combed from the leaves of trees-but whether produced on the leaves as a vegetable substance, like cotton, or spun by insects, and left there either in threads or in cocoons, it is impossible now to determine:

Velleraque ut foliis depectent tenuia Seres? Geor. ii. 121. The common opinion is, that he regarded it as a vegetable production. The opinion of Servius, however, is that it was the production of insects. Apud Indos et Seres sunt quidam in arboribus, vermes et bombyces appellantur, qui in aranearum morem tenuissima fila deducunt, unde est Sericum. The Jews affirm that silk was known in the time of Abraham, and that it constituted a part of the wealth of that patriarch. In Bereschit Rabbah, Parascha. xl. it is said, 'It happened when Abraham went down to Egypt, that the Egyptians saw him. But where was Sarah? She was secreted in a box. But when he came to the receipt of custom, they said to him, Pay tribute. He answered, I will pay tribute. They said to him, You carry garinents. He answered, I will give you of my garments. They said to him, You carry gold. He answered, I will pay it of my gold. They said to him, You carry raw-silk--he an swered, I will pay it of the silk. They said, You carry pearls ; he answered, I will pay it of the pearls. They said, This cannot be done; but open and show to us what you have in your box. But when he opened the box the whole land of Egypt was illuminated! As a specimen of trifling, this *Tacit. Annal. lib. ii. c. 33.

† Gibbon, iii. p. 33. Ed. N. Y. 1829. Ugolin. Thes. Sac. Ant. xii. 878.

An

is remarkable. As a tradition, it may have possibly a slight value.* Silk was conveyed to Europe by caravans. article so valuable and so light was capable of defraying the expenses of a land carriage; and caravans traversed the whole latitude of Asia with it. This journey, in the time of Justinian, occupied about two hundred and forty-three days from the Chinese Ocean to the sea-coast of Syria; but the traffic was conducted in substantially the same way from a much earlier period. Tyre was the natural seaport of this silk commerce, and the silk, after being colored at Tyre, and greatly enhanced in value, was then transmitted to Europe.+

Ivory, though a heavy article, also constituted a part of the commerce with the East. Thus Virgil says,

India mittit ebur. Georg. i. 57. Comp. Ezek. 27: 6, 15.

I shall refer to this again when I come to consider the commerce of Tyre.

I have said that the country which I am describing was favorably situated for commerce. It is so still. And had the government of that land been like our own; had the iron yoke of despotism never been laid on those countries; had the steam-boat been first launched on the Euphrates, the Nile, and the Red Sea instead of the Hudson, the Mississippi, and the great lakes of America; and had the iron road been first laid down there, no one can estimate the wealth and power of those regions now. Babylon was in the direct line from India to the countries of Europe. It commanded the fertile regions of Armenia, and the countries. adjacent to the Caspian Sea, and had a direct communication with the Indian Ocean. Tyre commanded the Mediterranean, and was the natural harbor for the traffic of the East, as it was borne up the Euphrates and across the desert through Palmyra to the West. Petra at one time, when that commerce passed through Arabia, rose to splendor and affluence from the same cause, and had similar advantages. The steam-boat, and the rail-road, there, under a different

*See Ugolin. Thesau. Sacra. Ant. Tom. xiii. 184, 185. † See Gibbon, vol. iii. 33-36; Vincent on the Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients, and the authorities referred to in Robertson's India, Note 24.

government, would regenerate that whole region, and renew the beauties of the Eden that was once planted there.

A few remarks-and they must be very few-on the places that were in fact most distinguished for commerce in Western Asia, will prepare the way for the contemplation of the changes which have since occurred there; and the causes of those changes.

Beginning at the East, Babylon, on the Euphrates, is the first city that attracts attention. I shall not describe its extent, its walls, its towers, its brazen gates, its gardens, its capture, its decline. It is only as a place of commerce that we are now concerned with it. It was in a most fertile region—at least it was so once. "Of all countries," says Herodotus, and this was after he had visited Egypt," of all countries which I have visited, this is by far the most fruitful in corn." (I. 193.) It was early the seat of extended manufactures, and of commerce. Tapestries, embroidered with figures of griffins, and other monsters of eastern imagination, were articles of export. Carpets, which the luxury of all Asiatic nations has always made necessary, were wrought there of the finest material and workmanship, and formed an extensive article of exportation. The tomb of Cyrus at Pasargada was adorned with them. Babylonian robes, esteemed for the fineness of their texture and the beauty of their purple, were a part of the dress of the royal family of Persia. The merchandise of the East we are told by Strabo and Herodotus passed through Babylon, and thence to Asia Minor. And situated as Babylon was, in the centre of a fertile region, and having easy access to the sea, and lying between India and Europe, it owed its greatness not less to its commercial advantages than to its conquests, and its being the capital of a great empire. The same

* In respect to Babylon as a place of commerce, and the articles which were manufactured there, as well as the nature and extent of its exports, I need do no more here than to refer the reader to a learned and very satisfactory article by F. M. Hubbard in the Biblical Repository, Vol. VII. pp. pp. 364-390. A careful perusal of that article would prepare the way better to appreciate the remarks which I propose to make in another part of this article on the present state of Babylon as a place of commerce.

was true of Seleucia, which succeeded it in importance as a city, and subsequently of Bagdad, the capital of the caliphs. It still was remote from human habitations, and in the midst of a wide waste of sands.* It was built on a beautiful oasis, and it was a convenient resting place for the weary caravan laden with the merchandise of the East. Solomon built it in his general purpose to secure that commerce, and it rose to be one of the most beautiful cities of the Oriental world. The name which Solomon gave to it was retained until it was conquered by Alexander, who changed its title to that of Palmyra-the city of palm trees. "This culti vated spot," says Gibbon, " rose on the barren desert like an island out of the ocean. The air was pure, and the soil, watered as it was by springs, was capable of high cultivation. A place of such singular advantages, situated between the Gulf of Persia and the Mediterranean, was soon frequented by the caravans which conveyed to the nations of Europe the rich productions of the East. It rose to an independent and opulent city, and connecting the Roman and Parthian monarchies by the mutual benefits of commerce, was suffered to observe an honorable neutrality, till at length, after the victories of Trajan, the little republic sunk into the bosom of Rome, and flourished more than a hundred and fifty years in the subordinate, though honorable rank of a colony. It was during that peaceful period that the Palmyrenians constructed those temples, palaces and porticoes of Grecian architecture, whose ruins, scattered over an extent of many miles, have excited so much the curiosity of travellers."-The reader of history will at once remember that this city was the residence of the celebrated queen Zenobia, who so long resisted the arms of Aurelian, and who evinced so much skill in government and so much power in her armies, as for a long time to turn back the tide of war that was sweeping every thing before it. Here too, protected

* It was situated, according to Pliny, (Nat. Hist. v. 21,) five hundred and thirty-seven miles from Seleucia, and two hundred and three from the nearest coast of Syria. According to Dr. Robertson, however, the distance from Palmyra to the Euphrates was eighty-five miles, and from the Mediterranean was one hundred and seventeen. Disqui. on India, p. 22. † Decline and Fall, I. 173.

SECOND SERIES, VOL. IV. NO. II.

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by her, yet finally betrayed by her, Longinus lived, and was condemned by the fierce and unlettered conqueror Aurelian to death. Gibbon, I. 173, 174.

That the city so celebrated as Palmyra was the ancient Tadmor built by Solomon, there can be no doubt. The erection of such a city, so remote from Palestine, and for the purposes of commerce, is one of the most remarkable events in Jewish history, and is a striking illustration of the advantages which it was supposed would result from securing the commerce of the East. (2 Chron. viii. 4.) Major Rennel, in his work on the Comparative Geography of Western Asia,' has entered into an elaborate investigation in order to determine the geographical site of Palmyra. According to him, it is in N. Lat. 34° 24', and E. Long. 38° 20', being 90 geographical miles to the north of the Euphrates, and 109 miles E. by N. from Baalbec. It is situated on a small oasis in the midst of a vast desert of sand, where there are no other than Arabian footsteps. The spot where Palmyra stands enjoys the advantage of a good supply of wholesome water. Its site is not however to be understood as quite open to the desert in every direction. To the north and north-west there are hills, through which a narrow valley about two miles in length leads to the city. On each side of this valley occur what seem to have been the sepulchres of the ancient inhabitants. They are marked by square towers, and are found to contain mummies like the tombs of Egypt. The site on which the city stands is slightly elevated above the surrounding desert for a compass of about ten miles; which the Arabs believe to coincide with the extent of the ancient city, as they find ancient remains wherever they dig for that purpose.

Palmyra had no natural advantages as a city except what it derived from commerce. It had no self-sustaining power. It was wholly dependent on the traffic that was carried on between Asia and Europe. Yet it was not merely a thoroughfare, or a resting place; it became an emporium-a city of merchants. The caravans of the East were undoubtedly directed to Tyre; and Hiram, the Prince of Tyre, might easily persuade Solomon of the advantage which would accrue to him if there were a fortified city on his frontier for the protection of his own kingdom, and for the safeguard of the caravans across the desert.-Palmyra soon became