ts trade;
some who had travelled to it from distant countries to solicit the
imperial favour; some, like Paul, conveyed to it as prisoners; some
stimulated to visit it by curiosity; and some attracted to it by the
vague hope of bettering their condition. The city of the Caesars might
well be described as "sitting upon many waters;" [145:4] for, though
fourteen or fifteen miles from the mouth of the Tiber, the mistress of
the world was placed on a peninsula stretching out into the middle of a
great inland sea over which she reigned without a rival. In the summer
months almost every port of every country along the shores of the
Mediterranean sent forth vessels freighted with cargoes for the
merchants of Rome. [146:1] The fleet from Alexandria laden with wheat
for the supply of the city was treated with peculiar honour; for its
ships alone were permitted to hoist their topsails as they approached
the shore; a deputation of senators awaited its arrival; and, as soon as
it appeared, the whole surrounding population streamed to the pier, and
observed the day as a season of general jubilee. But an endless supply
of other articles in which the poor were less interested found their way
to Rome. The mines of Spain furnished the great capital with gold and
silver, whilst its sheep yielded wool of superior excellence; and, in
those times of Roman conquest, slaves were often transported from the
shores of Britain. The horses and chariots and fine linen of Egypt, the
gums and spices and silk and ivory and pearls of India, the Chian and
the Lesbian wines, and the beautiful marble of Greece and Asia Minor,
all met with purchasers in the mighty metropolis. [146:2] As John
surveyed in vision the fall of Rome, and as he thought of the almost
countless commodities which ministered to her insatiable luxury, well
might he represent the world's traffic as destroyed by the catastrophe;
and well might he speak of the merchants of the earth as weeping and
mourning over her, because "no man buyeth their merchandise any more."
[146:3]

Paul had often desired to prosecute his ministry in the imperial city;
for he knew that if Christianity could obtain a firm footing in that
great centre of civilisation and of power, its influence would soon be
transmitted to the ends of the earth: but he now appeared there under
circumstances equally painful and discouraging. And yet even in this
embarrassing position he was not overwhelmed with despondency. At
Pu