talus, and Mithridates were
enriched by their commerce. Herodotus mentions, that the trade of the
Euxine was conducted by interpreters of seven different languages. In the
time of Mithridates, 300 different nations, or tribes, met for commercial
purposes at Dioscurias in Colchis; and soon after the Romans conquered the
countries lying on the Euxine, there were 130 interpreters of languages
employed in this and the other trading towns. The Romans, however, as soon
as they became jealous, or afraid, of the power of the Parthians, would not
suffer them, or any other of the northern nations, to traffic by the
Euxine; but endeavoured, as far as they could, to confine the commerce of
the East to Alexandria: the consequence was, that even so early as the age
of Pliny, Dioscurias was deserted.

The only article of import into Rome that remains to be considered is silk:
the history of the knowledge and importation of this article among the
ancients, and the route by which it was obtained, will comprise all that it
will be necessary to say on this subject.

The knowledge of silk was first brought into Europe through the conquests
of Alexander the Great. Strabo quotes a passage from Nearchus, in which it
is mentioned, but apparently confounded, with cotton. It is well known that
Aristotle obtained a full and accurate account of all the discoveries in
natural history which were made during the conquests of Alexander, and he
gives a particular description of the silk worm; so particular, indeed,
that it is surprising how the ancients could, for nearly 600 years after
his death, be ignorant of the nature and origin of silk. He describes the
silk worm as a horned worm, which he calls bombyx, which passes through
several transformations, and produces bombytria. It does not appear,
however, that he was acquainted either with the native country of this
[work->worm], or with such a people as the Seres; and this is the only
reason for believing that he may allude entirely to a kind of silk made at
Cos, especially as he adds, that some women in this island decomposed the
bombytria, and re-wove and re-spun it. Pliny also mentions the bombyx, and
describes it as a natiye of Assyria; he adds, that the Assyrians made
bombytria from it, and that the inhabitants of Cos learnt the manufacture
from them. The most propable supposition is, that silk was spun and wove in
Assyria and Cos, but the raw material imported into these countries from
the Sere