[Footnote 101: Tacit. Germania, c. 45. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvii. 13. The
latter observed, with some humor, 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.]

[Footnote 102: Called Taprobana by the Romans, and Serindib by the
Arabs. It was discovered under the reign of Claudius, and gradually
became the principal mart of the East.]

[Footnote 103: Plin. Hist. Natur. l. vi. Strabo, l. xvii.]

[Footnote 104: Hist. August. p. 224. A silk garment was considered as an
ornament to a woman, but as a disgrace to a man.]

[Footnote 105: The two great pearl fisheries were the same as at
present, Ormuz 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. ii. p. 281.]

[Footnote 1051: Certainly not the only one. The Indians were not so
contented with regard to foreign productions. Arrian has a long list of
European wares, which they received in exchange for their own; Italian
and other wines, brass, tin, lead, coral, chrysolith, storax, glass,
dresses of one or many colors, zones, &c. See Periplus Maris Erythraei
in Hudson, Geogr. Min. i. p. 27.--W. The German translator observes that
Gibbon has confined the use of aromatics to religious worship and
funerals. His error seems the omission of other spices, of which the
Romans must have consumed great quantities in their cookery. Wenck,
however, admits that silver was the chief article of exchange.--M.
In 1787, a peasant (near Nellore in the Carnatic) struck, in digging,
on the remains of a Hindu temple; he found, also, a pot which contained
Roman coins and medals of the second century, mostly Trajans, Adrians,
and Faustinas, all of gold, many of them fresh and beautiful, others
defaced or perforated, as if they had been worn as ornaments. (Asiatic
Researches, ii. 19.)--M.]

[Footnote 106: Tacit. Annal. iii. 53. In a speech of Tiberius.]

[Footnote 107: Plin. Hist. Natur. xii. 18. In another place he computes
half that sum; Quingenties H. S. for India exclusive of Arabia.]

[Footnote 108: The proportion, which was 1 to 10, and 12 1/2, rose to
14 2/5, the legal regulation of Constantine. See Arbuthnot's Tables of
ancient Coins, c. 5.]

Notwithstanding the propensity of mankind to exalt the past, and to
dep