kept the secret of its provenance as the Carthaginians kept that of British tin.
Change in the course of trade.
Persian trade with India.
The trade which the Romans "opened" with India
by the way of the Red Sea, was conducted by them
with success for more than five centuries; but we learn
from Cosmas that, but a short time before his travels,
they had met with a new and powerful rival in the
Sassanian rulers of Persia, who, having overthrown
the Parthians, and restored the ancient faith and
monarchy of Persia, made early and vigorous efforts to
acquire a share in the lucrative commerce of India.
Following in the course of the early Phœnicians,
the Persians with their ships commenced anew
this eastern trade with India, and, in return for
the productions of their own country, received the
precious commodities of Hindustan, conveying them
up the Persian Gulf, and, by means of the rivers
Euphrates and Tigris, distributing them through
every province of their empire. Rome being then
in its decline, a powerful rival, such as Persia, could
hardly fail to injure, if not to entirely destroy, the
commerce the merchants of Alexandria had for
ages nurtured with so much care. Moreover, the
voyage from Persia to India, being much shorter,
and attended with fewer dangers, led to an increase
of the intercourse between the two countries, which
the Greek merchants of Alexandria vainly attempted
to resist. Even then, if Cosmas be trustworthy, few
Europeans visited the eastern part of India, but were
content to receive thence its silk, spices, and other
valuable productions, either by caravans or the
agency of native vessels.
About this period, China carried on the most prosperous trade of any of the nations of the East, both
