of the Phaſis, was the uſual centre and reſort of the domeſtic trade of the country. But the emporium of the Indian trade was, according to Strabo, a city, called Phaſis, ſituated on the river of the ſame name.
From the Phaſis, Strabo tells us, that it was but two or three[1] days ſail to Amiſus, or to Sinope, from both of which cities the Eaſt Indian goods were diſperſed[2] over Europe and Aſia Minor; and this trade contributed, no doubt, to the aggrandizement[3] of both thoſe cities.
Hippocrates[4] obſerves, that the country adjacent to the Phaſis was, in his time, interſected with canals, which the inhabitants uſed for the purpoſes of inland navigation. He alſo ſpeaks of emporia in that country, but whether for the domeſtic produce, or for foreign commodities, does not appear: the commodities imported were, I preſume, much the ſame as what the Europan nations now receive from the Eaſt Indies. Cotton manufactures[5], pearls[6],
- ↑ Strab. lib. xi. p. 498.
- ↑ Strabo ſpeaks of the communication of Amifus and Sinope with Colchis, Hyreania, Bactria, and the parts lyingtowwda the Eaſt. Lib. xi. p. 68.
- ↑ Sinope is called magna et opima by Valerius Flaccus. Argon. lib. v. veril 108, 109.
- ↑ De mere, aquis, et locis.
- ↑ Cotton is mentioned by Hemdotus, as an Indian production, and uſed in the manufacture of cloth. Strabo relates, on the authority of Nearchus, that it was woven into the fineſt and beſt conſtructed cloths, which, Pliny ſays, were of very high price. They are repeatedly mentioned in, Arrian's Voyage of Nearchus. Herodot. lib. iii. Stub. lib. xv. p. 694. Plin. lib. xii. c. 10. Arrian, Rer. Ind. p. 179. et alibi.
- ↑ Pliny and Strabo both ſpeak of the Indian pearls, as the fineſt. Fertiliſſima eſt Tapmbane, et Toidis, item Perimula promontorium Indiæ. Plin. lib. ix. c. 35. lib. vic. 22. Strab. p. 717. Eliſa. Hiſt. Anim, lib. xv. c. 8. Hill's Theophmitus, p. 92.
and
