Sanscrit from the Greek, as thatega for orparrós, dramma for opay, as at a later period dînâri for the Latin denarius. The art of coining money was first learned from the Greeks, and was subsequently maintained in slavish imitation of the models they had furnished. Wilson thinks that the Hindu drama is independent of the Greek; but Weber is of the opinion that the former may not improbably have originated in imitation of the Greek scenic exhibitions, since the oldest of them are later than this period of which we are now treating, and belong for the most part to Ozene in the west of the country, the part consequently which was most liable to be affected by Greek manners, and the stage-curtain is called Yavanika, i. e. Grecian.

The influence of Greek architecture is traceable in the northwest of India. The Hindus also derived from the Greeks their knowledge of the seven planets, the first allusion to which is found in seven points on the coins of the Indian satraps in Guzerat. Their employment to designate the days of the week, which was original in Egypt, and spread thence to other lands, belongs to the next period, a different division of time based on the light and the dark half of the month having prevailed previously.

This brings us to the third and last division of our subject, the period of commercial intercourse under the Roman empire. This trade was carried on over various routes. The least considerable portion coasted along the Persian Gulf, passed up the Euphrates and so overland to the Mediterranean. But as the mouth of the Euphrates was held by the hostile Parthians, the principal overland traffic was forced to pursue a more circuitous route farther to the east and north. The point of departure was Minnegara, the modern Ahmedpur on the Indus; thence it followed the great road still frequented through Cabulistan into Bactria. Here three roads diverged. One led across the Belurtag mountains to Central Asia, East Turkistan, the desert of Gobi, and Thibet, and was the avenue of trade with the seres. inhabiting this region. A second took the direction of Herat and the Parthian capital, Hecatanpylon, thence to Ecbatana in Media and through the passes of Mount Zagros to Kalah on the Tigris, and into Asia Minor. The third passed down the Oxus to the Caspian Sea, where the goods were shipped across and

then forwarded to the Black Sea, and so brought down to the Mediterranean.

The disastrous defeat of Crassus by the Parthians, B. C. 53, and the frequent hostilities that followed in that quarter, greatly obstructed, if they did not absolutely prevent all traffic by way of the Euphrates. The route by the Oxus and the Caspian had been open since the death of Mithridates the Great, B. C. 63, but it was tedious and difficult. The reduction of Egypt to the condition of a Roman province, B. C. 30, opened the most direct as well as the most practicable route of all, viz., that by the Red Sea; the advantages of which were much increased by Hippalus' discovery of the S. W. monsoon. Alexandria now at length justified the expectations of its illustrious founder and speedily rose to great consequence, as the centre or entrepot of a trade which was constantly growing with the increasing wealth and luxury of Rome.

According to Strabo one hundred and twenty ships were engaged in the trade with India and the number was subsequently greatly increased. They left Egypt commonly about the middle of July. Thirty days brought them to the ports at the mouth of the Red Sea, whence they sailed in three different directions to Pattalene at the mouth of the Indus, to Barygaza on the Gulf of Cambay, which had the most considerable trade of all the Indian cities, or to Muziris, and other emporia in the southern part of the peninsula. In the latter half of December or the first of January, they set out on their return from the Malabar coast, that they might take advantage of the N. E. monsoon, thus completing their circuit within the year. Cohorts of archers accompanied them for their protection against the pirates which infested those seas.

Pliny states that the annual sum expended in the trade to India was never less than fifty million sesterces, or about two million dollars, and the wares thence obtained were valued at one hundred times that amount. The articles imported by the Romans were Indian iron, which was prized as of a superior quality, and a great variety of precious stones, including the diamond, the art of reducing which to dust for the purposes of the lapidary, Pliny thought to be one of the most wonderful results achieved by human ingenuity. The opal and pearl (mar

garita,) betray their Indian origin by their Sanscrit names. To the above are to be added ebony, teak-wood, a species of oil, rice, sugar, several kinds of drugs, spices, as cloves, cinnamon, cassia, ginger, and pepper; the two last are Sanscrit names, pepper, also being entitled yavana-priya, dear to the Greeks, where Greek is used with the same latitude that Frank now is in the Levant; also colours, as indigo, a name which points to India, lac, and the vegetable cinnabar; perfumes, as myrrh, spikenard and aloe wood, ivory, tortoise shell, wool, seric skins, so called because obtained from Central Asia, though the species of animal is unknown, the celebrated myrrhine vases, the material of which was so costly that a piece only large enough to make three cups of a pint each, cost from $1500 to $3000. Lions, leopards, and panthers were brought for the circus, but not elephants, which were obtained from Mauritania. Roses also were imported for garlands and bouquets. And last, though not least in this enumeration of commodities, are cotton and silk.

The ambiguity of the terms employed by classic writers often makes it doubtful whether they are referring specifically to cotton, or to some other similar material. It can scarcely be questioned, however, that cotton garments, are intended by Herodotus, when he speaks of the Persians, as wearing ovdove, a word which some derive from Sindh or the Indus, and others refer to a Semitic origin. The book of Esther (i. 6,) in describing the rich tapestry in the palace of the Persian monarch Ahasuerus or Xerxes, makes use of the Indian name which was subsequently borrowed by the Greeks and Romans. The cotton plant is spoken of on two small islands in the Persian Gulf; but it is doubtful whether it was cultivated in Upper Egypt as early as the time of Pliny. So that beyond question India was at that period the chief source of supply to the Roman world.

Seres and Serica, whence silk was brought, are not proper names of the people and the country, but designations given to them from their staple article of merchandise. They mean strictly silk-men and the silk-region, the words being traced back to sir, in Mongolian and the language of Corea, or with the final or omitted in Chinese, sse or szu, a silk-worm. The culture of silk was first introduced into the Byzantine empire

by Justinian in the fifth century, prior to which time India was the principal mart of the silk trade; the overland route to Central Asia being obstructed by frequent wars. From Aristotle it appears that he had no accurate knowledge of the silk-worm, and that few women at that time used silk, although cocoons (the word is Sanscrit) were even then brought to Greece. Under the Roman emperors the use of silk largely increased, although the knowledge of its origin did not keep pace with the employment of the material, for Virgil and Pliny both speak of it as combed from the leaves of trees. A pound of silk in the reign of Aurelian sold for a pound of gold.

The Roman merchants took to India in exchange for the wares thence obtained, copper, lead, tin, silver ware; coral, which is said to have been prized by the Hindus as pearls were by the Romans; stibium, which seems to have been preferred to the native articles employed from very early times in painting the eyelids; a few gems, incense, the edible Egyptian lotus, garments, girdles, and wine, notwithstanding the fact that all intoxicating drinks were forbidden by Hindu law. Their purchases, however, were chiefly paid for in gold and silver. Hence immense quantities of coin were annually carried into India, great numbers of which have been discovered in the most widely separated parts of that vast peninsula, in Cabulistan, the Mahratta territory, the Deccan, and Ceylon. These are of various ages, and by their varying numbers afford a ready indication of the times in which trade flourished most. Coins of the Roman republic have been found, but these must have been brought to India at a later time. Those of the Emperor Augustus and onward to the Antonines are most abundant, showing that the most flourishing period of this trade was from the beginning of the Christian era to the end of the second century. That the commerce continued to be prosecuted after the division of the Roman empire appears from the coins of Theodosios I., Marcianos, and Leon, discovered in Malabar.

The vast commercial enterprises of this period led to great frequency of intercourse. The Roman merchants gradually extended their trips farther and farther, not only to Ceylon, but along the eastern side of Hindostan. By Pliny's time they

must have reached the mouth of the Ganges, for he gives the measurement in Roman miles to that point from Perimula on the island of Manaar, near the northern extremity of Ceylon. And yet, although wonderfully well acquainted with the productions of Hindostan proper, he shows no knowledge of Farther India. The geographer Ptolemy, however, not only states the distance to the Ganges, but beyond it to Malacca or the Golden Chersonesus, and thence even to Kattigara or Canton: and mentions the name of Alexandros, who had reached that remote point. Instances are also given of those who had penetrated Serica to its capital. And a very interesting experience is recorded of Jambulus, son of a merchant, and himself a merchant, who paid a reluctant visit to the Indian Archipelago. While on a trading excursion through Arabia he was seized by robbers and carried with his companions to Ethiopia. He was there, with a single companion, put in an open boat provisioned for six months and sent to sea with directions to sail southward; the idea being that if they reached land in safety, Ethiopia would enjoy six hundred years of peace and prosperity, but if they put back or were driven back, they were subjected to the most frightful tortures, because of the calamities this would be sure to bring upon the country. After four months tossing about upon the sea, they reached the shore of an island where they remained seven years, at the termination of which they were sent to sea again and finally driven on the coast of India, whence he returned home and published an account of his travels. From his description of the island, its productions, among which was the sago-palm, and its inhabitants, who were divided into castes like the Hindus, and were governed by similar laws, it is plain that it was Bali, which, like the neighbouring Java and Madura, was at a very early period colonized from India. He speaks of their possessing an alphabet of twenty-eight letters divided into seven classes, which is substantially the Sanscrit alphabet, adapted perhaps to the peculiar sounds of the native language.

The frequency with which Hindostan was visited by traders from the west is farther shown by the copious lists of cities which Ptolemy was able to give. He reports fewer from Farther India for a double reason, both because being less civilized