It May Be Remarked, That The Nature, As Well As The Proper Appellation Of Sugar, Must Have Been But Imperfectly, And Not Generally Known, Even At The Time Of The Rescript, Otherwise The Explanatory Phrase, Honey Made From Cane, Would Not Have Been Employed.

The first information respecting sugar was brought to Europe by Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander.

In a passage quoted from his journal by Strabo, it is described as honey made from reeds, there being no bees in that part of India. In a fragment of Theophrastus, preserved by Photius, he mentions, among other kinds of honey, one that is found in reeds. The first mention of any preparation, by which the juice of the reed was thickened, occurs in Eratosthenes, as quoted by Strabo, where he describes roots of large reeds found in India, which were sweet to the taste, both when raw and boiled. Dioscorides and Pliny describe it as used chiefly, if not entirely, for medical purposes. In the time of Galen, A.D. 131, it would appear to have become more common and cheaper at Rome; for he classes it with medicines that may be easily procured. It seems probable, that though the Arabians undoubtedly cultivated the sugar-cane, and supplied Rome with sugar from it, yet they derived their knowledge of it from India; for the Arabic name, shuker, which was adopted by the Greeks and Romans, is formed from the two middle syllables of the Sanskrit word, ich-shu-casa.

But to return from this digression to the view of the imports into Rome: Ethiopia supplied the capital with cinnamon of an inferior quality; marble, gems, ivory; the horns of the rhinoceros and tortoiseshell. The last article was in great demand, and brought a high price: it was used for ornament, for furniture; as beds, tables, doors, &c.; not only in Italy, but in Greece and Egypt: the finest sort was sold for its weight of silver. It was imported not only from Ethiopia but also from the east coast of Africa, and reached Rome even from Malabar and Malacca. The opsian stone mentioned in the Periplus, and the opsidian stone described by Pliny, are stated in both these authors to have come from Ethiopia; but whether they were the same, and their exact nature, are not known. The opsian is described as capable of receiving a high polish, and on that account as having been used by the Emperor Domitian to face a portico. Pliny describes it as employed to line rooms in the same manner as mirrors; he distinguishes it from a spurious kind, which was red, but not transparent. The dye extracted from the purple shell fish was imported into Rome from Getulia, a country on the south side of Mauritania.

Rome was supplied with the commodities of India chiefly from Egypt; but there were other routes by which also they reached the capital: of these it will be proper to take some notice.

The most ancient communication between India and the countries on the Mediterranean was by the Persian Gulf, through Mesopotamia, to the coasts of Syria and Palestine.

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