The Author Of The Periplus Informs Us, That Raw As Well As Manufactured
Silk Were Conveyed By Land Through Bactria,
To Baraguza or Guzerat, and by
the Ganges to Limurike; according to this first route, the silks of China
must
Have come the whole length of Tartary, from the great wall, into
Bactria; from Bactria, they passed the mountains to the sources of the
Indus, and by that river they were brought down to Patala, or Barbarike, in
Scindi, and thence to Guzerat: the line must have been nearly the same when
silk was brought to the sources of the Ganges; at the mouth of this river,
it was embarked for Limurike in Canara. All the silk, therefore, that went
by land to Bactria, passed down the Indus to Guzerat; all that deviated
more to the east, and came by Thibet, passed down the Ganges to Bengal.
A third land route by which silk was brought to the Persian merchants, and
by them sold to the Romans, was from Samarcand and Bochara, through the
northern provinces of China, to the metropolis of the latter country: this,
however, was a long, difficult, and dangerous route. From Samarcand to the
first town of the Chinese, was a journey of from 60 to 100 days; as soon as
the caravans passed the Jaxartes, they entered the desert, in which they
were necessarily exposed to great privations, as well as to great risk from
the wandering tribes. The merchants of Samarcand and Bochara, on their
return from China, transported the raw or manufactured silk into Persia;
and the Persian merchants sold it to the Romans at the fairs of Armenia and
Nisibis.
Another land route is particularly described by Ptolemy: according to his
detail, this immense inland communication began from the bay of Issus, in
Cilicia; it then crossed Mesopotamia, from the Euphrates to the Tigris,
near Hieropolis: it then passed through part of Assyria and Media, to
Ecbatana and the Caspian Pass; after this, through Parthia to Hecatompylos:
from this place to Hyrcania; then to Antioch, in Margiana; and hence into
Bactria. From Bactria, a mountainous country was to be crossed, and the
country of the Sacae, to Tachkend, or the Stone Tower. Near this place was
the station of those merchants who traded directly with the Seres. The
defile of Conghez was next passed, and the region of Cosia or Cashgar
through the country of the Itaguri, to the capital of China. Seven months
were employed on this journey, and the distance in a right line amounted to
2800 miles. That the whole of this journey was sometimes performed by
individuals for the purchase of silk and other Chinese commodities, we have
the express testimony of Ptolemy; for he informs us, that Maes, a
Macedonian merchant, sent his agent through the entire route which we have
just described. It is not surprising, therefore, that silk should have
borne such an exorbitant price at Rome; but it is astonishing that any
commodity, however precious, could bear the expence of such a land
carriage.
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