They Sold At Enormous
Prices; And Were Employed At The Tables Only Of The Great And Wealthy, As
Cups For Drinking; They Were In General Of A Small Size.
One, which held
three pints, sold for nearly 14,000_l_.; and Nero gave nearly
59,000_l_.
For another. So highly were they prized, that, in the
conquest of Egypt, Augustus was content to select, for his own share, out
of all the spoils of Alexandria, a single murrhine cup.[5] Precious stones
and pearls were imported from Persia and Babylonia; the latter country also
furnished the wealthy Romans with _triclinaria_, which was furniture
of some description, but whether quilts, carpets, or curtains is not
ascertained. Persia supplied also incense of a very superior quality. The
various and valuable commodities with which Arabia supplied the profusion
and luxury of Rome, reached that capital from the port of Alexandria in
Egypt. We cannot enumerate the whole of them, but must confine ourselves to
a selection of the most important and valuable. Great demand, and a high
rate of profits necessarily draw to any particular trade a great number of
merchants; it is not surprising, therefore, that the trade in the luxuries
of the east was so eagerly followed at Rome. Pliny informs us, that the
Roman world was exhausted by a drain of 400,000_l_. a year, for the
purchase of luxuries, equally expensive and superfluous; and in another
place, he estimates the rate of profit made at Rome, by the importation and
sale of oriental luxuries at 100 per cent.
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