We must now attend to the expedition of Petronius against the Ethiopians. This was completely successful, and Candakè, their queen, was obliged, as a token of her submission, to send ambassadors to Augustus, who was at that time in the island of Samos. About this period the commerce of the Egyptians,--which, in fact, was the commerce of the Romans,--was extended to the Troglodytes,--with whom previously they had carried on little or no trade. The first account of the island of Ceylon, under the name of Taprobane, was brought to Europe by the Macedonians, who had accompanied Alexander into the east. It is mentioned, and a short description given of it, by Onesicritus and Eratosthenes. Iambulus, however, who lived in the time of Augustus, is the first author who enters into any details regarding it; and though much of what he states is undoubtedly fabulous, yet there are particulars surprizingly correct, and such as confirm his own account, that he actually, visited the island. According to Diodorus Siculus, he was the son of a merchant, and a merchant himself; and while trading in Arabia for spices, he was taken prisoner and carried into Arabia, whence he was carried off by the Ethiopians, and put into a ship, which was driven by the monsoon to Ceylon. The details he mentions, that are most curious and most conformable to truth, are the stature of the natives and the flexibility of their joints; the length of their ears, bored and pendant; the perpetual verdure of the trees; the attachment of the natives to astronomy; their worship of the elements, and particularly of the sun and moon; their cotton garments; the men having one wife in common; the days and nights being equal in length; and the Calamus, or Maiz. It is extraordinary, howeve'r, that Iambulus never mentions cinnamon, which, as he was a dealer in spices, it might have been supposed would have attracted his particular attention.