The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 2: Assyria: The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations.Rawlinson, George
History
The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 2: Assyria: The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations.
she imported from the far East by the lines of traffic which have been
pointed out. Some of her own fabrics may possibly have been of silk,
which in Roman times was a principal Assyrian export. Whether she
exported her other peculiar productions, her transparent and colored
glass, her exquisite metal bowls, plates, and dishes, her beautifully
carved ivories, we cannot say. They have not hitherto been found in any
place beyond her dominion, so that it would rather seem that she
produced them only for home consumption. Some ancient notices appear to
imply a belief on the part of the Greeks and Romans that she produced
and exported various spices. Horace speaks of Assyrian nard Virgil of
Assyrian _amomuum_, Tibullus of Assyrian odors generally. AEschylus has
an allusion of the same kind in his Agamemnon. Euripide, and Theocritus,
who mention respectively Syrian myrrh and Syrian frankincense, probably
use the word “Syrian” for “Assyrian.” The belief thus implied is not,
however, borne out by inquiry. Neither the spikenard nor the amonmum,
nor the myrrh tree, nor the frankincense tree, nor any other actual
spice, is produced within the limits of Assyria, which must always have
imported its own spices from abroad, and can only have supplied them to
other countries as a carrier. In this capacity she may very probably,
even in the time of her early greatness, have conveyed on to the coast
of Syria the spicy products of Arabia and India, and thus have created
an impression, which afterwards remained as a tradition, that she was a
great spice-producer as well as a spice-seller.
In the same way, as a carrier, Assyria may have exported many other
commodities. She may have traded with the Phoenicians, not only in her
own products, but in the goods which she received from the south and
east, from Bactria, India, and the Persian Gulf,--such as lapis lazuli,
pearls, cinnamon, muslins, shawls, ivory, ebony, cotton. On the other
hand, she may have conveyed to India, or at least to Babylon, the
productions which the Phoenicians brought to Tyre and Sidon from the
various countries bordering upon the Mediterranean Sea and even the
Atlantic Ocean, as tin, hides, pottery, oil, wine, linen. On this point,
however, we have at present no evidence at all; and as it is not the
proper office of a historian to indulge at any length in mere
conjecture, the consideration of the commercial dealings of the
Assyrians may be here brought to a close.
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