It has been an opinion pretty generally adopted, that the people known to the ancients by the name of _Seres_ were the same as the Chinese, partly on account of their eastern situation, and partly because the principal silk manufactures were supposed to be brought from thence, which gave the Romans occasion name the country _Sericum_. The Romans, however, received the trifling quantity of silk made use of by them from Persia, and not from China, nor from the country of the Seres. Nor is it probable, that the latter should be the Chinese, who are said to have sent an embassy to Augustus, in order to court the friendship of the Romans, it being so very contrary to their fundamental laws, which not only prohibit any intercourse with strangers, but allow not any of the natives to leave the country. The fact, indeed, of this embassy rests solely upon the authority of Lucius A. Florus, who wrote his history, if it may so be called, nearly a century after the death of Augustus: and, as none of the historians contemporary with that Emperor, take any notice of such an event, it is more than probable that no such embassy was sent to Rome[40]. [40] Ptolemy, the Geographer, places Serica adjoining to Scythia, _extra Imaum_, corresponding with Cashgar, Tangut, and Kitai, countries famous for the cultivation of the cotton plant. It would seem, indeed, from all the passages which occur in ancient authors concerning the Seres, that cotton was the substance alluded to, rather than silk, and that these people were not the present Chinese, but the Tartars of Kitai. _Quid nemora Æthiopum molli canentia lana? Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres?_ Virg. Georg. ii. v. 120. _----Primique nova Phaethonte retecti Seres lanigeris repetebant vellera lucis._ Sil. Ital. 1. 6. v. 3. _----Quod molli tondent de stipite Seres Frondea lanigeræ carpentes vellera Silvæ._ Claudian. _Seres lanificio Sylvarum nobiles perfusam aquá depectentes frondium canitiem._ Plin. 1. 6. 17. Horace makes the Seres expert in drawing the bow, a weapon in the use of which the Scythians were always famous. _Doctus Sagittas tendere Sericas Arcu paterno?_ Hor. lib. i. Od. 29. v. 9.