_Ancient Trade_.--Alexandria was formerly the chief commercial city
in the world. We may judge of its wealth and prosperity by the
circumstance, that, after the defeat of Queen Zenobia, a single
merchant of this city, undertook to raise and pay an army out of the
profits of his trade. Delos was the richest city in the Archipelago,
it was a free port, where nations warring with each other, resorted
with their goods, and traded. Strabo calls it one of the most
frequented emporiums in the world; and Pliny tells us, that all the
commodities of Europe and Asia were sold, purchased, or exchanged
there. Trade was much encouraged at Athens; and if any one ridiculed
it, he was liable to an action of slander. A fine of a thousand
drachmas (about £37. 10s.) was inflicted on him who accused a merchant
of any crime which he was unable to prove. Solon was engaged in
merchandize; the founder of the city of Messilia was a merchant;
Thales and Hippocrates, the mathematician, traded; Plato sold oil
in Egypt; Maximinus the Roman emperor, traded with the Goths in the
produce of his estate in Thracia; Vespasian farmed the privies at
Rome; and the Emperor Pertinax, originally dealt in charcoal.