Western Civilization.p

94 Chapter 5

had long been famous. Linens, drugs, perfumes, pre-
cious stones, and such delicacies as dried fruit and pick-
led fish came from various sources within the empire.
Other luxuries came from far away. The Silk Road
across central Asia connected Syria with China. More
than a hundred ships sailed annually from the Red Sea
ports to India for cargoes of spice, and Africa continued
as it had for centuries to provide the Mediterranean
world with gold, ivory, palm oil, and those hardy
perennials, frankincense and rhinoceros horn.
Almost without exception, these were low-volume,
high-profit trades that entailed a substantial element of
risk. They made a few people, mostly equestrians or
freedmen who eventually merged with the equestrian
class, enormously rich, but the prosperity they gener-
ated was not widely shared. Aristocrats, too, sometimes
invested in such ventures or speculated on the com-

modities market. They usually did so through agents

because the old prejudice against trade died hard.

Overall, the economy of the empire remained agrarian,

and mercantile activities were restricted to a few.

In the first century A.D. a million people may have

lived in the city of Rome, a nearly incredible total given

the limits of ancient technology and systems of distrib-

ution. As in any community, their lives were con-

strained by an elaborate social structure. While most

were desperately poor, few would have chosen to live

anywhere else. Rome was, to the Romans, the center of

the world.

About one-third of the city’s land area was occu-

pied by the palaces of the rich, the most spectacular of

which were clustered on the Palatine Hill. Some of

these structures, with their courtyards, galleries, baths,

and gardens, covered several acres and employed hun-

CAE

SARE

A-ROME

(^20) DAYS
ALE
XAN
DRIA-P
UTEOLI (^15) – 2
(^0) DA
YS
GADES-OSTI
A 9 DAYS B
YZ
AN
TIUM-
GAZA
(^10) -
(^12)
DA
YS
OST
IA

• C

AT

HA

GE

3 –

5 D

AY

S

Po R.

Black Sea

Red

Sea

Atlantic

Ocean

North

Sea

Baltic

Sea

Me

dit

err

ane

an

Sea

Danu

be R.

Sava

R.

RhineR

.

iN

le

R.

Rh

on

e

R.

LoireR.

Dniep

erR

Tagus R.

TigrisR

.

Euphr

ates

R.

Pyrenees

Mts.

Alp

sM

ts.

Caesarea

Palmyra Dura-Europus

Tyrus Seleucia

Rome

Arretium

OstiaPuteoli

Gades

Corduba

Carthago Nova

Tarraco

Narbo

Lugdunum Carnuntum Apulum

Brundislum

Aquileia

Salonae

Londinium

Colonia Agrippina

Augusta Treverorum

Arelate

Massilia

Alexandria

Sardinia

Corsica

Sicily

Crete Cyprus

Ancona

Balearics

Carthage

Cyrente

Corinth

Athens

Syracuse

Rhegium

Pergamum

Ephesus

Nicomedia

Sinope

Byzantium Trapesus

Antiochia

Tarsus

Jerusalem

Gaza

Coptos

0 200 400 Miles

0 200 400 600 Kilometers

Gold

Lead

Grain

Olive Oil

Wine

Slaves

Pottery

Timber

Textiles

Trade Route

Roman Empire

A.D. 200

MAP 5.2

Trade Routes and Products in the Roman Empire, c. 200