1800.] The.Britiſp Merchant." 309 great trading towns throughout the Perſian empire. The mo- dels of Grecian art were, évery where, preferred to thoſe which had beem before common in Aſia, Now began that union of Grecian elégance, with Aſiatic pomp and ſumptuouſneſs, which ſo much captivated and coffupted the Romans when they became afterwards conquerors of Aſia. The’ Greeks, while they loft, individually, much of that political importance which had anciently exalted‘their charaXers, applied themſelves for this, ſo much the‘more, to cultiváte thoſe commercial advantages which the difuſion of their language, manners, and dominion, could not but afford; and this, beyond all that had preceded it, was the moſt flouriſhing age of both the traffic and the arts of the Greeks*. i The intercourſe which was opened between India and Europe, by the Indian conqueſts of Alexander, brought within the ſphere of Grecian trade, a new quantity of cómmodities peculiarly dear to luxury and refinément, as on account of their rarity and pre- ciouſneſs, more capable of eaſy conveyance than more bulky and leſs valuable goods. Alexander explored the courſe of thé river Indus, and- was ambitious to open eaſy. acceſs to Hindoſtan,- as vell by ſea as by land. The Greeks were, at this time, the moft daring travellers, and the beſt mariners in the world: they for a while, availed themſelves, fully, of all theſe benefits Af the Macedonian conqueſts. In Badria, in Syria, in Egypt, ſucceeded races of Grecian kings, whoſe ſubjects were enriched by the commerce‘of‘the eaſt. The wealth which they intro- duced, and the arts they praiſed, were communicated to a con- ſiderable diítance‘over the north-weſt’; and, on this fide, the limits of civilization Appear to have been, now, widely enlarged. Tyre was, indeed, overthrown by Alexander; but he founded a new city, in a ſituation more advantageous to navigation and commerce, that was deſtined to become more powerful and flouriſhing, as a trading city, chan Tyre had ever been. Alex- andria, which became the ſeat of the empire of the Ptolemies, was alſo happily ûcted to become the grand emporium of the caftern trade"óf the Mediterranean fea. Into it was imported from Carthage, Täly, and Greece, whatever produdions of the weſt mizht be now. wanted for the uſe of the inhabitants of the fouth-weſt and middle parts of Aſia, or for the. accommodation of the people of‘the north-eaſt of Africa.‘From Alexandria were exported ti thè regions of the weſt, the corn of Egÿpt, the Ípices, the linens, thé púrple and woollens, the vaſes of glaſs, the precious ſtones,‘the nÆtals, and at length, the ſilks öf the eaſt. Fhe commerce bf this greaf city continued to flouriſh and in- creaſe from the days,of Alexander to thoſe of Julius Cæfar. Lts proſperity was deitined to eXperience no ſerious check till it

* Pini Hiſt. Nat.—Artian,---Ariſtot. Biſt, Nat,---Joſephi Hift—Cali- machi ODpera, paſlim,--—-Theocriti Idyil,&e,