The commonest adjunct to cereal food was a leaf vegetable. Meat was not in regular demand except among the rich. Of the legumes lentils, beans, kidney beans, chick-peas, vetch and lupin were widely cultivated. Onions, leeks and garlic were relished by the poor. Of the spices coriander, mustard, anise, cumin, ginger and mint flourished in Syria, as did mushrooms, cabbage and radishes. Non-food plants included henna, lilies and papyrus, as well as flax, cotton and hemp for use in making cloth.
The production of dyes in the textile manufacturing districts of Sidon and Tyre seems to have continued under the Romans. Phoenician purple was held everywhere in high esteem. Syria was, with Egypt, the main source of linen goods for the empire, and among the best sources of leather, for tanning which sumac leaves were used, as they are today. All industry was hand production which, lacking machinery and the experimental outlook, remained virtu- ally static. Other Syrian exports included medicinal and aromatic plants, as well as wines popular throughout the whole ancient world. Mineral products comprised asphalt from the Dead Sea region, cinnabar and orpiment for paint- ing, amber, alabaster from Damascus and gypsum. Stone and chalk quarries existed near Antioch. Copper was mined in several localities, largely by slaves under govern- ment supervision. Sidon was especially noted for its bronze and its glass, including the newly invented blown-glass vessels.
Commerce provided the main source of wealth. The richest cities of the Roman Near East were such com- mercial centres as Petra, Palmyra and the Phoenician coast towns. By and large the traders were natives of Syria, though Italians and Greeks competed briefly. Commerce remained as individualistic as industry, with even partner- ships rare. Trade in slaves continued to flourish. Insolvent debtors forfeited their persons to their creditors, and pro- fessional slave traders seized unwary adults, kidnapped infants and bought unwanted ones. Incense and spices from
