for silks, Attica[1] and Samos[2] for pottery, Sidon[3] for glass, Cibyra[4] for chased iron, Thessaly[5] for cabinet furniture, Pergamus[6] for parchment, and Alexandria[7] for paper. The fields of Elis were given over to the cultivation of flax, and all the women at Patrae were engaged in spinning and weaving it.[8] Hierapolis[9] in Phrygia was noted for its vegetable dyes; and Hierapolis[10] in Syria was the great rendezvous for the hunters of the desert, who captured wild animals for the man and beast fights of the public shows. Slave dealers, held to be an infamous class, infested the verge of the Empire along the Danube, but at this date Romans and barbarians mutually enslaved each other.[11] On this frontier, also, consignments of amber and furs were received from the shores of the Baltic and the Far North.[12] With respect to articles of diet, almost every district produced wine, but Lesbian and Pramnian were most esteemed.[13] A wide tract at Cyrene was reserved for the growth of a savoury pot-*herb, hence called the Land of Silphium.[14] Egypt was the
- ↑ Athenaeus, i, 50.
- ↑ Pliny, op. cit., xxxv, 46.
- ↑ Strabo, XVI, ii, 25; Pliny, op. cit., xxxvi, 65. False stones were plentifully manufactured; ibid., xxxvii, 78, etc.
- ↑ Strabo, XIII, iv, 17.
- ↑ Athenaeus, i, 50; xiii, 24.
- ↑ Pliny, op. cit., xiii, 21.
- ↑ Strabo, XVII, i, 15; Pliny, op. cit., xiii, 22; Hist. August. Firmus, etc.
- ↑ Pausanias, v, 5; vii, 21.
- ↑ Strabo, XIII, iv, 14.
