Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ... Empire, culminated in the time of Nero, who died A. D. 68. (Hi) From this time forward the trade declined till the time of Caracalla, A. D. 217. (iv) From the time of Caracalla it almost entirely ceased. (v) The maritime activity revived again, though slightly, under the Byzantine Emperors. He also infers that the trade under the early Emperors was chiefly in luxuries; under the later ones in industrial products; and under the Byzantines the commerce was with the South-West of India and not with the interior. He moreover differs from those who find an explanation of this fluctuation in the political and social condition of India itself, and the facilities or their absence for navigating the seas; and considers that the cause is to be sought for in the political and social condition of the Romans themselves. We fully agree with this view of Mr. Sewell as is borne out by the contemporary history of Rome -about the 4th and 5th centuries A. D. CENTRAL ASIA Till comparatively recent times, the vast highlands of Asia with their glittering ramparts of eternal snow, their pasture grounds, their bleak deserts and verdant oases, were regarded with awe by the civilised nations. It seems that science in harmony with the religions and myths of so many people has succeeded in demonstrating by almost irrefragable proofs that Central Asia was the primitive home of mankind, the cradle, whence our own forefathers were sent out in the pride of youth to find out eventually a new home in Europe, while others descended into India. The mass of nebulous tradition is brought into contact with the traces of widely diverse nationalities and religions and must consult in its turn the annals of the Indians, Iranians, Greeks, Scythians, Chinese, Turks and Russians....