A third land route by which silk was brought to the Persian merchants, and by them sold to the Romans, was from Samarcand and Bochara, through the northern provinces of China, to the metropolis of the latter country:  this, however, was a long, difficult, and dangerous route.  From Samarcand to the first town of the Chinese, was a journey of from 60 to 100 days; as soon as the caravans passed the Jaxartes, they entered the desert, in which they were necessarily exposed to great privations, as well as to great risk from the wandering tribes.  The merchants of Samarcand and Bochara, on their return from China, transported the raw or manufactured silk into Persia; and the Persian merchants sold it to the Romans at the fairs of Armenia and Nisibis.

Another land route is particularly described by Ptolemy:  according to his detail, this immense inland communication began from the bay of Issus, in Cilicia; it then crossed Mesopotamia, from the Euphrates to the Tigris, near Hieropolis:  it then passed through part of Assyria and Media, to Ecbatana and the Caspian Pass; after this, through Parthia to Hecatompylos:  from this place to Hyrcania; then to Antioch, in Margiana; and hence into Bactria.  From Bactria, a mountainous country was to be crossed, and the country of the Sacae, to Tachkend, or the Stone Tower.  Near this place was the station of those merchants who traded directly with the Seres.  The defile of Conghez was next passed, and the region of Cosia or Cashgar through the country of the Itaguri, to the capital of China.  Seven months were employed on this journey, and the distance in a right line amounted to 2800 miles.  That the whole of this journey was sometimes performed by individuals for the purchase of silk and other Chinese commodities, we have the express testimony of Ptolemy; for he informs us, that Maes, a Macedonian merchant, sent his agent through the entire route which we have just described.  It is not surprising, therefore, that silk should have borne such an exorbitant price at Rome; but it is astonishing that any commodity, however precious, could bear the expence of such a land carriage.

The only other routes by land, by which silk was brought from China into Europe, seem to have corresponded, in the latter part of their direction, with the land routes from India, already described.  Indeed, it may naturally be supposed, that the Indian merchants, as soon as they learned the high prices of silk at Rome, would purchase it, and send it along with the produce and manufactures of their own country, by the caravans to Palmyra, and by river navigation to the Euxine:  and we have seen, that on the capture of Palmyra, by Aurelian, silk was one of the articles of plunder.

We are now to take notice of the laws which were passed by the Romans for the improvement of navigation and commerce; and in this part of our subject we shall follow the same plan and arrangement which we have adopted in treating of the commerce itself; that is, we shall give a connected view of these laws, or at least the most important of them, from the period when the Romans began to interest themselves in commerce, till the decline of the empire.