Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/142

 the great peninsula which lies between the Persian and Arabian Gulfs, where it is washed by the Indian Ocean. In a commercial point of view, Yemen was one of the most important countries through which the caravans passed; not merely on account of its own productions, but from being at a very early period a depôt of Indian as well as of Ethiopian merchandise, and the principal mart in those days for spices, perfumes, and especially frankincense.

That branch of the caravan trade between Palestine and Egypt, mentioned in the Mosaic records, is also noticed by Herodotus, who states that the transport of Egyptian and Assyrian wares was the first business carried on by the Phœnicians. Tyre also sent large quantities of wine into Egypt, receiving in exchange the "fine cotton and embroidered work" of which Ezekiel speaks.

In somewhat later times, Babylon became one of the principal places to which the Phœnicians directed their attention, and traces are still to be seen of the cities which marked alike the course and the extent of this inland traffic.

In considering the account in Ezekiel, we have already noticed the trade between Tyre and the nations on the Black Sea such as "Tubal and Meshech": where a portion of the trade was probably by caravans, especially that from "Togarmah" (Armenia), whence the Tyrians obtained "horses of noble and common breeds, and mules for their wares." The same is probably true of the vessels of copper imported thence into Tyre, the same range of mountains (the Taurus) affording at present similar productions.