Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/239

 as soldiers, or performed those portions of the sailor's duties to which they had been trained.

Although, unfortunately, no clearly defined records of the maritime commerce of Rome at any period of her history have been preserved, its extent may be conjectured by the number and wealth of her citizens. One million and a quarter of people, including nearly all the wealthy inhabitants of the empire—for these flocked to the capital in great numbers—would at any time require a large fleet of merchant ships to supply their varied wants. Even during the time of the Roman commonwealth, the vessels engaged in the corn trade alone of the city were so numerous, that medals were struck in commemoration of the traffic, bearing upon them the representation of the prow of a ship, and the inscription, "By decree of the Senate, for the purchase of corn." That trade, as well as all others, increasing with the spread of the metropolis, must, in the reign of the Cæsars, have required an amount of shipping to supply its wants far in excess of that of any other city of either ancient or modern times. If one steamship now performs the work of at least three sailing vessels, each of equal capacity to the steamer, then, considering the dilatory movements of ancient vessels, it will not be an exaggerated estimate to allow six thousand tons of shipping as necessary to conduct the same amount of transport as one steamship of a thousand tons would now perform. Allowing, therefore, that Rome