ABSTRACT
IT is impossible to understand the economy of the Roman world and the direction and magnitude of the trade currents which met there, unless we first of all take into account the extent to which the capital drew to itself both men and wares. It has been said very truly that the history of Rome is that of the domination of one town over an enormous portion of the world. This domination was not purely political and the town did not stop at imposing her own laws upon the most diverse peoples but she obliged them to work for her—not only by taking thousands of men but also by concentrating within her walls, for the needs and pleasures of her plutocracy, the foodstuffs for which she ransacked the four corners of the earth. She was the link between east and west, between Gaul and Spain on the one hand and the Hellenic countries on the other, and again between Africa and the Danubian countries. After having conquered Carthage and pillaged Rhodes she formed the concentration point for the precious wares and the heavy materials of which she kept a considerable portion for herself and sent the remainder to the towns which had grown up in the Italian peninsula and were increasing in size, as the second century passed into the first. As we shall see, this transit trade was relatively unimportant. Nevertheless, imports were considerable for that epoch.
