The first of those treaties was made
250 years before the first Punic war; and the second, about fifty years
before it. Besides, it is not probable that the Romans should have been
entirely ignorant of, and inattentive to maritime commerce for so long a
period; since several nations of Italy, with which they were at first
connected, and which they afterwards conquered, were very conversant in
this commerce, and derived great consideration, power, and wealth from it.
The Romans had conquered Etruria, and made themselves masters of the Tuscan
powers both by sea and land, before the commencement of the first Punic
war; and though at this period, the Tuscans were not so celebrated for
their commerce as they had been, yet the shipping and commerce they did
possess, must have fallen into the power of the Romans; and we can scarcely
suppose that these, together with the facilities which the Tuscans enjoyed
for commerce, by means of their ports, and their skill and commercial
habits and connections, would be entirely neglected by their conquerors.
Besides, there are several old Roman coins, by some supposed to have been
as old as the time of the kings, and certainly prior to the first Punic
war, on the reverses of which different parts of ships are visible. Now, as
the Roman historians are diffuse in the accounts they give of the wars of
the Romans, but take no notice of their commercial transactions, we may
safely conclude, from their not mentioning any maritime wars, or
expeditions of a date so early as these coins, that the ships at that
period preserved by the Romans, and deemed of such consequence as to be
struck on their coins, were employed for the purposes of commerce.
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