CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 47

became an objedt of fo much importance , thatSolomon , when he turned his attention towardsthe extenfion of commerce among his fubjects,built a fenced city there s . Its Syrian name ofTadmor in the wildernefs, and its Greek one ofPalmyra, are both defcriptive of its fituation in afpot adorned with palm - trees. This is plentifullyfupplied with water, and furrounded by a portionof fertile land, which (though of no great extent)render it a delightful habitation in the midft ofbarren fands and an inhofpitable defart. Its happypofition, at the diftance of little more than fixtymiles from the river Euphrates , and of two hundredand three miles from the neareft coaft of the Medi-terranean, induced its inhabitants to enter withardor into the trade of conveying commoditiesfrom one of thefe to the other. As the moft valu-able productions of India , brought up the Euphrates from the Perfian Gulf, are of fuch fmall bulk asto bear the expenfe of a long land-carriage, thistrade foon became fo confiderable that the opulenceand power of Palmyra increafed rapidly. Its govern-ment was of the form which is beft fuited to thegenius of a commercial city, republican; and fromthe peculiar advantages of its fituation, as well asthe fpirit of its inhabitants, it long maintained itsindependence, though furrounded by powerful andambitious neighbours. Under the Syrian monarchsdefcended from Seleucus it attained to its higheftdegree of fplendor and wealth, one great l'ourcc

sect.

ii.

? i Kings, ix. IS. a Chron. viii. 4.