48 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION
SECT, of ■which feems to have been the fupplying theirH. fubjedls with Indian commodities. When Syria fubmitted to the irrefiftible arms of Rome , Pal-myra continued upwards of two centuries a freeftate, and its frieadfhip was courted with emula-tion and folicitude by the Romans, and their rivalsfor empire, the Parthians . That it traded wi hboth, particularly that from it the .capital, as wellas other parts of the empire received the produc-tions of India , we learn from Appian, an authorof good credit \ But in tracing the progrefs ofthe commerce of the ancients with the Eaft, IIhould not have ventured, upon his bugle tefti-mony, to mention this among the channels ofnote in which it was carried on, if a lingulardifcovery, for which we are indebted to the liberalcuriofity and enterprifing fpirit of our own country-men, did not confirm and illuftrate what he relates.Towards .the clofe of the laft century, fome gen-tlemen of the Englifh fadlory at Aleppo incitedby what they heard in the Eaft concerning thewonderful ruins of Palmyra, ventured, notwith-ftanding the fatigue and danger of a journey throughthe defart, to vifit them. To their aftonilhmentthey beheld a fertile fpot of fome miles in extent,arifing like an ifland out of a vaft plain of fand,covered with the remains of temples, porticoes,aquedudts , and other public works , which inmagnificence and fplendor, and fome of them inelegance , were not unworthy of Athens or of
Appian. de Bello Civil, lib. v. p. 1076. edit. Tollii.