NOTICES IN EZEKIEL.
77
possibly wine of Hebron, together with the exports of rich
and embroidery. Another kept to the line of the Euphrates throughout, and may be called the North-Western route. It connected Babylon with Upper Mesopotamia and Armenia. Along this was conveyed wine, and probably copper perhaps also other metals. It was a route used by Armenian merchants, who descended the stream in round boats, made of wickerstuffs, dresses,
;
work covered with skins, and, having sold their wares, broke * up the boats, and returned on foot to their own country. It was used also by the Babylonian colonists of the Persian Gulf, who mounted the stream as far as Thapsacus, and thence carried their goods by land in various directions.f The third route was towards the North. It connected Babylon with Assyria, and probably followed mainly the line of the Tigris, which it may have struck in the vicinity of the great mart of Opis. The trade between the two countries of Babylonia and Assyria was, in the flourishing times of the latter country, highly valued and we find frequent provision made for its restoration or continuance in the treaties which from time to time were concluded between the two powers. | The alabaster blocks which the Babylonians sometimes employed in their buildings came probably by this line, and the two countries no doubt interchanged various manufactured ;
products. fourth line of land trade, and one of great importance, was that toward the North-east, which may be called the
A
Medo-Bactrian. the
way
of
This
line, after
crossing Mount Zagros by directed upon the
Holwan and Behistun, was
Median-capital of Ecbatana, whence it was prolonged, by way of Rhages and the Caspian Gates, to Balkh, Herat, and The lapis lazuli, which the Babylonians employed Cabul. extensively, can only have come from Bactria, and probably arrived by this route, along which may also have traveled much of the gold imported into Babylon, many of the gems, the fine wool, the shawls, the Indian dyes, and the Indian ||
dogs.
The first it
At fifth line w*s toward the East and South-east. ran nearly due east to Susa, but- thence it was de*
* Herod., t
i. XM. t Strab., 1. i c. Records of the Past," vol. iii-, pp. 34, 35; vol. v., p. -j. " Asiatic Hesreu, Nations," vol. ii., pp. 203, 209-211.
fi
Ibid., p. 206.