05-18-2003, 01:34 PM
If an amphora was worth a slave in exchange, it makes you wonder what punishment a slave got for breaking one!!<br>
I do see what you mean about the chances of breakage, but then again if you lose a ship you lose the whole cargo, and I believe there are enough amphorae littering the Meditterranean seabed to show that wasn't a rare occurrance!<br>
I did try to do some calculations on that Alexandria Ostia example you gave Rich. They are most probably grossly inaccurate but it would seem a ship might be able to get the goods to Britain faster than the overland route.<br>
But this led me to wonder what goods were actually coming from Italy and beyond. It would seem a lot of imports to Britain could have come from Hispania and Gallia anyway e.g various types of pottery, olive oil, garum, olives etc. <p></p><i></i>
I do see what you mean about the chances of breakage, but then again if you lose a ship you lose the whole cargo, and I believe there are enough amphorae littering the Meditterranean seabed to show that wasn't a rare occurrance!<br>
I did try to do some calculations on that Alexandria Ostia example you gave Rich. They are most probably grossly inaccurate but it would seem a ship might be able to get the goods to Britain faster than the overland route.<br>
But this led me to wonder what goods were actually coming from Italy and beyond. It would seem a lot of imports to Britain could have come from Hispania and Gallia anyway e.g various types of pottery, olive oil, garum, olives etc. <p></p><i></i>
