Industry

Vivebat Roma chirographis donec impenderet ruina. Sola vera fons divitiæ est industria, hujusque nullum fuit Romæ. Per singulos dies via Ostiensis plaustris et mulionibus complebatur, vehentibus in Urbem serica atque aromatica Orientalia, marmor ex Asiā Minore, lignum e Montibus Atlantibus, annonam Africanam atque Aegyptam; et vehebant plaustra ex Urbe nihil præter onera sterquilinii. Hoc fuit quod redderent.

 

Rome lived upon its principal till ruin stared it in the face. Industry is the only true source of wealth, and there was no industry in Rome. By day the Ostia road was crowded with carts and muleteers, carrying to the great city the silks and spices of the East, the marble of Asia Minor, the timber of the Atlas, the grain of Africa and Egypt; and the carts brought out nothing but loads of dung. That was their return cargo.

 

—Winwood Reade, The Martyrdom of Man