"The carts were piled with bales of textiles, bags of rice and spices, big round cakes of brown sugar, exotic lands like Persia, Arabia and Egypt, then move boxes of precious stones for jewelry, packets of incense, metal, wood ware and pottery. Once the carts reached the seaside, the goods would be loaded on ships that would sail to exotic places like Persia, Arabia and Egypt and then move over land across the deserts of North Africa to arrive in the markets of Rome."