Note 1759 — Chapter XI · EXPORTS AND IMPORTS.

The importation of these delicacies, however, originally profited the subjects of Persia only, the king having been forbidden by a fundamental law of the monarchy the use of all foreign commodities. The ordinance of course was speedily dispensed with, since we find the eunuchs placing before their master, at his dessert, the figs of Attica, which on one occasion, drew from the Shah a right royal remark: Ἐρωτῆσαι ποταπαὶ εἶεν. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐπύθετο ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν, τοῖς ἀγορασταῖς ἐκέλευεν ὠνεῖσθαι, ἕως, ἂν ἐξουσία γένηται αὐτῷ λαμβάνειν ὅταν ἐφέλῃ, καὶ μὴ ἁγοράζειν. Athen. xiv. 62. The best figs came from the Demos Ægilia. Id. ibid. Ἀπ’ Αἰγίλω ἰσχάδα τρώγοις. Theocrit. Eidyll. i. 147. These fruits we find reached Persia in a state of the greatest freshness and perfection. Plut. Alexand. § 50.