These towns became fantastically wealthy. One, Palmyra, was particularly important because all of the incense and silk that traveled to Rome had to go through Palmyra. Silk was so popular among the Roman elite that the Roman Senate repeatedly tried to ban it, complaining about trade imbalances caused by the silk trade and also that silk was inadequately modest. To quote Seneca the Younger, I see clothes of silk if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes. He also said of the woman who wears silk, Her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body. And yet, all attempts to ban silk failed, which speaks to how much, even in the ancient world, wealth shaped governance. And with trade there was a way of becoming wealthy without being a king or a lord who takes part of what your citizens produce.