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Roman trade with India according to the Periplus Maris Erythraei, 1st century CE.

Roman trade with India through the overland caravan routes via Anatolia and Persia, though at a relative trickle comparative to later times, antedated the southern trade route via the Red Sea and Monsoons which started around the beginning of the Common Era (CE) following the reign of Augustus and his conquest of Egypt.1 Having extended the Empire's reach to the upper Nile, the Romans naturally encountered the great warrior trading nation of Axum (On the Red Sea, in today's Ethiopia) which had been trading with India and Egypt for several centuries.

The use of monsoon winds, which enabled a voyage safer rather than a long and dangerous coastal voyage, was pioneered by the seafaring Axumite kingdom and subsequently learned of by the Romans, who in any event had cordial relations with Axum and used Axum carriers in many cases. The route so helped enhance trade between ancient kingdoms of India (present day) and Rome that Roman politicians are on record decrying the loss of specie to pamper Roman wives, and the southern route grew to eclipse and then totally supplant the overland trade route.2

Roman trade diaspora frequented the ancient Tamil country (present day Southern India), securing trade with the seafaring Tamil kingdoms of the Chola, Pandyan and Chera dynasties and establishing trading settlements which remained long after the fall of the Western Roman empire3. They also outlasted Byzantium's loss of the Egypt and the Red Sea ports4 (ca. 639-645 CE) under the pressure of Jihad and Islam, which had been used to secure trade with India by the Greco-Roman world since the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty5 a few decades before the start of the Common Era. Sometime after the sundering of communications between the Axum and Eastern Roman Empire in the seventh century, the Christian kingdom of Axum fell onto a slow decline and faded into obscurity in western culture, though survived despite pressure from Islamic forces until the eleventh century, when it was reconfigured in a dynastic squabble.

Contents

Background

The Seleucid and the Ptolemaic dynasties controlled trade networks to India before the establishment of Roman Egypt.      Kingdom of Ptolemy     Kingdom of Seleucus

The Seleucid dynasty controlled a developed network of trade with India which had previously existed under the influence of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty.6 The Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, controlling the western and northern end of other trade routes to Southern Arabia and India,6 had begun to exploit trading opportunities with India prior to the Roman involvement but according to the historian Strabo the volume of commerce between India and Greece was not comparable to that of later Indian-Roman trade.2

The Periplus Maris Erythraei mentions a time when sea trade between India and Egypt did not involve direct sailings.2 The cargo under these situations was shipped to Aden:2

“ Eudaimon Arabia was called fortunate, being once a city, when, because ships neither came from India to Egypt nor did those from Egypt dare to go further but only came as far as this place, it received the cargoes from both, just as Alexandria receives goods brought from outside and from Egypt. ”

The Ptolemaic dynasty had developed trade with India using the Red Sea ports.1 With the establishment of Roman Egypt, the Romans took over and further developed the already existing trade using these ports.1

Establishment

Coin of the Roman emperor Augustus found at the Pudukottai hoard. British Museum.

The replacement of Greece by the Roman empire as the administrator of the Mediterranean basin led to the strengthening of direct maritime trade with the east and the elimination of the taxes extracted previously by the middlemen of various land based trading routes.7 Strabo's mention of the vast increase in trade following the Roman annexation of Egypt indicates that monsoon was known and manipulated for trade in his time.8

The trade started by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BCE kept increasing, and according to Strabo (II.5.12.):9

“ "At any rate, when Gallus was prefect of Egypt, I accompanied him and ascended the Nile as far as Syene and the frontiers of Kingdom of Aksum (Ethiopia), and I learned that as many as one hundred and twenty vessels were sailing from Myos Hormos to India, whereas formerly, under the Ptolemies, only a very few ventured to undertake the voyage and to carry on traffic in Indian merchandise." ”

By the time of Augustus up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos to India.9 So much gold was used for this trade, and apparently recycled by the Kushan Empire (Kushans) for their own coinage, that Pliny the Elder (NH VI.101) complained about the drain of specie to India:10

“
   "minimaque computatione miliens centena milia sestertium annis omnibus India et Seres et paeninsula illa imperio nostro adimunt: tanti nobis deliciae et feminae constant. quota enim portio ex illis ad deos, quaeso, iam vel ad inferos pertinet?"

   "India, China and the Arabian peninsula take one hundred million sesterces from our empire per annum at a conservative estimate: that is what our luxuries and women cost us. For what percentage of these imports is intended for sacrifices to the gods or the spirits of the dead?" - Pliny, Historia Naturae 12.41.84.		 ”

Ports

Roman Ports

The three main Roman ports involved with eastern trade were Arsinoe, Berenice and Myos Hormos. Arsinoe was one of the early trading centers but was soon overshadowed by the more easily accessible Myos Hormos and Berenice.

Arsinoe

Sites of Egyptian Red Sea ports, including Alexandria and Berenice.

The Ptolemaic dynasty exploited the strategic position of Alexandria to secure trade with India.5 The course of trade with the east then seems to have been first through the harbor of Arsinoe, the present day Suez.5 The goods from the East African trade were landed at one of the three main Roman ports, Arsinoe, Berenice or Myos Hormos.11 The Romans cleared out the canal from the Nile to harbor center of Arsinoe on the Red Sea, which had silted up.12 This was one of the many efforts the Roman administration had to undertake to divert as much of the trade to the maritime routes as possible.12

Arsinoe was eventually overshadowed by the rising prominence of Myos Hermos.12 The navigation to the northern ports, such as Arsinoe-Clysma, became difficult in comparison to Myos Hermos due to the northern winds in the Gulf of Suez.13 Venturing to these northern ports presented additional difficulties such as shoals, reefs and treacherous currents.13

Myos Hormos and Berenice

Myos Hormos and Berenice appear to have been important ancient trading ports, possibly used by the Pharaonic traders of ancient Egypt and the Ptolemaic dynasty before falling into Roman control.1

The site of Berenice, since its discovery by Belzoni (1818), has been equated with the ruins near Ras Banas in Southern Egypt.1 However, the precise location of Myos Hormos is disputed with the latitude and longitude given in Ptolemy's Geography favoring Abu Sha'ar and the accounts given in classical literature and satellite images indicating a probable identification with Quesir el-Quadim at the end of a fortified road from Koptos on the Nile.1 The Quesir el-Quadim site has further been associated with Myos Hormos following the excavations at el-Zerqa, halfway along the route, which have revealed ostraca leading to the conclusion that the port at the end of this road may have been Myos Hormos.1

Indian ports

Roman piece of pottery from Arezzo, Latium, found at Virampatnam, Arikamedu (1st century CE). Musee Guimet.

In India, the ports of Barbaricum (modern Karachi), Barygaza, Muziris, Korkai, Kaveripattinam and Arikamedu on the southern tip of India were the main centers of this trade. The Periplus Maris Erythraei describes Greco-Roman merchants selling in Barbaricum "thin clothing, figured linens, topaz, coral, storax, frankincense, vessels of glass, silver and gold plate, and a little wine" in exchange for "costus, bdellium, lycium, nard, turquoise, lapis lazuli, Seric skins, cotton cloth, silk yarn, and indigo".14 In Barygaza, they would buy wheat, rice, sesame oil, cotton and cloth.14

Barigaza

Trade with Barigaza, under the control of the Indo-Scythian Western Satrap Nahapana ("Nambanus"), was especially flourishing:14

“ There are imported into this market-town (Barigaza), wine, Italian preferred, also Laodicean and Arabian; copper, tin, and lead; coral and topaz; thin clothing and inferior sorts of all kinds; bright-colored girdles a cubit wide; storax, sweet clover, flint glass, realgar, antimony, gold and silver coin, on which there is a profit when exchanged for the money of the country; and ointment, but not very costly and not much. And for the King there are brought into those places very costly vessels of silver, singing boys, beautiful maidens for the harem, fine wines, thin clothing of the finest weaves, and the choicest ointments. There are exported from these places spikenard, costus, bdellium, ivory, agate and carnelian, lycium, cotton cloth of all kinds, silk cloth, mallow cloth, yarn, long pepper and such other things as are brought here from the various market-towns. Those bound for this market-town from Egypt make the voyage favorably about the month of July, that is Epiphi. - Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, paragraph 49. ”

Muziris

Muziris, as shown in the Tabula Peutingeriana.

Muziris is a lost port city in the South Indian state of Kerala which was a major center of trade in Tamilakkam between the Chera kingdom and the Roman Empire.15 Large hoards of coins and innumerable shards of amphorae found in the town of Pattanam have elicited recent archeological interest in finding a probable location of this port city.15

According to the Periplus, numerous Greek seamen managed an intense trade with Muziris:14

“ "Then come Naura and Tyndis, the first markets of Damirica (Limyrike), and then Muziris and Nelcynda, which are now of leading importance. Tyndis is of the Kingdom of Cerobothra; it is a village in plain sight by the sea. Muziris, of the same Kingdom, abounds in ships sent there with cargoes from Arabia, and by the Greeks; it is located on a river, distant from Tyndis by river and sea five hundred stadia, and up the river from the shore twenty stadia" - The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, 53-54 ”

Arikamedu

The Periplus Maris Erythraei mentions a marketplace named Poduke (ch. 60), which G.W.B. Huntingford identified as possibly being Arikamedu in Tamil Nadu, a centre of early Chola trade (now part of Ariyankuppam), about 2 miles from the modern Pondicherry.16 Huntingford further notes that Roman pottery was found at Arikamedu in 1937, and archeological excavations between 1944 and 1949 showed that it was "a trading station to which goods of Roman manufacture were imported during the first half of the 1st century AD".16

Cultural exchanges

A 1st century CE Indian imitation of a coin of Augustus, British Museum.

The Rome-India trade also saw several cultural exchanges which had lasting effect for both the civilizations and others involved in the trade. The Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum was involved in the Indian Ocean trade network and was influenced by Roman culture and Indian architecture.3 Traces of Indian influences are visible in Roman works of silver and ivory, or in Egyptian cotton and silk fabrics used for sale in Europe.17 The Indian presence in Alexandria may have influenced the culture but little is known about the manner of this influence.17 Clement of Alexandria mentions the Buddha in his writings and other Indian religions find mentions in other texts of the period.17

Christian and Jewish settlers from the Rome continued to live in India long after the decline in bilateral trade.3 Large hoards of Roman coins have been found throughout India, and especially in the busy maritime trading centers of the south.3 The Tamilakkam kings reissued Roman coinage in their own name after defacing the coins in order to signify their sovereignty.18 Mentions of the traders are recorded in the Tamil Sangam literature of India.18 One such mention reads: "The beautifully built ships of the Yavanas came with gold and returned with pepper, and Muziris resounded with the noise."18

Decline and aftermath

Following the Roman-Persian Wars the areas under the Roman Byzantine Empire were captured by Khosrow I of the Persian Sassanian Dynasty.19 The Arabs, led by 'Amr ibn al-'As, crossed into Egypt in late 639 or early 640 CE.20 This advance marked the beginning of the Islamic conquest of Egypt20 and the fall of ports such as Alexandria,4 used to secure trade with India by the Greco Roman world since the Ptolemaic dynasty.5

The decline in trade saw the ancient Tamil country turn to Southeast Asia for international trade, where it influenced the native culture to a greater degree than the impressions made on Rome.21

The Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in the 15th century (1453), marking the beginning of Turkish control over the most direct trade routes between Europe and Asia.22 The Ottomans initially cut off eastern trade with Europe, leading in turn to the attempt by Europeans to find a sea route around Africa, spurring the Age of Discovery, and the eventual rise of Merchantilism and Colonialism.

Meanwhile, by the early seventeenth centurywhen? the Most Serene Republic of Venice managed to come to uneasy terms with the Ottomans and for a time re-established a vestige of their own dominance in the Eastern trade (which had for a long while proceeded within Islaamic lands taken up by Arab middlemen along the Roman-Axum-Indian trade route), albeit at much inflated prices for silk and spices. The Venetians had had a tax free deal with the Byzantine Empire, essentially a part of the treaty establishing their independence, and the foundation of the city-states wealth and influence in the High and Late Middle Ages.
Egypt under the rule of the Rashidun, drawn on the modern state borders.      Prophet Mohammad, 622-632      Patriarchal Caliphate, 632-661      Umayyad Caliphate, 661-750

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Shaw 2003: 426
  2. ^ a b c d Young 2001: 19
  3. ^ a b c d Curtin 1984: 100
  4. ^ a b Holl 2003: 9
  5. ^ a b c d Lindsay 2006: 101
  6. ^ a b Potter 2004: 20
  7. ^ Lach 1994: 13
  8. ^ Young 2001: 20
  9. ^ a b "The Geography of Strabo published in Vol. I of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1917" (HTML).
  10. ^ "minimaque computatione miliens centena milia sestertium annis omnibus India et Seres et paeninsula illa imperio nostro adimunt: tanti nobis deliciae et feminae constant. quota enim portio ex illis ad deos, quaeso, iam vel ad inferos pertinet?" Pliny, Historia Naturae 12.41.84.
  11. ^ O'Leary 2001: 72
  12. ^ a b c Fayle 2006: 52
  13. ^ a b Freeman 2003: 72
  14. ^ a b c d Halsall, Paul. "Ancient History Sourcebook: The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century" (HTML). Fordham University.
  15. ^ a b "Search for India's ancient city", BBC. 
  16. ^ a b Huntingford 1980: 119.
  17. ^ a b c Lach 1994: 18
  18. ^ a b c Kulke 2004: 108
  19. ^ Farrokh 2007: 252
  20. ^ a b Meri 2006: 224
  21. ^ Kulke 2004: 106
  22. ^ The Encyclopedia Americana 1989: 176

References

  • Curtin, Philip DeArmond; el al. (1984). Cross-Cultural Trade in World History, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521269318. 
  • The Encyclopedia Americana (1989), Grolier. ISBN 0717201201. 
  • Farrokh, Kaveh (2007). Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War, Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1846031087. 
  • Fayle, Charles Ernest (2006). A Short History of the World's Shipping Industry, Routledge. ISBN 0415286190. 
  • Freeman, Donald B. (2003). The Straits of Malacca: Gateway Or Gauntlet?, McGill-Queen's Press. ISBN 0773525157. 
  • Holl, Augustin F. C. (2003). Ethnoarchaeology of Shuwa-Arab Settlements, Lexington Books. ISBN 0739104071. 
  • Huntingford, G.W.B. (1980). The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Hakluyt Society. 
  • Kulke, Hermann; Dietmar Rothermund (2004). A History of India, Routledge. ISBN 0415329191. 
  • Lach, Donald Frederick (1994). Asia in the Making of Europe: The Century of Discovery. Book 1., University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226467317. 
  • Lindsay, W S (2006). History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce, Adamant Media Corporation. ISBN 0543942538. 
  • Meri, Josef W.; Jere L. Bacharach (2006). Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, Routledge. ISBN 0415966906. 
  • O'Leary, De Lacy (2001). Arabia Before Muhammad, Routledge. ISBN 0415231884. 
  • Potter, David Stone (2004). The Roman Empire at Bay: Ad 180-395, Routledge. ISBN 0415100585. 
  • Shaw, Ian (2003). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192804588. 
  • Young, Gary Keith (2001). Rome's Eastern Trade: International Commerce and Imperial Policy, 31 BC-AD 305, Routledge. ISBN 0415242193. 

Further reading

  • Chami, F. A. 1999. “The Early Iron Age on Mafia island and its relationship with the mainland.” Azania Vol. XXXIV.
  • Miller, J. Innes. 1969. The Spice Trade of The Roman Empire: 29 B.C. to A.D. 641. Oxford University Press. Special edition for Sandpiper Books. 1998. ISBN 0-19-814264-1.

External links


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