This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
16/261
Te Indian Ocean (rst century AD).
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
17/261
Te Middle East (rst century AD).
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
18/261
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
19/261
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
20/261
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
21/261
This page intentionally left blank
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
22/261
Introduction: Rome and the Distant East
In the closing years o the Republican era, the Romans completed
their conquest o the remaining Mediterranean kingdoms. Yet ew in
that Empire appreciated the scale o the ancient world they
inhabited. Far beyond their rontiers, across the
immense inhospitable territories o Inner Asia, lay the vast expanse
o Han China. Previously unknown to the Romans, China had or almost
two centuries governed a population and domain that equalled Rome
at the height o its power. Although the Romans remained only dimly
aware o China, the Han maintained ambitions in the distant West and
as time progressed they drew together reports o Rome. Tey regarded
this distant equal with increasing ascination and made ambitious
plans or contact.
Driven by new commercial ashions, trade goods moved in increasingly
large quantities between China and Rome. However, the hostile
kingdoms that lay
between the two great empires jealously guarded the commercial
prots o this traffi c and blocked almost all direct communications
between the Roman and Chinese civilizations. o the east o the Roman
Empire, lay the Parthian Realm, the ormidable rival to Rome that
stretched across Persia rom Mesopotamia and Iran to the outer edge
o India. Te presence o the Parthians denied Roman subjects access
to the vital overland caravan routes that connected across Iran and
led onwards to India and China. Nevertheless, by the close o the
Republican era, the Roman Empire had gained possession o
Mediterranean territories bordering the Red Sea, and as market
opportunities improved, greater numbers o Roman subjects
began
to use this region to reach the Indian Ocean and explore the
distant East. Source accounts rom the classical texts reveal how,
in ancient times, these
distant trade routes connected the eastern territories o the Roman
Empire to the araway lands o Arabia, India and China. Ancient
evidence indicates that afer the conquest o Egypt, a variety o
exotic goods rom the distant East became increasingly available to
Roman society. Te ancient testimonies also describe the operation o
trade ventures undertaken by Roman subjects who, compelled by prot,
travelled ar beyond the Empire’s eastern rontiers and conronted
great dangers to acquire valuable spices, prized silks and costly
aromatics.
Te sources reveal how Roman merchants sailed rom the Egyptian Red
Sea ports on distant ocean crossings to explore the commercial
opportunities offered in the ar-off territories that encircled the
Indian Ocean. By the early rst century AD Roman merchants routinely
sailed as ar as amil India and through these trade connections
imported into the Empire a vast range o exotic materials including
spices, abrics and gemstones.
On these distant trade voyages Roman merchant ships would visit
Arican
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
23/261
R O ME A ND HE D I S A N E A S
markets in Ethiopia and Somalia to acquire valuable local products
including exotic slaves and precious aromatics. Roman merchants
also became requent visitors to Eastern bazaars in the territories
o southern Arabia where they would receive
precious stocks o rankincense and myrrh harvested in the
surrounding regions. As this aspect o trade developed, merchants
rom the Arabian kingdoms began to send great camel caravan trains
northward through the vast desert expanse o Arabia to reach
prosperous markets in Palestine and supply Roman society with
urther stocks o this costly incense.
Te ancient accounts also provide evidence or the operation o
distant overland trade routes that crossed Asia to supply Roman
markets with a urther range o exotic Eastern products. Mesopotamia
was an ethnically diverse region and Parthia did not have absolute
authority over their small communities and kingdoms.
Merchants rom the Roman Empire could thereore cross reely rom Syria
into Mesopotamia to visit the great Greek and Persian cities that
existed in the ertile territories near the igris and Euphrates
river systems. Tere they ound Eastern goods that had reached
Mesopotamia through maritime trade routes extending across the
Persian Gul to northwest India. Mesopotamia also offered urther
commercial possibilities or Roman merchants. It was at the edge o
major caravan routes that stretched across the Iranian territories
o the Parthian Realm to reach distant sites in Inner Asia and,
ultimately, China.
Although China remained remote, classical authorities had rom the
earliest
stage o their history appreciated the scale and signiicance o
ancient India. Modern interest in Rome has tended to emphasize the
importance o Western Europe, but India has always been signicant in
classical knowledge o the ancient world. In the fh
century BC the Greek historian Herodotus records
tribute lists rom a Persian Empire that extended rom Egypt and Asia
Minor, across Iran to the outer edge o India. Although the Persians
controlled only the Indus region, this eastern terminal o their
realm provided their king, Darius, with almost a third o his total
tribute revenues.1
By the Roman era, the growth o international trade permitted
greater con-
nections between these distant civilizations and India was arguably
even more signicant to the classical world. ‘Tey say that India
orms one-third o the whole earth and that its populations are
innumerable – and this is certainly possible.’2 Tese are the
words o the Roman writer and commander Gaius Plinius Secundus,
better known as Pliny the Elder. Pliny served as an adviser to the
Emperor Vespasian and in the rst century AD composed one o the most
extensive surviving studies o the ancient world. Elsewhere in his
encyclopaedic work, Pliny considers the development o Roman trade
voyages across the Indian Ocean and justies his inclusion o this
new material with the comment, ‘Tis is an important matter
since India drains more than fy million sesterces a year rom our
empire’.3 o place this export gure in context, a sum o 50
million sesterces was larger than the annual tribute that Caesar
imposed on Gaul ollowing his conquest o this productive
territory.4
Tese ancient statements regarding the distant East become signicant
when modern scholars propagate the grand imperial claims o Roman
‘world rule’. Te real ancient world was ar larger than either the
Roman Mediterranean or the ringe
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
24/261
I NR O D U CI O N
territories o northwest Europe. Any well-inormed Roman appreciated
that Rome only governed a small portion o the earth, and that
beyond the eastern rontiers, there existed sophisticated kingdoms
that could rival their Empire. Evidence o
these distant powers was on display in the markets o their popular
urban centres which oered the products o Arabia, Persia, India and
the Far East, to keen Roman customers. Tese eastern kingdoms ofen
sent representatives to the Roman Emperor and their rulers would
have, with justication, regarded themselves as equal to their Roman
counterparts.
Te Romans perhaps elt uneasy about what lay beyond their eastern
rontiers. Rome depended on Egypt to eed its vast population, but
Egypt was also the gate- way to the Indian Ocean and the outer
limits o its enormous expanse remained unexplored. With almost no
provocation Augustus had launched a Red Sea eet
o 130 warships against Arabia, to conquer the peninsula with an
army to seize their wealth.5 Te city o Aden was sacked during
these hostilities and although the conquest ailed, a precedent had
been set.
As merchants urther explored the distant East, Roman authorities
realized the ancient world did not end at the limits o India as
their Greek predecessors, and their Republican ancestors, had
imagined. By the rst century AD trade contacts had expanded to
reach the Malay Peninsula and reports began to arrive o the even
more distant territories beyond. Consequently, Roman authorities
had good reason to eel awed by the scale o the inhabited world. Yet
they also appreciated how these
new contacts enabled unprecedented communications between the most
distant territories known to Roman society. As Seneca observed,
‘What afer all is the space that lies between the urthest shores o
Spain and India? Only a ew days travel i a ship is blown by a
avourable wind’.6
It was through their most distant maritime contacts with India that
the Romans rst began to receive conused accounts o another
signicant power in the Far East. Tis was China, the true source o
the silk abrics that had already become popular ashion amongst
prosperous Roman consumers. As Roman trade with the distant East
steadily expanded, direct contacts between these two great
imperial
civilizations seemed inevitable. Te Roman philosopher and statesman
Seneca, tutor o the Emperor Nero,
was suffi ciently interested in the distant East to compose a book
on the subject o India.7 Tis work has not survived into modern
times, but statements in his prolic studies seem ominous,
especially as the rst rumours regarding China were reach- ing Rome
during Seneca’s lietime. Criticising mankind’s capacity to cause
harm to oreign nations, Seneca warns that even Rome might one day
nd itsel victim to a distant imperial power as yet unknown. He
muses, ‘What i some ruler o a great nation, at present unknown to
us, increased by good ortune and ambitious
to expand the boundaries o his realm, is at this very moment tting
out a eet to send against us?’.8
In the ancient world, the struggle or supremacy was not always
decided by invasion and war. In lands remote rom Rome, imperial
agents were using economic strategies to bring oreign peoples into
positions o subservience. In the Far East, the Han set in motion
subtle long-term schemes to undermine their oreign enem- ies and
damage any ability to resist, or make war, on China. Te Han
encouraged
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
25/261
R O ME A ND HE D I S A N E A S
a market or Chinese oodstuffs and ashions amongst oreign peoples
including the Xiongnu hordes o the Mongolian Steppe. Te eventual
aim was to make these populations dependent on Chinese oods and
manuactured goods so that these
items could be withheld, or offered in diminished amounts, to inict
economic damage on these oreign communities. A Han offi cial
outlined how this strategy should be implemented, advising, ‘Every
large border market we establish must be tted with shops . . . and
all shops must be large enough to serve between one to two hundred
people . . . Te Xiongnu will then develop a craving or our products
and this will be their atal weakness’.9 Te Xiongnu were
beguiled through thousands o trade exchanges that collectively
reduced their resources and weakened their economic independence.
As another Han offi cial reported, ‘A piece o plain Chinese silk
can be exchanged with the Xiongnu nomads or articles worth several
pieces o
gold. By these means we can reduce the resources o our
enemy’.10 With calculated oresight the Han slowly, but surely,
gained an economic stranglehold over their most dangerous
opponents.
In the Roman Empire the new ashion-driven demand or costly silk
abrics caused growing concern. In a speech beore the Senate in AD
22, the Emperor iberius drew attention to the effect this unchecked
consumerism was having on the Roman economy, ‘Our wealth is
transported to alien and hostile countries because o the
promiscuous dress worn by men and women – especially
women’.11 But no effective measures were taken to restrict
the trade and in the ollowing
decades escalating ashion demands encouraged the export o ever
greater quant- ities o Roman wealth to the distant East. Tese
issues concerned Seneca who was aware that the wealth o the Empire
was being conveyed to some ar-off people who were not yet revealed
to Roman merchants, nor had they announced their intent to the
government in Rome. He concludes ominously, ‘these silks are
imported at vast expense rom nations unknown to us even through
trade’.12 Pliny also identies the ‘Silk People’ as one o the
main participants in the eastern haemorrhage o Roman bullion and
accuses them o orchestrating a trade where the eastern peoples,
‘take 100 million sesterces rom our empire every year – so much do
our luxuries and
our women cost us’.13 Tis gure is equivalent to perhaps
one-eighth o the total Roman expense budget. By this era it may
already have been too late to restrict the trade, as the Roman
Empire became increasingly reliant on the customs revenues received
rom taxing the commerce created by the incoming Eastern
goods.
Te Romans had good reason to receive rumours o China with
apprehension. Seneca was a member o the imperial court during the
reign o Claudius when a Sri Lankan king sent a party o ambassadors
to establish the rst diplomatic contacts between the Sinhalese
kingdom and the Roman state. Pliny was a young military offi cer
serving in Germany at the time o these events, but he later wrote
an account
o this episode, suggesting that the Roman elite were awed by this
unexpected encounter. Previous classical authorities had known very
little about the Sinhalese kingdom beore this dramatic diplomatic
overture and there had been popular speculation that Sri Lanka
might have been the tip o a vast unexplored continent – an alter
orbis – that matched the scale o the Eurasian
landmass.14
Te appreciation that Rome was only a small part o the ancient world
has relev- ance or Roman ideology, especially the assertion made by
the imperial elite that
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
26/261
I NR O D U CI O N
their empire had authority over the whole earth. In practice, this
authority could not have been military and Seneca hints that the
Roman claim to world recognition was achieved by the peaceul
dealings o merchants, not through the military might
o legionaries. He protests, ‘we have been given the winds so that
the wealth o each region might become common, and not to carry
legions and cavalry, or bring harmul intent to other
peoples’.15
his latter statement by Seneca oers a more accurate and perhaps
more authentic appraisal o the Roman achievement in its ancient
context. At the height o Roman power, subjects o the Empire were
requent visitors to trading centres as ar west as Hibernia, while
in the distant East great commercial eets routinely sailed rom
Roman ports in Egypt to coastal markets in India and
beyond.16 Te Romans never achieved a global conquest, but
Roman rule was able to oster a
commerce that had a ar greater inuence over the ancient world and
its resources, than imperial armies could ever have hoped to
acquire by coercive orce. Perhaps Rome’s global achievement would
be better assessed through the accomplishments o merchants and
measured by the range and scale o their activities.
By studying Roman involvement in Eastern trade, this book places
the Roman Empire more rmly within its genuine ancient context. Tis
investigation challenges how Western scholars have traditionally
presented Rome and its achievements. Notably, there is still a
convention within established scholarship to consider the Roman
Empire largely on the basis o its direct political and military
sphere o
inuence, conning studies within narrow academic boundaries. Tese
percep- tions need to be conronted and this can be achieved by
studying ancient evidence concerning how trade connected and nanced
the ancient world. Finally, I believe that international commerce
is the key to explaining the remarkable economic success o the
imperial system that created and sustained the early Roman
Empire.
PLAN OF HE BOOK
Te study presented in this book is a scaled-down enquiry into the
operation o Rome’s Eastern commerce. Te book is based on my
doctoral research completed in 2006 entitled ‘Roman rade with India
and the Distant East’. I believe that one o the main issues
limiting the study o Eastern commerce is the absence o accessible
books on this subject.
Tis is the rst book to comprehensively consider Rome’s Eastern
trade, but a study on this scale cannot deal adequately with the
range o evidence that exists on this topic. I have thereore
concentrated my study on the development o Eastern contacts up to
their period o greatest signicance. Te sources used are taken
rom
ancient texts that are diffi cult or the non-specialist to acquire
and I have thereore provided translations whenever possible. I have
also directed my discussion towards evidence that can be used to
challenge existing views o the Roman economy and traditional
attitudes to the ancient world.
Chapter One introduces the main evidence or Roman involvement in
Eastern commerce. Tis includes a review o the main classical texts,
an introduction to the archaeological evidence, and a discussion o
the ancient works surviving rom the
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
27/261
R O ME A ND HE D I S A N E A S
Indian and Chinese civilizations. Chapter wo looks at the maritime
trade routes that led rom Roman Egypt across the eastern oceans to
India and the distant East. Chapter Tree considers the gul trade
routes and desert caravan trails, that brought
incense rom southern Arabia north into Roman territories. Chapter
Four examines the evidence or the overland trade routes that
crossed Persia to connect with the so-called silk routes o Inner
Asia.
Te last two chapters o this study consider the political and
economic context o the Roman Empire. Chapter Five examines the
evidence or diplomatic contacts between Roman government and the
distant powers that ruled India and China. Te nal chapter considers
the signicance o Eastern commerce to the Roman economy. Te rst part
o this chapter looks at the ashion-driven consumption o Eastern
merchandise in Roman society and considers how trade ventures to
the
distant East were unded. Te nal section investigates the revenues
that Rome received rom Eastern commerce and looks at how these unds
nanced the Empire. Tis discussion introduces an alternative model
or the Roman economy, explaining how the Empire unctioned during
its period o greatest prosperity.
For the purposes o this book, the term ‘Roman’ describes the
territories o Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Arabia that were within
the Empire or under the rule o its client kingdoms. In these
discussions the term ‘distant East’ or ‘remote East’ reers to
territories beyond the Roman rontiers. Tis includes the Parthian
Realm, southern Arabia, East Arica, India, Inner Asia, the Far East
and China.
In reerencing ancient works I have given the title that is most
likely to be known to non-specialists. In the ootnotes, I have
listed texts in the order they can be read to make sense o the
issue. In most cases, I have limited reerences to the most recent
arguments concerning the subject and listed works where urther
academic details can be ound. I believe that Eastern commerce is a
worthy subject area or uture historical inquiry. Tough I personally
do not have the opportunity to continue this research, I can create
the context that uture scholars can use to urther explore this
ascinating subject.
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
28/261
Ancient Evidence or Eastern Contacts
Te evidence or Eastern commerce is extraordinary, especially as the
Greek and Roman sources are supplemented by various written
accounts produced by other ancient civilizations. For example, the
earliest amil literature describes contact
with a oreign people called the Yavanas who many believe were
subjects o the Roman Empire.17 Historical records have also
survived rom ancient China and they record the activities o a
oreign people rom a great power in the distant West called Da
Qin.18 Leading Sinologists identiy Da Qin as the Roman
Empire.19
Added to this written testimony is an increasing range o ancient
evidence recov- ered by archaeological nds. Tese include
inscriptions rom ancient monuments, texts scratched on pottery
ragments known as ostraca, and papyri documents rom Roman times
that have been preserved in the arid environment o Egypt. Ancient
sites associated with Eastern trade both within and beyond the
Roman rontiers,
have also been subject to recent investigation and have provided
urther important material evidence or the conduct and signicance o
Eastern commerce.
HE PERIPLUS OF HE ERYHRAEAN SEA
Classical accounts provide the most extensive and credible evidence
or the opera- tion o Rome’s Eastern trade, and among these texts a
short pamphlet reerred to as the Periplus o the Erythraean
Sea holds a uniquely important position.
Te Periplus is a merchant handbook consisting o 66
concise paragraphs writ- ten in a straightorward style o Greek that
was popular in the Roman era.20 In this important document the
unnamed author offers practical inormation about trade voyages rom
Roman Egypt to ports o call in east Arica, southern Arabia, and the
western coasts o India. Tis systematic catalogue o trade contact
makes the Periplus the most detailed and comprehensive surviving
account o Roman involvement in Eastern commerce.21
One o the unique eatures o the Periplus is that it was written by
someone who had direct experience o the distant East and clues in
the text suggest that the author
was a Greek-speaking businessman rom Egypt who had visited India on
past trade missions.22 Te author was probably a trusted
authority who wrote the report to inorm contemporaries about the
condition o Eastern commerce, probably or the benet o speculators
who wanted to invest in the trade, or perhaps or less experi- enced
merchants who were considering undertaking the voyage themselves.23
Te Periplus is also remarkable because it is one o the ew
surviving classical sources to have been written by a merchant.
Most historical accounts rom the Roman
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
29/261
R O ME A ND HE D I S A N E A S
era were written by members o the learned social elite who tended
to idealise the aristocratic business o landholding and regard
merchants as social ineriors. Tis makes the pragmatic testimony o
the Periplus even more compelling as a source
or ancient practices. Te author o the Periplus collected
details rom different trade voyages and
assembled this inormation into long itineraries that catalogued
commercial opportunities along the eastern coasts. Above all else,
the interest o the author is directed towards items that could be
exchanged at the various ports o call and so lists commodities
exported through trade and the Roman goods that could be exchanged
in return. On occasion the author also provides details about the
quantities o certain goods traded and offers inormation on the true
origins o products, when the merchant dealers exporting the goods
were only intermediaries
in a wider commerce. Te Periplus also contains elements o a
maritime manual and a navigational aid
with the author offering signicant inormation on sailing routes,
marine hazards, landmarks, sae anchorages and useul
supplies.24 Tis additional detail combines to create a vivid
account o the commerce, revealing the concerns o merchants and the
many dangers they routinely encountered on these ambitious trade
voyages.
Te Periplus describes characters and events that would date the
work to around AD 50. First, the author mentions that an Arabian
monarch named Malichus was ruling the Nabatean kingdom and
inscriptions rom this region reveal that Malichus
was in power between AD 40 and AD 70.25 Second, the author
describes northern India beore AD 65 when invaders rom Central
Asia, called the Kushan, were still conned to Bactria, and Gandhara
was ruled by minor Indo-Parthian kings.26 Te third piece o
evidence is more complex, as the Periplus describes an era
when the Gujarat region o India was under the control o a king who
the author names as ‘Manbanos’, but the Indian texts call
‘Nahapana’.27 When the Periplus was written, Nahapana had
just captured territory in the Satavahana Realm to the south o his
kingdom, including the important Buddhist monastery at
Nasik.28 Inscriptions rom Nasik suggest that Nahapana
controlled the region or less than 11 years
and scholars have assigned a date o AD 66 or the latest Saka
inscription at the site.29 Tis suggests that the Saka
occupation described in the Periplus, could not have begun much
earlier than AD 54. Interestingly, the author o the
Periplus was unaware o events late in the reign o the Claudius
when a Roman reedman discov- ered a new sailing route to Sri Lanka
and brought back important new inormation concerning the
island.30 Tis suggests that the Periplus was written
shortly beore AD 54 when Claudius was succeeded by Nero.
Te Periplus o the Erythraean Sea is the only merchant
Periplus that has survived rom antiquity, but at any one time
there were probably dozens o these accounts
circulating amongst the Greek and Roman businessmen o Alexandria.
It is likely that these reports would have been regularly updated
and amended as new inorma- tion became available and urther trading
opportunities were realized. Tese guides would have been written by
trusted authorities and passed on to select contacts in the
business community. Eastern trade was bewildering in its complexity
and Roman businessmen needed some orm o reerence to plan possible
market destinations and respond to likely oreign demands. Some
trade decisions would
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
30/261
A NCI E N E V I D E NCE F O R E A S E R N CO NA CS
have to be made during the voyage as Roman merchants picked up
Eastern cargoes at oreign ports to exchange at more distant
markets. An up-to-date trade Periplus would be invaluable as
Roman traders needed to know which Arabian goods were
in demand at Indian ports and what other oreign shipping was
visiting particular markets. Tese elaborate trade systems required
the type o detailed guide that can be ound in the pages o the
Periplus.
Te Periplus offers the economic historian an unparalleled
insight into distance trade. No other surviving Roman text offers
this kind o detail on commerce and the possible strategies behind
various trade dealings. I the Periplus had not survived, then the
study o Eastern commerce would be limited to a ew vague and
disparate reerences in the remaining sources. Te Periplus not
only offers a context or all other source accounts, but it also
explains archaeological nds that would otherwise
remain obscure. Te work is unique and has justiably
occupied a central position in almost all modern inquiries into
Eastern trade, including my own studies.31
HE GEOGRAPHY BY SRABO
About AD 23, a Greek named Strabo completed a geographical study o
the known world. Strabo was someone who sought acceptance in Roman
society and certain passages o his work demonstrate an underlying
approval o the imperial system.32
He was primarily a historian, and although his version o the
history o the world has not survived, the style o his geography
reects his interest in the past.33 Tis work contains important
inormation about trade in the eastern Roman Empire and the lands
beyond its rontiers.
Strabo was born sometime between 64 BC and 50 BC, in
the Pontic city o Amaseia on the southern coast o the Black
Sea.34 His amily were Hellenic aris- tocrats and as part o his
education Strabo visited a number o Greek intellectual centres in
the eastern Mediterranean.35 Strabo also resided in Rome beore
spend- ing several years in Alexandria in the 20s BC, where he
developed a riendship with
Aelius Gallus. Gallus was one o the rst Roman governors o Egypt and
Strabo joined his entourage o ‘riends and soldiers’ to tour
around the new province.36 Strabo returned to Rome shortly
afer 20 BC and continued to live in the imperial capital,
probably until his death in AD 23.37 It was during this latter
period o his lie that he composed his geography.38
Te Geography written by Strabo is a substantial, all-encompassing
study that collects together ethnographic and political
inormation about the ancient territor- ies known to Greek
scholars.39 Strabo compiled his work rom well-known accounts
written by traditional Greek and Roman authorities, but he also
occasionally added
contemporary details concerning recent developments. Te historical
inormation that Strabo collects on Persia and Arabia is o
signic-
ant value or understanding conditions in these regions. However,
his consideration o India relies heavily on respected Greek sources
rom the time o Alexander the Great and his immediate
successors.40 As a consequence, Strabo provides almost no
inormation regarding events in India during his own era. Tis is
signicant, because when Strabo wrote his geography, there would
have been thousands o
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
31/261
R O ME A ND HE D I S A N E A S
Roman subjects travelling to India every year. Tese people had
accurate contem- porary knowledge o the distant East and Strabo
would have encountered them as he walked through the busy streets o
Alexandria. However, like other members
o the Roman elite, he would have regarded merchants and sailors as
his social ineriors. Tis prejudice excluded contemporary accounts
rom the type o ormal study avoured by the literary classes. Indeed
Strabo advises his readers:
It was perhaps true that the traders who sold their goods at the
merchant bazaars
in Alexandria beguiled wealthy buyers with exaggerated stories
about their exotic voyages and the incredible creatures they
had seen.42 Tis ‘sales patter’ helped to hype the prices o
Eastern goods, but it also meant that authorities like Strabo had
diffi culty accepting any merchant testimony as entirely
credible.43
In the Augustan era, members o the Roman government probably had a
ar more extensive understanding o contemporary India than Strabo,
or the surviving sources, would suggest. Strabo mentions that
ambassadors rom various Indian kingdoms were sending embassies to
the Emperor Augustus, but, although Strabo had riends amongst the
Roman elite, he was clearly not privy to the exchanges
o inormation that occurred between the Emperor and these
prestigious oreign visitors.44
Despite its ailings, Strabo’s Geography remains an
immensely valuable source o inormation on Eastern trade in the
early Roman era. His survey-like overview o contacts and conditions
across the eastern rontiers is indispensable, especially as these
outlying territories ofen receive little mention in the other
surviving texts. His approval o Roman imperialism also compels him
to comment on how the Empire had beneted these eastern regions by
accommodating commerce, or improving security. All these details
provide valuable evidence about how the ormation o
the Augustan Empire undamentally altered the classical world.
Strabo’s Geography thereore holds an important position
in any comprehensive study o Eastern trade.
HE PEUINGER MAP
A urther remarkable document, ofen reerred to as the Peutinger
able, reveals Roman perceptions o the world in a map-like display
that includes a nal seg- ment representing India. Te Peutinger
able is believed to be a medieval copy o
a decorative Roman map, dating to around AD 300. It is relevant or
the study o Eastern commerce because it displays important
locations in the distant East and outlines signicant overland
contact routes.
Te map is drawn and coloured on parchment and represents the
ancient world as a long linear diagram that is less than a third o
a metre tall, but stretches to a length o almost seven
metres.45 In the design o the map there has been almost no
attempt to represent the true shape o coastlines or countries but
important
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
32/261
A NCI E N E V I D E NCE F O R E A S E R N CO NA CS
settlements are marked on the document along with various
geographical eatures. Sites represented in the work are connected
by coloured lines which are probably travel routes based on
overland itineraries used by traders, armies or administra-
tors. A urther ascinating eature o the map is the appearance o an
Augustan temple in southern India.46
Te Peutinger Map has too many errors and inconsistencies to
have been a unctional document used or serious overland travel. For
example, the Italian town o Pompeii appears on the map, despite its
destruction by the eruption o Vesuvius in AD 79. Conversely, the
city o Constantinople eatures prominently, although the city was
not ounded until the early ourth century AD. Tis work was probably
designed or public exhibition, possibly as some orm o state
propaganda.47 Te map would visually emphasize the scale and
achievements o the Roman Empire,
representing the reach o its classical civilization. Tis would
explain why the map depicts a Roman temple in India, a detail which
the mapmakers must have ound in some earlier classical record. It
is thereore likely that the map was compiled by Roman intellectuals
using various earlier sources and itineraries to create a large
schematic display.
Te Peutinger Map is an eccentric puzzle o ancient inormation
and any inter- pretation o the document still remains diffi cult.
Te schematic plan o the work can be conusing or the modern viewer
and marked locations in outlying territories are sometimes diffi
cult to identiy with known ancient sites. General courses
recorded
on the map can be traced with some condence, but their signicance
is ofen obscure. For instance, it is not clear who was using the
ancient routes marked in the sections o the work portraying the
distant East and what the original inormation on these connections
may have been. Despite these concerns the Peutinger Map is a
unique source and this important document will have great
signicance in uture studies o Eastern commerce.
ISIDORE AND HE PARHIAN SAIONS Te Parthian Stations, written by an
author called Isidore, is a brie text o unique interest to
academics studying Eastern trade. Te work gives a short itinerary o
sites leading eastward through the Parthian Realm in what many
scholars have interpreted as an important overland trade
route.48 Little is known about Isidore, but he seems to have
belonged to a Greek community that lived in the Mesopotamian city o
Charax, near the head o the Persian Gul.49 Te text that orms
the so-called Parthian Stations, is the only surviving extract rom
a handbook written in Greek that apparently described conditions in
the Parthian territories.
Te surviving itinerary consists o nineteen short paragraphs, many o
which are no more than sentences stating distances and providing an
occasional pertinent act about certain locations.
In the Parthian Stations, Isidore outlines a route rom Zeugma, at
the edge o Roman Syria, down the Euphrates River and across the
Iranian Plateau to the very limits o Parthian
administration.50 Interestingly, there is no reerence in the
work to commerce and no indication that the main route outlined
through Parthia would
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
33/261
R O ME A ND HE D I S A N E A S
lead onwards to either India, or through the lands o inner Asia to
reach China. Isidore lists urban centres that probably housed
caravan stations, but these sites may also have been included
because they unctioned as military bases, or because
they were important points on offi cial communication routes used
by Parthian administrators.
Scholars have suggested that Isidore may have been mapping a
military campaign route through Parthian territory, perhaps or the
benet o Roman commanders.51 Tis is easible because early in
his itinerary he includes the phrase, ‘rom this point the orces
cross over to the Roman side’. Isidore also shows an interest in
the political and military character o sites along the outlined
route, occasionally mentioning whether or not a particular location
was ortied, or i the local population could be considered ‘Greek’
and thereore by implication, pro-Roman.52
A chance comment by Pliny the Elder could indicate that Isidore was
an agent or the Roman government. Pliny writes:
It could be that Dionysius wrote under the name Isidore, but it is
also possible that
Roman authorities used a number o Greek inormants to gather
intelligence about possible invasion routes through Parthia. Te
work by Isidore could thereore be the remains o a strategic
document produced or the imperial government.54
he Parthian Stations may date to the Augustan era, but Isidore
probably used earlier sources to compile his study. A reerence in
the work to the city o Alexandropolis being on the eastern rontier
o the Parthian Realm is likely to be anachronistic. One theory is
that Isidore’s report is somehow derived rom an offi cial Parthian
document, perhaps a survey conducted by Mithridates II in around
100 BC.55 Although its date and purpose is obscure, the
Parthian Stations
remains an important text or understanding travel routes through
ancient Persia, and consequently deserves signicant notice in the
study o Eastern commerce.
PLINY AND HE NAURAL HISORY
Pliny the Elder’s encyclopaedic Natural History , offers
important details concerning the use o Eastern products in
Mediterranean society, as well as the distant trade ventures
undertaken by Roman subjects to acquire these exotic commodities.
Te Natural History is a remarkably complex document and
although it provides a uniquely ascinating insight into the mindset
o the Roman governing elite, the inormation it contains is ofen
diffi cult to interpret and assess.
Pliny was born in northern Italy in around AD 23, but at a
young age he was sent to be educated in Rome where he had the
opportunity to witness popular events involving members o the
imperial court.56 On reaching adulthood he served with the
Roman army in Germany and was involved in a number o military
campaigns.
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
34/261
A NCI E N E V I D E NCE F O R E A S E R N CO NA CS
He was then appointed to the offi ce o procurator in Hispania
arraconensis, where he served in the period between AD 72 and
AD 74.57 arraconensis was the largest division o Roman
Spain and in the mid rst century AD the territory was a
major
producer o the Empire’s new gold reserves. Pliny probably developed
his academic interest in mining and bullion production during this
period.58
Pliny may have held the position o Procurator in other provinces
beore returning to Rome, where he served as an advisor to the
Emperor Vespasian. In Rome, he would have attended meetings where
Vespasian consulted his cabinet about state administration and the
operational business o the Empire.59 Pliny developed an
academic interest in naval matters and late in his career he was
given the preecture o the Roman eet at Misenum in the Bay o Naples.
He held this post until his dramatic death in AD 79 when he
was asphyxiated by volcanic gases
while trying to rescue civilians eeing the eruption o
Vesuvius.60 In addition to his offi cial duties Pliny pleaded
cases in Roman law courts and
was a prolic writer on various subjects. He published a tactical
work on cavalry manoeuvres drawn rom his experiences in Germany, a
biography o his patron Pomponius Secundus, and a 20 volume history
o Rome’s German wars.61 However, Pliny’s only surviving work
is the Natural History which he compiled during the
period when he was serving as a procurator and an advisor to the
Emperor.62
he Natural History is an enormous and unwieldy
collection o eclectic knowledge. In 37 dense volumes it deals with
numerous aspects o the natural
world and man’s relationship to nature, divided into sections
considering topics like geography, plants, animals, medicines and
metals.63 In discussing these sub- jects Pliny assembled
classical accounts rom a wide range o respected Greek and Roman
authorities. Consequently, many sections o his study read as a
compen- dium o traditional accounts rather than an enquiry into
contemporary conditions.
Te material that orms the Natural History is only
loosely assembled into topics and reading the book the modern
scholar encounters, ‘detail juxtaposed with detail, parataxis,
particularity, multiplicity, and sel contradiction’.64 Pliny’s
discussions are also ull o embellishments, anecdotes and colourul
descriptions.
He offers numerous accounts o wonders, curiosities, monstrosities
and other mirabilia, ofen with little critical or authoritative
comment.65 When Pliny does offer his personal viewpoint it is
ofen in the orm o a moralising judgement or an amusing
comment.66 When Pliny was writing the Natural History ,
Roman government was receiving important contemporary detail about
the distant East rom imperial agents, overseas merchants and
distant ambassadors.67 Yet Pliny generally withholds this
inormation because it does not suit his chosen genre which
emphasized the need to make sense o traditional classical
accounts.
Tough modern scholars nd the Natural
History challenging, there is much to
recommend the work. Pliny spent a lietime in the service o the
Roman Empire, upholding its authority in the provinces and
managing its power near the centre o imperial government.68 He
clearly intended that his study should be o value to the
Roman ruling class and the work is dedicated to Vespasian’s son
itus, who was a renowned military commander and heir to the
Empire.69 Pliny’s attitudes to established ‘knowledge’
thereore make the Natural History an exceptionally
important document or understanding the interests o Roman society
and the
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
35/261
R O ME A ND HE D I S A N E A S
cultural attitudes o its governing elite.70 Te Natural
History and its controversies will consequently perorm a
signicant role in all uture studies o Eastern trade.
HE GEOGRAPHY BY CLAUDIUS POLEMY
About AD 139, an Alexandrian Greek named Claudius Ptolemy
completed a geo- graphical study o the world. He concentrated on
how mathematical inormation, including distances and coordinates,
could be used to create accurate maps.71 Tis work is the only
study o world cartography that has survived rom classical antiquity
and it reveals how greatly commerce had increased Roman knowledge o
the distant East.
Claudius Ptolemy was living in a city were Indian merchant princes
were regu- larly seen at public gatherings, but he preerred to deal
with academic texts, rather than investigate the realities o the
ancient world through direct inquiry. Ptolemy received his data rom
scientic treaties rather than personal experience and most o his
inormation is taken rom a study compiled by a near-contemporary
named Marinos o yre. Marinos managed to acquire detailed merchant
reports similar to the Periplus o the Erythraean Sea, but
describing the next generation o trade contacts. Tis included a
work written by an entrepreneur named Alexandros, who described
even more advanced Roman trade voyages into the distant
East.72 Using
this inormation, Ptolemy was able to list dozens o new commercial
settlements that had risen to prominence in Roman trade dealings
with India and the lands beyond. Ptolemy occasionally reveals his
sources when he mentions articles o trade in his catalogues o
Eastern coordinates.
Ptolemy was not concerned with descriptive reports o peoples and
regional histories. Consequently, his Geography is
mostly a vast compendium o data ormed into long lists o site names
and coordinates. Yet the work also contains a series o essays
dealing with aspects o scientic cartography and in these studies
Ptolemy outlines how his gures or latitudes and longitudes could be
used to create geo-
graphical ‘impressions’ o various world regions. Tere are clear
problems with Ptolemy’s data and the approach he used to
create
maps o the distant East. Ptolemy designates Eastern trade centres
as ‘emporiums’, ‘villages’, ‘cities’ or even ‘metropolises’, but he
never adequately explains this ter- minology. Signicantly, Ptolemy
also restructured some o his data to make it t awed theories
regarding the shape o the Asian landmass. For instance, Alexandros
and the author o the Periplus knew that India ormed a triangular
shape and that its coast ran rom north to south, yet Ptolemy
remained convinced by the tradi- tions o Greek geography and
decided to ignore this peninsula shape. He thereore
restructured his coordinates to atten the southern Asian coast.
Despite these ailings, the maps that can be constructed rom
Ptolemy’s data are
still impressive. His work suggests that by this era, Roman
merchants were reach- ing Malaysia and classical authorities were
aware that the distant East occupied ar more than two-thirds o the
known earth. Ptolemy’s account also reveals that the Romans had
knowledge o Chinese territories in the most distant regions o the
orient.
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
36/261
A NCI E N E V I D E NCE F O R E A S E R N CO NA CS
REMAINS FROM ROMAN EGYP
In ancient times, the two most important Roman ports or Eastern
trade were the
Egyptian towns o Berenice and Myos Hormos which lay on the upper
coast o theRed Sea. Te ruined remains o these towns are still
visible on the desert landscape and the sites have recently been
excavated by archaeologists who have unearthed impressive new
evidence that reveals the conduct o their Eastern trade
business.
A collection o ancient texts scratched on pottery ragments have
been discovered at Berenice. hese ostraca have been identiied
as public records that were removed rom a nearby customs building
sometime beore AD 70 and dumped in the dry sandy soil o an
ancient rubbish pit.73 Te records are pottery tokens that
served as offi cial permits, probably issued at the Nile city o
Coptos
afer export duties had been paid on cargo sent across the Egyptian
desert to theRed Sea ports. Te passes served as tax receipts shown
to authorities at Berenice to conrm that the goods being
loaded onboard ship had been charged the proper dues at
Coptos.74 Tese remarkable records provide vital detail about
ancient loading operations at the port and are incredibly important
to uture discussion o Eastern commerce.
Te surviving texts concentrate on wine cargoes and other assorted
goods, but do not document some o the main Roman exports recorded
in the Periplus. Tis was probably because certain custom offi cials
were charged with monitoring particular cargoes. Te surviving
ostraca thereore represent only one department at the port and
there were probably several other customs offi cers at Berenice in
charge o other
goods such as bullion and coin, abrics, base metals and
glassware.76 Cargoes wouldhave been broken down into smaller
consignments or transport to and rom trade vessels.
Consequently, the Berenice ostraca cannot be used to reveal
the possible size o Roman ships or their cargo capacities.77
A collection o ostraca called the Nicanor Archive, provides
urther valuable inormation about the caravan transport operations
that supplied the Red Sea ports during the Roman era.
Te Nicanor Archive was ound at Coptos and consists o
transport receipts rom a small amily-run company that was active
rom AD 6 to AD 62.78 Tis company held important
contracts to deliver monthly ood supplies
to Roman garrisons stationed in the desert. Te head o this business
was a Greco- Egyptian called Nicanor who owned a small caravan that
probably numbered at least thirty-six camels.79
It seems that Roman businessmen hired Nicanor to transport their
cargoes across the desert, and when these goods arrived saely,
their agents at the ports would issue an ostraca receipt to
acknowledge delivery. Nicanor, or the member o his extended amily
who was making the delivery, would then return to Coptos with the
receipt. Tis receipt could then be used to veriy that the delivery
had been
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
37/261
R O ME A ND HE D I S A N E A S
made exactly as agreed. Tere are 88 ostracon in the Nicanor
Archive stating the member o Nicanor’s amily who transported
the goods, the quantity and type o reight conveyed, the delivery
destination, the name o the individual who received
the consignment, and the date when these dealings were
concluded.80 Te Nicanor Archive thereore provides
valuable inormation about the identities and activities o Roman
businessmen who were operating at the Red Sea ports.
A large stone inscription, reerred to as the Coptos
ariff , also provides crucial inormation about the travellers
who were crossing Egypt’s Eastern Desert in the Roman era. Te text,
which dates to around AD 90, once stood in some prominent
public location at Coptos and it records tolls to be paid by
travellers leaving the city or the Red Sea ports. People were taxed
according to their occupations and the inscription also records
tolls to be paid on pack animals and other unusual
transports such as uneral possessions.81 As this desert
crossing was the main route to the Red Sea ports, this text
indicates the many occupations involved in Roman trade voyages to
the distant East.
Other remarkable evidence or this traffi c comes rom the desert
itsel, where travellers occasionally rested along the caravan
routes at small rock shelters that offered temporary reuge rom the
glaring sun or sand-gritted winds. At many o these stopping points
travellers carved their names into the rockace, thus leaving a
permanent record o their journeys across the desert and providing
historians with ascinating inormation about the people who
journeyed to Red Sea ports,
then travelled onwards to destinations such as India.82
Egyptian papyri documents recovered in the modern era are a urther
import-
ant source o inormation on Eastern trade, especially when they
record business arrangements. One o the most intriguing documents
available to this study is a ragmentary loan contract called P.
Vindob. G 40822, also known as the Muziris
Papyrus because it records details about a cargo consignment
brought back rom Muziris onboard a Roman merchant ship called the
Hermapollon.83 Te text lists arrangements or the transer o
this Indian cargo across the Eastern Desert and north along the
Nile to warehouses in Alexandria. Te text is signicant
because
it provides important details about the values o Eastern cargoes
involved in this extensive commerce.
New archaeological discoveries in Egypt are continually adding
evidence to the study o Eastern trade. In the uture, this
inormation will offer greater insights into the organization and
scale o Rome’s overseas trade business. Te time will come when all
detailed studies o the Roman Empire and its ancient economy will be
required to take this important evidence into account.
CARAVAN INSCRIPIONS FROM PALMYRA Te vast ruins o ancient Palmyra,
including the remains o great temples and large administrative
buildings, are still visible in the Syrian Desert. In the rubble o
the ancient stonework, hundreds o ragmentary classical columns mark
where broad avenues once led through the centre o the
city.84 In ancient times, Palmyrene dignitaries and merchants
set up statues, or other sculptured offerings, to com- memorate
individuals who had perormed some noteworthy service to the city
or
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
38/261
A NCI E N E V I D E NCE F O R E A S E R N CO NA CS
its inhabitants. Tese monuments were placed amongst the stone
architecture o the city and were set in prominent locations along
public thoroughares and market squares. Large numbers o these
statues were destroyed or deaced in later centuries
in acts o iconoclasm, but the accompanying inscriptions have
survived.85 Many o the Palmyrene inscriptions commemorate
individuals who assisted
caravans rom the city on their commercial ventures east into
Mesopotamia. Consequently, they offer important inormation about
the organization o caravan ventures, the destinations o these
trade missions, the titles o individuals who enabled or assisted
the expeditions, and even incidents such as banditry that had
aected the merchants.86 he commemorative inscriptions rom
Palmyra are written in a orm o Aramaic unique to the city, but
these dedications are ofen duplicated in Greek. Te inscriptions
that document caravan ventures date rom
AD 19 to the 260s AD and there is a marked concentration
o texts rom the second century.87 Te dedications indicate the
requency o trade, but they might also reect the popularity o
certain epigraphic ashions in the city.
Carved relies have been ound in the ruins o ancient Palmyra and
they provide important visual evidence or the appearance o the
city’s inhabitants. Tese sculp- tures show dignitaries and
merchants, dromedary camels and even the sea-going ships that
Palmyrenes operated in the Persian Gul. Many o these carvings are
rom unerary monuments and the ruins o tower-like tomb structures
which exist on the outskirts o the ancient city. A tax-law
inscription has also been recovered
rom Palmyra and this important text, dating to AD 137, reveals
how tariffs were imposed on goods entering the urban
markets.88 Tis evidence urther reveals how distance commerce
can be considered within the wider context o regional production
and localized trade.
ROMAN COIN EVIDENCE FROM INDIA
As part o their trade dealings with the distant East, Roman
merchants exported
vast amounts o gold and silver coinage to ancient India. In
recent times sizable quantities o Roman coins have been ound in
India and these hoards can be used to indicate the development o
Eastern trade and gauge its possible impact on imperial
nances.
Tere have been close to 80 reported Roman coin nds documented in
India. Most o these discoveries were made in the southern regions o
the subcontinent and documented cases have ranged rom single nds to
large hoards containing hundreds o coins. Almost all o the Roman
nds consist o high value gold or silver coins and it is rare to nd
hoards where these precious metals are mixed
together.89
Many o the documented Roman hoards were discovered during a period
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when India was part o the
British Empire. During this era, interested antiquarians ofen
worked with English administrators to try to recover recently
unearthed Roman hoards. In most cases they could only seize a small
raction o the coins, but in many instances they were able to gather
important inormation about the nds, including helpul detail about
the scale and condition o the discoveries. Scholars estimate that
rom the Roman hoards
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
39/261
R O ME A ND HE D I S A N E A S
recov ered, around 5,400 denarii and 800 aurei still exist in
various modern collec- tions.90 However, a ar larger number o
coins have disappeared rom the records and are not available or
study.
Te Roman coin hoard evidence rom India presents a uniquely complex
numis- matic puzzle or modern researchers and it is thereore a
challenging subject or non-specialists to comprehend. Despite these
diffi culties, coin evidence is vitally important to any modern
study that seeks to understand the progress and signic- ance o
Rome’s Eastern trade.
BUDDHIS INSCRIPIONS FROM ANCIEN INDIA
Te Roman merchants who visited India ound large populous kingdoms,
with long-established traditions o crafsmanship and urban
culture.91 Inscriptions rom ancient India commemorate gifs to
Buddhist monasteries by crafspeople and traders who were associated
with various commercial guilds. Tese texts offer important
inormation about the economy o ancient India and they also record
the involvement o Roman subjects in Eastern trade networks.
Some o the most interesting ancient inscriptions rom India come rom
the hilly terrain o the western Deccan. In this region Buddhist
monasteries thrived in the mountain passes used by merchants on
inland journeys to the great cities o central
India. Te Buddhist communities received the patronage o visiting
merchants and took advantage o the local terrain to begin carving
their rock ace surroundings into elaborate acades. Natural cave
systems were also excavated to create complex religious acilities
with decorative pillars and meditation cells.92 Tese rock-cut
structures were modelled on the reestanding wooden buildings that
existed at Buddhist monasteries across ancient India. Te Deccan
sites thereore offer a unique glimpse into the distant past and the
inscriptions they preserve provide a remarkable record o ancient
practices.
Te inscriptions ound at the Deccan sites record devotional acts o
patronage
and are written in a popular orm o Sanskrit known as Prakrit .
A small number o these texts mention unds given to the monasteries
by new converts to Buddhism who seem to have been merchants rom the
Roman Empire.93 Tis evidence is ascinating and will certainly
become signicant in uture enquiries into distant Roman trade.
HE ANCIEN AMIL LIERAURE
Ancient amil literature contains epic narrative poems dating rom
the irstcenturies AD. Tese epics describe a time when Roman
subjects were visiting the amil lands on distant trade ventures and
they provide unique evidence about the activities o Romans in
ancient India.94 Tis literature offers an important insight
into the operation o early amil society and cannot be omitted rom
any serious study o the ancient world.
Te amils viewed the Romans as exotic oreigners and reerred to them
as Yavanas. Te name was ultimately derived rom the ancient term
Ionian, which
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
40/261
A NCI E N E V I D E NCE F O R E A S E R N CO NA CS
originally denoted the Greeks o coastal Asia Minor, whom the
Persians called the Yauna.95 By the time the name reached
India it had become Yavana and was applied to anyone who was
Greek, or had a classical identity that appeared outwardly
Hellenic. Consequently, when the amils rst encountered Roman
merchants rom the Empire, who spoke mainly Greek, they labelled
them Yavana.
Most o the amil reerences to Yavanas appear in a collection o
narrative poetry known as Sangam literature which deals with
heroic themes such as love and war.96 amil literature was
originally bardic poetry so these idylls were passed down through
the oral tradition until late antiquity when they were committed to
writing. By the seventh century AD they were collected into
the large anthologies that have survived into the modern
era.97
Te amil verses were composed to gloriy patrons and so were never
intended
to be a historical record. As a consequence, the description o amil
society con- tained is ofen incidental to the wider narrative.
Although the settings and events are recounted in a highly
descriptive manner, some inormation is conveyed in stock phrases
and stereotyped expressions. Te amil accounts contain no mention or
discussion o Rome as a political state. Instead the
Yavanas appear as background characters, mentioned in a ew
descriptive passages. Yet the inormation provided by these accounts
is remarkable and the Romans are described as crafsmen, mer-
cenaries and visiting merchants arriving on extraordinary
ships.
ARCHAEOLOGY BEYOND HE EMPIRE
Tere have been signicant new archaeological discoveries in the
distant East that will transorm the current understanding o Roman
commerce. Important ancient sites have recently been rediscovered
in India and now await ull investigation. Tree Roman shipwrecks
have also been identied on the seabed below the ancient sea lanes
that crossed the Indian Ocean.
Te most important o these recent discoveries could be the large
Roman ship-
wreck recently ound off the Red Sea coast o Quseir in Egypt. Tis
trade vessel sank near the ruins o the ancient Roman harbour at
Myos Hormos, probably during the Augustan era. Te discovery o
Campanian wine amphorae on the seabed indicates that the reighter
was carrying Italian cargo on an outbound expedition when it sank
in unknown circumstances.98 Another Roman wreck has been ound
urther down the Arican side o the Red Sea near the Shab Rumi Ree on
the coast o Sudan. Little is known about this vessel, but it was
carrying a cargo o Coan-style wine amphorae, suggesting another
outbound expedition that somehow ended in tragedy.99 Both
wrecks will reveal substantial inormation about the quantities
and
types o durable cargoes selected or Roman export to the distant
East. A urther Roman shipwreck has been investigated by divers off
the coast o Bet
Dwarka in northwest India. Te wreck belongs to a large reighter and
sizeable sections o the hull have been preserved deep in the seabed
sediment, where the vessel sank some 5,000 kilometres rom
Roman territory. Investigations have been limited, but the cargo
seems to have included amphorae containers as well as circu- lar
lead ingots intended or the Indian market.100 Tis wreck will
provide signicant
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
41/261
R O ME A ND HE D I S A N E A S
inormation about the modications made to the Roman reighters that
sailed this distant ocean. It could also offer valuable new details
about the crew and equipment carried onboard Roman ships on these
dangerous voyages.
Te amil trade port o Muziris held an important position in Roman
trade with India and recently a team o archaeologists have identied
a site that they believe could be the ancient city. Tis discovery
was made by a geoarchaeologist named K. P. Shajan, using satellite
imagery to trace the course o the ancient Periyar River. He then
ollowed this orgotten route on oot, trekking through backwaters and
undergrowth, until he ound the remains o a vast, long-abandoned
settlement that matched literary accounts o ancient Muziris. A team
o international researchers, including a classical archaeologist
named Roberta omber, are currently investig- ating this ancient
site. hey have already uncovered signiicant Roman inds,
including amphorae ragments rom Mediterranean wine shipments.101 Te
early amil literature describes how Roman merchants built large
residences
at the busy city port o Puhar, on the southeast coast o India. Yet
these sources also describe how the ancient city was submerged
beneath the sea in a powerul tidal ood.102 Modern divers
operating off the Coromandel Coast have ound the sunken ruins o
ancient Puhar on the seabed and these discoveries conrm that some
cata- strophic event in the distant past had overwhelmed the
city.103 Tis unique site will provide great challenges to
uture marine archaeologists but the ndings may offer urther
remarkable insights into ancient world trade connections.
HE SOGDIAN LEERS
During the rst ew centuries AD, a people rom Inner Asia called the
Sogdians developed a trade presence in the arim kingdoms o Central
Asia and established various merchant communities in ancient
China. Sogdian merchants organized caravans to bring Chinese goods
to their homeland city o Samarkand and arranged trade ventures to
send products rom Inner Asia, east, to markets in China. In
1907,
the amous British explorer Aurel Stein discovered a small
collection o Sogdian letters in the remains o a ruined watchtower
that had once stood on the ancient Chinese rontier near
Dunhuang.104
Te ve Sogdian letters were written in a complex orm o ancient
Iranian script that remains diffi cult to translate. Some o the
letters are personal correspondence and others are mainly concerned
with business matters. Te letters are addressed either to community
leaders in Samarkand or Sogdians residing in the arim kingdoms on
the caravan routes to their homeland. Te Sogdian letters mention
conditions in China afer a series o devastating invasions by
horsemen raiders
rom the Asian Steppes. Te raiders were Xiongnu and these details
would date the documents to about AD 313.105 Something
happened to the Sogdian merchant entrusted with the responsibility
o delivering the letters. He either hid them in the tower or
perhaps a soldier on the Chinese rontier decided to conscate the
documents, earing they contained inormation that might be
strategically valuable to their Xiongnu enemies.
Te Sogdian Letters offer signicant insights into the
activities and concerns
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
42/261
A NCI E N E V I D E NCE F O R E A S E R N CO NA CS
o ancient caravan merchants on the Silk Roads o Inner Asia. Tey
indicate how Chinese goods would have reached Roman territories and
this evidence needs to be included in any comprehensive study o
Eastern commerce.
RECORDS FROM ANCIEN CHINA
In the late rst century AD, the Han Empire launched a major series
o military campaigns to regain control over the arim kingdoms o
Central Asia. Generals were sent west to complete the task and
gather important inormation about coun- tries in the distant West.
Tese reports were sent back to the court o the Chinese Emperor to
be entered into the offi cial records. estimonies rom visiting
ambas-
sadors were also recorded. Tese sources inormed the Chinese
government that a new power had emerged in the distant West that
was equal in size and importance to the Han Empire. Han agents in
Central Asia dubbed this place Da Qin, meaning ‘Great China’, and
details rom their accounts indicate that this ‘other China’ must
have been the Roman Empire.106
Court records rom ancient China have not survived in their original
orm, but they are accurately preserved in later texts.107 In
late antiquity Chinese scholars made extensive use o the Han
records to compile detailed histories about their past. Te best
evidence or Da Qin thereore comes rom a fh century work called
the
Hou Hanshu, also known as Te Later Han Histories. Tis work contains
a chap- ter called the ‘Western Regions’ which was compiled rom
court records and the reports o leading generals who had campaigned
in Central Asia. Tese correlated accounts were submitted to the Han
Emporer about AD 125.
Records also exist rom the Chinese States which succeeded the Han
Dynasty in AD 220. A particularly important work rom this era
is the Weilue, or Brie Account o the Wei Dynasty ,
written by a contemporary Chinese scholar named Yu Huan. A chapter
in the Weilue called ‘Peoples o the West’ has survived because
it was aith- ully quoted in later Chinese accounts. Tis
Weilue chapter is signicant because
it updated earlier inormation about the Roman Empire and discussed
overland routes leading rom China to the distant West. Reerences to
Mesopotamia in the work suggest that it was based on reports
collected between AD 116 and AD 165.108
Te Chinese records provide uniquely important inormation about the
ancient conditions and politics o Central Asia. Tey also reveal the
types o Roman goods reaching the Far East through overland trade
routes and distant voyages across the Indian Ocean. Some o the
Chinese accounts mention the arrival o strange visitors in China
who were possibly subjects o the Roman Empire.
Te ancient Chinese records are credible and compelling. It is
ascinating to read
how another politically advanced ancient civilization viewed the
Roman Empire. Given their signicance, Chinese accounts must be
examined in any serious dis- cussions o Roman trade and they will
certainly have a signicant place in uture considerations o the
ancient world economy.
8/20/2019 McLaughlin Raoul - Rome and the Distant East Trade Routes
to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mclaughlin-raoul-rome-and-the-distant-east-trade-routes-to-the-ancient-lands
43/261
R O ME A ND HE D I S A N E A S
CONCLUSIONS
Any historian investigating Eastern trade has to take account o a
wide range o
diverse source evidence rom very different ancient civilizations.
Tere are alsoarchaeological remains to consider, including coin
evidence rom Indian hoards, and this detail provides urther
interpretive challenges to this study. Tis makes any examination o
Eastern commerce an extremely complex and demanding task.
With the classical sources, it is important to recognize how genre
and social attitudes affected how ancient inormation was recorded
and presented. Evidence o Roman trade detailed in the written
accounts o other ancient cultures should also be considered with
appropriate caution. Doubts and concerns regarding the surviving
sources can be discussed and expressed in en