Roman trade with India

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 empire^[3]. They also outlasted Byzantium's loss of the Egypt and the Red Sea ports^[4] (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 dynasty^[5] 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.

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 Egypt[20] 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 century 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

• Indian maritime history
• Buddhism and the Roman world

Notes

References

Further reading

External links