Indo-Roman trade relations

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Periplus Maris Erythraei
1st century CE
Pudukottai, Tamil Nadu, India. One coin of Caligula (37–41 CE), and two coins of Nero (54–68). British Museum
.
.

Indo-Roman trade relations (see also the

Egypt in 30 BCE.[1]

The southern route so helped enhance trade between the ancient

Chera dynasties and establishing trading settlements which secured trade with the Indian subcontinent by the Greco-Roman world since the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty[3] a few decades before the start of the Common Era and remained long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.[4]

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

Southern Arabia and the Indian Subcontinent,[5] had begun to exploit trading opportunities in the region prior to the Roman involvement but, according to the historian Strabo, the volume of commerce between Indians and the Greeks was not comparable to that of later Indo-Roman trade.[2]

The

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

Aden – Arabia Eudaimon was called the 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.

— Gary Keith Young, Rome's Eastern Trade: International Commerce and Imperial Policy

The Ptolemaic dynasty had developed trade with Indian kingdoms 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]

Classical geographers such as

Antonine-period Roman artefacts have been discovered) in the Magnus Sinus (i.e. Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea) located east of the Golden Chersonese (i.e. Malay Peninsula).[7][8] In the 1st-century CE Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, its anonymous Greek-speaking author, a merchant of Roman Egypt, provides such vivid accounts of trade cities in Arabia and India, including travel times from rivers and towns, where to drop anchor, the locations of royal courts, lifestyles of the locals and goods found in their markets, and favorable times of year to sail from Egypt to these places in order to catch the monsoon winds, that it is clear he visited many of these locations.[9]

Early Common Era

Silver denarius of Tiberius (14–37 CE) found in India. Indian copy of the same, 1st century CE. Coin of Kushan king Kujula Kadphises copying a coin of Augustus.
Vasisthiputra Sri Pulamavi
, 1st–2nd century CE

Prior to Roman expansion, the various peoples of the subcontinent had established strong maritime trade with other countries. The dramatic increase in the importance of Indian ports, however, did not occur until the opening of the Red Sea by the Greeks and the Romans' attainment concerning the region’s seasonal monsoons. The first two centuries of the Common Era indicate a marked increase in trade between western India and the Roman east by sea. The expansion of trade was made possible by the stability brought to the region by the Roman Empire from the time of Augustus (r. 27 BCE–14 CE) which allowed for new explorations and the creation of a sound silver and gold coinage.

The west coast of present-day India is mentioned frequently in literature, such as the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The area was noted for its strong tidal currents, turbulent waves and rocky sea-beds were dangerous for shipping experience. The anchors of ships would be caught by the waves and quickly detach to capsize the vessel or cause a shipwreck. Stone anchors have been observed near

Gulf of Kachchh, from ship lost at sea. Onshore and offshore explorations have been carried out around Bet Dwarka Island since 1983. The finds discovered include lead and stone objects buried in sediment and considered to be anchors due to their axial holes. Though it is unlikely that the remains of the shipwreck’s hull survived, offshore explorations in 2000 and 2001 have yielded seven differently-sized amphoras, two lead anchors, forty-two stone anchors of different types, a supply of potsherds, and a circular lead ingot. The remains of the seven amphoras were of a thick, coarse fabric with a rough surface, which was used for exporting wine and olive oil from the Roman Empire. Archeologists have concluded that most of these were wine amphoras, since olive oil was in less demand in the subcontinent.

A coin of Trajan, found together with coins of the Kushan ruler Kanishka, at the Ahin Posh Buddhist Monastery, Afghanistan
.

Since the discoveries at Bet Dwarka are significant for the maritime history of the region, archeologists have researched the resources in India.[

Saussurea costus
], sesame oil and sugar for food. Indigo was used as a color while cotton cloth was used as articles of clothing. Furthermore, the subcontinent exported ebony for fashioned furniture in Rome. The Roman Empire also imported Indian lime, peach, and various other fruits for medicine. Western India, as a result, was the recipient of large amounts of Roman gold during this time.

Since one must sail against the narrow gulfs of western India, special large boats were used and ship development was demanded. At the entrance of the gulf, large ships called trappaga and cotymba helped guide foreign vessels safely to the harbor. These ships were capable of relatively long coastal cruises, and several seals have depicted this type of ship. In each seal, parallel bands were suggested to represent the beams of the ship. In the center of the vessel is a single mast with a tripod base.

Apart from the recent explorations, close trade relations, as well as the development of ship building, were supported by the discovery of several Roman coins. On these coins were depictions of two strongly constructed masted ships. Thus, these depictions of Indian ships, originating from both coins and literature (Pliny and Periplus), indicate Indian development in seafaring due to the increase in Indo-Roman commerce. In addition, the silver Roman coins discovered in western India primarily come from the 1st, 2nd, and 5th centuries. These Roman coins also suggest that the Indian peninsula possessed a stable seaborne trade with Rome during 1st and 2nd century AD. Land routes, during the time of Augustus, were also used for Indian embassies to reach Rome.

The discoveries found on Bet Dwarka and on other areas on the western coast of India strongly indicate that there were strong Indo-Roman trade relations during the first two centuries of the Common Era. The 3rd century, however, was the demise of the Indo-Roman trade. The sea-route between Rome and India was shut down, and as a result, the trading reverted to the time prior to Roman expansion and exploration.

Establishment

.
Faustina Major
, 2nd century CE. British Museum.

The replacement of Greek kingdoms by the Roman Empire as the administrator of the eastern

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.[10] Strabo's mention of the vast increase in trade following the Roman annexation of Egypt indicates that monsoon was known from his time.[11]

The trade started by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BCE kept increasing according to Strabo (II.5.12.):[12]

At any rate, when

Ptolemies
, only a very few ventured to undertake the voyage and to carry on traffic in Indian merchandise.

— Strabo

By the time of Augustus up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos to India.[12] 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:[13]

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 fraction of these imports is intended for sacrifices to the gods or the spirits of the dead?

— Pliny, Historia Naturae 12.41.84.[14]
  • Gold coin of Claudius (50–51 CE) excavated in South India.
    Gold coin of Claudius (50–51 CE) excavated in South India.
  • Gold coin of Justinian I (527–565 CE) excavated in India probably in the south.
    Gold coin of Justinian I (527–565 CE) excavated in India probably in the south.

Trade of exotic animals

Sri Lankan imitations of 4th-century Roman coins, 4th–8th century CE.

There is evidence of animal trade between Indian Ocean harbours and the

Balkan Peninsula and were hunted to stock arenas. The birds and monkeys entertained the guests of many villas. Also in the Villa Romana del Tellaro there is a mosaic with a tiger in the jungle attacking a man with Roman clothes, probably a careless hunter. The animals were transported in cages by ship.[16]

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 the subcontinent.[3] The course of trade with the east then seems to have been first through the harbor of Arsinoe, the present day Suez.[3] The goods from the East African trade were landed at one of the three main Roman ports, Arsinoe, Berenice or Myos Hormos.[17] The Romans repaired and cleared out the silted up canal from the Nile to harbor center of Arsinoe on the Red Sea.[18] 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.[18]

Arsinoe was eventually overshadowed by the rising prominence of Myos Hormos.

shoals, reefs and treacherous currents.[19]

Myos Hormos and Berenice

The Berenike Buddha, discovered in Berenice, Egypt, in 2022.

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

ostraca leading to the conclusion that the port at the end of this road may have been Myos Hormos.[1]

In Berenike in March 2022 an American-Polish archaeological mission excavating the main early Roman period temple dedicated to the Goddess Isis uncovered in the forecourt of the temple a marble statue of a Buddha, the Berenike Buddha, suggesting the presence of Buddhist merchants from India in Egypt at that time.[20][21]

Major regional ports

Musee Guimet
.
Petrie Museum
.

The regional ports of

lycium, nard, turquoise, lapis lazuli, Seric skins, cotton cloth, silk yarn, and indigo".[22] In Barygaza, they would buy wheat, rice, sesame oil, cotton and cloth.[22]

Barigaza

Trade with Barigaza, under the control of the

Western Satrap Nahapana ("Nambanus"), was especially flourishing:[22]

There are imported into this market-town (

sweetclover, 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, with a "Templum Augusti"

Cranganore (central Kerala).[24][25] Large hoards of coins and innumerable shards of amphorae found at the town of Pattanam (near Cranganore) have elicited recent archeological interest in finding a probable location of this port city.[23]

According to the Periplus, numerous Greek seamen managed an intense trade with Muziris:[22]

Then come Naura and Tyndis, the first markets of

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

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".[26]

Cultural exchanges

A 1st century CE Indian imitation of a coin of Augustus, British Museum.
Bronze imitation of a Roman coin, Sri Lanka, 4th–8th century CE

The Rome-subcontinental trade also saw several cultural exchanges which had a lasting effect on both the civilizations and others involved in the trade. The

Indian religions find mentions in other texts of the period.[27]

ancient Persia playing a secondary role.[38]

Jewish settlers from Rome continued to live in India long after the decline in bilateral trade.[4] Large hoards of Roman coins have been found throughout India, and especially in the busy maritime trading centers of the south.[4] The Tamilakkam kings reissued Roman coinage in their own name after defacing the coins in order to signify their sovereignty.[39] Mentions of the traders are recorded in the Tamil Sangam literature of India.[39] One such mention reads: "The beautifully built ships of the Yavanas came with gold and returned with pepper, and Muziris resounded with the noise." (from poem no. 149 of 'Akananuru' of Sangam Literature)"[39]

Decline and aftermath

Roman decline

Coin of Byzantine emperor Theodosius II, found in the excavation of a monastery in Ajanta Caves, India.

Trade declined from the mid-3rd century during

Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius[40] at the end of 627, after which the lost territories were returned to the Eastern Romans. Cosmas Indicopleustes
('Cosmas who sailed to India') was a Greek-Egyptian trader, and later monk, who wrote about his trade trips to India and Sri Lanka in the 6th century.

Ravaging of the Gupta Empire by the Huns

Gupta Empire (c.319-560 CE)
Find spots of epigraphic inscriptions (red dots) indicating local control by the Alchon Huns in India between 500-530 CE,[41] with neighbouring polities,[42] and territorial extent of the Alchon Huns (brown).[43]

The Gupta Empire had been benefiting greatly from Indo-Roman trade. They had been exporting numerous luxury products such as silk, leather goods, fur, iron products, ivory, pearl or pepper from the ports of Bharutkutccha, Kalyan, Sind and the city of Ujjaini.[44]

The Alchon Huns' invasions (496–534 CE) are said to have seriously damaged the Gupta's (c.319-560 CE) trade with Europe and Central Asia.[45] Soon after the invasions, the Gupta Empire, already weakened by these invasions and the rise of local rulers, ended as well.[46] Following the invasions, northern India was left in disarray, with numerous smaller Indian powers emerging after the crumbling of the Guptas.[47]

Arab expansion

Ummayad
Caliphates, drawn on the modern state borders.

The Arabs, led by

Islamic conquest of Egypt.[48] The capture of Alexandria and the rest of the country, [49] brought an end to 670 years of Roman trade with the subcontinent.[3]

Tamil speaking south India turned to

influenced the native culture to a greater degree than the sketchy impressions made on Rome seen in the adoption of Hinduism and then Buddhism.[50] However, knowledge of the Indian subcontinent and its trade was preserved in Byzantine books and it is likely that the court of the Emperor still maintained some form of diplomatic relation to the region up until at least the time of Constantine VII, seeking an ally against the rising influence of the Islamic states in the Middle East and Persia, appearing in a work on ceremonies called De Ceremoniis.[51]

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.[52] 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 European Age of Discovery, and the eventual rise of European Mercantilism and Colonialism.

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 Lindsay 2006: 101
  4. ^ a b c d Curtin 1984: 100
  5. ^ Potter 2004: 20
  6. ^ a b Parker 2008: 118.
  7. ^ a b c Young 2001: 29.
  8. ^ Mawer 2013: 38.
  9. ^ William H. Schoff (2004) [1912]. Lance Jenott (ed.). ""The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century" in The Voyage around the Erythraean Sea". Depts.washington.edu. University of Washington. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  10. ^ Lach 1994: 13
  11. ^ Young 2001: 20
  12. ^ a b "The Geography of Strabo published in Vol. I of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1917".
  13. ^ "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.
  14. ^ Original Latin: "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?"
  15. ^ Archived 13 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ "Il Blog sulla Villa Romana del Casale Piazza Armerina". villadelcasale.it. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  17. ^ O'Leary 2001: 72
  18. ^ a b c Fayle 2006: 52
  19. ^ a b Freeman 2003: 72
  20. ^ "Garum Masala;Dramatic archaeological discoveries have led scholars to radically reassess the size and importance of the trade between ancient Rome and India". New York Review. 20 April 2023.
  21. ^ Magazine, Smithsonian; Parker, Christopher. "Archaeologists Unearth Buddha Statue in Ancient Egyptian Port City". Smithsonian Magazine.
  22. ^ 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". Fordham University.
  23. ^ a b "Search for India's ancient city". BBC. 11 June 2006. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  24. ^ George Menachery (1987) Kodungallur City of St. Thomas; (2000) Azhikode alias Kodungallur Cradle of Christianity in India
  25. ^ "Signs of ancient port in Kerala". telegraphindia.com. Calcutta (Kolkata): The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 4 August 2009. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  26. ^ a b Huntingford 1980: 119.
  27. ^ a b c Lach 1994: 18
  28. ^ a b Ball 2016: 152–53
  29. ^ Hill 2009: 27
  30. ^ Yule 1915: 53–54
  31. ^ An 2002: 83
  32. ^ Harper 2002: 99–100, 106–07
  33. ^ O'Reilly 2007: 97
  34. ^ Schoff 2004 [1912]: paragraph #64. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  35. ^ Suárez (1999): 90–92
  36. ^ Yule 1915: 25–28
  37. ^ Lieu 2009: 227
  38. ^ Ball 2016: 153–54.
  39. ^ a b c Kulke 2004: 108
  40. ^ Farrokh 2007: 252
  41. .
  42. .
  43. .
  44. ^ Longman History & Civics ICSE 9 by Singh p. 81
  45. ^ The First Spring: The Golden Age of India by Abraham Eraly pp. 48 sq
  46. ^ Ancient Indian History and Civilization by Sailendra Nath Sen p. 221
  47. ^ A Comprehensive History Of Ancient India p. 174
  48. ^ a b Meri 2006: 224
  49. ^ Holl 2003: 9
  50. ^ Kulke 2004: 106
  51. ^ Luttwak 2009: 167–68
  52. ^ The Encyclopedia Americana 1989: 176

References

Further reading

External links