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Names, routes and locations of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (Periplus Maris Erythraei) is a Greek periplus, describing navigation and trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports like Berenice along the coast of the Red Sea, and others along East Africa and India. The text has been ascribed to different dates between the 1st and 3rd century CE, but a mid first century date is now the most commonly accepted. Although the author is unknown, it is clearly a firsthand description by someone familiar with the area, and is nearly unique in providing accurate insights into what the ancient world knew about the lands around the Indian Ocean.
Although the "Erythraean Sea" is generally held to be the ancient term for the Red Sea, to the Greeks it included the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf.
Contents |
Ancient map (17th century) depicting the locations of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.
The work consists of 66 chapters, most of them about the length of a long paragraph in English. For instance, the short Chapter 9 reads in its entirety:
In many cases the description of places is sufficiently accurate to identify their present locations; for others there is considerable debate. For instance, a "Rhapta" is mentioned as the farthest market down the African coast of "Azania", but there at least five locations matching the description, ranging from Tanga south to the Rufiji River delta. The description of the Indian coast mentions the Ganges River clearly, yet after that is somewhat garbled, describing China as a "great inland city Thina" that is a source of raw silk.
Another interesting feature of the Periplus is that some of the words describing trade goods are seen nowhere else in ancient literature, and so we can only guess as to what they might mean. The Periplus also describes how Hippalus first discovered the direct route from the Red Sea to southern India.
The text derives from a Byzantine 10th century manuscript in minuscule hand, contained in the collections of the University Library of Heidelberg (CPG 398: 40v-54v) and a copy of it dating from the 14th or 15th century in the British Museum (B.M. Add 19391 9r-12r). In the 10th century manuscript the text is attributed to Arrian, probably for no deeper reason than that the manuscript was adjacent to the Periplus Pontus Euxini written by him. The Periplus was first published in a modern edition by Sigismund Gelenius in 1553.
Areas around the Arabian peninsula, Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.
Aksum is mentioned in the Periplus as an important market place for ivory, which was exported throughout the ancient world:
"From that place to the city of the people called Auxumites there is a five days\' journey more; to that place all the ivory is brought from the country beyond the Nile through the district called Cyeneum, and thence to Adulis."
—Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Chap.4
According to the Periplus, the ruler of Aksum in the 1st century CE was Zoscales, who, besides ruling in Aksum also held under his sway two habours on the Red Sea: Adulis (near Massawa) and Avalites (Assab). He is also said to have been familiar with Greek literature:
"These places, from the Calf-Eaters to the other Berber country, are governed by Zoscales; who is miserly in his ways and always striving for more, but otherwise upright, and acquainted with Greek literature."
Coin of the Himyarite Kingdom, southern coast of the Arabian peninsula, in which stopped ships between Egypt and India passed. This is an imitation of a coin of Augustus. 1st Century CE.
Ships from Himyar regularly traveled the East African coast. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describes the trading empire of Himyar and Saba, regrouped under a single ruler Charibael (Karab Il Watar Yuhan\'em II), who is said to have been on friendly terms with Rome:
"23. And after nine days more there is Saphar, the metropolis, in which lives Charibael, lawful king of two tribes, the Homerites and those living next to them, called the Sabaites; through continual embassies and gifts, he is a friend of the Emperors."
The Frankincense kingdom is described further east along the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula, with the harbour of Cana (South Arabic "Qana", modern Bir Ali). The ruler of this kingdom is named Eleazus, or Eleazar, thought to correspond to king Iliazz Yalit I:
"27. After Eudaemon Arabia there is a continuous length of coast, and a bay extending two thousand stadia or more, along which there are Nomads and Fish-Eaters living in villages; just beyond the cape projecting from this bay there is another market-town by the shore, Cana, of the Kingdom of Eleazus, the Frankincense Country; and facing it there are two desert islands, one called Island of Birds, the other Dome Island, one hundred and twenty stadia from Cana. Inland from this place lies the metropolis Sabbatha, in which the King lives. All the frankincense produced in the country is brought by camels to that place to be stored, and to Cana on rafts held up by inflated skins after the manner of the country, and in boats. And this place has a trade also with the far-side ports, with Barygaza and Scythia and Ommana and the neighboring coast of Persia."
—Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Chap 27
Trade with the Indian harbour of Barigaza is described extensively in the Periplus. Nahapana, ruler of the Indo-Scythian Western Satraps is mentioned under the name Nambanus,"History of the Andhras", Durga Prasad Source as ruler of the area around Barigaza:
41. "Beyond the gulf of Baraca is that of Barygaza and the coast of the country of Ariaca, which is the beginning of the Kingdom of Nambanus and of all India. That part of it lying inland and adjoining Scythia is called Abiria, but the coast is called Syrastrene. It is a fertile country, yielding wheat and rice and sesame oil and clarified butter, cotton and the Indian cloths made therefrom, of the coarser sorts. Very many cattle are pastured there, and the men are of great stature and black in color. The metropolis of this country is Minnagara, from which much cotton cloth is brought down to Barygaza."
Under the Western Satraps, Barigaza was one of the main centers of Roman trade with India. The Periplus describes the many goods exchanged:
49. There are imported into this market-town (Barigaza), wine, Italian preferred, also Laodicean and Arabian; copper, tin, and lead; coral and topaz; thin clothing and inferior sorts of all kinds; bright-colored girdles a cubit wide; storax, sweet clover, flint glass, realgar, antimony, gold and silver coin, on which there is a profit when exchanged for the money of the country; and ointment, but not very costly and not much. And for the King there are brought into those places very costly vessels of silver, singing boys, beautiful maidens for the harem, fine wines, thin clothing of the finest weaves, and the choicest ointments. There are exported from these places spikenard, costus, bdellium, ivory, agate and carnelian, lycium, cotton cloth of all kinds, silk cloth, mallow cloth, yarn, long pepper and such other things as are brought here from the various market-towns. Those bound for this market-town from Egypt make the voyage favorably about the month of July, that is Epiphi."
Goods were also brought down in quantity from Ujjain, the capital of the Western Satraps:
48. Inland from this place and to the east, is the city called Ozene, formerly a royal capital; from this place are brought down all things needed for the welfare of the country about Barygaza, and many things for our trade : agate and carnelian, Indian muslins and mallow cloth, and much ordinary cloth.
Muziris is a lost port city in south India, which was a major center of trade, pepper and other spices, metal work and semiprecious stones, with the Roman Empire.
The widely accepted theory states it to be the Musiri, upstream river Kaveri, near the ancient capital of Cheras, Karur in Tamil Nadu. Roman coins and amphorae are found in abundance alongwith Chera-Roman collaborative mint. Also noteworthy are the Beryls and other semi-precious stones and metal work in the region as described by Periplus. Salem steel, antimony and lead in Egypt also confirms this to be an even more ancient port. The distance between Musiri and the sea is around 500 stadia as Periplus accounts.
The second, controversial theory states from the hoards of coins and shards of amphorae found in the town of Pattanam, elicited recent archeological interest as a probable location of this mythical port city. Today this place is called Kodungalloor.
According to the Periplus, numerous Greek seamen managed an intense trade with Muziris:
"Muziris and Nelcynda, which are now of leading importance (...) 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
The Periplus explains that coins of the Indo-Greek king Menander I were current in Barigaza.
The Periplus describes numerous Greek buildings and fortifications in Barigaza, although mistakenly attributing them to Alexander the Great, who never went this far south. If true, this account would relate to the remains of the southern expansion of the Indo-Greeks into Gujerat:
"The metropolis of this country is Minnagara, from which much cotton cloth is brought down to Barygaza. In these places there remain even to the present time signs of the expedition of Alexander, such as ancient shrines, walls of forts and great wells."
—Periplus, Chap. 41
The Periplus further testifies to the circulation of Indo-Greek coinage in the region:
"To the present day ancient drachmae are current in Barygaza, coming from this country, bearing inscriptions in Greek letters, and the devices of those who reigned after Alexander, Apollodorus (sic) and Menander."
The Greek city of Alexandria Bucephalous on the Jhelum river is mentionned in the Periplus, as well as in the Roman Peutinger Table:
"The country inland of Barigaza is inhabited by numerous tribes, such as the Arattii, the Arachosii, the Gandaraei and the people of Poclais, in which is Bucephalus Alexandria"
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