Periplus (Latin: Periplus Maris Erythraei) in the Red Sea is an amazing trade record in the ancient world. As Shoff described:
Periplus of Erythraan Sea is one of the human documents, just like the periodicals of Kelpolo, Columbus and Wesp, they not only express the personal career, but also express the awakening of the whole race to the new field of geographical discovery and commercial achievements. This is the first record of organized trade with eastern countries, a ship built and commanded by subjects in the western world. It marks the change of business trend that has been developing in one direction all along. (3)
Authors and appointments
According to a manuscript of 10 century now preserved in Heidelberg, and a copy later made by the British Museum, Periplus in the Sea of Eritrea was written by mixing classical Greek and ordinary Greek between 40 and 55 AD. The Erythraean Sea is the ancient name of the water body between the Horn of Africa and the * * * Peninsula. Periplus is probably a businessman's diary, which contains the first information about the coastal residents of East Africa, more than half a century earlier than any other similar written mention.
As can be seen from the records, the author went to India himself.
Its writing date can only be inferred by citing places and events. The author mentions that Hipalus discovered the route to India, which historians believe took place around 47 AD. Almost all authorities believe that Periplus predates Pliny's natural history. As we all know, it was published between 73 and 77 AD. Some people even think that Pliny may learn from Periplus, although these suggestions are by no means decisive. Schoff (19 12) and others set the most likely date of Periplus as 60 AD.
As can be seen from the records, the author went to India himself. He lived in Berenice in the Red Sea, not Alexandria, because he didn't provide the journey from Coptos along the Nile and across the desert, which was described in detail by strabo and Pliny. People think that he is not a highly educated person, because "this can be seen from his frequent confusion of Greek and Latin words and his clumsy and sometimes ungrammatical structure". The great value of his works lies not in literature, "but in its reliable description of Indian Ocean trade and its coastal settlements; In this regard, until his time, we had almost no intelligence and comprehensive nature "(ridicule, 16).
The Eastern Trade Network in Ancient Rome
When the Roman emperor Augustus (27 BC-A.D. 14) put Egypt under Roman control in 30 BC, the Roman trade volume through the Red Sea port increased sharply. Strabo, a Greek geographer, philosopher and historian, reported that "in his time, there were 120 ships sailing from Egypt to India regularly, but few people sailed before" (Geography, 16.4).
During the Roman Empire, two major trade routes appeared, spanning about 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles). One southern line goes along the Red Sea, then along the east coast of Africa to La Plata, near today's Dar es Salaam, and the other goes south along the Red Sea, and then eastward through the Indian Ocean to reach the port of India. The complete journey from Egypt along the African coast takes about two years to complete, while the journey to and from India is close to one year.
From July to September, ships carrying goods to Africa and India leave the Red Sea port and then sail south to the middle of the Red Sea to avoid the dangerous coastline. Ships bound for African ports then go to Cape Guadafi in the Horn of Africa, and then head south to La Plata, which surrounds the African coast. Ships bound for India sailed to Aden and Kana on the southern coast of * * *, and then rode the monsoon across the open waters of the Indian Ocean to the southwest of India.
The route described in A Journey to the Red Sea.
The Periplus describes the journey along the coast of * * *:
Directly below this place are neighboring countries, whose length borders the Eritrean Sea. Different tribes live in this country, and their languages are different, some are partial, and some are completely different. The land by the sea is also full of caves for eating fish, but there are bilingual hooligans living in inland countries. They live in villages and nomadic camps. Those who sailed halfway were plundered by them, and the survivors of the shipwreck were treated as slaves ... It is dangerous to sail along the whole coast. There is no port here, the anchorage is terrible and dirty, and it is terrible in all aspects because rollers and rocks can't enter. So, along the route in the middle of the bay, we crossed the country with the fastest speed until we came to the charred island; Directly below it are peaceful people, nomadic people, and areas where cattle, sheep and camels graze.
Periplus in the Eritrean Sea, 20.
The first port they visited in India was Babarikum. Peripheral description:
The ship docked at Babalikum, but all their goods were transported by river to the metropolis and reached the king. There are many imported thin clothes in this market, which are a little fake; Lead plate, topaz, coral, storax, frankincense, glass, gold and silver plates for ships and wine. On the other hand, we export Radix Aucklandiae, gum Arabic [myrrh resin], Lycium barbarum [Solanaceae], Nader, turquoise, celestite, silk skin, cotton cloth, silk thread and indigo. Sailors set out in the Indian Ethiopian wind around July, which is Epiphee: it was more dangerous then, but sailing in these winds was more direct and faster.
Periplus in the Eritrean Sea, 39.
After the Romans arrived in India, they visited the coastal ports from Babalikum, Indus and Klanganur in the southwest of Malabar coast to Sri Lanka. Important trading partners are Pandia, Shulas and Tamil dynasties in Jiaolai, southern India. The world's first major spice trade center became Muzzi Rees in Kerala, India, located on the southwest coast of India. The exact location is not clear. Probably built in 3000 BC, it was one of the most important trading ports in India in Roman times. It was described as a "city" in the collection of ancient Tamil poems and songs "Akanananuru". Beautiful boat, the masterpiece of vanas [Westerners], stirred up white foam on the Perial River in Kerala, arrived with gold and left with pepper "(Perur, 20 16). Black pepper is the main export product of this big shopping mall, accounting for three-quarters of western goods, but other Indian trade projects also include ivory and pearls collected locally, as well as semi-precious stones and silk from the Ganges River basin and the eastern Himalayas.
At each stop along the way, different local commodities will be offered for trading, sometimes gold coins and sometimes barter commodities, including cloth, gold and silver statues, grains, wine and olive oil. Frankincense and myrrh, as well as gold and silver, are very popular in India. Indians trade gold and silver with pepper, cotton and pearls produced locally and silk obtained from merchants in China. When traveling along the coast of Africa, Egypt's linen products, glass products, wine and metal products will be traded with African ivory, hawksbill, myrrh and frankincense, as well as cinnamon, Indian cloth, belts and fine-grained cloth obtained from trade with India. Businessman.
They returned from India and rarely went deep into Southeast Asia. Once their ships are fully loaded, the merchants will return to the Egyptian ports of Mios Homos and Berenike. There, their treasures were transported by camel caravan by land, and then transported to Rome and Alexandria, the commercial center of Egypt. The variety of commodities crossing the desert is simply breathtaking: frankincense, Sri Lankan and China cinnamon, Indian pepper, pearls and precious stones, China silk and porcelain, African myrrh, ivory, rhinoceros horn and tortoise shell.