 |
The
Living History Engineer's
Roman Sea Trade |
While the Romans were famous
for the roads they constructed across the empire, they were also adept at
establishing a flourishing sea trade which took them to
India
and into the Mare Erythraeum (
Indian Ocean
). and beyond.
Trade items within the
Mediterranean
Basin
included such commodities as:
grain, wine, olive oil, pottery vessels, glass, metals (lead, iron, tin,
copper, and gold), , stone (white or colored marble from Asia Minor,
building stone / tiles), textiles (cotton. fine linen, and silk), animals, and
slaves.
The transport of bulk goods was
accomplished by sea as a more efficient method of movement. It is from the
Edict of Prices laid down by the Emperor Diocletian in 301 A.D. that we learn
the fact that it was more expensive to ship grain 75 miles inland, than it was
to transport grain from Spain to Syria.
In recent years, the large number of Roman shipwrecks discovered by
archaeologists around the
Mediterranean Sea
attest to the volume of sea trade in the area,
together with it's attendant dangers. The more important items of trade
around the Mediterranen were olive oil, wine, grain and metals. We also
know that the grain fleets from Carthago,
Africa
(modern day
Tunisia
) and
Egypt
were so important to
Rome
that control of these provinces were placed
under special appointees to insure a steady supply of grain to
Rome
for the "corn dole" to it's urban
population.
Metals and Oil were sought in the lower extremities of Hispania,in the ancient
city of
Gades
(
Cadiz
), wine from Tarraco (
Tarragona
) and Massila (Marsailles), Metals and Wine from
Rome
, Grain and Metals from
Sardinia
, Oil and Wine from Aquilia (Grado) and Bononi (
Bologna
), Wine from
Ephesus
and Athenae, and Oil from Antiochia. The
following materials were transported overland to the nearest Medierranean Ports;
Metals from Northwestern Hispania, Toltum (Toledo), Caesaraugusta (Saragossa),Tolosa
(Toulouse),.Metals from Britain, Wine from Augusta Trevororum, Metalsfrom
Augusta Vindelicorum, and Metals from Arabia.
Further afield the trade routes extended up the
Nile
River
from
Alexandria
to
Meroe
and
Axum
which were also major trade centers and received
their goods overland across the desert from the
Red Sea
ports.. The trade routes extended through the Sinus Persicus (
Red Sea
) and it was here in
Arabia
(present day
Yemen
) and in the "Horn" of
Africa
(present day
Somaliland
) that the fragrant incense producing areas were
found. From the major trade centers of
Antioch
,
Damascus
, Selucia /
Ctesiphon
another trade route extended through
the
Persian Gulf
. Both
th Red Sea Route
and the
Persian Gulf Route
led into the
Arabian Sea
and from there on to Muzirus on the Western tip of
India
, and from there further on to Masulipatum and
Tamluk on
India
's
Eastern
Coast
through the Mare Gangeticus (
Bay Of Bengal
). From there the routes cross the upper
reaches of the Mar Gangeticus and then pass through the Straits of Malacca and
into the Magnus Sinus (South China Sea) and then to the Major trading Center of
Oceo (near the modern day city of Saigon in South Vietnam). From there
there is some mention of the possibility of routes south and north along
the
Vietnam
and
Chinese
Coast
.
Overland was the well known "
Silk Road
" by whitch the silks from
China
traveled. The road extended from Seleuca /
Ctesiphon
in the West through thr trading centers of
Ecbatana
,
Rhagae
, across
Parthia
(South of the
Caspian Sea
) and then on to Hecatompylos. Merv,
Samarkand
,
Tashkent
, Urumchi, Turfan and then to Hami which is found
on the southern edge of the Altai Mountain Range and the
Gobi
Desert
.
At Hami the "
Scythian Route
" to the East from Tanais on the shores of
the
Sea of Azov
meets the more southerly route briefly. This route crosses the
Volga
River
near
Volgograd
, passes just north of the
Ural River
, South of the
Ural Mountains
and North of the Caspian and
Aral
Seas
, across the Isimskaja Steppe, and followed the
Irtys' River to
Semipalatinsk
, South of Lake Zaisan. .From Hami across
the Gobi Desert and North of Lak Nor to Langchow then to Changan (Sera
Metropolis – near the present day city of Xi'an) in Serica (China). From
there the "
Silk Road
" follows the
Hwang Ho
(Yellow) River to
Luoyang
(about 400 miles West and just South of the
mouth of the
Yellow River
).
Roman merchants traded gold, glassware,
and other manufactured goods
which turn up today as far away as
Vietnam
and
Malaysia
. Romans
normally paid for goods in silver and gold coin, and a great many
such coins have been found as far away as
Afghanistan
and
Indochina
.
The goods primarily traded for in the various areas outside the
Mediterranean
Basin
was spices of all kinds, perfumes, silks, cotton
steel, drugs and precious stones.
Goods which were exported from
Rome
were:
jewelry, cut gems, glassware, clothing, amber, coral, and purple dye.
References:
"The Spice Trade of the
Roman Empire
, 29B.C. to A.D. 641," J. Innes Miller,
Oxford
at the Clarendon Press,1969;
"Handbook To Life In Ancient
Rome
," Adkins and Adkins,
Oxford
University
Press,
New York
/
Oxford
, 1994;
"The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient
Rome
." Chris Scarre, Penquin Group,
London
, 1995.
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