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The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and the Arab-Persian Gulf Jean-Francois Salles

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The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and the Arab-Persian Gulf Jean-Francois Salles Topoi The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and the Arab-Persian Gulf Jean-Francois Salles Citer ce document / Cite this document : Salles Jean-Francois. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and the Arab-Persian Gulf. In: Topoi, volume 3/2, 1993. pp. 493-523; doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/topoi.1993.1482 https://www.persee.fr/doc/topoi_1161-9473_1993_num_3_2_1482 Fichier pdf généré le 27/10/2018 THE PERIPLUS OF THE ERYTHRAEAN SEA AND THE ARAB-PERSIAN GULF * The tentative issue of the present contribution is an attempt to clarify an obvious paradox : on the one hand, the Arab-Persian Gulf is totally absent from the most important historical source about trade between the West and India in the 1st cent. A.D., 1 the Periplus Maris Erythraei, and on the other hand, continuous archaeological exploration in the Gulf area since the fifties shows lavish evidence of a region which was well-populated and active as a major maritime trade lane at that time. Such a discrepancy of information will lead us to evaluate the true nature of the international trade through the Gulf and to question the identity of the merchants sailing in the Gulf as well as their relations with India. The historical background An easy interpretation could be based on historical general views, a kind of longue durée explanation shortened to a few centuries. During the Achaemenid and Seleucid periods, trade between India and the West used to sail through the * This paper was presented at the Madras International Seminar, « India and the Roman World between the 1st and 4th century A.D. », Integrai Study of the Silk Roads : Roads of Dialogue, UNESCO, 19-24 December 1990. 1 express my sincere thanks to Prof. B.K. Thapar, INTACH, New Delhi, who kindly gave me permission to publish this paper before the final publication of the Madras Seminar. Apart from a couple of bibliographical references, the paper has not been revised since its final writing in the Summer 1991 and does not take into account recent publications such as Rome and India. The Ancient Trade, see A. TCHERNIA, in this volume. 1 . It is not the place here to discuss again the date of the Periplus (see the important editions in the bibliographical references s.v. Periplus). SCHOFF : 15 suggests a date ca 60 A.D. ; HUNTINGFORD : 12 prefers a date between 95 and 135 A.D. ; Casson concludes to the period 40-70 A.D. Several arguments point strongly to a Claudio- Neronian datation, and we can dismiss later dates without further discussion. Another question which is not going to be debated here is whether the Periplus was written after or before Pliny's Natural History, which seems to ignore it among its sources. Topoi 3 (1993), fase. 2 p. 493-523 494 J.-F. SALLES Arab-Persian Gulf, then cross the deserts of the Arabian peninsula by caravans such as the ones handled by the Gerrhaean middlemen, or reach the Levantine coast via the Euphrates and a northern trans-Syrian land route where the Gerrhaeans were present as well. 2 Meanwhile, the Red Sea was just being explored by the Ptolemies, 3 and most scholars agree that the Bab al-Mandab was not regularly crossed by westerners before the end of the 2nd cent. B.C. but exceptionally in 324 by Anaxacrites expedition, and perhaps on other rare occasions. 4 Then the adventure of Eudoxus of Cyzicus took place in the last decades of the 2nd century B.C. ; Strabo declines it as a true story, but the expedition is considered as an important step by modem scholars ; 5 besides the individual personality of Eudoxus and his disputes with the Lagid kings, the whole anecdote includes the « discovery » of the monsoon by Hippalus 6 — perhaps an Egyptian Greek pilot — and the actual opening of Egypt and the Red Sea to the Indian trade around 100 B.C., although commercial exchanges remained at a low level during the 1st century B.C. as stated by Strabo : « [...] and I learned that as many as one hundred and twenty vessels were sailing from Myos Hormos to India, whereas formerly, under the Ptolemies, only a very few ventured to undertake the voyage and to carry on traffic in Indian merchandise » (Geo, 2, 5, 12. ed. Loeb). 7 At the same time, in the second half of the 2nd century B.C., the political situation dramatically changed in the Middle East The Seleucid authority over Babylonia and the Gulf was challenged then ousted by the Parthians who 2. Salles 1987 ; ID. in press, « Achaemenid and Hellenistic trade » ; Potts 1990, The Arabian Gulf, vol. Π : 1-22. 3. Among various reasons which might have pushed the Ptolemies to extend their authority over the Red Sea, mention should be made of a possible interruption in the flow of transarabi an caravans as a consequence of the Syrian Wars. See recently Rouge 1988, and the ancient paper by Tarn 1929. 4. In a huge bibliography on the subject, see Rouge supra ; Desanges 1978 ; Hogemann 1985 (about Anaxicrates : 80-87) ; S ALLES 1988. 5. The major work is TfflEL 1966, Eudoxus of Cyzicus. More recently, see the references cited by A. TCHERNIA, in this volume, which deny the existence of Hippalus as a pilot. 6. By discovery we should understand a western revelation recorded in western sources ; it does not mean that the monsoon system was ignored by other sailors, and we will see below that it was probably used by Arab and Indian shipmen as early as the beginning of the 1st millennium B.C. See above n. 5. 7. See also Geo, 17, 1, 13 : « [...] not so many as twenty vessels would dare to traverse the Arabian Gulf far enough to get a peep outside the straits » (ed. Loeb). The Indian trade might have been operative as early as the mid-2nd cent. B.C. as evidenced by a maritime loan contract SB HI 7169, generally interpreted (but not unanimoulsy) as referring to the Indian ocean (tj)v έξω θάλασσαν), Hauben 1985. Would it be a mere coincidence that the five contractors were military officers of the army and the navy at a precursory period when the travel to the East was hazardous and risky ? THE PERIPLUS AND THE GULF 495 progressively took over the area, more precisely the northern end of the Gulf maritime lane : the Characenian kingdom, whatever might have been its fluctuating relations with its Parthian suzerains, 8 became the new owner of the east-orientated and ancient emporion of the Shatt al- Arab 9 known as Spasinou Charax, and kept it at least up to the end of the 2nd century A.D. On the other hand, the troubled relations between Rome and the Parthians from Crassus to Trajan would have supposedly closed the commercial exchanges between these two areas of the ancient world. 10 Consequently, when peace and security were restored in the Eastern Mediterranean by Augustus, booming thus the demand for « exotic » products n, it was pure logic that the Red Sea should have become the « royal route » of the Indian trade while the Arab-Persian Gulf should have vanished, thence being ignored by the Greek merchant of Berenike who wrote the Periplus. 8. The detailed history of the Characenian kindgom during the 2nd- 1st cent. B.C. remains partly blurred, especially with reference to a supposed « imperialism » over the northern Gulf area (NODELMAN 1960) : for example, there is no evidence that the Arab city of Gerrha ever passed under Characenian control although we know of a Characenian governor in Bahrain in the 2nd cent. A.D. (POTTS 1990, The Arabian Gulf'. 145-149). Unless new evidence is offered, we may assume that Gerrha should have persevered in its transarabian caravan activity throughout the 1st cent. B.C.-lst cent A.D. independantly of any Characenian interference. As often, deciphering the conclusions of political changes should be rather cautious. 9. After Nebuchadnezzar had founded the city of Teredon near Basrah (known as Diridotis by Arrian who adds that merchants used to bring frankincense and aromatics there), Darius founded the emporion of Aginis in the same region, also known as Ampe. Later, Alexander the Great built an Alexandria nearby, which became an Antiocheia and finally Spasinou Charax. Except for the latter, we know nothing about the exact location, history and destiny of these vanished cities clustered along the Shatt al-Arab : they were obviously intended to attract and control the convoys of loaded ships coming from the Gulf and further east, SALLES in press. 10. See, at the same time, the emergence of Palmyra as a major caravan-station in the 1st cent. A.D., during a period of Roman-Parthian hostility (TEDCIDOR 1984 : 8-14 ; Gawlikowski 1988) ; or the writing of the Parthian Stations by Isidore of Charax at the very end of the 1st cent B.C., a sign that overland trade was not abandoned either despite the political instability on the borders. 1 1. SlDEBOTHAM 1986, insists on the non-luxiourous items which were traded from India to Egypt : « The literary evidence indicates that Roman imports from India [...] were luxuries. However, a number of Indian exports to the Roman world were necessities : plants or plant products [...], most of which served as condiments, food, clothing or for medicinal purpose. [...] ; we can conclude that this trade was not exclusively one in luxury commodiries » (24). 496 J.-F. SALLES Geographical notes in the Petiplus {Map 1) As attractive it could be, this demonstration is oversimplifying and partly erroneous ; a complete shift of the trade patterns from the Arab-Persian Gulf to the Red Sea cannot be seriously argued, and we should try to account for the silences of the Periplus.
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