|
|
This remarkable work, dated by internal references to kings in India,
South Arabia and Nabataea, to c. 60-75 AD, is a handbook in Greek for
mariners engaged in maritime trade between Myos Hormos in Roman Egypt
and India. In 66 short chapters it describes, in a very matter of fact
way, the ports and principal physical features along the way, as well
as the peoples who lived throughout this vast marine highway, and the
principal imports and exports involved in the trade. The Periplus
is one of a small number of periploi, literally 'voyages around',
which have survived from antiquity to our time.
The Periplus is one of
the few sources which mentions Omana, a town likely to be identical with the site of al-Dur in Umm al-Qaiwain.
But apart from this, and the fact that the main port at the head of
the Gulf, Apologos, was known to its anonymous author, everything
suggests that the sailors who frequented this route did not venture
into the Gulf itself. Indeed, why would they, when India was their
ultimate destination and the use of the monsoon winds to travel between
Egypt and India was the principal task of the readers of this little
book. The trade described by the Periplus was paralleled by
another route which went from the Mediterranean overland via Palmyra
in Syria and thence down the Euphrates to the head of the Gulf, where
ships began the journey to India. This latter trade, to some extent
controlled by the kingdom of Characene, must have provided competition for those merchants from Egypt who
followed the route described in the Periplus.
|
Home
