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Through an innovative analysis of a pair of unique second-century AD documents, this volume offers an updated perspective on the Roman Empire's trade with South India, drawing on recent archaeological and historical insights and using as a backdrop the
longue durée history of the South Indian pepper trade from antiquity to early modernity.
List of contents
- Frontmatter
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Abbreviations
- 0: Introduction
- 0.1. Synopsis
- P. Vindob. G 40822: Text and Translation
- Part I. Contextualizing the Muziris Papyrus
- 1: Bridging Disconnected Seas
- 1.1. Challenges
- 1.2. The Northern Passages
- 1.3. The Southern Passages
- 1.4. Multifaceted Complementarity
- 2: Riding the Monsoons
- 2.1. Direct Sea Routes
- 2.2. Multi-Stage Sea Routes
- 2.3. Heading for India
- 2.4. The Pleiades in the Middle of the Yard
- 3: Pepper Lands
- 3.1. Kottanarike, the Southern Pepper-Producing Land
- 3.2. Male, the Northern Pepper-Producing Land
- 3.3. Early Modern Quantitative Dimensions
- 3.4. Ancient Prices
- 4: South Indian Perspectives
- 4.1. Gatherers
- 4.2. Traders
- 4.3. Kings
- 4.4. The Pepper Pendulum
- 5: Supporting Sources
- 5.1. Strabo: The Customs Duties on Indian Commodities
- 5.2. The Periplus: The Ships and Cargoes of the South India Trade
- 5.3. Pliny: The Schedule of the Commercial Enterprises to South India
- 5.4. Ptolemy: The Evolution of the South Indian Context
- Part II. Let Him Look to his Bond: A Loan Contract for Muziris (P. Vindob. G 40822 Recto)
- 6: Deadline and Whereabouts
- 6.1. A Debated Contract
- 6.2. Time and Maritime Loans
- 6.3. The Deadline for Repayment of the Muziris Loan Contracts
- 6.4. In the Beginning Was the Loan Contract
- 7: Selling and Repaying
- 7.1. Repaying a Maritime Loan in Fourth-Century BC Athens
- 7.2. Under the Lender's Power and Seal
- 7.3. Earnings and Benefit of Assumption
- 7.4. Outstanding Loans
- 8: Loan and Logistics
- 8.1. What the Loan Was All About
- 8.2. Prudent Loans for Maritime Trade
- 8.3. Caravans from Berenice
- 8.4. The Coptos Ships
- 8.5. Late Medieval Comparanda
- Part III. The Muziris Cargo of a Roman Indiaman (P. Vindob. G 40822 Verso)
- 9: Three Minor Cargoes and How They Were Assessed
- 9.1. Three Quarters of an Indiaman's Cargo
- 9.2. Gangetic Nard
- 9.3. Schidai
- 9.4. Straightforward and Circuitous Evaluations
- 9.5. Cargoes, Quarters, and the Arabarchs' Additional Shares
- 10: The Other Cargoes
- 10.1. Col. ii, ll. 14-30: An Overview
- 10.2. Pepper: Col. ii, ll. 20-30 (and ll. 1-3)
- 10.3. Tortoise Shell (?) and Malabathron: Col. ii, ll. 14-19
- 11: Contrasts
- 11.1. Ancient and Early Modern Pepper Carriers
- 11.2. Another Pepper Trade
- 11.3. Conspicuous Absences
- 11.4. Indian and African Tusks
- Part IV. The Red Sea Tax and the Muziris Papyrus
- 12: Maris Rubri Vectigal
- 12.1. Payments in Kind and Payments in Money
- 12.2. Double Customs Duties on Different Tax Bases
- 12.3. Rates
- 12.4. Fiscal Values
- 12.5. Weight Standards
- 13: Dramatis Personae
- 13.1. Arabarchs, Paralemptai, and Grammateis
- 13.2. A Lender/Customs Collector
- 13.3. A Borrower/Ship Owner
- 13.4. The Imperial Administration
- 14: Epilogue
- Appendices
- 1. Exchanging Coins at Barygaza
- 2. Axum and Silis in the Kephalaia: Trade and Powers in the Late Antique Indian Ocean
- Endmatter
- References
- Index
About the author
Federico De Romanis is Associate Professor in Roman History at the Università di Roma "Tor Vergata" in Rome, Italy. He received his doctorate in historical sciences from the Università della Repubblica di S. Marino in 1992 and has taught at the Università di Catania and at the Università della Tuscia, as well as holding fellowships at the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici in Naples (1987-8) and at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University (2012-3). His previous publications include Cassia, cinnamomo, ossidiana: Uomini e merci tra Oceano Indiano e Mediterraneo (L'Erma Di Bretschneider, 1996).
Summary
Through an innovative analysis of a pair of unique second-century AD documents, this volume offers an updated perspective on the Roman Empire's trade with South India, drawing on recent archaeological and historical insights and using as a backdrop the longue durée history of the South Indian pepper trade from antiquity to early modernity.
Additional text
The volume is a monumental work in various respects: exegetical care, the quantity and multiplicity of the sources and data collected; the breadth of the historical span ranging from the Roman period, the second century of the Muziris papyrus, and earlier and later times up to the pre-modern era. Federico De Romanis offers much more than the title promises by reconstructing a large multidisciplinary mosaic of interest to the ancient historian, the papyrologist, the ancient geographer, the scholar of ancient economies, and the Indianist.
