[SunkenCiv]

One famous example of deliberately fabricated historical myth is the Roman poet Virgil's epic elaboration in the Aeneas, in which Venus shares her identity with goddess Manimekala. This must be viewed against the fact that there is no record of either literature or comparable arts in India prior to the Christian era. At the dawn of a new era the sub-continent was apparently a pristine paradise perched at the very end of the then known world. Innovations in Tamil and Sanskrit literature datable to the early Christian era are thus probably unsurpassed in history. They contain a landscape constructed by received knowledge, of travelers' tale and of 'family resemblance', which serve to locate zones of identity and zones of discrepancy. Description of a crystal or glass pavilion, murals in stucco, wall painting and life-like sculpture in Manimekalai are proof of Mediterranean influence in India. This is confirmed by literary allusion to numerous Greeks in India identified as Yavana from Yavanapura or Alexandria. The Greek connection apparently included Pompeii, where an ivory statuette in early Buddhist style was recovered from a merchant's house on the "via dell' Abbondanza". [Arputhrani Sengupta, Associate Professor, Dept. of History of Art, National Museum Institute, New Delhi, India, "Narrative in Tamil Epic (Second Century AD): Transmission of Myth"] (fig.8) Goddess Manimekala-Isis-Aphrodite in Sanchi style, Pompeii, 1 st century AD

[SunkenCiv]

Rome's East India Company
[Field Notes]

A sturdy 100-foot-long Roman trading vessel bound for India foundered off the Red Sea port of Quseir, Egypt. The ship settled 200 feet below the surface, where it remained undisturbed until a group of British and American archaeologists discovered it in 1993. Douglas Haldane believes the ship was part of a fleet sent by the Roman emperor Augustus -- who seized control of Egypt after the naval battle of Actium in 31 B.C. -- to control trade in the Indian Ocean. He predicts that gold, silver and other precious metals used as currency will be found on board, as well as wine from the Campania region of southern Italy.

India And The Roman Empire

Fine muslins, jewels, especially beryls and pearls, drugs, spices and condiments from India were in great demand. The volume of trade was, therefore, increased to an unprecedented extent. The sea-borne trade between India and Rome received great impetus in the reign of Emperor Claudius by Hippalaus' discovery, in 45 A.D., of the existence of the monsoon winds, blowing regularly across the Indian Ocean. According to Pliny nearly L 5,50,000 flowed every year from Rome to India to pay for the balance of trade. This statement is borne out by the huge hoards of Roman coins unearthed in Indian soil in Tamilnadu.

[SunkenCiv]

	Romans and Barbarians: Four Views from the Empire's Edge, 1st Century AD by Derek Williams
	At Empire's Edge: Exploring Rome's Egyptian Frontier by Robert B. Jackson
[T]he scenic Myos Hormos Road between the Red Sea and the Nile served as a vital artery through the Eastern Desert. Halfway along its path, in Wadi Hammamat, an astounding collection of graffiti and inscriptions attest to its commercial and political importance... These inscriptions, for example, reveal that Queen Hatshepsut's famous expedition to the land of Punt began along this route to the sea.

[SunkenCiv]

• Chronology of Asian maritime history -- A gold medallion of Marcus Aurelius' predecessor Antoninus Pius dated 152 CE has been unearthed at Oc Eo, the main port of Funan in southern Vietnam, which flourished between the 1st and 6th centuries - especially after strife disrupted caravans across central Asia in the C2nd-3rd. The alternative land-sea route involved maritime sections from the Middle East to northwest India, across the Bay of Bengal to the Isthmus of Kra, across the Gulf of Thailand to Funan, and from Funan to China. Other C2nd-3rd finds at Oc Eo include Roman coins, Indian seals, and jewellery. At around the same time, a commercial centre developed at Ko-ying in the Sunda Straits; Malay seamen brought spices and forest products to Funan. [David Chandler, "A history of Cambodia", p.14, & Kenneth Hall, "Maritime trade and state development in early Southeast Asia", p.59, both citing Louis Malleret, "L'arch&eacuteologie du delta de Mekong", 4.vols (Paris 1959-63) - vol 3, "La culture du Fou-nan", 1962; Kenneth Hall, "Maritime trade and state development in early Southeast Asia", p.20-21, citing O.W. Wolters, "Early Indonesian Commerce: a study of the origins of Sri Vijaya", Ithaca, 1967. Funan and Ko-ying are the Chinese names.

[SunkenCiv]

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[Jack Hammer]

South Indians in Roman Egypt?

Probably - those early Indian seafarers got around.

[SunkenCiv]

sidebar:

Those About To Die
Chapter XII
by Daniel P. Mannix

There were also man-sized apes called tityrus with round faces, reddish color and whiskers. Pictures of them appear on vases and they were apparently orangutans, imported from Indonesia. As far as I know, the Romans never exhibited gorillas although these biggest of all apes were known to the Phoenicians, who gave them their present name which means "hairy savage."

The surviving ancient text, Periplus of Hanno, describes a voyage down the western coast of Africa by Carthaginians (who were Phoenician in origin, language, and ethnicity); it describes Mount Cameroun in eruption, and the gorilla; a couple of gorilla skins were tacked up on the wall of the Carthaginian temple where a Greek traveler encountered the text and preserved a Greek translation. Anyway, when the gorilla was rediscovered by non-Africans in the 19th century, the Periplus account of the beast was remembered, and that's how it got its name. :')

[Sirius Lee]

Thanks for posting this. I’m fascinated, not just with the extent of near east trade/exploration during the Roman era, but of the possibility that quinqueremes were exploring North America and tradesmen were in the Far East intreating with the Hans 1st Century, long before Marco Polo.

[Rebelbase]

Ha. I didn’t get sucked into a 10 year old article again!