Such Greek and Roman sources reveal that Sri Lanka was known to the Mediterranean world, partly as a distant island south of India and partly as a far-away ‘other’ – a producer of exotic goods whose inhabitants lived long lives. What sources like the Periplus Maris Erythraei make clear is that voyages across the Indian Ocean were part of established trading routes that involved both Mediterranean and Indian craft, potentially even the vessel recently discovered off Sri Lanka’s southern coast, the Godavaya shipwreck. Prosperous commercial activity along India’s western coastline between the first century B.C.E. and the second century C.E. is well-attested to by non-western sources particularly in Tamil poetry written in the centuries following the height of commerce between Rome and India. In the Tamil poem Maduraikanch, for example, written between the first and second centuries C.E., Large ships on which high flags on mast-tops wave Spread out their sails and cleave the rolling waves, Tossed by the winds of the great dark, treble sea On which rest clouds. They come to the sound of drums To the port, their trade successful, with the gold That much increases people’s wealth. The Tamil poem Pattinapalai, written before the third century C.E., describes the port city of Kaveripattinam and the travel of goods between the port and the country’s hinterland: So goods flow in from sea to land, And also flow from land to sea. Unmeasured are the abundant wares Here brought and piled. Another poem denotes that merchants arrived at ‘flood time.’ Foreigners, or Yavanas, were primarily traders, but Tamil poetry also attests to their presence as craftsmen and bodyguards.86 Yavanas are mentioned drinking and wandering along the streets at night; all of which provide interesting evidence of their presence in the early centuries of the Christian era. INDIAN OCEAN TRADE: MERCHANTS AND ROUTES Before the arrival of the Romans, the Ptolemies of Egypt had begun to exploit trade with both India and Arabia through the construction of ports along the Red Sea coast. Although such trade was well established by the end of the Hellenistic period (323 B.C.E.-31 B.C.E), Strabo indicated that the volume of the commerce was nowhere near as large as it was after Rome’s annexation of Egypt (31/27 BC):
When Gallus was prefect of Egypt, having accompanied him and ascended to Syene and the borders of Ethiopia, we found that even 120 ships were sailing from Myos Hormos to India, but under the Ptolemaic kings only a very few dared to sail and to trade in Indian goods. Sailing routes across the Red Sea and Indian Ocean have received a substantial amount of scholarly attention. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea indicates that such routes were dictated by the monsoons, with merchants utilizing the southwest monsoon winds for outbound voyages and the northeast monsoons for return voyages. During the summer months the monsoon winds blow violently from the southwest, suspending most sailing activity from May through September along the west coast of India and the south Arabian coast; the northeast monsoon dominates between November and April. Sailors making the journey to India left from Myos Hormos and Berenike in July sailing down the Red Sea to the Arabian port of Mouza or to the port of Okêlis before following the coast along the southern Arabian shore as far as Kanê. From there they either sailed to India’s northwest coast, to the ports of Barbarikon and Barygaza, or to the southern part of the Indian sub continent, and the ports of Muziris and Nelkynda Long-distance trade with Arabia and India was greatly facilitated by the use of the monsoon winds, which enabled merchants trading with India to travel there directly rather than make a long and dangerous coastal voyage. Prior to this, few ships made the trip directly and cargoes were transshipped from Indian and Arab ships at one of the southern Arabian ports. The Periplus Maris Erythraei, for instance, mentions a time when there were no direct sailings from Egypt to India and all cargo was transshipped at Aden. After the discovery of the monsoon winds by Greek seamen, Mediterranean ships made the crossing directly. Vessels arrived in India in September or perhaps early October, depending on when they had initially departed. Ships left for the return voyage according to the Periplus, at the onset of the northeast monsoon in early November, though vessels could leave as late as December or January. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, however instrumental and crucial to the study of maritime trade in this region, is not the only textual source relevant to this discussion. Chinese sailing directions in the "Hou Han-Shou" (the Historical Book of the Han Dynasty), written between the second century B.C.E. and the second century C.E., clearly attest that the country Yibuchen lay south of India. A late Tang Dynasty document written in the eighth century, The Sea Route from Guangzhou to Countries in the Indian Ocean, is more helpful in that it describes a venture from Canton to a variety of places in the Indian Ocean, including Sri Lanka, providing approximate sailing times in ‘Li’ or days. These documents help clarify the extent of Sri Lanka’s maritime connections. In India, the ports of Barbaricum (modern Karachi), Barygaza, Muziris, Korkai, Kaveripattinam and Arikamedu on the southern tip of India were the main centres of this trade with Rome. Furthermore only two visits to Sri Lanka by Romans have been officially recorded: that of a freedman of Annius Plocamus in the first century A.D., which resulted in the sending of a delegation from Sri Lanka to Rome during the reign of the emperor Claudius (A.D. 41-54) (Pliny N.H. VI.23.84), and that of Sopatros, probably in the fifth century A.D. (Cosmas Indicopleustes, Christian Topography XI.17-19). Indeed Pliny wrote that Annius Plocamus, a Roman who was related to the Emperor Claudius, sent one of his sailors to explore the seas east of Roman Egypt. The latter landed in Hipporos, a port on the southwestern coast of the island of Taprobane. He stayed there for six months, the time to learn the language and customs. He left towards Rome with four ambassadors of the island. There he said that "...the island had 500 cities. Palesimundium was the capital, a city of 200,000 inhabitants in the center of the south coast, bordered by the river of the same name, one of the two largest rivers of the island; the island was also home to Lake Mégysba, a large inland lake full of islands (home to pasture); a second great river, the Cybara, watered the North Island towards India. The island was 2000 stadia (~ 400 km) long, which corresponds to the dimensions of Ceylon. The island was rich with precious stones, marble, gold, silver, pearls ... The king was dressed like the Greeks, while his people dressed as Arabs...." All this confirms the existence of huge trade between Rome and Taprobane since Augustus times. Furthermore Chandra Tilake Edirisuriya wrote in detail that: "Pliny relates that in the time of Claudius Caesar (41-54 CE), a freedman of Annius Plocamus, while coasting off Arabia, was carried by the winds, and after drifting for 15 days, made land at the haven of Hippuros in Taprobane, where he went ashore and was hospitably entertained by the king at the capital Paleisimundus, for six months.The freedman then returned to Rome taking with him two "Sinhala ambassadors" led by one Rachias (ratiya or ratika; a district chieftain), who were sent by the Sinhala king to establish direct commercial contacts with the Roman emperor. An inscription of Annius Plocamus recently discovered in Egypt, is dated 5 July 6 CE, in the reign of Augustus and proves Pliny to have been wrong in ascribing the story he relates to the time of Claudius. Further evidence that the Roman emperor was actually Augustus is provided by the commentary to the Mahavansa which states that King Bhathikabhaya of Sri Lanka (22 BCE-7 CE), the contemporary of Augustus, sent ambassadors to "Romanukkharattha" (or the country of the Romans) and obtained coral, a well-known product of the Mediterranean, with which he had a net ornament made for the Ruvanveliseya at Anuradhapura. Pliny purports to describe Taprobane and its inhabitants according to the accounts given by the Sinhala ambassadors, but it is evident that much of what they are supposed to have said has been misunderstood. The Periplus asserts that the name Taprobane had been replaced by 'Paleisimundu'.Direct trading between the West and Sri Lanka began towards the end of the 1st century CE and developed rapidly thereafter. The far-famed but little-known island of Taprobane became a reality to Western merchants. Numerous first-hand accounts of the island and its people and products became available through mariners to Greek and Roman geographers, and this material formed the basis of the altogether exceptional description of the island computed by Ptolemy about the middle of the 2nd century CE. Ptolemy calls Sri Lanka 'the island of Taprobane which was formerly called Simondou and now Salike' and he adds that "the inhabitants are commonly called Salai." 'Salike' and 'Salai' are from Sinhala. Ptolemy fell into the same error as other geographers in exaggerating the size of Sri Lanka to 14 times its actual area, but gives its general shape and outline with greater accuracy than the Portuguese did in the 16th century. The wealth of information which he gives shows that by the 2nd century Western traders and mariners had acquired a remarkably good knowledge of the coastal and interior topography of Sri Lanka.The Axumites had begun to monopolize the Indian sea-borne trade, by the 4th century and the Romans used them as middle-men. Roman commerce with the East was revived by Emperor Constantine and in the year 362 CE an embassy from Serendivi or Sri Lanka was received by Emperor Julian. The Arabian form, Serendib, of the name of Sri Lanka, had already gained currency in the West. Sri Lanka had become the entrepot of sea trade between the Near East, India and the Far East, by the 6th century. Persian and Axumite ships from the West, Chinese and South-East Asian ships from the East and the shipping of India met in the harbours of Sri Lanka, principally Mahatittha, now Mannar, and exchanged their merchandize as well as purchased the products of Sri Lanka. Great wealth accrued to the Sinhala kings. The trade contacts with the Western world, thus inaugurated, continued during the subsequent centuries up to the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 CE, as indicated by the discovery of large hoards of Roman coins at various places in the island." With the commerce came to Taprobane even a huge amount of Roman coins, that was used by the Roman merchants to pay for the local merchandise and that also was imitated by the Taprobane authorities, who created similar bronze coins Bronze imitation of a Roman coin in Taprobane during the Antonine period
Large hoards of copper or bronze Roman coins and contemporary Indo-roman imitations have been found at many places in Lanka with a large hoard being found in 1987 at Sigiriya. The coins are always very worn indicating a wide and constant circulation and the roman coins are usually third century and later in age. These hoards suggest that the roman and indo-roman coinage was probably used as small change long after the minting date of the coins themselves. Occasional gold trade coins from Rome are also found in Taprobane, like a Byzantine Roman solidus of Heraclius and Heraclius Constantine (610-641 AD). INDIAN OCEAN TRADE: THE COMMODITIES Roman traders typically used coin to acquire such exotic eastern goods though gemstones, fabrics, corals, and mineral powders such as antimony, sulfide, and yellow orpiment were also traded. Large quantities of raw materials including glass, copper, tin, and lead were also in demand in Sri Lanka. Additionally, iron is mentioned in Pliny’s Natural History as well as in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea where ‘Indian iron and steel’ are specifically denoted. The Periplus specifies that in Barbarikon, a port on India’s northwest coast, traders could purchase costus (used as a medicine), bdellium, lykion, nard (a medicinal unguent occasionally used in cooking), turquoise, lapis lazuli, silk, cloth, yarn, and indigo clothing. These items could be purchased by Western merchants or exchanged for printed fabric, multicolored textiles, peridot, coral, storax (a resin used in medicines), perfumes, frankincense, glassware, silverware, and wine. Roman money – written in the Periplus as δηνάριον (denarii) – could be exchanged in the port for local currency at a profit. Following India’s coastline south to Barygaza, a port and industrial center, the author of the Periplus indicates that there was a market for foreign wine, metals (including copper, tin, and lead), coral, peridot, cloth, storax, yellow sweet clover, raw glass, realgar, sulfide of antimony (used primarily for the eyes, both as a cure for sores and as a cosmetic applied to the lids and lashes), and gold and silver currency. Barygaza exported nard, costus, bdellium, ivory, onyx, agate, lykion, cloth, silk, yarn, long pepper, among other items brought from nearby ports. Further south, Muziris and Nelkynda were markets for peridot, multicolored textiles, sulfide of antimony, coral, raw glass, copper, tin, lead, wine, realgar, orpiment, grain, and a ‘great amount of money’. Lionel Casson comments that ‘money,’ or Roman coinage, was emphasized in the Periplus in reference to these two ports to underscore the necessity of having silver and gold currency to purchase goods at Muziris and Nelkynda; elsewhere bartering seems just as prominent a strategy. Muziris and Nelkynda exported pepper, fine-quality pearls, ivory, Chinese silk, Gangetic nard, malabathron – a kind of cinnamon from trees in northeastern India – as well as a variety of transparent gems, diamonds, sapphires, and tortoise shell. While the author rarely comments on the volume of the trade with India, he does write at one point that the vessels departing Muziris and Nelkynda carry full loads due to the quantity of pepper and malabathron they pick up at these two ports. Pliny, whose figures owe more to Stoic moralizing on the cost of luxury than to imperial customs receipts, attests that 50 million "roman sestertii" per year were sent to India to pay for goods; elsewhere in his Natural History he claims that 100 million sestertii were spent yearly upon all the goods imported from India, China, and Arabia. Pliny also quotes prices of 4-15 denarii per pound for various types of pepper, 40-75 denarii per pound for nard leaves, and 300 denarii per pound for cinnamon. Literary complaints about eastern luxuries and corrupt ‘luxurious’ living developed alongside a steady market for such eastern goods. Propertius (c. 45-15 BC) for instance, who condemns Indian gold, Red sea pearls, Tyrian purple, and Arabian cinnamon and criticizes imported beauty aids – perfume, make-up, jewelry, hair-dye, and diaphanous garments – draws on an established ‘anti cosmetic’ tradition in his poetry. Ovid (c. 43 BC-17 AD), similarly mentions silks, decorated cotton, pearls and various gemstones, as well as other decorative materials such as shells, tortoiseshell, coral and ivory, perfumes and unguents, and writes that a ‘middle way’ should be found between neglect and over-refinement. Culinary items, including pepper, cinnamon, and cassia, for example, are also mentioned. Such goods would have been coming to Rome from the Far East, from Arabia and India, at a time contemporaneous with the Godavaya shipwreck. Gary Young, who has studied the various routes and communities involved in Roman commerce with the East, cautions against indiscriminately denoting such products as ‘luxury goods,’ or assigning the demand for such items wholly to a Roman taste for luxuria. While some goods were indeed luxury goods, many commodities had medicinal or religious applications. Frankincense and myrrh, for example, were predominantly items of religious significance, burned in honor of the gods at temples and at funerals for centuries. Literary evidence for the use of eastern trade goods in the manufacture of medicines includes Dioscorides’ (c. 40-90 AD) De Materia Medica, which dates from approximately 65 AD and is one of the most comprehensive ancient treatises concerning the medicinal uses of many eastern trade items. Eastern goods were especially prized for their perceived properties as antidotes, which made them useful for cleansing wounds, defeating infections, and as preventives against poisoning. In his writings, Theophrastus (c. 372-288 BC), for one, noted the power of pepper as an antidote. Any discussion of Indian Ocean trade would be incomplete without the wealth of information that has been gained from archaeological excavation work; together with literary references such resources help contextualize the material carried onboard the Godavaya shipwreck. A commercial relationship between India and the western world is confirmed by abundant archaeological evidence, including excavation work carried out successively in 1945 by Mortimer Wheeler, in 1947-48 by Wheeler and J.M. Casal, and in 1989-1992 by Vimala Begley at the port of Arikamedu. Arikamedu, one of the emporia of Roman trade on India’s Coromandel Coast, has come to be regarded as essential for the study of overseas commerce with the Mediterranean world during the so-called “Indo-Roman” trade period – a term that has prompted some controversy. Indisputable evidence for commerce with the Mediterranean exists in fragments of transport amphorae, cups and plates of terra sigillata, ceramic lamps and unguentaria, blue glazed faience and glass bowls found at the site. Two-thirds of the amphora fragments found at Arikamedu during the 1941-1950 excavations come from wine jars, suggesting that wine was a principal commodity sent to India from the Mediterranean. Many of the fragments originated in Roman Greece, from the island of Kos, though fragments of Knidian and Rhodian amphorae have been found as well. Fragments of Koan amphorae, originating in Campania, have led to the suggestion that wine from Greece was later supplanted at Arikamedu by an Italian production. In addition to wine jars, fragments of Spanish jars for garum sauce and olive oil have been found as well. Sherds of terra sigillata, a slipped Roman ware, found in the 1989-92 excavations at Arikamedu and dated to the first quarter of the first century C.E., are thought to represent personal possessions, novelty items, or gifts. While typically considered part of the assemblage indicating resident foreigners, a sherd found with “megalithic” writing has caused speculation that some terra sigillata pieces were sold, bartered, or gifted to the local population. Pattanam, a site on India’s southwest coast recently identified as ancient Muziris, has also provided evidence for Indo-Roman trade; Mediterranean contact is represented by readily identifiable ceramic material, including a Dressel 2-4 amphora, as well as other finds of imported Roman amphorae and related fine wares. Such artifacts date from between the late first century B.C.E. to the fourth century C.E. Remnants of Roman glass bowls, fragments of painted glass objects, and glass pendants discovered at the site are also suggestive of personal belongings rather than merchandise. Evidence further supporting the supposition that Muziris may have had a Roman ‘merchant colony’ comes from the Tabula Peutingeriana, a medieval map depicting the Roman world as it was in the first century C.E. This map shows a building marked as "Templum Augusti" (Temple of Augustus) at Muziris. Young argues that such a structure would have been built only by subjects of the Roman Empire, likely ones who either lived in Muziris or who spent a significant portion of their time there. Young further argues that the presence of foreign merchants is supported by the Periplus, in a passage that mentions “enough grain for those concerned with shipping, because the merchants do not use it.” These merchants who do not use grain are thought to be Indians who would instead have eaten rice, whereas ‘those concerned with shipping,’ are thought to have been resident foreigners. Roman Map showing "Templum Augusti" in Muziris, southern India. Taprobane can be seen at the bottom of this map, called "Tabula Peutingeriana"
