The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (Periplus Maris Erythraei) is a Greek periplus, describing navigation and trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports like Berenice along the coast of the Red Sea, and others along Northeast Africa and India. The text has been ascribed to different dates between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, but a mid-1st century date is now the most commonly accepted. Although the author is unknown, it is clearly a firsthand description by someone familiar with the area and is nearly unique in providing accurate insights into what the ancient world knew about the lands around the Indian Ocean.

Although Erythraean Sea (Greek: Ἐρυθρά Θάλασσα) literally means "Red Sea", to the Greeks it included the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf.

Overview

The work consists of 66 chapters, most of them about the length of a long paragraph in English. For instance, the short Chapter 9 reads in its entirety:

In many cases, the description of places is sufficiently accurate to identify their present locations; for others, there is considerable debate. For instance, a "Rhapta" is mentioned as the farthest market down the African coast of "Azania", but there at least five locations matching the description, ranging from Tanga south to the Rufiji River delta. The description of the Indian coast mentions the Ganges River clearly, yet after that is somewhat garbled, describing China as a "great inland city Thina" that is a source of raw silk.

Another interesting feature of the Periplus is that some of the words describing trade goods are seen nowhere else in ancient literature, and so we can only guess as to what they might mean. The Periplus also describes how Hippalus first discovered the direct route from the Red Sea to southern India.

The text derives from a Byzantine 10th-century manuscript in minuscule hand, contained in the collections of the University Library of Heidelberg (CPG 398: 40v-54v), and a copy of it dating from the 14th or 15th century in the British Museum (B.M. Add 19391 9r-12r). In the 10th-century manuscript, the text is attributed to Arrian, probably for no deeper reason than that the manuscript was adjacent to the Periplus Pontus Euxini written by him. The Periplus was edited by Sigmund Gelen (Zikmund Hruby z Jeleni of Prague) (1497-1554) and first published in a modern edition by Hieronymus Froben (1501-1563) in 1533. This edition was corrupt and full of errors but served for later editions for three centuries until the rediscovery of the 10th century Heidelberg manuscript which was taken to Rome during the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), then to Paris under Napoleon, and finally returned to Heidelberg in 1816.

Date/Authorship

One historical analysis, published by Schoff in 1912, narrowed the date of the text to 60 A. D. Though narrowing the date down, from 1912, to a single year roughly 2000 years earlier might be considered remarkable by modern standards, a date of 60 A. D. nevertheless remains in perfect agreement with present day estimates of sometime during the middle of the first century. Schoff additionally provides an historical analysis as to the text's original authorship and arrives at the conclusion that the author must have been a "Greek in Egypt, a Roman subject," and by Schoff's calculations this would be during the time of Tiberius Claudius Balbilus (who coincidentally also was an Egyptian Greek).

Schoff continues by noting that the author could not have been "a highly educated man" as "is evident from his frequent confusion of Greek and Latin words and his clumsy and sometimes ungrammatical constructions."Schoff (1912), page 16. Because of "the absence of any account of the journey up the Nile and across the desert from Coptos," Schoff prefers to pinpoint the author's residence to "Berenice rather than Alexandria." Though Schoff is unclear about which "Berenice" he is referring to and several possibilities exist for "Berenice", it is actually Berenice Troglodytica which is documented, discussed at length and vividly described within the periplus text itself.

One peculiarity noted by Schoff while translating from the original Greek version is that "the text is so vague and uncertain that [the author] seems rather to be quoting from someone else, unless indeed much of this part of the work has been lost in copying."

Opone (Somalia)

Ras Hafun in northern Somalia is believed to be the location of the ancient trade center of Opone. Ancient Egyptian, Roman and Persian Gulf pottery has been recovered from the site by an archaeological team from the University of Michigan. Opone is in the thirteenth entry of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, which in part states:

In ancient times, Opone operated as a port of call for merchants from Phoenicia, Egypt, Greece, Persia, Yemen, Nabataea, Azania, the Roman Empire and elsewhere, as it possessed a strategic location along the coastal route from Azania to the Red Sea. Merchants from as far afield as Indonesia and Malaysia passed through Opone, trading spices, silks and other goods, before departing south for Azania or north to Yemen or Egypt on the trade routes that spanned the length of the Indian Ocean's rim. As early as 50 AD, Opone was well-known as a center for the cinnamon trade, along with the trading of cloves and other spices, ivory, exotic animal skins and incense.

Malao (Somalia)

The ancient port city of Malao, situated in present-day Berbera in northwestern Somalia, is also mentioned in the Periplus:

Aksum Empire (Eritrea and Ethiopia)

Coins of king Endybis, 227-235 AD. British Museum. The left one reads in Greek "AΧWMITW BACIΛEYC", "King of Axum". The right one reads in Greek: ΕΝΔΥΒΙC ΒΑCΙΛΕΥC, "King Endybis".

Aksum is mentioned in the Periplus as an important market place for ivory, which was exported throughout the ancient world:

According to the Periplus, the ruler of Aksum in the 1st century AD was Zoscales, who, besides ruling in Aksum also held under his sway two harbours on the Red Sea: Adulis (near Massawa) and Avalites (Assab). He is also said to have been familiar with Greek literature:

Himyarite kingdom and Saba (Arabia)

Coin of the Himyarite Kingdom, southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, in which stopped ships between Egypt and India passed. This is an imitation of a coin of Augustus. 1st Century AD.

Ships from Himyar regularly traveled the East African coast. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describes the trading empire of Himyar and Saba, regrouped under a single ruler Charibael (Karab Il Watar Yuhan'em II), who is said to have been on friendly terms with Rome:

Frankincense kingdom

The Frankincense kingdom is described further east along the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, with the harbour of Cana (South Arabic Qana, modern Bir Ali). The ruler of this kingdom is named Eleazus, or Eleazar, thought to correspond to King Iliazz Yalit I:

Rhapta

Recent research by the Tanzanian archaeologist Felix Chami has uncovered extensive remains of Roman trade items near the mouth of the Rufiji River and the nearby Mafia island, and makes a strong case that the ancient port of Rhapta was situated on the banks of the Rufiji river.

The Periplus informs us that:

"Two runs beyond this island [Menuthias = Zanzibar?] comes the very last port of trade on the coast of Azania, called Rhapta ["sewn"], a name derived from the aforementioned sewn boats, where there are great quantities of ivory and tortoise shell."Casson (1989), p. 61.

Chami summarizes the evidence for Raphta's location as follows:

"The actual location of the Azanian capital, Rhapta, remains unknown. However, archaeological indicators reported above suggest that it was located on the coast of Tanzania, in the region of the Rufiji River and Mafia Island. It is in this region where the concentration of Panchaea/Azanian period settlements has been discovered. If the island of Menuthias mentioned in the Periplus was Zanzibar, a short voyage south would land one in the Rufiji region.

Ptolemy locates Rhapta at latitude 8º south, which is the exact latitude of the Rufiji Delta and Mafia Island. The metropolis was on the mainland about one degree west of the coast near a large river and a bay with the same name. While the river should be regarded as the modern Rufiji River, the bay should definitely be identified with the calm waters between the island of Mafia and the Rufiji area. The peninsula east of Rhapta would have been the northern tip of Mafia Island. The southern part of the bay is protected from the deep sea by numerous deltaic small islets separated from Mafia Island by shallow and narrow channels. To the north the bay is open to the sea and any sailor entering the waters from that direction would feel as if he were entering a bay. Even today the residents identify these waters as a bay, referring to it as a 'female sea', as opposed to the more violent open sea on the other side of the island of Mafia."

Interestingly, the Periplus informs us that Rhapta, was under the firm control of a governor appointed by an Arabian king, taxes were collected, and it was serviced by "merchant craft that they staff mostly with Arab skippers and agents who, through continual intercourse and intermarriage, are familiar with the area and its language."

Barygaza (India)

Trade with the Indian harbour of Barygaza is described extensively in the Periplus. Nahapana, ruler of the Indo-Scythian Western Satraps is mentioned under the name Nambanus, as ruler of the area around Barigaza:

Coin of Nahapana (119-124 AD).
Obv: Bust of king Nahapana with a legend in Greek script "PANNIΩ IAHAPATAC NAHAΠANAC", transliteration of the Prakrit Raño Kshaharatasa Nahapanasa: "King Kshaharata Nahapana".
Rev: Thunderbolt and arrow, within a Prakrit Brahmi legend to right: Rajno Ksaharatasa Nahapanasa: Prakrit Kharoshti legend to left: Rano Ksaharatasa Nahapanasa.

Under the Western Satraps, Barigaza was one of the main centers of Roman trade with India. The Periplus describes the many goods exchanged:

Goods were also brought down in quantity from Ujjain, the capital of the Western Satraps:

Early Chera and early Pandyan kingdoms (India)

The Chera kingdom lost port city of Muziris, as well as the Early Pandyan Kingdom are mentioned in the Periplus as major centers of trade, pepper and other spices, metal work and semiprecious stones, between Damirica and the Roman Empire.

The widely accepted theory states it to be the Musiri, upstream river Kaveri, near the ancient capital of the Chera Kingdom, Karur in Tamil Nadu. Roman coins and amphorae are found in abundance along with Chera-Roman collaborative mint. Also noteworthy are the beryls and other semi-precious stones and metal work in the region as described by the Periplus. Salem steel, antimony and lead in Egypt also confirms this to be an even more ancient port. The distance between Musiri and the sea is around 500 stadia as the Periplus accounts.

The second, controversial theory states from the hoards of coins and shards of amphorae found in the town of Pattanam, elicited recent archeological interest as a probable location of this mythical port city. Today this place is called Kodungalloor.

According to the Periplus, numerous Greek seamen managed an intense trade with Muziris:

Damirica or Limyrike is Tamilakkam (Tamil தமிழகம்) – the "Tamil country". Further, this area served as a hub for trade with the interior, in the Gangetic plain:

Remains of the Indo-Greek kingdom

The Periplus explains that coins of the Indo-Greek king Menander I were current in Barigaza.

The Periplus describes numerous Greek buildings and fortifications in Barigaza, although mistakenly attributing them to Alexander the Great, who never went this far south. If true, this account would relate to the remains of the southern expansion of the Indo-Greeks into Gujarat:

The Periplus further testifies to the circulation of Indo-Greek coinage in the region:

The Greek city of Alexandria Bucephalous on the Jhelum River is mentioned in the Periplus, as well as in the Roman Peutinger Table:

See also

• Silk Road