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Some Notes on the Periplus of the Erythræan Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Abstract

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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1916

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References

page 830 note 1 p. 29 ad fin.

page 830 note 2 Cosmas, , ii, 143Google Scholar, Migne. Cf. Letronne, , Journal des Savans, 1825, p. 265Google Scholar. M. V. de Saint-Martin says that these Greco-Egyptian sailors knew the constellation of Canopus by a Latin name.

page 830 note 3 Brünnow, & Donaszewski, , Provincia Arabia, iii, p. 308Google Scholar. Other examples pp. 309–10.

page 830 note 4 Op. cit., iii, pp. 308–10, for examples. I may remark that the expression φιλόκαισαρ supports the manuscript reading of κασαρ in c. 26. Agrippa II calls himself βασιλεὺς μέγας, the Axumite kings take the title “king of kings”, and we have an Arab strategos under the Nabatæan king Dabei (a.d. 75–105). Sakas, Kushans, Nabatæans, Axumites, all living on the fringe of the Greek world, take their titles from the Greeks; and the Axumite βασιλεὺς τν βασιλέων is still perpetuated in the Abyssinian Negus Negushi.

page 831 note 1 JRAS. 1913, p. 128Google Scholar. Cf. Dr. Thomas, ibid., p. 420.

page 831 note 2 Brünnow, & Donaszewski, , op. cit., iii, pp. 348–9Google Scholar. Cf. p. 320, Σιηνο πραγματευτα τς ἱερς πλατειάς, in an inscription of the year a.d. 185.

page 831 note 3 Strabo, , xvi, p. 767.Google Scholar

page 832 note 1 pp. 135–6.

page 832 note 2 Χαριβαήλ= Karib'il. Three kings of this name are known from their coins or inscriptions, and it is uncertain which is the Charibael of the Periplus. Hill, , Ancient Coinage of Southern Arabia, p. 13.Google Scholar

page 832 note 3 Mommsen, , Provinces of the Roman Empire, Eng. trans., vol. ii, p. 294, n. 1.Google Scholar

page 833 note 1 Pliny, , H.N. vi, 84Google Scholar: “Anni Plocami qui maris Rubri vectigal a fisco redemerat, libertus circa Arabiam navigans, Aquilonibus raptos præter Carmaniain, xv. die Hippuros portum ejus invectus,” etc. This happened either in the reign of Claudius or immediately before, because the embassy from Ceylon, the first of its kind, came “Claudi principatu”. It is important to note this because it proves that Hippalus had not yet made the direct passage from the straits to the Tamil coast.

page 833 note 2 Letronne gives a full account of the Amnis Trajanus in his Recueil des inscriptions grecques et latines de l'Egypte. The canal was in full working order down to the time of Septimius Severus, and until Caracalla's massacre of the Alexandrians put an end to the direct trade between India and Egypt.

page 833 note 3 Jerome ad Euseb. Chron. 2118, repeats this statement verbatim. Evidently both Eutropius and Jerome used the same authority.

page 834 note 1 Pliny, , H.N. vi, 101Google Scholar. Pliny tells us that the route was infested by pirates, and all the ships had to carry a guard of crossbowmen. “Quippe omnibus annis navigatur, sagittariorum cohortibus impositis, etenim piratæ maxime infestabant.”

page 834 note 2 It came in a.d. 107. πρς δ τν Τραιανν ς τν Ρώμην λθόντα πλεσται ὅσαι πρεσβεαι παρ βαρβάρων ἄλλων τε κα Ἰνδν φίκοντο. Dio Cassius, lxviii, Trajanus (Xiphil. epitome), c. 15; cf. ibid., c. 29: Πλοόν τι ς Ἰνδίαν πλέον ἰδών, επεν ὅτι πάντως ἄν κα π τοὺς ἸνδοἸς, εἰ νέος ἔτι ν, περαιώθην, Ἰνδούς τε γρ νενόει, κα τ κείνων πράγματα πολυπραγμόνει, τόν τε Ἀλέξανδρον μακάριζε. The erection of a temple to the emperor at Muziris is a parallel to the altars erected by Alexander in the Panjāb.

page 835 note 1 Mommsen, , Provinces of the Roman Empire, Eng. trans., vol. ii, p. 151.Google Scholar

page 835 note 2 Ibid., ii, p. 149, n. 1.

page 835 note 3 I formerly was inclined to date the Periplus after a.d. 80, chiefly on the ground that it must have been considerably later than Hippalus. But I had overlooked the inscription from Dmēr, which settles the. question. The dates given by Head, Historia Numorum, pp. 685–6Google Scholar, for the Nabatæan kings who issued coins are these: Malchus I, c. b.c. 145; Obodas I, c. b.c. 97–85; Aretas III (Philhellen), c. b.c. 85–62; Obodas II, c. b.c. 30(?)–7; Aretas IV (Philodemos), c. b.c. 7–a.d. 39; Malchus III, c. a.d. 67; Zabel, date uncertain. Obodas II was the reigning king when Ælius Callus made his unfortunate expedition in b.c. 24 against the Sabæans, and Malchus III is the king mentioned in the Periplus. He succeeded Aretas IV in a.d. 39 and reigned till a.d. 75 according to Mommsen's evidence; and the date of Dabei or Zabel is settled by the Dmēr inscription.

page 836 note 1 Periplus, c. 57. Pliny, H.N. vi, 100, 104. Pliny does not mention Hippalus by name as the discoverer of the direct route. He simply says (101): “conpendia invenit mercator.”

page 836 note 2 MS. ραβικς, but the emendation Ἀριακς seems certain (Periplus, c. 41). For different readings of the name of the king v. Fabricius' notes to this chapter, p. 82.

page 837 note 1 Boyer, , “Nahapāna et l'ère çaka”: Journal Asiatique, 0708, 1897, pp. 120–51.Google Scholar

page 837 note 2 The Periplus mentions four other Indian potentates: the elder Saraganos (Sātakarni) and Sandanes in c. 52, and Kerebotros (Ker-ali-putra) and Pandion in c. 54. With the exception of the unknown Sandanes none of these is a personal name, and we should therefore expect the ruler of Ariake to be mentioned by some general designation. The reading Sandanes, by the way, is certain.

page 837 note 3 Pliny, , H.N. vi, 139Google Scholar: “Nostrique negotiatores qui inde venere,” i.e. from Charax Pasinou. So in 146: “Nostri negotiatores dicunt [Dumatham] Characenorum regi parere.”