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Periplus Maris Erythraei 60

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Lionel Casson
Lionel Casson
Affiliation:
New York University
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Extract

The Periplus Maris Erythraeiis a handbook written by an anonymous author in the second half of the first century A.D., for the use of merchants from Roman Egypt who traded with east Africa, Arabia, and India.1 In it the author devotes a good deal of space to the trade with India's west coast. He notes that there were two main commercial centres: one was Barygaza on the northwestern coast (44.15.4–7), and the other the twin ports of Muziris and Nelkynda on the southwestern (53.17.27–8), the area he calls Limyrike, more or less the equivalent of the Malabar coast. He spells out in detail what Barygaza imported and exported(49.16.20–31)and then does the same for Limyrike(56.18.16–28).

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , May 1987 , pp. 233 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1987

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References

1 Frisk, H.,Le Periple de la Mer Erythree,(Goteborg, 1927),Google Scholaroffers the sole reliable text; it replaces Miiller′s, C.in Geographi Graeci Minores(Paris, 1855), pp. 257–305. I cite by chapter followed by Frisk′s page and line number(s).Google Scholar

2 The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea(New York, 1912).

3 Cf. Frisk, p. 97

4 ‘Damirica’ is Schoffs misguided and unnecessary emendation.

5 5 JHS96 (1976), 156. Huntingford′s, G. translation (The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Hakluyt Society, New Series No. 151 [London,1980]) follows Giangrande.Google Scholar

6 See LSJs.v. 2c; A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature,ed.(Chicago, 19792), s.v. In Diosc. 1.19 is a variant for

7 At Limyrike payment was principally in cash (56.18.17–18).The many hoards of Roman coins that have been found throughout southern India indicate that this was so elsewhere as well;seeWheeler, M.,Rome Beyond the Imperial Frontiers(London, 1954).Google Scholar

8 Muller had translated - correctly, as we shall see - 'quaecunque in Limyricen negotiandi causa mittuntur', which Frisk (73) branded a 'traduction un peu douteuse'. He preferred the rendition in B. Fabricius, Der Periplus des Erythrdischen Meeres von einem Unbekannten(Leipzig, 1883), 'alles das, was in Limyrike producirt wird," as being 'plus simple et plus naturel'. Schoff followed Fabricius, and Giangrande Frisk.

9 Cf. the Periplus' use ofin the specific sense of‘trade’(17.6.17, 21.7.23, 30.10.10).

10 Dem. 34.51, Paus. 3.23.3; cf. Durrbach, F., BCH 26 (1902),491.Google Scholar

11 As Miiller had taken it; see note 8 above

12 The phrase preceded by occurs fairly frequently; see, e.g.. Her. 9.27.1; Thuc. 1.33.2; Xen. Vecl.4.25; Dem. 19.312. The dative by itself, though rare, is attested; see Plut. Pomp.32.2 and Clem. Alex. Strom.5.14.121.1 (Stahlin), citing a line from Diphilus or Philemon (or a paraphrase of one;Edmonds, J.,the Fragments of Attic ComedyIII A [Leiden, 1961], p.94, note 6).Google Scholar

13 SeeCasson, L.,‘Rome′s Trade with the East: The Sea Voyage to Africa and India’,TAPA110 (1980),21–36 at 31–5 (= Ancient Trade and Society[Detroit, 1984], pp. 190–2).No ships sailed directly to the east coast; they all made a landfall at Limyrike (57.19.8–9 and cf. my comments in CQ 34 [1984], 476–9).Google Scholar

14 The author throughout uses to mean 'there is imported'; cf. Frisk, p. 101. This sense, occurring nowhere else in Greek literature, may well be businessman's jargon.Google Scholar