Caravan Cities Caesar, he was put on another going northwards, from Caesarea to Sidon,
Cyprus, and Myra, where he was transferred to an Alexandrian corn ship
bound for Rome (:–). The Pseudo-Clementines also contain a quite de-
tailed account of a voyage up the Phoenician coast, stopping at a number
of places.^51 We do not need to multiply testimonies, for it is beyond doubt
that, once at the coast, goods could be transferred to the Mediterranean sea
trade. High-value, low-volume cargoes could easily be put on such ships as
Acts describes. But have we any concrete evidence that such cargoes, trans-
ported from the interior, were in fact traded on the Phoenician coast? The
answer is somewhat embarrassing, namely a single passage of Galen. It comes
in his description of how he collected specimens of chemicals and drugs on
a journey to Lemnos, Cyprus, and Palaestine:
Moreover I had the good fortune to lay hold of the Indianlyciumwhich
had been recently imported to Phoenicia together with the Indian aloe.
This happened when I was on my way back from Palaestina, and I
was persuaded that thelyciumwas Indian both by the very fact that
it was brought by camels, together with the whole cargo and because
the spurious one could not be known to those who brought thely-
ciumas the material from which it is prepared is not produced in their
localities.^52Galen makes his reasoning quite clear: the Indian product,lycium, could be
regarded as being both authentically Indian and as having been imported
overland, since the whole consignment had been brought by camels (phor-
tionhere surely refers to the presumed transport by land). The carriers must
therefore, it seems, have come via Palmyra.
Galen’s conclusion is of some significance. Forlyciumis among the prod-
ucts which thePeriplusdescribes as being imported by sea from north-west
India to Egypt.^53 Pliny the Elder also adds that it was sent by ‘‘the Indians’’
in the skins of camels or rhinoceruses.^54
Galen does not tell us where these caravans reached the Phoenician coast,
or indeed precisely where he acquired the goods. But his presumption is
enough to produce further possible candidates for the title of ‘‘caravan city’’:
Emesa, whose rise and fall, as Seyrig suggested, exactly parallels that of Pal-
.Pseudo-Clementine Recognitiones,Homelies–.
. Galen,de simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis, ed. Kühn, vol. XII, ; text with
translation in Stern,Greek and Latin AuthorsII, no. , whose translation is used here.
. See Casson (n. ), esp. –, –.
. Pliny,NH, .