profitable trade. Eventually they opened an overland road to the Nile Valley
connecting to Egypt after defeating a number of people and imposing on
them the obligation to protect traveling merchants. When a people called the
Sarane destroyed a merchant caravan, the greatest of Axumite kings, Ezana,
killed or enslaved the whole tribe and three related tribes to set an example.
At the time of thePeriplus, the Axumites were eager for trade, but their
economy was still underdeveloped. Their relationship with both the
Mediterranean and India was one of providing exotic raw materials and
importing manufactured goods, chief among which were textiles, principally
Egyptian linens and Indian cottons, ranging from what thePeriplusdescribes
as“cloaks of poor quality dyed in colors”to girdles. From the Mediterranean
came glass; copper and brass products including utensils, tools, and jewelry;
and gold and silver plate for the king. Iron imported from both the
Mediterranean and India was made into spears to hunt elephants. Only three
exports were in demand: ivory, rhinoceros horn, and tortoise shell. As herds
providing the first two were systematically hunted into extinction, the
hunting grounds were steadily expanded inland. During the period of the
Late Roman Empire, Axum became a principal provider of gold. This was
said to come from a place called Sasu, which was reportedly near the source
of the Nile. To bargain with the gold miners, the Axumite king sent royal
agents who were accompanied by a caravan of private traders numbering
about 500. They traded oxen, salt, and iron for nuggets over a period offive
days. The round trip took about six months, and the caravan had to be well
armed or tribes along the way would plunder it.
If there was little to attract merchant ships to the African coast, there was
much to repel them from the central stretches of the Arabian coast, which
thePeriplusdescribes as“fearsome in every respect.”In addition to rocky
shores and poor anchorage, it was plagued by pirates and wreckers. However,
the southwestern corner of the Arabian peninsula (Yemen) was the key to the
whole trade system of the western arc of the Indian Ocean. Agatharchides
reports that gold was mined there in such quantities that it was traded for
only twice its weight in iron. More valuable were the forests of aromatic trees
made luxuriant by extensive irrigation systems. But most important was its
strategic position as the linchpin between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.
During thefirst millenniumBCEthe most powerful state in this area was
Saba until its collapse in 115BCEwhen it was replaced by the Himyarite
kingdom. The center of maritime commerce was the port of Eudaimon
Arabia (Aden), about 100 miles east of the Bab el-Mandeb, where Indian
ships exchanged their cargoes:“No nation seems to be more prosperous than
the Sabaeans and [their neighbors] the Gerrhaeans,”observed Agatharchides,
“since they are the ones who distribute everything from Asia and Europe
that is considered valuable.”
To get their goods from Eudaimon Arabia to the Mediterranean, the Arabs
developed the Incense Road– the most storied trade routes were often
100 Following thePeriplus