Navigation to the Far East under the Roman Empire

Abstract

Communication between Mediterranean lands and the Far East, which had been growing in importance since establishment of political contact in the conquests of Alexander and the consequent opening of the overland caravan routes, became exceedingly active between the first and third centuries of the Christian era through the discovery of the periodicity of the trade winds and the opening of active maritime traffic. There was, however, among writers in the Roman world considerable confusion because of their assumption that the land and sea routes had the same destination. This confusion, due partly to primitive misconceptions of geography, was greatly enhanced by the surprising misinterpretation of reports of various travelers upon which Ptolemy based his geographical calculations. In tracing the caravan route it is impossible to go far astray because of limitations imposed by mountains, deserts, and watercourses. Richthofen (China, 1. 10) and others have followed the whole route between the Pamirs and Sera metropolis, which may quite surely be identified with the ancient Chinese capital Singan-fu. This was the great trade route of the silk merchants, and that trade was already of importance in the second century before the Christian era. The sea route was opened first to the west coast of India and Ceylon, where contact was made with another sea route leading further east known to the natives of India as the 'golden route,'1 and its eastern termini as the 'golden and silver islands '-whence silk was also obtained. Inland from these islands (or shores, either interpretation being possible), was a metropolis Sina Sinorum, known to the Roman world by hearsay only, and assumed to be identical with the earlier known Sera metropolis, so that both caravan and maritime routes were supposed to have reached the same trade centers.