Roman-Indian trade

[guy]

 

There have been a few posts about trade between Rome and India before (see threads below). Here is a good summary article:

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Large hoards of Roman coins have been found at many coastal trading settlements in India that date from the 1st, 2nd, and 5th centuries AD. The scale of Roman coinage flowing into India led to the Tamilakkam kings reissuing Roman coins in their own name, defacing the coins in order to signify their own sovereignty.

 

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An example of a Roman trading settlement can be found in Arikamedu, a major Chola port, first described in the mid-first-century Roman manuscript, “Periplus of the Erythraean Sea”. The port was known as Poduke, which is believed to be a corrupted version of the Tamil name Potikai, meaning a “meeting place”.

Excavations at Arikamedu by archaeologist, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, uncovered a large number of amphorae bearing the mark of Roman potter schools (VIBII, CAMURI and ITTA), as well as Arretine ware (Roman ceramics from Arezzo in Italy), Roman lamps, glassware, glass and stone beads.

 

 

 

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/02/evidence-of-indo-roman-relations/146284

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by guy

[Guaporense]

As I already stated in another post, the time around 1 AD was a period of peak economic prosperity for the Mediterranean world and so they imported large quantities of exotic goods from faraway places. The Classical civilizations of Greece and Rome had more awareness of the existence of India than of China (which was geographically separated from the rest of Eurasia by the Himalayan Mountain range), as Alexander the Great himself had conquered a substantial portion of the Indian subcontinent.