Book contents
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- New Approaches to Asian History
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Introduction
- 1 Pastoral Nomads and the Empires of the Steppe
- 2 Early China
- 3 Zhang Qian and Han Expansion into Central Asia
- 4 The Early Han Dynasty and the Eastern Silk Roads
- 5 The Roman Empire and the Western Silk Roads
- 6 The Parthian Empire and the Silk Roads
- 7 The Kushan Empire
- 8 Maritime Routes of the First Silk Roads Era
- 9 Collapse of Empires and the Decline of the First Silk Roads Era
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
8 - Maritime Routes of the First Silk Roads Era
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 April 2018
Book contents
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- New Approaches to Asian History
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Introduction
- 1 Pastoral Nomads and the Empires of the Steppe
- 2 Early China
- 3 Zhang Qian and Han Expansion into Central Asia
- 4 The Early Han Dynasty and the Eastern Silk Roads
- 5 The Roman Empire and the Western Silk Roads
- 6 The Parthian Empire and the Silk Roads
- 7 The Kushan Empire
- 8 Maritime Routes of the First Silk Roads Era
- 9 Collapse of Empires and the Decline of the First Silk Roads Era
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
After considering in earlier chapters the development and operation of major Silk Roads land routes, Chapter Eight examines the other great conduit of trade during the Era, the maritime routes that connected Roman Egypt, the East Coast of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf with South Asian ports and Central Asian land routes. The chapter also looks at developing maritime connections between Han China and Southeast Asia, routes that would expand enormously half a millennium later when the Tang Dynasty came to power in China. Political tensions between the Roman and the Parthian Empires might have contributed to the development of the western Indian Ocean maritime connections between ports on the coast of Indian and those in the Red Sea. However, trade by sea always an attractive option for ancient merchants. Not only was it cheaper and faster, but it could also be conducted by commercial guilds that were often largely unaffected by the geopolitical situation within and between states.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Empires of Ancient EurasiaThe First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE – 250 CE, pp. 204 - 237Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018
References
Selected Further Reading
Cobb, M. A., “Balancing the Trade: Roman Cargo Shipments to India,” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 34, No. 2, 2015, pp. 193ff.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, M. P., “Provincializing Rome: The Indian Ocean Trade Network and Roman Imperialism,” Journal of World History 22, No. 1 (March 2011).Google Scholar
Kaul, S., “South Asia,” in Benjamin, C. ed., Cambridge History of the World Vol. 4: A World with States, Empires, and Networks, 1200 BCE–900 CE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 480ff.Google Scholar
McLaughlin, R., Rome and the Distant East: Trade Routes to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China London: Continuum, 2010.Google Scholar
Millar, F., “Looking East from the Classical World: Colonialism, Culture, and Trade from Alexander the Great to Shapur I,” International History Review 20, No. 3 (1998), pp. 507–531.Google Scholar
Ray, H. B., The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia. Cambridge World Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Sales, J.-F., “The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and the Arab-Persian Gulf,” Topoi 1993 3, No. 2 (1993).Google Scholar
Schoff, W. H., The Periplus of the Erythrian Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century. New York: Longmans, Green and Co, 1912.Google Scholar
Seland, E. H., “Ancient Afghanistan and the Indian Ocean: Maritime Links of the Kushan Empire ca 50–200 CE,” in Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology, No. 9 (2013), pp. 66ff.Google Scholar
Sidebotham, S. E., Roman Economic Policy in the Erythra Thalassa 30 B.C.–A.D. 217 (Mnemosyne Suppl. XCI). Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986.Google Scholar
Sidebotham, S. E., Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Sen, Tansen, “Early China and the Indian Ocean Network,” in de Souza, P. and Arnaud, P., eds., The Sea in History: The Ancient World. Suffolk: Boydell and Brewer, 2017, pp. 536ff.Google Scholar
Temin, P., “Financial Intermediaries in the Early Roman Empire,” Journal of Economic History 64, 2004.Google Scholar
Von Redden, S., “Global Economic History,” in Benjamin, C., ed., Cambridge History of the World Vol. IV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 29–54.Google Scholar