No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Art. VI.—On the Second Indian Embassy to Rome (Pliny, Nat. Hist. VI, 24.)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2011
Extract
The second Indian embassy to Rome was the consequence of an accident. Pliny tells the story thus. A freedman of one Annius Plocamus, while in the Red Sea collecting the tolls and customs farmed of Claudius by his patron, was caught in a gale of wind, driven past Carmania, and on the fifteenth day carried into Hippuros, a port of Ceylon. Here, though his ship with its contents seems to have been seized and confiscated to the king's use, he himself was kindly and hospitably treated. In six months' time he learned the language. Admitted to familiar intercourse with the king, in answer to his questions he told him of Rome and of Cæsar. In these conversations and from some denarii which had been found in the Roman ship, and which from the heads upon them had evidently been coined at different times and by different persons, and which nevertheless were all of the same weight, the Singhalese monarch learned to appreciate Roman justice. He became desirous of forming an alliance with Rome, and to that purpose sent over one Rachias with three other ambassadors to Claudius. And from their statements Pliny intimates that he derived that fuller and more accurate information with respect to Ceylon which he has embodied in his Natural History.
- Type
- Original Communications
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1861
References
page 345 note 1 Not expressly stated in the text, but surmised from an expression subsequently used, “denarii in captivâ pecuniâ.”—Pliny, Hist Nat., vi. 1., 24 c.
page 345 note 2 So Sopater, and the Aditulani, his companions, A.D. 500, on their arrival in Ceylon are carried by the chiefs and custom-house officers to the king; as was the custom: κατα το εθος ι απχοντες καἱ οἱ τελωναι τεΕαμενοι τcυτυζ αποϕερονρσι προζ τον βασλεα. Cosmas Indicop.; Montfaucon, N. Coll.; Patrum i, p. 338. So of Sindbad when found stranded on Ceylon, “the people talked together, and said ‘We must take him with us, and present him to our king.’“—Lane's Arabian Nights, p. 70, iii. Of this custom, however, I find no trace in the travels of Fa-hian, early part of 5th century, or of Hiouen Thsang, 7th century.
page 345 note 3 The next time hear of Romans at the Singhalese Court, their money then, as now, played its part. It seems that when Sopater was presented, a Persian ambassador was presented with him. The Singhalese monarch, after the first salutations, asked whose was the most powerful sovereign. The Persian hurried on to assert the wealth and superiority of the great king. Sopater appealed to the coins of both people. The Roman money, and Sopater had only choice pieces with him, was of gold, bright, well rounded, and of (a musical ring ?), λαμπρον, ευμορϕον, ευροιζον; the Persian small pieces of silver. The king examines the coins, and decides in favour of the Romans, who, he declares, are a wise, illustrious, and powerful people.—Cosmas in lo. cit. In another place, p. 148, he speaks of the excellence and universal use of Roman money.
page 346 note 1 Cosmas places the great mart and harbour in the south. Of the two kings of the island, he says ις εχων τον ὑακινθον, καἰ τερος το μερος το αλλο εν ψ εστι το εμποριον καì λεμην μεγα δε εστι καì των εκειτε εμοπριον, ib. 337. Here Sopater probably landed. Fa-hian and Hiouen Thsang on the other hand celebrate the capital of the Hyacinthine king; Fa-hian, p. 334, its streets and public buildings and fine houses; Hiouen Thsang its viharas and their wonders, ii., 143–4.
page 346 note 2 An evident exaggeration, says Lassen, but one fostered by the native books. Thus the Rajavali (Tennent's Ceylon, i., 422) gives in A.D. 1301 to Ceylon 1,400,000 villages; but as the same work states that Dutugamin built “900,000 houses of earth, and 8,000,000 houses which were covered with tiles.”— (Upham, Sacred Books of Ceylon, p. 222, iii.), and this, though some 50 years after a forest still existed at the gates of Anarajapura (Mahawanso, p. 203), the authority is of no great weight. I am inclined to think with Hamilton, that the population of Ceylon was never greater than at present.—Geog. Desc. of Hindostan, ii., 469.
page 346 note 3 “Portum contra meridiem appositum oppido Palisæmiundo, omnium ibi clarissimo et regiam cc. mille plebis,”—Pliny, i. 1., c.
page 346 note 4 Hiouen Thsang relates, that when he first heard of Ceylon, he heard also that to go there no long sea voyage was necessary: “pendant laquelle les vents contraires, les flots impétueux et Yakshas demons vous exposeraient à mille dangers. Il vaut mieux partir de la polnte sud-est de l'Inde méridionale; de cette manière on peut y arriver par eaux dans l'espaee de trois jours.”—Vie et Ouvrages de Hiouen Thsang, tr. Juiien, p. 183. In the time of Ibn Batuta, 1334, between Bakala “on the coast of Ceylon and the Maabar districts, Coromandel coast, there is a voyage of one day and one night.”—Travels, p. 184.
page 346 note 5 Identified by Tennent with the Island of Delft.—Ceylon, ii., 550; by Vincent with Manaar or Eamana Koll-Periplus, ii., 492.
page 346 note 6 So also Megasthenes describes the Indian seas, Mεγασθενην δε τον τα Iνδικα γεγραϕοτα ιστορɛιν εν τη κατα την Iνδικην θαλατη δενδρα ϕυεσθαι.— Frag. Hist. Græc, ii., p. 413, 1755. The sea in these parts is described as very green and full of coral, and “on the purity of the water and on the coral groves which rise in the clear blue depths,” SirTennent, Emerson (ut supra, p. 555)Google Scholar dwells with delight.
page 347 note 1 Onesecritus, ου διορισας, μηκος ουδε πλατος, without stating whether he refers them to its length or breadth, estimates Ceylon, says Strabo (xv. I., 15§) at 5000 stadia, or 625 miles. Vincent, however, is of opinion that these 5000 stadia were intended by Onesecritus as the measure, not of either the length or breadth of the island, but of its circumference, 660 miles, which they not very inaccurately represent. But how then get over the fact that Onesecritus places Ceylon at 20 days sail from the continent; that we have no evidence, I put aside that of Solinus (Polyb. Hist., L. iii B), that he ever visited it, and that he must, therefore, like Eratosthenes, have derived his knowledge of it from the Hindoos, whose fabulous accounts of its size obtained, so late as the days of Marco Polo (Vincent, , ut supra, p. 499Google Scholar), and spread even to China: “Son etendue du nord au sud est d'environ 2000 lis,” i.e., 500 miles.— Matouanlm, N. Jour. Asiatique, July 1856, p. 40.
page 347 note 2 This descrip ion scarcely suits the Chinese, who call themselves the “Black Heads” (vide Translations of Official Reports from the Chinese, by Morrison, note p. 28), and of whom black hair is so much a characteristic, that Ramusat somewhere concludes that the Japanese are of a different race, because their hair is not black, but rather of a deep brown blue.
page 347 note 3 Solinus, ut supra, separates these paragraphs, and applies the description of the people to the Singhalese themselves, with the red hair as obtained by the use of a dye, “crines fuco imbuunt,” and then afterwards, when speaking of the Island itself, he adds “Cernunt latus Sericum de montium jugia.”
page 348 note 1 So Joinville (As. Res., 484, ii.) describes the veddah of Ceylon: “When he wants an iron tool or a lance … he places in the night before the door of a smith some money or game, together with a model of what he requires. In a day or two he returns and finds the instrument he has demanded.” See also Knox, Hist. Relations, pt. II., c. i., p. 123; Ribeyro, quoted by Tennent, ii., p. 593; and Tennent's Ceylon, ii., p. 437, where the subject is exhausted. The Matoúanlin, ut supra, p. 42, ascribes this mode of barter to the demons, the primæval inhabitants of Ceylon: “Ils ne laissaient pas voir leurs corps, et montraient au moyen de pierres précieuses le prix que pouvaient valoir les marchandises,” and borrows its account probably from Fa-hian, , who writes: “Quand le tems de ce commerce était venu, les genies et les demons ne paraissaient pas, mais ils mettaient en avant des choses preeieuses,” p. 332Google Scholar. Similar modes of barter, as prevailing on the Libyan shore, are described by Herodotus, 1. iv., c 196; in Sasus on the African coast, by Indicopleustes, , ut supra, p. 139Google Scholar; and in the interior of Africa, in the present day, by Speke (Adventures among the Somali, June or July No of Blackwood, 1860).
page 348 note 2 So Arrian, of India, c. x.: Eιναι δε καì τοδε μεγα εν τη Iνδων γη, παντας Iνδους ειναι ελενθερουζ, ουδε τινᾳ δουλον ειναι Iνδον … Δακεδαιμοιοις μεν γε ι Eδωτες δουλοι εισι … Iνδοισι δε ουδε αλλος δουλος εστι, μητοιγε Iνδων τις.
page 348 note 3 Not probable, see Tennent's description of mid-day, ii., pp. 255–6.
page 348 note 4 So Ælian, evidently from Eratosthenes, says the houses are of wood and reeds, στεταςδε εχουσι εκ ζυλων δε πεπι ιημενας ηδη δε καì δονακων.—De nat. Animal., xvi., p. 17.
page 348 note 5 “Depuis I'origine de ce royaume,” says Fa-hian, “il n'y a jamais eu de famine, de disette, de catamités, ni de troubles.”—Foe-koue-ke, p. 334; Hiouen Thsang similarly speaks of its abundant harvests, ii., p. 125.
page 348 note 6 Stronger in Solinus, ut supra; “In regis electione non nobilitas prævalet sed suffragium universorum,” and afterwards, in reference to his having children, “etiam si rex maximam præferat æquitatem nolunt se tantum licere.”
page 349 note 1 Ælian speaks of the size of the Singhalese elephants, and how they are hunted by the people of the interior, and are transported to the continent in big ships and are sold to the king of Calinga, ut supra, c. iv. Tigers were, however, unknown in Ceylon, though Knox, says, “there was a black tygre catched and brought to the king … there being no more either before or since heard of in that land,” I, e. vi., p. 40Google Scholar; Ptolemy, VII. §, gives tigers to Ceylon; Lassen, Ind. Alterthumskunde, thinks leopards were meant, I., p. 193, note 1; see also Hist, of Ceylon by Philalethes, c. xliii.; and Ellis, of the leopards in Africa, “which are called tigers,” Madagascar, p. 223.
page 349 note 2 Ælian, ut supra, c. xvii., tells of these enormous turtles, how that the shell is 15 cubits, and makes a roof which quite keeps off the sun's rays and the rain's wet, and is better than any tile. Let me add, that among other sea monsters which according to the same authority frequeut the Singhalese coast, we find the original mermaid, but without her beautiful hair, καì γυναικων οψιν εχουσιν, αἱσπερ αντι πλοκαμων ακανθαι προσηρτηνται, c. xviii, 30§.
page 349 note 3 After 43 A.D., because he ńotices the triumph of Claudius for his expedition to Britain: “Quippe tamdiu clausam (Britannjam) aperit, ecce principum maximus … qui propriarum rerum fidem ut bello affectavit, ita triumpho declaraturus portat.”—Geog., III., vi., §. 35. And befpre 47 A.D,, because he nowhere alludes to the great discovery of Hippalus.
page 349 note 4 It is not Impossible that Pliny may have derived his information directly from the ambassadors, as he returned to Rome from Qermany, A.D, 52.—Smith, Greek and Roman Biographical Diet., art. Pliny.
page 350 note 1 Vide mahawanso's List of kings in the Appendix, lxii.; and Tennent's Ceylon, i., p. 321.
page 350 note 2 Geographia sacra, phaleg, lib. II., c. xxvii.; and chanaan, lib. I., c. xlvi., p. 691.
page 350 note 3 Ceylon, Preface to 3rd edit., p.xx, xxi, and p.102, II., and also note I, p,554, v. I.
page 350 note 4 “And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber”(1 Kings, ix., 26). “And he (Jehoshaphat) joined himself with him (Ahaziah) to make ships to go to Tarshiah” (2 chron. xx., 26). “For the king had as sea a navy to tarshish … once in three years came the navy of tarshish bringing gold and silver” (1 Kings, x., 22). From these passanges it would seem as if Tarshish were a great mart, all the commerce of which was carried on by the ships of those nations who traded with it. But as psalm 48, written subsequantly to David's time (9.v.), gives ships also to Tarshish: “thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind,” and Ezekiel, B.C. 588, “the ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy markets” (xxvii.,25), it seems that with its great trade it did in the course of years itself possess them.
page 350 note 5 “Gold is found in minute particles … but the quantity has been too trivial to reward the search … its occurrence … as well as that of silver and copper is recorded in the Mahawanso as a miraculous manifestation.”— Ceylon, p. 29, I. v.
page 350 note 6 “This prince, named Wijayo, who had then attained the wisdom of experience, landed in the division Tambapanni, of this land Lanka, on the day that the successors of former Buddhas reclined in the arbor of the two delightful sal-trees to attain nibbanam.”—B C. 543, A. B. 1. Mahawanso, p. 47, Turner's tr.
page 350 note 7 Tennent's Ceylon. On the Veddahs, p. 437, II. v.
page 351 note 1 Vide Ceylon. On the Singhalese Chronicles, pp. 397, 413, I. v.
page 351 note 2 ‘Tukeyim,’ ‘Tamil,’ ‘takri,’ peacocks; ‘kapi,’ apes, the same in both languages; and the Sanscrit ‘ibha,’ ivory, identical with the Tamil ‘ibam.’ Ib. Ceylon, ii., p. 102.
page 351 note 3 Lassen's Indischer Alterthumskunde, iii. p. 217; and his de Taprobane Insulâ Veterifeus cognitâ p. 22.
page 351 note 4 Geographic, lib, vii., c. i., p. 168.
page 351 note 5 Thus Indra becomes Zeus, Siva Dionysos, Lassen, ib, iii., p. 219. And (Ib., p. 6) where he enumerates the towns and harbours on the coast, and observes on the Greek names by which they were known, as Naustathmos, Byzantion, Triglyphon, he adduces but one Theophila—now Surdhaur, Sans. Surâdara, i.e., Godworshipping—which is possibly the Greek translation of a Hindu name. Of descriptive names we have the Panjaub ‘Pentapotamoi,’ Tadmor ‘Palmyra.’
page 351 note 6 “Da dieser Name am passendsten durch râgan könig erklärt wird, und dieses Wort auch für Männer aus dem Königlichen Geschlichte gebraucht werden kanp, so gehörte Rachias wohl zur familie des königs und wir erfahern somit nicht seinen Eigennamen,” ib., iii., p. 61. See, however, Tennent, Ceylon, vol. i., p. 536, note 2, who suggests that ‘Rachias’ may be ‘Rackha,’ a name of some renown in Singhalese annals.
page 352 note 1 The name is accounted for in a Hindu Hist, of Ceylon, translated in the 24th vol, of the Asiatic Journal. “A certain chitty setting out for the purpose of pearl fishing drifted near a mountain, which he called Coodiremale,” p. 53, in honour probably of the horse-faced princess (mentioned Ib., 16 §) who, bathing in one of the wells there, lost her horse-face.
page 352 note 2 Lassen de Taprobane, pp. 6, 8: but from ‘Tamra,’ red, and ‘pân'i,’ a hand, according to the Mahawanso, a derivation which Lassen rejects as ungrammatical, and which the Mahawanso, p. 50, confirms, by telling that when Wijayo and his men “had landed, supporting themselves on the palms of their hands pressed on the ground, they sat down. Hence to them the name Tambapannyo, copper-palmed,” and to the wilderness the name of Tambapanni, and afterwards to the country.
page 352 note 3 Lassen de Tap., pp. 9, 19, and Wilson's tr. of the Kapur di Giri Inscription (p. 169, XII. J. Boy. As. So., with his observations, p. 167, on the identification of Tamraparni.
page 352 note 4 Eις πελ;αγος εκκειται προς αυτην την δυσιν νησοι λεγομενη Παλαισιμουνδον παρα δε τοις αρχαιοις αυτων Tαπροβανη (Scrip. Mar. Eryth., 61 c., p. 301, I. v., Geog. Græo. Minores, ed. Müller); Maraden observes that by a mistake not unusual, the name of a principal town is sometimes substituted for that of the Country.
page 352 note 5 Ptolemy, A.D.160, Tαπροβανε τις εκαλειτο παλ;αι ∑íμουνδου. νυν δε ∑αλικς και ι κατεχοντεζ αυτηζν κοινωζ ∑αλααι. Geog., 1. VII, c. iv. But Marcianus, early part of 5th century, who borrowed largely from Ptolemy, thus: Tαπρβανζ, νησος προτερον μεν εκαλειτο Παλαισιμουνδου νυν δε Σαλικη—Perip. Maris Ext., I., 35 c. Ammianus Marcellinus, A.D. 361, on Julian's accession: “Legationes undique concurrebant, nationibus Indicis certatim cum donis optionates mittentibus … abusque Divis et Serendivis, xxii. L, 7 c. 10 § Sopater, in Cosmas Indicopleustes, who visited the Island about A.D. 500: ‘H νησος, μεγαλη παρα μεν Iνδοις καλουμɛνη Σιελεδιβα, παρα δε ‘Eλλησι Tαπρβανζ.— Monfaucon, Nov. Coll. Patrum, i., p. 336. The Relations Arabes, Reinaud 9th century: “La derniere de ces Iles est Serendyb … c'est la principale de tootes,” I. v., p. 6. This Salike is formed, according to Lassen (de Tap., p. 10), from Sihala, the Pali form of Sinhala, the home of lions, with sometimes the addition of ‘dipa’ or ‘diba,’ an island. By the Chinese, Ceylon is called the kingdom of Lions.
page 353 note 1 “Portus Insulsæ … esse ad meridiem. Quis dubitet quin iste sit quem Galle vulgo nominant.”—Vossius, Observationes ad Pomponium Melam, p. 572.
page 353 note 2 De Taprobane, &c, p. 13.
page 353 note 3 It is the chief of the inland towns, the πολεις μεσογειοι of Ptolemy, and by him designated as βασιλειον, the royal residence, while Maagrammon is the Metropolis, ut supra. Of Anarajapura, see also a description in Knox's Hist. Relation, p. 11.
page 353 note 4 De Taprobane Insulâ &c, p. 15.
page 354 note 1 Ceylon, ii., p. 112.
page 354 note 2 Megasthenes flumine dividi, incolasque Palæogonos appellari.—Pliny, ut. sup.
page 354 note 3 Res ita videtur posse expediri, ut dicamus, notam fuisse Megastheni fabulam Indorum, quâ primi insulsæ incolæ Raxasee sire Gigantes progenitorum mundi filii fuisse traduntur,—.ib, p. 9.
page 354 note 4 Vide Schwanbeck, on this passage from Megasthenes preserved by Pliny, Frag, Hist. Græc, 412, II.
page 355 note 1 Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, ii., 245.
page 355 note 2 “Notat pâli ab origine limitem, terminum, finem, atque amplificato apud Buddhistas sensu, regulam doctrinæ sacræ, contextum traditionum legumque.”— Lassen, de Tap., p. 15. How far one would be justified in giving the same sense to Pali in Palisimanta, and thus making Palisæmundus, not a specific name, but the name which the people of the continent, and dwelling northward, gave to some great city because of its situation at the extremity of the earth, I leave others to determine.
page 355 note 3 “Eratosthenes et mensuram prodidit, longitudinis vii M stad., latitudinis v M, nec urbes esse, sed vicos septingentos.”—Pliny, ut supra.
page 355 note 4 Literally it is the palace that has this number of inhabitants. “Ac regiam cc mill'plebis,” but the text is supposed corrupt, and I take the more probable sense of the passage.
page 355 note 5 “Nullum in eâ stagnum,” says Vossius, “insignis magnitudinis nedum aliqnod cujus ambitus habet ccclxxv pass. mill, ad Pomponium Melam,” p. 572.
page 355 note 6 Megisba. Maha-vapi, e.g., great tank, identified as the Kalawewa tank by Lassen, iii., p. 218, and which he describes as it was after it had been enlarged by Dhatusera, A.D. 459, vide Mahawanso, p. 256, and note top. 11, Index, and not as it was in the time of Pliny.
page 356 note 1 Lassen, Ind, Alterthumsk., iii. p. 216; but compare Vincent, Commerce of the Antients, ii., p. 492.
page 356 note 2 Ceylon, i., p. 558.
page 357 note 1 Vide Mahawanso, p. 127, for the first invasion, B.C. 257; for the second p. 128, B.C. 207; and for the third, p. 203, BC. 103.
page 357 note 2 “Anula then forming an attachment for a Damillo, named Watuko … who had formerly been a carpenter in the town.”—Ib., p. 209.
page 357 note 3 Vide Vol. xxiv., pp. 53 and 153. “This happened 3300 years in the Kali age.” … And as “in the year 5173 of the age Kali, the king Sangalee making war with the Portuguese will perish” … and the Portuguese will rule “till the year 5213, after which the Dutch … will govern the kingdom until the year 5795, when on the 6th June, the English will come and govern” (p. 155), we are enabled to ascertain the date of the arrival of the princess. For Rajah Singha was finally defeated, and died of his wounds in A.D. 1592, and as from A.K. 3300 A.K. 5173, there have elapsed 1873 years, it follows that the princess arrived Ceylon B.C. 281, or some 30 years before the first Tamil invasion. Again, from A.K. 5173 to A.K. 5213, we have an interval of 40 years, but, as in fact the Dutch had a fort in Cottiar in 1612, or 20 years after the death of Singha, though they were not finally masters of the Island to the exclusion of the Portuguese till A.D. 1658, or 66 years after that event, we must take 40 years ás an average. The date given to the English rule is inexplicable, unless as a mistake 5795 A.K. is put for 1795 A.D.—Tennent, II., p. 38.
page 358 note 1 Ceylon, I I., p. 539, note 2.
page 359 note 1 Tennent's Ceylon, II., p. 842, &c.
page 359 note 2 Mahawanso, pp. 203–4.
page 359 note 3 In the geographical description of the Tamil country, Appendix D, II., p. 25, Taylor's Oriental Hist. MSS., Cape Comorin is the furthest southern boundary, and no mention whatever is made of Ceylon.
page 360 note 1 Thus Pomponius Mela, III., vii. 10: “Seres … genus plenum justitise ex commercio quod rebus in solitudine relietis absens peragit, notïssimum.” And Pliny, vi. 20: “Seres mites quidem, sed et ipsis feris persimiles cœtum reliquorum mortalium fugiunt commercia expectant,”
page 360 note 2 Sir Emerson Tennent, and he may advance the authority of Solinus,—who, says the Delphin commentator: “Plinii verba perperam intellecta in alienam solet torquere sententiam,”—applies to the Singhalese themselves the description I have given to the Serse, and yet attributes to them a commerce with China, overland by way of India, and supposes it possible that they should have spoken of their fellow-people, as nullo commercio linguæ, I., p. 558.
page 361 note 1 Whenever driven from Anarajapura the native king retires to the southern kingdom. Thus after the conquest of Elaro we find him and his queen resident at Mahag'amo.—Mahawanso, p. 134. So the queen Anula on the occasion of the invasion of the seven Damilos flees to the Malaya,—ib, p. 204.
page 361 note 2 Gamini laid himself on his bed with his hands and feet gathered up. The princess mother enquired: “My boy why not stretch thyself on thy bed and lie down comfortably ?” “Confined,” replied he, “by the Damilos beyond the river (Mahawelliganga), and on the other side by the unyielding ocean, haw can I lie down with outstretched limbs.—ib., p. 136.