The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World (115 page)

1.
   “overcome the ships”: Arrian,
Anabasis of Alexander,
1.20.1 (p. 85).

2.
   “went ashore where”: Ibid., 3.1.5 (p. 225).

3.
   The establishment of Alexandria: Fraser,
Ptolemaic Alexandria,
1:25–27; Strabo,
Geography
, 17.1.6–10 (vol. 8:23–43).

4.
   Gelon, tyrant: Herodotus,
Histories,
7.158–61 (pp. 424–25).

5.
   Tomb of the Ship: Hagy, “800 Years of Etruscan Ships,” 242–43, fig. 38; Casson,
Ships and Seamanship,
70, and fig. 97; and Brendel,
Etruscan Art,
271–73.

6.
   They also employed rams: Herodotus,
Histories,
1.166 (p. 66).

7.
   “masters of the sea”: Diodorus Siculus,
Library of History,
11.51 (vol. 4:257).

8.
   “under the command of Hamilcar”: Herodotus,
Histories,
7.165–66 (p. 426). See Green,
Greco-Persian Wars,
120–22, 148–49.

9.
   polyremes: Casson,
Ships and Seamanship,
97–116. For an ancient understanding of the development of galleys, see Pliny the Elder,
Natural History,
7.56.206–9 (vol. 2:645–47).

10.
   “was a single-banked vessel”: Polybius,
Rise of the Roman Empire,
1.23 (p. 66).

11.
   Roman quinqueremes: Ibid., 1.26 (p. 69).

12.
   timber supplies: Meiggs,
Trees and Timber,
133–39.

13.
   Ptolemy IV’s “forty”: Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists,
5.203e–204d (vol. 2:421–25), written around 200 ce, four centuries after the fact. Descriptions and diagrams of the “forty” can be found also in Casson,
Ancient Mariners,
131–33, and
Ships and Seamanship,
108–12.

14.
   
Leontophoros
: Casson,
Ships and Seamanship,
112–14.

15.
   “had a speed”: Plutarch,
Lives,
“Demetrius,” 43.5 (vol. 9:109). See Casson,
Ships and Seamanship,
140n20.

16.
   lead sheets: Hocker, “Lead Hull Sheathing in Antiquity,” 199.

17.
   “All had floors”:
Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists,
5.206d–209b. See Casson,
Ships and Seamanship,
184–99.

18.
   “such sound practical use”: Polybius,
Histories,
5.88 (vol. 3:219). See Casson, “Grain Trade,” 73.

19.
   “the constant protectors”: Polybius,
Histories,
27.4 (vol. 6:495).

20.
   
triemiolia
: Gabrielsen,
Naval Aristocracy of Hellenistic Rhodes,
86–89.

21.
   “necessities” and luxury goods: Polybius,
Histories,
4.38 (vol. 2:395).

22.
   imposed a toll on ships: Ibid., 4.47–48 (vol. 2:415–27).

23.
   “It was a witty”: Saint Augustine,
City of God
, 4.4, in Pennell,
Bandits at Sea,
18.

24.
   pretentious abhorrence of seafaring: Many modern historians affirm this view. Arnold Toynbee is an eloquent exception: “The Roman Empire has made its mark on the mind of posterity as a land power which gave mobility to its invincible infantry by constructing and maintaining a magnificent network of roads. Yet, in truth, sea-power, not land-power, was the instrument with which the Romans extended their empire from Italy to the whole perimeter of the Mediterranean Sea.”
Constantine Porphyrogenitus and His World,
323.

25.
   “while the rest were burnt”: Livy,
Rome and Italy,
8.14 (p. 179). On the
rostra
in the forum, see Pliny the Elder,
Natural History,
16.2.8 (vol. 4.391–93).

26.
   
coloniae maritimae
: Salmon, “Coloniae Maritimae”; Thiel,
History of Roman Sea-power
.

27.
   “more dangerous and less free”: Gellius,
Attic Nights,
16.13.9.

28.
   “on a voyage of inspection”: Appian,
Roman History (Samnite History),
7 (vol. 1:77).

29.
   Pyrrhus was an expansionist: Franke, “Pyrrhus,” 475; Thiel,
History of Roman Sea-power,
29.

30.
   “those who are impressed”: Polybius,
Rise of the Roman Empire,
1.63 (p. 109).

31.
   “The harbours had communication”: Appian,
Roman History (Punic Wars),
14.96 (vol. 1:567).

32.
   “were handling the operations”: Polybius,
Rise of the Roman Empire,
1.20 (pp. 62–63).

33.
   “was on the water”: Pliny,
Natural History,
16.74.192 (vol. 4:513).

34.
   Punic Ship: Frost, “Marsala Punic Ship”; Frost et al.,
Lilybaeum (Marsala)
.

35.
   
corvus
:
Polybius,
Rise of the Roman Empire,
1.22 (p. 65).
Corvus
is the Latin translation for the Greek
korax
(“crow”), the word by which the device was called by both
Romans and Greeks in antiquity. See Wallinga,
Boarding-Bridge of the Romans
.

36.
   “the fighting seemed”: Polybius,
Rise of the Roman Empire,
1.23 (p. 66).

37.
   “the southern coast of Sicily”: Ibid., 1.37 (p. 82).

38.
   why it is not mentioned: Goldsworthy,
Punic Wars,
116.

39.
   steady supplies of grain: Casson, “Grain Trade,” 82.

40.
   “He discovered”: Polybius,
Rise of the Roman Empire,
10.8 (p. 408).

41.
   “naval mentality”: Briscoe, “Second Punic War,” 66.

42.
   “It took Hannibal”: Publius Sulpicius, in Livy,
Rome and the Mediterranean,
31.7 (p. 28).

43.
   “free in appearance only”: Livy,
Rome and the Mediterranean,
35.32 (p. 216).

44.
   “The essential unity”: Errington, “Rome Against Philip and Antiochus,” 284.

45.
   “Roman arms”: In Livy,
Rome and the Mediterranean,
36.41 (p. 275).

46.
   “because with the loss”: Ibid., 37.31 (p. 308).

47.
   harbor dues: Habicht, “Seleucids and Their Rivals,” 337.

48.
   “Carthage must be destroyed”: Florus,
Epitome of Roman History,
1.31 (p. 137).

49.
   “Sulla burned the Piraeus”: Appian,
Roman History (Mithridatic Wars),
12.41 (vol. 2:311).

50.
   “Many times”: Ibid., 12.119 (vol. 2:471).

51.
   “a hundred and ten bronze-beaked ships”:
Plutarch,
Lives,
“Lucullus,” 37.3 (vol. 2:595).

52.
   “Need I lament”: Cicero,
Pro Lege Manilia,
12 (pp. 45–47).

53.
   twelve thousand gold pieces: Suetonius,
Twelve Caesars,
“Julius Caesar,” 4, 74 (pp. 11, 40).

54.
   “for a pirate is not included”: Cicero,
On Duties
(
De Officiis,
3.107), in Souza,
Piracy in the Greco-Roman World,
150; Coke,
Third Part of the Institutes,
113. For current uses, see for example, U.S. Dept. of State press release, “The Secretary and the Minister Agreed That Terrorism Is a Common Enemy of Mankind.” (“U.S., Republic of Korea Hold Security Consultative Meeting,” Nov. 15, 2001,
http://www.pentagon.gov/releases/2001/b11152001_bt588-01.html
.)

55.
   “to oppose all legislation”: Suetonius,
Twelve Caesars,
“Julius Caesar,” 19 (p. 16).

56.
   “for having been forced”: Plutarch,
Lives,
“Pompey,” 76.3 (vol. 5:313). Pharsalus was twenty-five miles from the nearest inlet of the Aegean.

57.
   prefect of the fleet: Welch, “Sextus Pompeius and the
Res Publica,
” 37–41.

58.
   “put on white robes”: Suetonius,
Twelve Caesars,
“Augustus,” 98 (p. 104).

59.
   pozzolana: Oleson, “Technology of Roman Harbors,” 148. The word comes from 13, the modern name for
Puteoli. See Vitruvius,
De Architectura,
5.12 (vol. 1:311–17).

60.
   Lucullus’s villa: D’Arms,
Romans on the Bay of Naples,
109.

61.
   “fish-pond fanciers”: See Cicero,
Letters to Atticus
, 1.19 (p. 87), 1.20 (p. 95), and 2.9 (p. 137).

62.
   local oyster beds: Pliny,
Natural History,
9.79.168–69 (vol. 3:277–79); D’Arms,
Romans on the Bay of Naples,
136–38.

63.
   night service from Ostia to Puteoli: D’Arms,
Romans on the Bay of Naples
, 134.

64.
   “a collapsible cabin-boat”: Suetonius,
Twelve Caesars,
“Nero,” 34 (p. 227).

65.
   “massive / Piers”: Juvenal,
Satires,
12:75–79 (p. 243).

66.
   “it was first sunk”: Suetonius,
Twelve Caesars,
“Claudius,” 20 (p. 193). The obelisk, which now stands in front of St. Peter’s in Rome, weighs 322 tons—not including the pedestal; Casson,
Ships and Seamanship,
188–89.

67.
   Piazzale of the Corporations: Scrinari and Lauro,
Ancient Ostia,
22–24.

68.
   “Incidentally, what a huge ship!”: Lucian, “The Ship or the Wishes,” 5–6 (vol. 6:435–37). The dimensions are length, fifty-five meters; beam, fourteen meters; depth of hold, thirteen meters.

69.
   “They should have kept”: Lucian, “The Ship or the Wishes,” 9 (vol. 6:441). See Casson, “
Isis
and Her Voyage,” 47–48, and
Ancient Mariners,
208–9.

70.
   the apostle Paul: Acts 27–28.

71.
   the
annona
:
McCormick,
Origins of the European Economy,
87, 104–5, 108–10. The populist practice of providing free wheat dates from the second century
BCE
; the phrase
panem et circenses
(bread and circuses) was coined by Juvenal in the first century ce.

72.
   “Money lent on maritime loans”: Paulus,
Sententiae
II, xiv, 3, in Temin, “Economy of the Early Roman Empire,” 144.

73.
   “he held out the certainty”: Suetonius,
Twelve Caesars,
“Claudius,” 18 (p. 192). See Longnaker, “History of Insurance Law,” 644–46.

74.
   grain traders: Temin, “Economy of the Early Roman Empire,” 137.

75.
   wine trade: Tchernia, “Italian Wine in Gaul,” 92.

76.
   “When he was about”: Plutarch,
Lives,
“Pompey,” 50 (vol. 5:247).

77.
   “god, our author”: Seneca,
Natural Questions,
“Winds,” 5.18.13–14 (vol. 2:121–23).

1.
   “you brought him”: Rig Veda, 1.116.5 (p. 287).

2.
   “who knows the path”: Ibid., 1.25.7 (p. 61). See Hornell, “Role of Birds in Early Navigation.”

3.
   “should look after activities”:
Kautilya Arthasastra,
2.28.1 (vol. 2:162). The authorship and date of the
Arthasastra
are controversial; the earliest written version may date to the second century
CE
but is probably based on a compilation of various documents going back five centuries.

4.
   “He should rescue”: Ibid., 2.28.8–9 (vol. 2:162).

5.
   “big boats”: Ibid., 2.28.13 (vol. 2:163).

6.
   “render services”: Strabo,
Geography,
15.1.46 (vol. 7:81).

7.
   director of trade:
Kautilya Arthasastra,
2.16.1–25 (vol. 2:127–29) and 3:176–79.

8.
   “involving little expenditure”: Ibid., 7.12.18–21 (vol. 2:360).

9.
   “making voyages”:
Baudhayana,
2.1.2 (Müller,
Sacred Books,
14:217–18).

10.
   “Let him who teaches”:
Âpastamba Prasna,
1.11.32.27 (Müller,
Sacred Books,
2:98).

11.
   proscriptions on seafaring: Pearson, “Introduction,” pp. 17–18; Winius, “Portugal’s ‘Shadow Empire,’ ” 255.

12.
   “social and religious duties”: Manu,
Laws of Manu,
xviii.

13.
   the four main castes: Ibid., 8.410 (p. 195);
“When men who are expert”:
8.157 (p. 169);
“there is no definite rule”:
8.406–409 (p. 195). Whether and for whom charging interest is legal is a complicated question in both the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Some early texts deemed the charging of interest a crime worse than abortion or murdering a
Brahman, although it was allowed to commoners, but regulations were relaxed in the medieval period. See Sharma, “Usury in Early Medieval Times.”

14.
   “A hundred fifty thousand people”: Major Rock Edict XIII, in Thapar,
Early India,
181.

15.
   “Lord of the Ocean”: In Tripati,
Maritime Archaeology,
29.

16.
   writing itself: Salomon, “On the Origin of the Early Indian Scripts,” 278.

17.
   “he recognized all”: Aryasura,
Once the Buddha Was a Monkey
, 96, 98. Aryasura’s Sanskrit version, which dates to the early centuries of the common era, is based on the older Pali “Supparaka-Jataka” (Cowell,
Jataka
, vol. 4:86–90).

18.
   “My child”: In Levi, “Manimekhala,” 603–5. See “Mahajana-Jataka,” in Cowell,
Jataka,
6:21–22).

19.
   “never wept nor lamented”: In Levi, “Manimekhala,” 603.

20.
   “precaution against the dangers”: In ibid., 599.

21.
   “had his whole body burnt”: In ibid., 603–5.

22.
   “the entire world”: In Pritchard,
Ancient Near East,
1:208.

23.
   “the shallows”: Arrian,
Indica,
8.41 (vol. 2:427).

24.
   Darius may have completed: Redmount, “Wadi Tumilat.” See above, chap. 4.

25.
   “after a voyage”: Herodotus,
Histories,
4.44 (p. 230).

26.
   “Alexander had a vehement desire”: Arrian,
Indica,
8.20–21 (vol. 2:363–67). Arrian (and Strabo) drew on a now lost account of India written by Nearchus.

27.
   The monsoons are determined: Somerville and Woodhouse,
Ocean Passages for the World,
82–88, 117–27.

28.
   “ships of war”: Arrian,
Indica,
19 (p. 363). In antiquity, the Pasitigris River flowed directly into the
Persian Gulf. Now called the Karun, it flows into the
Shatt al-Arab.

29.
   “ten talents [300 kilograms] of frankincense”: In Salles, “Achaemenid and Hellenistic Trade,” 260. The earliest mentions (before the seventh century ce) of cinnamon and
cassia refer not to the cinnamon and cassia of India, Southeast Asia, and China, but to otherwise unidentified wild shrubs or small trees native to southern Arabia and East Africa. See Crone,
Meccan Trade,
253–64.

30.
   “five hundred talents”: Polybius,
Histories,
13.9 (vol. 4:427).

31.
   “The governor of Mesene”: Pliny,
Natural History,
6.152 (vol. 2:453). See Potts, “Parthian Presence,” 277.

32.
   Charax Spasinou: Salles, “Achaemenid and Hellenistic Trade,” 256; Casson,
Periplus,
180.

33.
   “the people are made torpid”: Agatharchides,
On the Erythraean Sea,
101c (p. 164, note “m”).

34.
   “using large rafts”: Ibid., 103a (p. 167).

35.
   Agatharchides of Cnidus:
None of Agatharchides’ work is preserved by itself, but portions of books 1 and 5 were transcribed by Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Photius. These fragments have been published in Agatharchides of Cnidus,
On the Erythraean Sea.

36.
   “This tribe surpasses in wealth”: Agatharchides,
On the Erythraean Sea,
104b (p. 167).

37.
   “The houses of the Sa-poh”: Faxian [Fa-hian],
Travels of Fa-Hian,
chap. 38 (p. lxxiv).

38.
   “The Red Sea ports”: Sidebotham, “Ports of the Red Sea,” 27.

39.
   elephants from East Africa: The Ptolemaic elephant corps employed forest elephants (
Loxodonta africana cyclotis
), which are smaller than Indian elephants and the better known savanna elephant,
Loxodonta africana Africana
. See Agatharchides,
On the Erythraean Sea,
10n2.

40.
   Myos Hormos: Peacock and Blue, eds.,
Myos Hormos-Quseir al-Qadim,
1–6.

41.
   “the sea, being all shoals”: Agatharchides,
On the Erythraean Sea,
85b (pp. 141–42).

42.
   “one can see”: Ibid., 105a (p. 169).

43.
   “he promised to act”: Strabo,
Geography,
2.3.4 (vol. 1:377–79).

44.
   “he found Cleopatra”:
Plutarch,
Lives
, “Antony,” 69.3 (vol. 9:295–97). Although Plutarch seems to describe a north–south route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, a distance of nearly two hundred kilometers, sixty kilometers is about the length of the ancient east–west canal.

45.
   “on account of difficult sailing”: Strabo,
Geography,
16.4.23 (vol. 7:357).

46.
   “learned that as many”: Ibid., 2.5.12 (vol. 1:455);
not so many as twenty
: 17.1.13 (8:53);
“music girls”
: 2.3.4 (1:381).

47.
   The goods can be grouped: Casson,
Periplus,
39–41.

48.
   coconut, rice, amla: Wendrich et al., “Berenike Crossroads,” 70.

49.
   inscription at Delos: Sedov, “Qana,’ ” 26n12.

50.
   statuette of Manimekhala: Wheeler,
Rome Beyond the Imperial Frontiers,
plate 15 and p. 163.

51.
   Indian embassies: Weerakkody,
Taprobanê,
51–63.

52.
   “the trade, not merely of islands”: Dio Chrysostom,
Discourses,
32.36 (vol. 3:207).

53.
   loan arrangement: Casson, “New Light on Maritime Loans”; Young,
Rome’s Eastern Trade,
55–57.

54.
   “Aelia Isidora and Aelia Olympias”: In Young,
Rome’s Eastern Trade,
58–59. For the text, translation, and discussion of the contract, see 55–57, and Casson, “New Light on Maritime Loans.”

55.
   fifty million sesterces: Pliny,
Natural History,
6.26.101 (vol. 2:417). On Romans’ net worth, see Duncan-Jones,
Economy of the Roman Empire,
1–32, 146. Some slaves could fetch vastly more than the average, the highest known price being 700,000 sesterces paid for a
grammaticus
(professor of literature).

56.
   “vast mansions”: Tacitus,
Annals,
3.53 (p. 141).

57.
   Chola town of Arikamedu:
Ray, “Resurvey of ‘Roman’ Contacts,” 100–103.

58.
   hoards of silver
denarii
: Ray, “Yavana Presence,” 98–100.

59.
   “Noble daughter”: Ilanko Atikal,
Tale of an Anklet,
2.94 (p. 32).
Isaiah:
see above, chap. 4.

60.
   “the city / that prospered”: Ilanko Atikal,
Tale of an Anklet,
6.148–54 (p. 62).

61.
   “Swift, prancing steeds”: Uruthirankannanar,
Pattinappalai,
213, 246–53 (pp. 39, 41).

62.
   “In the past”: Shattan,
Manimekhalaï,
§16 (p. 66).

63.
   “from the remotest countries”: Cosmas,
Christian Topography,
365–66. Invaluable as he is for his account of Indian Ocean trade, Cosmas offers up bizarre proofs (pp. 132, 252) that the world is not a sphere, as pagan philosophers had demonstrated and many Christians believed, but flat. These were never accepted as mainstream, and medieval people who thought about it at all generally believed the world was round. Nineteenth-century Darwinists promoted the notion that they thought otherwise to demonstrate the Christian Church’s antagonism to science; but the concept of the flat earth had no influence on the course of navigation, exploration, or any other aspect of maritime endeavor. See Jeffrey Burton Russell,
Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians
(New York: Praeger, 1991).

64.
   Rev-Ardashir (Rishahr): Whitehouse, “Sasanian Maritime Activity,” 342–43.

65.
   al-Bahrayn: This spelling is used of “the coastal region from Kazima in
Kuwait through the Hasa province [of Saudi Arabia] and ending somewhat vaguely towards
Qatar,” to distinguish it from the island of
Bahrain, which early Arabic writers called Awal. See Wilkinson, “Sketch of the Historical Geography of the Trucial Oman,” 347n1.

66.
   wooing of a Sri Lankan princess: Weerakkody, “Sri Lanka Through Greek and Roman Eyes,” 168.

67.
   “the greater”: Cosmas,
Christian Topography,
368–70.

68.
   “black Byzantines”: Wink,
Al-Hind,
1:47.

69.
   Byzantine fleet from Clysma: Christides, “Two Parallel Naval Guides,” 58.

70.
   “always locate themselves”: Procopius,
Persian War,
1.20.1–2 (vol. 1:193).

71.
   “in a hundred-oared ship”: Rig Veda, 1.116.5 (p. 287).

72.
   “a boat with strong planks”: In Levi, “Manimekhala,” 601.

73.
   “we embarked 200 passengers”: Villiers,
Monsoon Seas,
82–83. Villiers does not give the linear dimensions of his vessel, but he describes a 42-meter
boom
he saw in
Zanzibar as “very large.”

74.
   “the wretched quality”: In Ray, “Resurvey of ‘Roman’ Contacts,” 100.

75.
   common ancestor: Johnstone,
Sea-craft of Prehistory,
214–15; McGrail,
Boats of the World,
292, 326.

76.
   watercraft in the
Periplus
: Casson,
Periplus—sewn boats:
15–16;
rafts:
§7, 27;
dugout canoes:
§15;
sangara
and
kolandiophonta:
§60; and
trappaga
and
kotymba:
§44.

77.
   
trapyaka
: In Chakravarti, “Early Medieval Bengal and the Trade in Horses,” 206.
kolandiophonta
: Deloche, “Iconographic Evidence,” 208–9, 222; Islam and Miah, “Trade and Commerce” (
trapyaga
); Manguin, “Southeast Asian Shipping,” 190 (
Kolandiophonta
); Mariners’ Museum,
Aak to Zumbra,
330–31 (
kotia
), 508 (
sangara
); Ray, “Early Coastal Trade in the Bay of Bengal,” 360ff., and
Monastery and Guild,
117–19 (
kolandiophonta
,
kottimba,
and
sangara
).

78.
   “one boards”: In Wolters,
Early Indonesian Commerce,
43. For voyage time, see Casson,
Periplus,
289–90.

79.
   wall painting at Ajanta: For a summary of the meager pictorial evidence of Indian ships in this period and later, see Deloche, “Iconographic Evidence.”

80.
   “Her white sails outspread”:
Aryasura,
Once the Buddha Was a Monkey
, 102.

81.
   Mediterranean influence: Young,
Rome’s Eastern Trade,
63–64.

82.
   a first migration: Blench, “Ethnographic Evidence,” 418, 432–33.

83.
   ethnobotany, ethnomusicology: Ibid., 420–30; Hornell, “Indonesian Influence,” 305–6, 318–19, 327–28.

84.
   “a relic of an Indonesian type”: Hornell, “Indonesian Influence,” 319, 321.

85.
   “The only cargo-carrying vessel”: Hornell, “Boat Oculi Survivals,” 343. The oldest extant rendering of an
oculus
is on a rendering of seagoing ships from Sahure’s temple at
Abusir, Egypt; Wachsmann,
Seagoing Ships
, 14.