Black Pepper and the Indian Ocean Spice Trade in the Roman Era
Rome’s transition from republic to empire in the first century BCE immediately followed on from the capture of Egypt. Huge revenues flowed into Rome and the empire looked further to the East: Augustus sent out expeditionary forces and surveyors to investigate the Near East.59 This period marked a massive expansion of trade with India, via the maritime route across the Arabian Sea and then northwards along the Red Sea.
Early trade had been modest and probably via the overland caravan routes and, from Ptolemaic times, by sea via Red Sea ports. The expansion of Roman trade with western India coincided with the Pax Romana period of stability that dated from the time of Augustus, and which was to last for around 200 years. As Frankopan noted, trade with India ‘did not open up so much as explode’. Young commented that ‘The reign of Augustus thus marks the beginning of the large scale “spice trade” in the classical world’.60Within a few years of the capture of Egypt, large numbers of ships were being sent to India from the Red Sea port of Myos Hormos during the period when Aelius Gallus was prefect (26–25 BCE), the other major ports being Berenike and Arsinoe. The geographer Strabo (64 BCE–24 CE) commented that 120 ships sailed to India annually:
when Gallus was prefect of Egypt, I accompanied him and ascended the Nile as far as Syene and the frontiers of Ethiopia, and I learned that as many as one hundred and twenty vessels were sailing from Myos Hormos to India, whereas formerly, under the Ptolemies, only a very few ventured to undertake the voyage and to carry on traffic in Indian merchandise.61
Goods traded were not only those from India, but from many parts of Southeast Asia as well (see Table 4), though it is very unlikely Roman ships ventured beyond India. Black pepper, however, was a particular favourite and was imported in huge quantities.
Large ships are assumed to have been used, as referred to in the Periplus Maris Erythraei, a Graeco-Roman navigational digest most likely written in the middle first century CE, dealing with the ports around the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. The author is unknown, but the document is extremely valuable as it is clearly written from first-hand knowledge and specifies the type of goods being traded from individual ports. The issue of cargo was discussed by Federico De Romanis.62 Based on analysis of the Muziris Papyrus (a second-century CE contract to import pepper and other goods from Muziris on the southern India Malabar coast to Alexandria), De Romanis estimated that the cargo of pepper being brought back from southern India on the Hermapollon was likely over 544 tons, and that this represented most of the ship’s cargo, the rest being mainly malabathron (Indian bay leaves), with smaller amounts of ivory, tortoiseshell and herbs. The De Romanis estimate of tonnage, the Periplus statement of large ships (§56) being employed in this trade and the descriptions of such ships by Philostratus in his (fictional) Life of Apollonius of Tyana combine to define the Hermapollon and its sister ships as very large by Roman standards.63 Archaeological evidence for the large merchant ships is scant, but the Hermapollon may have been a variant of a ‘Corbita’-type sailing ship.One of the largest Roman shipwrecks ever found in the Mediterranean was described in 2019 – the vessel was found off Kefalonia and was 110ft long, with a well-preserved cargo of amphorae. Other larger ships are known (e.g. Isis, Syracusa), but for all practical purposes the Hermapollon was probably the largest class of merchantman available to the Roman Empire in that era.
The Roman Empire was connected to the Indian Ocean trading sphere through two main routes: the Egypt–Red Sea route and the Persian Gulf–Euphrates route.64 However, the Red Sea seems to have predominated in the black pepper trade.
Alternative viewpoints of the Indian Ocean trade exist also. P. T. Parthasarathi noted that Malabar (present-day Kerala) was known as the ‘Spice Garden of India’ since time immemorial and its position made it a natural location for commerce and trans-shipment.65 He takes the view that many of the artefacts and Roman coins found here in abundance were brought here by Arab and Axumite middlemen, who monopolised the spice trade to feed Roman markets, rather than exemplifying direct control by the Romans, though this view is rather controversial. The fact remains that a range of different Roman artefacts have been found in the subcontinent. Around fifty sites have reported Roman amphorae, with Dressel 2–4 types being most common, mostly with estimated ages of first century BCE to first century CE.66The Ptolemies had already constructed ports along the Red Sea coast before the arrival of the Romans, in order to exploit trade with India and Arabia, which was much less than with the Romans.67 The sea trade was eventually assisted by the monsoons which enabled direct crossings of the Arabian Sea – this was well established by the first century CE (the Greeks being the first to use the monsoons to trade with India), so the Romans would have exploited this from the start after their seizure of Egypt. The first Greek believed to have exploited the monsoons for travel to India was Eudoxus of Cyzicus, recounted in Strabo’s Geography.68 Eudoxus had travelled to Egypt and there became acquainted with a shipwrecked Indian mariner who had been found half-dead on the Red Sea coast, or possibly the Gulf of Aden, all his companions having perished from hunger. After learning sufficient Greek to communicate, the sailor agreed to teach the use of the monsoon winds to reach India, thus allowing him to return home. Eudoxus was one of the group appointed by the Egyptian king (Ptolemy VIII, aka ‘fatty’, a cruel and degenerate leader) to undertake the journey, which took place around 118 BCE.
They completed the outward journey successfully. They had taken with them an array of gifts and traded these for aromatics and precious stones, eventually returning safely to Egypt. Ptolemy took possession of these exotic treasures (to the chagrin of Eudoxus, who undoubtedly had felt he had earned his fortune) but died shortly afterwards. His widow, however, decided on another expedition and sent Eudoxus off once more, in 116 BCE, with an even greater stock of merchandise with which to trade. Eudoxus again completed the round trip, despite initially being blown off course southwards somewhere along the coast of Africa. On return, the queen’s son had taken power and Eudoxus was once more stripped of his treasure. The unfortunate adventurer made additional expeditions attempting to circumnavigate Africa, on the first of these trips including among the crew an unlikely group of ‘singing girls, physicians, and artisans of various kinds’. His companions wearied of the journey and finally ran the ship aground, bringing the journey to an inglorious end. His ultimate fate is unknown, apparently sailing off into the sunset never to be seen again, but his main achievement was significant: to demonstrate the use of the monsoon winds to sail to India and back.The author of the Periplus notes that before the direct routes were exploited (§57): ‘The whole … voyage from Cana and Eudaemon Arabia [Aden] … used to be performed in small vessels which kept close to shore.’69 This is evidence that the spice trade was formerly conducted in this laborious manner.
The journey from the Red Sea would have started at either of the two main ports: Berenike or Myos Hormos. The outbound journey to India would have typically started in July to take advantage of the south-west monsoon (Figure 9).70 Destinations were to the north-west of India (Barbarikon and Barygaza) or to the south-west (Muziris and Nelkynda). The journey took around two months, but there would be two or three months to wait at the destination before the return in order to exploit the north-east monsoon, which didn’t begin until late November.
The return journey may have commenced in December or January and should have been completed by March, so the round trip might have been around nine months.Each journey would have been an extremely dangerous venture. Even the relatively straightforward leg down the Red Sea was fraught with danger, with coral reefs and submerged islands, especially in the southern parts, causing many ships to run aground and founder. In addition to the natural hazards, much of the coast was inhabited by unfriendly tribes. The Periplus (§20) says this of the Arabian coast south of the Gulf of Aqaba: ‘If a vessel is driven from her course upon this shore she is plundered, and if wrecked the crew on escaping to land are reduced to slavery.’
On the southern side of the Red Sea, the Periplus author (§4) says of the port of Adulis (probably modern Zula on the present Eritrean coast) that ships now had to anchor well offshore, because formerly the ‘barbarous natives’ could attack the previous anchorage at the head of the bay. Further south still, at Avalites (§7) (probably Saylac in modern Somalia), the Berber inhabitants were described as ‘very unruly’ – no doubt an understatement. Pliny mentioned the piratical Ascitae tribe, who probably operated in the Bab al-Mandab Strait (where the southernmost Red Sea becomes very narrow) using wooden rafts made buoyant with inflated oxen skins, but they were particularly infamous because of their use of poison arrows.71 The Strait is also known as the Gate of Tears on account of the treacherous currents that have to be negotiated there. When finally out of the Red Sea and into the western Indian Ocean, the south-west monsoon winds would frequently blow Force 7/8 for days on end with large waves battering the ships. Tropical cyclones were rare but possible. At the end of the two-month journey there were coastal hazards to negotiate on approach to several of the main ports … and then the threat of pirates along the Malabar coast. The Roman ships laden with gold and valuable cargoes for trading would have been very attractive targets. Pliny observed that companies of archers were carried on board for defence against pirates.72
The four main Spice Ports (from north to south along the west coast) were Barbarikon, Barygaza, Muziris and Nelkynda. These were the main destinations for ships leaving the Red Sea. A fifth important Spice Port was Ganges, in modern-day West Bengal; spices were probably trans-shipped by local vessels to the western ports for onward export. Figure 13 illustrates the main spice trade routes between India and the Roman Empire in the first two centuries CE.