This volume presents an updated vision of Indo-Roman trade that is focused around two themes: the organisation of the Red Sea's trade ports and the Roman taxation system in that region. It is a historical and historiographical account that concisely approaches these two themes through an interdisciplinary, longue durée perspective.
N. analytically reviews written, archaeological and environmental sources. His analysis outlines the life and functioning of the Red Sea ports. It also demonstrates how the dynamics of Indo-Roman trade in this region were consistently maintained between the first century bc and the fourth century ad. The text includes citations of classical sources reported in their original formats or translated and included as brief summaries at the end of each chapter.
In the first part of the book N. distinguishes between two main historical phases of Roman presence in the Red Sea. The earlier phase involved the Roman conquest of Egypt (30 bc), the consolidation of Myos Hormos and Berenike as key ports of the Red Sea, the development of infrastructure connecting the ports to the Valley and the rising of Coptos’ role in triangulating the commercial flow from the Red Sea ports to Alexandria. In his analysis of this period N. critically takes various sources into consideration. For example, he stresses the fact that ostraka from the Nikanor archive give information about commercial flows that contradicts literary sources, and that archaeological data are crucial for the correct interpretation of discordant information from various texts.
N. characterises the second phase by infrastructural changes and political expansion: Trajan's inclusion of the Nabatean kingdom (ad 106), the excavation of a canal connecting the Red Sea to the Nile, and the expansion of a certain level of control to the peripheral regions, as suggested by two epigraphs attesting the presence of a detachment of the Legio Traina Fortis at the Farasan islands (ad 143–144). According to N., this military presence, 1000 km to the south of the Province, was to protect trade from piracy, in addition to possibly aiming to expand trade further. Another component of N.’s analysis of this phase is the organisation of trade and the system of taxation in the provinces in such a way that commercial flow would pass through only one town so as to improve control over trade and expedite taxation operations.
The second part of the book concerns the Roman presence in the Red Sea during the late-antique period (fourth–sixth centuries ad). N. notes the earlier tetrarchical phase, which sees a reinforcement of security in the region, the phase when Anastasio I restored Roman authority in Arabia and then the phase when Justin I and Justinian I strengthened the relationship with Aksumites in the southern Red Sea. According to N., the authority's approach in the fourth to sixth centuries is more explicit and invasive than that in the first and second centuries, but the general strategy is consistent with the earlier period: to establish firm Imperial gates through which products would have to pass and to maintain a certain degree of control in the Red Sea by reinforcing the Roman presence in the two extremities (the North and the South). In fact, during the fourth to sixth centuries ad, the decline of intermediary ports such as Myos Hormos and Leuke Kome was followed by the debut of Clysma, Aila and Iotabe to the North.
In the last part, N. analyses in more detail the third century, which, in contrast to the opinion commonly held by historians, he considers to be a period of reorganisation rather than of crisis. N. explains that occurrences in the third century – such as the absence of Roman coins in India, inflation in the Roman economy and the abandonment or destruction of intermediate ports such as Myos Hormos and Leuke Kome – do not reflect a moment of crisis of the Roman presence in the Red Sea. Instead, these occurrences signify a period of reorganisation, which led to a more functional utilisation of the ports and to strengthened control over the periphery, a project that, according to N., was already nascent in the Imperial age.
One of the merits of the volume is undoubtedly its degree of originality compared to previous studies, thanks to newly available data. The question of Indo-Roman trade has always fascinated scholars, but has long been analysed purely on the basis of written sources. However, archaeological finds in recent decades, including epigraphic material and papyri, have significantly improved the state of our knowledge. These sources have offered a completely new vision not only of Indo-Roman trade, but of ancient interconnectivity in general. For example, two important discoveries are the epigraphic evidence testifying to the presence of at least eleven different spoken languages at the Egyptian port site of Berenike, while organic materials found at the same site testify to the richness and variety of products that were imported and exported at the time.
Scholars who have conducted fieldwork on Red Sea ports have produced interesting publications based on archaeological discoveries; in most cases, historical summaries on the subject have been published separately. One exception is S.E. Sidebotham's book on Berenike (Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route [2011]), which brings together history and archaeology of the titular Roman port on the Red Sea through a comprehensive approach. Until the publication of N.’s book, there had not been an updated Italian edition on the subject since F. De Romanis in 1996 (Cassia, Cinnamomo, Ossidiana), which inspired a generation of Italian archaeologists and historians, including the author of the book and myself.
The book's methodological approach has a certain degree of originality, which is enhanced by precise and up-to-date information, especially with respect to the papyrological and epigraphic data. N. uses scientific rigour in analysing different types of sources, from historical-literary to archaeological, papyrological and epigraphic, and he demonstrates awareness of an overall picture that also takes into account environmental aspects. Certainly N.’s participation in several archaeological excavations at port sites along the Indo-Roman trade route has contributed to his multidisciplinary methodology, enabling him to articulate both an analytical description of the ports and a clear, comprehensive vision of the development of ports on the Red Sea.
N. intentionally excludes the theme of commercialised goods. His analysis is mostly restricted to that of the economic and organisational policies of the Roman Empire, excluding other contemporary political and social realities of the southern Red Sea, which also played a part in determining the Empire's strategic choices.
The historiographical approach applied by N. is crucial for a comprehensive historical interpretation of the question of taxation. N. particularly underlines the Roman Empire's rationalisation process for harmonising the tax rate system on its Eastern border ports.
An important issue that N. only marginally addresses is that of the Aksumite Empire, one of the main interlocutors in the late-antique period, and the related question of its expansion and its active involvement in trading with India. It would have been interesting to include the work of F.-X. Fauvelle-Aymar (‘Les inscriptions d'Adoulis [Erythrée]. Fragments d'un royaume d'influence hellénistique et gréco-romaine sur la côte africaine de la Mer Rouge’, BIFAO 109 [2009], 135–60) on the question of the new dating proposed for the Monumentum Adulitanum at the turn of the first century ad, rather than the third century, and on the role of the port of Adulis in relation to Aksum in the context of Indo-Roman trade.
Although some issues are not explored in detail, N.’s observations are a stimulus for deepening others and finding new research cues for further analysis. In this sense, the volume is an excellent starting point for continuing to develop research in this area. The book is written very clearly and explains the intricate history of Indo-Roman trade in a linear way; as such it is a volume accessible both to a wider audience and to students and specialists.
