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Merchant’s Road Toward the Utopia in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2018

Juan Pablo Sanchez Hernandez
Juan Pablo Sanchez Hernandez*
Affiliation:
jpsanch0210@gmail.com
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Abstract

Heliodorus’ Aethiopica narrates the adventurous journey of a couple through Egypt to the kingdom of Meroe in Ethiopia where they get married. To increase the plausibility of this story Heliodorus uses his knowledge of Rome’s trade activities in the East and he even introduces some characters involved in trade ventures in those regions (e.g. Nausicles) at crucial moments of its development. On the other hand, Heliodorus’ references to luxurious products of Eastern and African origin, as well as to exotic animals or tribes, are recurring elements (or leitmotifs) that are consciously interspersed throughout the novel. Those references not only serve to unify a carefully planned plot and guide the reader to an intended conclusion, but also to map the idealised Ethiopia and its neighboring subjected regions (inhabited by some fantastic tribes), where the protagonists will eventually live.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 52 , 2018 , pp. 143 - 160
Copyright
© The Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2018 

Heliodorus’ Aethiopica narrates the eventful journey of two lovers, Theagenes and Charicleia, from Delphi in Greece to the Mediterranean coast of Egypt and then up the Nile to Memphis, in the company of the Egyptian high priest Calasiris. Their final destination is the kingdom of Meroe in Ethiopia, where Charicleia is recognised as the daughter of the king and queen. Many years earlier, she had been exposed as a child, because she had been born white. However, Sisimithres, an Ethiopian gymnosophist (‘naked-sage’), rescued her and took her to Catadoupi in Egypt, where the Greek Charicles adopted the young child (dubbing the heroine Charicleia).Footnote 1 This story, whose temporal setting is the cusp between the sixth and fifth centuries bce, draws upon an incredible canon of authors (including Homer, Herodotus, and Euripides).Footnote 2 It also takes place in multiple settings: we see recreated the street life of classical Athens;Footnote 3 we attend the lively religious activities of the famed Panhellenic sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, where Theagenes and Charicleia first meet;Footnote 4 and we follow them on their journey to Ethiopia after their long wandering in Egypt, which was then a satrapy of the Persian Empire.

In this paper, I will argue that the way in which Heliodorus re-evaluates the exotic nature of Egypt is innovative: apart from being a destination of exotic fascination, we will see that, in the Aethiopica, Egypt also serves as a site of dynamic communication between trading communities of diverse ethnic origins. In fact, trade activities in Egypt and the description of luxury goods originating from Africa and the Far East play a sizeable role in Heliodorus’ novel and the references to those actually function as a leitmotif. As this aspect of the novel has hitherto gone unnoticed, it is worth examining how Heliodorus skilfully plays with the moral valences associated with an excessive consumption of Eastern luxury goods, not only to emphasise the perils of the protagonists’ journey, but also to mark Charicleia’s mixed-race identity and exotic origins. On the other hand, Egypt is just a stage in the protagonists’ journey on the route they are following towards their final destination: the idealised kingdom of Meroe in Ethiopia, ruled by enlightened kings and a board of pious advisors. However, Heliodorus also chooses to portray the Ethiopians as a power on the rise in the third and fourth centuries ce and he enhances their importance as leading partners in Rome’s eastern trade by noting, for example, their control over other nations that produce exotic goods and send them to Meroe as a tribute.

It is true that Heliodorus follows certain traditional conventions in his characterisation of Egypt. For example, Heliodorus makes the country a site of magic and rebirth, presenting the Egyptian priest Calasiris (who brings the protagonists to the country) as the perfect embodiment of this religious aura that was so appealing to the Greeks: ‘They left nothing that appertained to Egypt unsearched,’ remarks Calasiris in answer to the many questions he is asked during his stay at Delphi, ‘for Greek ears are wonderfully delighted with tales of Egypt.’Footnote 5 In fact, those Greeks who looked for a sort of cultural initiation (even in Roman times) often took a Nile cruise to visit sites that linked the Egyptian and the Hellenic past, such as the statue at Thebes supposedly portraying Memnon, the Ethiopian hero of the Trojan War.Footnote 6 More importantly, those Greek visitors sought to investigate questions, such as the seasonal floods of the Nile and the location of its headwaters – like Charicles, one of the characters in the Aethiopica, who initially comes to Catadoupi to do ‘research on the cataracts of the Nile’.Footnote 7 In sum, Heliodorus activates in his novel this Classical ‘Greek Egyptomania’,Footnote 8 according to which the origins of almost every aspect of civilization were located in Egypt, including the use of oracles and the practice of divination.Footnote 9

However, Heliodorus depicts Egypt as a mere stage in mystic pilgrimage (or initiatory voyage) toward Ethiopia, which is a sort of ‘Über-Egypt’. In a way, Heliodorus’ novel reveals how the status of Egypt had significantly evolved after the absorption of the entire eastern Mediterranean region into the Roman Empire: Egypt still maintained its mystique as a tourist destination for the vast majority of the population, but for some postclassical intellectuals – especially those of the so-called Second Sophistic (Plutarch, Philostratus, etc.) – Ethiopia and India had supplanted Egypt as new sites for mystery and luxury.Footnote 10 In that regard, Heliodorus’ novel also reflects actively upon its literary and cultural references in order to upset traditional hierarchies and decentralise Greco-Roman civilization, putting Greece at the bottom, Egypt in the middle, and Ethiopia at the top.Footnote 11

India and Ethiopia had long been at the far edges of the earth for Greek ethnographers and geographers, who sometimes featured them together in a confusing way.Footnote 12 In Roman times, however, maritime trade routes connected Egypt with Arabia, East Africa, and India through the ‘Red Sea’ (ἡ Ἐρυθρά θάλασση – our Red Sea, plus the Gulf of Aden and the western Indian Ocean). In fact, from the Red Sea ports, caravan trains brought their spices and luxurious commodities through the Eastern desert to the Nile, before they were delivered to the ports of Alexandria. This route, which was already prominent during the Ptolemaic period, was further exploited after Augustus’ conquest of Egypt.Footnote 13 This is why, apart from being a destination of exotic fascination, Egypt also serves in the Aethiopica as a site of dynamic communication between trading communities of diverse ethnic origins. In fact, as the novel begins in medias res in Egypt, readers are abruptly immersed in this multicultural environment, experiencing a sense of spatial disorientation by encountering brigands, pirates, and magicians speaking different languages.Footnote 14 However, we also meet a variety of merchants and, like other Ancient Greek novelists, Heliodorus vividly describes their cosmopolitan backgrounds and their global economic activities, with the inclusion as well of some references to their exotic profits.Footnote 15

By connecting the many details on trade, luxury goods, and travel to exotic lands in the novel that attest to the diffusion of exotic products throughout the Mediterranean basin with actual artefacts and testimonies of mercantile operations (as documented by ancient historians or archaeological evidence), we will see how these apparently extraneous items or descriptions are a sort of narrative ‘luxury’Footnote 16 that nonetheless gives the story its atmosphere and makes it feel real, thus enhancing the plausibility of the protagonists’ journey. Yet Heliodorus’ ‘mercantile’ interests also have a narratological dimension: if the Nile supplies the physical and spiritual backbone that supports the action of the novel,Footnote 17 references to Chinese silk and precious stones (emeralds, amethysts, etc.) in relation to Charicleia are also significant, not only for our understanding of her unique beauty and virtue but also for our progressive awareness of the hybrid nature of her identity as a blending of the Mediterranean and the Ethiopian worlds.Footnote 18

On the other hand, Heliodorus skilfully plays with the moral valences associated with an excessive consumption of luxury goods that, in Roman times, was usually considered as morally degrading.Footnote 19 One of the most common narrative elements in all the ancient novels is the intense erotic desire that the alluring beauty of the protagonists provokes in other characters. But in the Aethiopica, as we will see, this passion proves to be fatal whenever Theagenes or Charicleia also happen to be surrounded by luxuries and/or are adorned with silk and other expensive garments. On this point, I will argue that the mentions of eastern products in Heliodorus’ novel serve to characterise such encounters with lustful and greedy characters. Moreover, Heliodorus explores the different responses to the use of luxury products of various non-Greek populations in the Aethiopica: while the cruel Persian satraps of Egypt, for example, indulge in all types of pleasures and luxuries, the benign Ethiopian leaders are, in contrast, morally restrained and able to control their appetites. In fact, as we will see, Heliodorus notes not only the control that the Ethiopians exert over themselves in their consumption of oriental goods but also their control over the other nations that produce the goods and/or engage in trade with them.

Merchants and Luxury Products in the Aethiopica

In Roman times, the most up-to-date information about a distant country derived primarily from trade ventures into lands outside the Roman Empire. This is the case of Ptolemy of Alexandria, the most knowledgeable of the ancient geographers, who mentions by name some of these merchants who acted as his informants for territories in the far-flung southern locales of Ethiopia.Footnote 20 Those intermediaries occasionally left some type of written record, such as the anonymous Egyptian sailor who authored the Periplus Maris Erythraei (PME).Footnote 21 Still, those few bold explorers only visited isolated portions of those countries (mostly the coastal areas) and they were ill prepared to scientifically describe the lands through which they travelled.Footnote 22 Moreover, since merchants were naturally interested in their profits, they were even accused of inventing fantastic stories, so as to enhance the price of their imports.Footnote 23 Some of these ‘tall tales’ of travellers were probably still popular in Heliodorus’ time: ostensibly credible records refer to the supposed sighting of a phoenix (a bird that Heliodorus casually mentions in 6.3.3) that would have flown to Egypt from Ethiopia before being brought to Rome as well.Footnote 24

Heliodorus first introduces readers to this merchant’s world in an important episode: the encounter between the Ethiopian gymnosophist Sisimithres and the Greek Charicles in Catadoupi, a town on the Egyptian-Meroe border (Heliod. Aeth. 2.29.2-32.3). Sisimithres, who had arranged for Charicleia to be raised secretly by shepherds for the previous seven years, takes the young girl to Catadoupi on an embassy to the Persians, entrusted to him by Hydaspes to claim possession of several emerald mines. In Catadoupi, Sisimithres approaches the Greek traveller Charicles, who is busy in the markets buying a number of the ‘herbs and roots that grow in India, Ethiopia, and Egypt’.Footnote 25 Sisimithres then pretends to be a merchant and approaches Charicles with offers of gems, emeralds, and sapphires, which an enticed Charicles describes at length (Heliod. Aeth. 2.30.3). Sisimithres promises to supply Charicles with some precious items at a favourable price: ‘You will see them, but do not be too stingy with your offers,’ says the Ethiopian;Footnote 26 ‘Do not be too grasping in your price,’ warns Charicles.Footnote 27 But this is just a stratagem to lure Charicles to a discreet area and to hand over the jewels with ‘another gift much more precious than these’:Footnote 28 a beautiful maiden whose godlike charm is enhanced by the necklace of gemstones and the silken waistband she has kept as birth tokens (Heliod. Aeth. 2.30.5-31.2).

In this particular episode, Heliodorus evokes the ambience of the lively entrepôts in Roman Egypt that was also recreated in other ancient narratives: this is certainly the case of Coptos (Quft) in Upper Egypt, which features in Xenophon’s Ephesiaká (4.1.4-5) as a departure point for a caravan train voyage through the Eastern Desert bound for the Red Sea ports (and then India). Coptos was an international emporium on the eastern bend of the Nile through which many eastern products were introduced to the Mediterranean basin and it was much frequented by Egyptians, Arabs, and merchants of Levantine origin (Phoenicians, Palmyreans, etc.) as late as the fourth century ce.Footnote 29 Likewise, according to Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana, even in the trade post of Hiera Sycaminos (Maharraqa) in the frontier region of the Dodekaschoinos, one could come across Ethiopian and Egyptian merchants and ‘a quantity of uncoined gold and linen, and an elephant, and various roots and myrrh and spices’.Footnote 30

Another encounter with merchants occurs in the novel after the festival at Delphi during which the protagonists fall in love with each other and confide their deep affection to Calasiris, the Egyptian priest, who is also a visitor to the sanctuary. Calasiris then suggests an elopement and books passage for the three aboard a Phoenician ship from Tyre, which happens to be ‘sailing to Carthage in Libya with a cargo of merchandise from India and Ethiopia, as well as Phoenicia’.Footnote 31 The ship arrives at Zakynthos, where those who live around the island’s harbor admired the size and beauty of this merchant vessel, described as a ‘Phoenician masterpiece’.Footnote 32 Unfortunately, the Tyrian merchant at the head of this trade expedition becomes enamoured of Charicleia and tries to persuade Calasiris to give her to him in marriage, arguing that he is ‘the owner of most of the cargo he is carrying: gold, priceless gems, and silken raiment’.Footnote 33

In this second episode, Heliodorus exploits the reputation of the Phoenicians as natural traders. We know that silk and other exotic goods, such as those present in the Phoenician cargo, were typically found in the trading hubs and manufacturing centres of the Levantine region during the Roman period. During Heliodorus’ lifetime, one of the best shells for the manufacture of purple dye came from Tyre and was used for dying imported Chinese silks and other tissues in Tyre and also Berytus.Footnote 34 Moreover, the Phoenician ship is itself a mise en abyme, a symbol of Heliodorus’ novel as a whole, which, in its size and sophistication, carries the fates of Theagenes and Charicleia, foreshadowed in Greece but accomplished in Ethiopia. In fact, Heliodorus acts like the ‘pilot’ of the novel who, using the word ‘Phoenician’ and its cognates, guides his readers on a sort of literary journey that will end with the revelation of his own identity as a ‘Phoenician man from Emesa’.Footnote 35

Finally, Calasiris and the young couple meet another merchant in Egypt by the name of Nausicles (‘famous for his ships’). Nausicles is an ambitious self-made entrepreneur from Naucratis, the most prosperous Greek colony in Egypt at the time the novel is set – Alexandria is yet to be founded –,Footnote 36 but with trade interests in Athens. Nausicles is so rich that has the means to hire an entire army from the Persian satrap Oroöndates. With those Persians, he intends to recover Thisbe, an excellent Athenian singer who was his hetaera and whom he plans to sell off ‘to the king of Ethiopia, (as he said) so that she might be his wife’s playmate and familiar after the manner of the Greeks’.Footnote 37 These remarks make sense when we learn from other sources (such as the PME) that African and Indian royal courts greatly valued slave musicians and concubines of Western stock – correspondingly, slaves of African origin are also listed among the exports to the Roman Empire –Footnote 38 and that even mere prostitution was deemed to be very profitable in the East.Footnote 39 Dealers in Roman times were doubtlessly interested in exploiting such commercial opportunities.Footnote 40

The Persians hired by Nausicles to recover Thisbe meet our protagonists and, when Nausicles sees Charicleia, he identifies her as the Athenian Thisbe and tells her secretly to agree to the ruse. So Charicleia is given to Nausicles and Theagenes becomes the prize of the Persians. But Calasiris is coincidentally a guest of Nausicles and offers him in ransom for Charicleia’s freedom a royal ring with an amethyst of Ethiopian craftsmanship. Heliodorus comments on its brilliance, its purity, and supposed properties (Heliod. Aeth. 5.13.3-4), enhancing its beauty by saying that ‘every amethyst from India or Ethiopia is as I have described’.Footnote 41 As in the previous episode at Catadoupi (above, p. 148), when Charicles was enticed by both the precious stones and young Charicleia, this amethyst again functions as a symbol of the maid’s virginal beauty, which is still kept pure in spite of all the threatening circumstances of captivity and exile.Footnote 42 But then Heliodorus adds the claim that this particular Ethiopian amethyst is superior to others, because of the bucolic scene which is engraved on it. A detailed description of this idyll that follows (Heliod. Aeth. 5.14.1-14.4) foreshadows the happiness that awaits the protagonists in Ethiopia.Footnote 43

Up to now, we have seen that the mentions of precious stones mark Charicleia’s mysterious beauty and her coming under the protection of one or another paternal figure (Charicles or Calasiris) during her search of her true origins. But the mention of silk and precious stones also serves to emphasise the perils of the protagonists’ journey and their encounters with lustful characters. For example, in the famous opening scene at the mouth of the Nile, we see the protagonists surrounded by the bodies of slain men and by bloodied bandits next to a cargo of ‘gold, silver, precious stones, and silk’.Footnote 44 When they are captured by the Egyptian bandit Thyamis, the leader of the βούκολοι of the Nile Delta,Footnote 45 they claim to have been attacked by pirates on their way to Delos on ‘a boat that was laden with gold, silver, and vestments’.Footnote 46 This story seems credible, since, at the place where Thyamis keeps the protagonists, ‘there is gold, silver, and clothing aplenty’ from his predatory activities.Footnote 47 But the truth is that they had been captured by the pirate Trachinus and that another pirate, a certain Pelorus, had claimed Charicleia for himself, as he saw her ‘wearing a crown of laurel on her head and glistering garments garnished with gold’.Footnote 48 In the ensuing fight between the pirates, everyone apart from the protagonists dies.

Most prominently, Heliodorus exploits such notions of excess in the depiction of the luxurious court of the Persian satrap of Egypt at Memphis, when the protagonists arrive there in book 7. As soon as Arsake, the Persian satrap’s wife, sees Theagenes from her pavilion ‘under a canopy of purple embroidered with gold’,Footnote 49 she falls in love with him – or rather feels a ravishing passion more appropriate to one who is a ‘slave to perverted and dissipated pleasures’Footnote 50 – and tries to impress Theagenes with a pretentious display of wealth, sends Theagenes all types of expensive gifts (such as rugs manufactured in Phoenicia and Lydia), and even dresses him as a Persian cupbearer with ‘bangles of gold and collars studded with precious gems’.Footnote 51 Arsake actually constitutes the greatest threat to the couple, because her world is one of luxury and splendour, where might is also right: the Persians believe that the protagonists will eventually (even if force is required) obey them, as they believe that they will overcome the Ethiopians on the battlefield and will take over the emerald mines in dispute.Footnote 52 But Theagenes does not give in to the passion of Arsake, even when he is tortured and Charicleia is condemned to death.

The lovers are eventually saved and subsequently fetched from Memphis upon orders from the Persian satrap, Oroöndates, who is campaigning against the Ethiopian king Hydaspes. However, they are captured along the way by the Ethiopians and sent to the kingdom of Meroe, where they are presented in golden chains. As their captors declare to Hydaspes, ‘the spoils we brought you’ – referring to Theagenes and Charicleia – ‘were not gold or precious stones. Those things are cheap in Ethiopia and lie in heaps in the storerooms of your palace.’Footnote 53 This remark points to the extraordinary power and prosperity of Meroe (even superior to the Persian court of Memphis)Footnote 54 that we will soon discover, together with the protagonists.

Mapping Ethiopia: Exotic Products and Fictional Geographies

When the lovers reach Meroe in book 10, they discover a productive and well-administered land which boasts an idyllic society governed by the honest King Hydaspes and his board of pious advisors, the gymnosophists. Heliodorus, in fact, engages here with the so-called ‘utopian novels’ (Euhemerus, Iambulus, etc,) that presented escapist fantasies set in idealised societies at the extremes of the known world. Although only known in fragments, we have in these novels stories of faraway lands whose fauna was made up of all sorts of exotic animals, of perfect societies which excelled others in their luxurious and refined way of life, of religious people involved in all types of expiatory ceremonies (including the ritual sacrifice of foreign prisoners), following the commands of enlightened priests; in sum, all the typical elements of this kind of narrative which also found a place in Heliodorus’ depiction of Ethiopia.Footnote 55

But, at the same time, Heliodorus opts for a sense of realism and a sort of ‘historiographical pose’, alluding to a familiar ethnographic tradition (originated by Herodotus)Footnote 56 that takes nations on the fringes of the known world, India and Ethiopia, features them together, and compares them with each other.Footnote 57 This approach is combined with factual and more up-to-date information gleaned from military contacts and commercial exchanges during the Roman period.Footnote 58 Certainly, in Hellenistic-Roman times, the Meroitic kingdom was a key agent in the region in relation to the eastern trade routes, was in diplomatic contact with foreign nations (including Rome), and its rulers were educated and spoke Greek as a sign of distinction, as in the novel.Footnote 59 Ethiopian rulers were prosperous and developed a refined taste for Arabian, Indian, and Chinese goods that merchants passed along in their trade dealings with the eastern markets.Footnote 60

This prosperity has already been hinted at by means of the repeated comments on the silk waistband that was left with Charicleia when she was abandoned. But this exotic product has also an important narrative function: it is a document that Heliodorus passes on to his readers as having been authored by someone else to prove the veracity of his Ethiopian story. In most cases, this sort of ‘pseudo-documentarism’ takes the form of an authenticating preface detailing the circumstances and the names of the persons who passed a ‘precious document’ to the next, until it came into the hands of the author (or ‘editor’).Footnote 61 In Heliodorus’ novel this ‘precious document’ is this waistband of Chinese silk.Footnote 62 However, the people who pass this document are the main characters of Heliodorus’ Aethiopica: we first find it in book 2 among Charicleia’s birth tokens; in book 4, we discover that it contains an autobiographical account by the hand of queen Persinna which only Calasiris can read, as it is written ‘in the Ethiopian script’;Footnote 63 and, finally, in book 10, Charicleia presents the silk waistband to the perplexed queen Persinna herself, who asks her husband and the gymnosophists to read the message on it as well. The band itself has become a character in the Aethiopica with its own wondrous adventures.Footnote 64 Likewise, among the tokens of recognition, we also find the royal ring in the bezel of which there is the pantarba stone: it is said in book 4 to be ‘consecrated with secret virtues’,Footnote 65 but we learn more of such magic properties and the holy letters written on it only in book 8,Footnote 66 when the stone miraculously saves Charicleia from the flames to which Arsake condemns her.Footnote 67

However, what Heliodorus chooses to comment on is not only the abundance of silk and other precious items in Ethiopia but also how the Ethiopians have gained control over the sources of such products. For example, we find in the novel that the Ethiopian kings are involved in a military confrontation with the Persian satraps of Egypt over some emerald mines in a disputed border area south of Meroe. Heliodorus first refers to this conflict in book 2, when the gymnosophist Sisimithres is driven from Egypt under the threat of death, because ‘he told (the satrap) to keep his hands off the emerald mines claiming that they belong to Ethiopia’.Footnote 68 In the ensuing war, narrated in books 8-9, King Hydaspes takes possession of the emerald mines and goes back to Meroe together with Theagenes and Charicleia as prisoners.Footnote 69 This conflict might have a historical basis: the Roman occupation of the Eastern desert region in Egypt saw the quarrying of stones (e.g. in Mons Claudianus) and the mining of gold and amethyst (at Wadi Abu Diyeiba) and of beryl and emerald (at Sikait, Nugrus); and, after all, the region south of the first cataract (the Dodekaschoenos) contained valuable mines and quarries claimed both by Romans and Ethiopians in the third and fourth centuries ce.Footnote 70 At the same time, however, the conflict over the emeralds also plays a curious symbolic role in the economy of the plot: the Persian seizure of the mines corresponds with Charicleia’s alienation from her homeland and Hydaspes’ reconquest of the mines to Charicleia’s return to Ethiopia.Footnote 71

Finally, Heliodorus comments on the control which the Ethiopians exert over other nations which also produce and/or deal with expensive luxury goods. This is clearly shown in the great triumphal parade (Heliod. Aeth. 10.22.6-27.4), in which foreign ambassadors of allied nations come to Ethiopia with tributes of silk, spices, and other precious items. If, in previous sections, we have considered Heliodorus as the trailblazer or ‘pilot’ of the novel – i.e. the author who guides the protagonists toward their destination just as he guides readers towards his intended conclusions (see supra) –, in book 10, he is virtually the ‘mapmaker’ of a fictional space: the kingdom of Meroe occupies its geographical centre, while, around Meroe, Heliodorus places exotic trade-nations and the nomadic tribes of the Eastern desert that posed a constant threat to travellers to the Far East in Roman times.Footnote 72

For example, Heliodorus mentions the bellicose Blemmyes of the Eastern Desert (Heliod. Aeth. 9.16.3, 9.17.2, 9.18.1-6), very active in the war against the Persians on the side of Hydaspes. Those Blemmyes were also notorious for their revolts against the Romans for most of the third century ce.Footnote 73 Heliodorus also mentions the Trogodytae (Heliod. Aeth. 8.16.4, 9.16.2, 10.26.2), who resided along stretches of the western coast of the Red Sea.Footnote 74 Curiously enough, the Trogodytae do not come to the court of Hydaspes offering their typical elephants, since the kingdom of Meroe already has a large supply of them.Footnote 75 Instead, they offer a fantastic chariot, pulled by a pair of griffins, and a tribute of rare ant-gold (i.e. collected by gold-digging ants), wonders that were, nonetheless, common elements in the ethnographic description of faraway lands.Footnote 76

Heliodorus also recalls the changing balance of forces in Ethiopia with the rise of Axum: from being just a modest kingdom in the Ethiopian highlands that controlled some Red Sea routes through the port of Adulis (Eritrea), the kingdom progressively established its imperial hegemony in the region during the third and fourth centuries. This expansion was not left uncontested either by Rome or by the various tribes native to southern Egypt.Footnote 77 But Heliodorus chooses to present the Axumitae as peaceful allies of the kingdom of Meroe, stating that the Axumitae ‘were not tributaries but friends and allies of the king’.Footnote 78 In fact, they come to rejoice with Hydaspes in his victory and they bring him as a present a giraffe (καμηλοπάρδαλις) whose appearance provokes much excitement in the assembled crowd. Heliodorus then provides an accurate description of this animal of African origin (Heliod. Aeth. 10.27.1-4), with details that could only come from a close examination of a living specimen.Footnote 79

The ambassadors who are poetically called ‘the men of the Land of Cinnamon’Footnote 80 come from the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen), known as Arabia Felix in Roman times,Footnote 81 just across the Bab-el-Mandeb strait from the Horn of Africa. They offer ‘gifts of incense leaves, cassia and cinnamon, and the other spices that scent the land of Arabia’Footnote 82 with which they also filled western markets – a near monopoly that Augustus tried to curtail by launching a military expedition in 26 bce.Footnote 83 But an intriguing embassy comes from the Chinese or the Seres (Σῆρες), who bring as a present some purple dyed Chinese silk (σηρικός). In Roman times, this product was imported through India and Central Asia and then manufactured in Egypt or Phoenicia at great cost. In Ethiopia, however, silk seems so widely available that was even used as a writing support (as we have seen).Footnote 84 To be certain, the origin of Chinese silk was not yet very well understood (it was even thought to be combed from trees).Footnote 85 Yet, in Heliodorus’ novel, this fabric is said to be produced by spiders. This parallels discussions of silk production found in a very few second- and third-century sources that seem to be better informed – probably relying on current information derived from oral sources.Footnote 86 Perhaps it is surprising that Heliodorus includes in the list of Ethiopian subjects a remote nation in the Far East (but not the Indians). Some other ancient sources even claimed that the Chinese were black (literally ‘of Ethiopian race’)Footnote 87 and that they lived next to the Ethiopian coast, on an island called Seria (Σηρία) in a recess of the Red Sea.Footnote 88

Conclusion

The Aethiopica presents the adventurous journey of Theagenes and Charicleia through Egypt to the wonderous kingdom of Meroe. For his vision of these two countries, Heliodorus seems to have had recourse to old literary accounts with their typical mixture of facts and legends. The focus of this article, however, has been on the more current knowledge of the diverse people involved in Rome’s eastern trade in Egypt that Heliodorus shared with his readers and on the way Heliodorus gives evidence for the fact that faraway lands were also known through reports from traders and from the commodities they brought from these lands. Heliodorus’ originality also consists in adding the ‘culture of the bazaar’ (which lay behind the recreated high classical tradition), his depictions of the satrapy of Egypt and the idealised kingdom of Meroe, and his blending of genuine mercantile information with exciting stories of pirates, gold, and idealised countries in faraway lands. In enhancing the interest and plausibility of the story, Heliodorus consciously links his creation to the busy cosmopolitan environment of the trade towns and the sea ports of the Roman East, where middlemen (such as Nausicles and the Phoenician merchant) congregated in the streets and where exotic spices and goods, such a cinnamon or silk, were stored in huge warehouses.

Heliodorus’ references to luxurious products of eastern origin as well as to exotic animals or characters are recurring elements that are not merely used for the sake of ornament. All begins with a casual, passing reference to Chinese silk and gold in the intriguing tableau that opens the novel. However, the closer we get to the kingdom of Meroe, the more frequent and varied references become, to silk, emeralds, and other precious stones (like the pantarba). Heliodorus also exploits the moral valences associated with the consumption of such luxury products, primarily to emphasise typical narrative elements of the ancient Greek novel: the perilous journey of the protagonists and especially the sexual desire they excite in other characters who threaten to separate them before they reach their final destination. At the same time, however, through the invocation of materials such as silk waistbands and royal rings and the enhancing of the mystery that surrounds these objects, readers are progressively prepared to face the unexpected in the faraway lands of Ethiopia, so that this display of exotic wealth at the end of the novel does not come as a surprise but rather meets their expectations.

The Persian and the Ethiopian courts are described as the most conspicuous consumers of such exotic products. But the Persian satrap Oroöndates and his wife Arsake, even if they impress with their lavish display of power and wealth, are portrayed as treacherous and despotic characters and, more importantly, as endowed with a self-indulgent passion for all type of pleasures to which their servants gleefully pander. By contrast, the Ethiopians are depicted as enlightened rulers who lack such craving for exotic luxuries, because they follow the advice of their board of pious sages, the gymnosophists. The Ethiopians are also a more powerful nation that checks the advances of foreign powers (like the Persians) and the rising importance of the trade and cultural contacts of Meroe in Roman times can also explain the collection of peoples in the service of the Ethiopians. In fact, Heliodorus establishes at the end of the novel a map of nations: on the sources of the Nile river, controlling some material sources and trade routes, Meroe stands over the rest as the supreme Hellenised power; the Troglodytes and Blemmyes are located at the northeast, next to the disputed border area with Egypt; and the Axumitae, the Seres, and the Arabians are located at the southeast, on both sides of the Red Sea.

References

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2 On Heliodorus’ literary sources, see generally Feuillatre, É., Études sur les Éthiopiques d’Héliodore (Paris 1966)Google Scholar and, more specifically, Elmer, D., ‘Heliodoros’s “Sources”: Intertextuality, Paternity, and the Nile River in the Aithiopika ’, TAPhA 138 (2008) 411-450 Google Scholar.

3 Heliod. Aeth. 1.9.1-17.6, 2.8.4-10.4. See Oudot, E., ‘Images d’Athènes dans les romans grecs’, in M.-F. Baslez, P. Hoffmann, and M. Trédé, (eds.), Le monde du roman grec: Actes du colloque international tenue à l’École normale supérieure. Paris 17-19 décembre 1987 (Paris 1992) 101-111 Google Scholar.

4 Heliod. Aeth. 2.33.1-4.21.3. See Pouilloux, J., ‘Delphes dans les Éthiopiques d’Héliodore: la realité dans la fiction’, Journal des Savants 4 (1983) 259-286 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; G. Rougemont ‘Delphes chez Héliodore’, in Le monde du roman grec (n.3) 93-9.

5 Heliod. Aeth. 2.27.3: καὶ συνελόντι τῶν κατ´ Αἴγυπτον ἓν οὐδὲν ἀπελίμπανον ἱστοροῦντες· Αἰγύπτιον γὰρ ἄκουσμα καὶ διήγημα πᾶν Ἑλληνικῆς ἀκοῆς ἐπαγωγότατον. On the symbolic role of Calasiris, see Winkler, J. J., ‘The Mendacity of Kalasiris and the Narrative Strategy of Heliodorus’ Aethiopika’, YCIS 27 (1982) 93-157 Google Scholar; Futre-Pinheiro, M., ‘Calasiris’ Story and Its Narrative Significance in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica ’, in H. Hofmann (ed.), Groningen Colloquia on the Novel 4 (Groningen 1991) 69-83 Google Scholar; Baumbach, M., ‘An Egyptian Priest in Delphi: Kalasiris as Theios Aner in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica ’, in B. Dignas and K. Trampedach (eds.), Practitioners of the Divine: Greek Priests and Religious Officials from Homer to Heliodorus (Washington, DC 2008) 167-183 Google Scholar.

6 Memnon features prominently in the Ethiopian pantheon in Heliodorus’ novel: Heliod. Aeth. 4.8.3 and 10.6.3. The famous statue at Thebes of ‘Memnon’ was actually King Amenophis III: Strab. 17.1.46; Dio Chrys. 31.44; Paus. 1.42.3; Philostr. VA 6.4; Her. 3.4.

7 Heliod. Aeth. 2.29.5: καθ’ ἱστορίαν τῶν καταρρακτῶν τοῦ Νείλου (for further references to the Nile in Heliodorus, see 2.27.3, 2.28.2, 2.29.5, 9.22.2-7). On Egypt as a tourist destination in antiquity (especially in Roman times), see Foertmeyer, V. A., Tourism in Greco-Roman Egypt (Princeton 1989)Google Scholar and Casson, L., Travel in the Ancient World (Baltimore, MD 1994) 115-127 Google Scholar, 163-218.

8 See Vasunia, P., The Gift of the Nile: Hellenizing Egypt from Aeschylus to Alexander (Berkeley, CA 2001)Google Scholar.

9 For Egypt in the novel as a place of religious and natural wonders, see D. Bonneau, ‘Les realia du paysage égyptien dans le roman grec: remarques lexicographiques’, in Le monde du roman grec (n.3) 213-19; Plazenet, L., ‘Le Nil et son delta dans les romans grecs’, Phoenix 49 (1995) 5-22 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nimis, S., ‘Egypt in Greco-Roman History and Fiction’, Alif 24 (2004) 34-67 Google Scholar; Holzberg, N., ‘Egypt in the Greek Novel’, A&A 59 (2013) 112-124 Google Scholar. For Heliodorus specifically, see P. Cauderlier, ‘Réalités égyptiennes chez Héliodore’, in Le monde du roman grec (n.3) 221-31; Jones, M., ‘The Wisdom of Egypt: Base and Heavenly Magic in Heliodoros’ Aithiopika ’, AN 4 (2005) 79-98 Google Scholar.

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11 Whitmarsh, T., ‘The Birth of a Prodigy: Heliodorus and the Genealogy of Hellenism’, in Studies in Heliodorus (n.1) 93-124 Google Scholar.

12 Schneider, P., L’Ethiopie et l’Inde: interférences et confusion aux extremités du monde antique (Paris 2004)Google Scholar.

13 On these trade routes, see Young, G. K., Rome’s Eastern Trade: International Commerce and Imperial Policy 31 bc-ad 305 (London 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McLaughlin, R., Rome and the Distant East: Trade Routes to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China (London 2010)Google Scholar and The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: Rome’s Dealings with the Ancient Kingdoms of India, Africa and Arabia (Barnsley 2014). For land routes in Egypt, see also Jackson, R., At Empire’s Edge: Exploring Rome’s Egyptian Frontier (New Haven, CT 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Adams, C., Land Transport in Roman Egypt: A Study of Economics and Administration in a Roman Province (Oxford 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On Berenike Troglodytica and Myos Hormos, some of the most active Red Sea ports, see Peacock, D. and L. Blue (eds.), Myos Hormos-Quseir al-Qadim: Roman and Islamic Ports on the Red Sea (Oxford 2006)Google Scholar; Sidebotham, S., Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route (Berkeley, CA 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 R. W. Groves, ‘Cross-Language Communication in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica’ (PhD thesis, UCLA 2012). See also generally S. Saïd, ‘Les langues du roman grec’, in Le monde du roman grec (n.3) 169-86.

15 A. M. Scarcella, ‘The Social and Economic Structures of the Ancient Novels’, in The Novel in the Ancient World (n.1) 221-76.

16 Labelled as such by Barthes in his essay, ‘The ‘Reality Effect’: see Barthes, R., The Rustle of Language (New York, NY 1986) 141-148 Google Scholar.

17 Whitmarsh, T., Narrative and Identity in the Ancient Greek Novel: Returning Romance (Cambridge 2011) 119-120 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (‘the template for a Conrad-esque sense of journey and destination’).

18 See Whitmarsh, T., ‘The Writes of Passage: Cultural Initiation in Heliodorus’, in R. Miles (ed.), Constructing Identities in Late Antiquity (London 1999) 16-40 Google Scholar.

19 On this so-called ‘rhetoric of excess’, see the recent discussion in M. Cobb, ‘The Reception and Consumption of Eastern Goods in Roman Society’, G&R 60 (2013) 136-52.

20 The informants Septimius Flaccus and Maternus in Ethiopia: Ptol. Geog. 1.8, 10-11. See Berggren, L. J. and A. Jones, Ptolemy’s Geography: An Annotated Translation of the Theoretical Chapters (Princeton, NJ 2000) 67-72 Google Scholar, 145-7.

21 L. Casson, The Periplus Maris Erythraei (Princeton, NJ 1989).

22 See Strab. 15.1.2 and Ptol. Geog. 1. 11.7-8.

23 As claimed by Pliny (HN 12.42).

24 Tac. Ann. 6.28; Plin. HN 10.2.5 (= Hdt. 2.73). We also have records of the capture of a ‘hippocentaur’ on a high mountain in Arabia which was embalmed in Egypt and put on display in the imperial palace at Rome: Plin. HN 7.3.35.

25 Heliod. Aeth. 2.30.2: φύλλα τινά σε καὶ ῥίζας … τῶν Ἰνδικῶν καὶ Αἰθιοπικῶν καὶ Αἰγυπτίων.

26 Heliod. Aeth. 2.30.2: ὄψει μὲν… ὅπως δὲ μὴ μικρόλογος ἔσῃ περὶ τὴν ἀγοράν.

27 Heliod. Aeth. 2.30.2: μὴ βαρύτιμον εἶναι περὶ τὴν διάπρασιν.

28 Heliod. Aeth. 2.30.4: ἕτερον δῶρον … πολὺ τούτων ἐριτιμότερον.

29 Coptus as a common emporium (πόλιν κοινὴν) shared by Egyptians and Arabs: Strab. 17.1.44-45; Plin. HN 5.60; Ael. Arist. 36.115. For the central role of Coptus in the Egyptian transport network, even in the 4th century CE (see Amm. Marc. 22.16.2), see Ballet, P. (ed.), Coptos l’Egypte Antique aux Portes du Desert (Paris-Lyon 2000)Google Scholar; Boussac, M.-F. et al. (eds.), Autour de Coptos: Actes du Colloque Organisé au Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon (Lyon 2002)Google Scholar.

30 Philostr. VA 6.2: χρυσῷ τε ἀσήμῳ … καὶ λίνῳ καὶ ἐλέφαντι καὶ ῥίζαις καὶ μύρῳ καὶ ἀρώμασιν. For Hiera-Sykaminos, see Török, L., The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization (Leiden 1997) 409-531 CrossRefGoogle Scholar and especially Török, L., Between Two Worlds: The Frontier Region Between Ancient Nubia and Egypt, 3700 bc-ad 500 (Leiden 2009) 7-22, 377-513 Google Scholar.

31 Heliod. Aeth. 4.16.6: … πλεῖν δὲ ἐπὶ Καρχηδόνα τὴν Λιβύων, ὁλκάδα μυριοφόρον Ἰνδικῶν τε καὶ Αἰθιοπικῶν καὶ τῶν ἐκ Φοινίκης ἀγωγίμων φέροντες. Phoenicians and Phoenician items in Heliodorus: Heliod. Aeth. 4.16.3-10, 17.1, 5.17.1, 18.2-3, 19.1-3, 27.9, 29.2, 7.19.5, 10.41.3. For the image of the Phoenicians in the novel, see also F. Briquel-Chatonnet, ‘L’image des Phéniciens dans les romans grecs’, in Le monde du roman grec (n.3) 189-97.

32 Heliod. Aeth. 5.18.2: Φοινίκιον τὸ φιλοτέχνημα.

33 Heliod. Aeth. 5.19.1-2: ὡς τοῦ πλείονος φόρτου τῶν ἀγωγίμων δεσπόζοι, χρυσοῦ τε ὄντων καὶ λίθων πολυταλάντων καὶ σηρικῆς ἐσθῆτος.

34 Hall, L. J., Roman Berytus: Beirut in Late Antiquity (London 2004) 21-44 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 218-36. On Tyre, see Jidejian, N., Tyre through the Ages (Beirut 1969)Google Scholar; Joukowsky, M. S. (ed.), The Heritage of Tyre: Essays in the History, Archaeology, and Preservation of Tyre (Dubuque, IA 1992)Google Scholar.

35 Heliod. Aeth. 10.41.8: ἀνὴρ Φοῖνιξ Ἐμισηνός. See E. Bowie, ‘Phoenician Games in Heliodorus’ Aithiopika’, in Studies in Heliodorus (n.1) 1-18, esp. 9-10.

36 See Möller, A., Naukratis: Archaic Trade in Egypt (Oxford 2001)Google Scholar.

37 Heliod. Aeth. 2.24: ὅτι αὐτὴν καὶ βασιλεῖ τῶν Αἰθιόπων ἀπάξειν ἔμελλεν ὡς αὐτὸς ἔφασκε γαμετῇ τῇ ἐκείνου συμπαιστρίαν καὶ συνόμιλον τὰ Ἑλλήνων ἐσομένην. For Nausicles see Heliod. Aeth. 2.8.5, 2.12.2, 2.23.8-24.3, 5.1.5-7, 5.2.4, 5.8.2-13.2, 5.15.1-16.5, 5.33.3-5, 6.1.1-11.2.

38 Plin. HN 6.34. PME 13 also mentions slaves in the markets of Opone being sent to Egypt.

39 The Coptos Tariff (OGIS 674.16-17) records the hefty fees that were levied on prostitutes bound for the Red Sea ports. Females slaves, concubines, and slave musicians were sold in Indian and African ports in Roman times: PME 24, 31, 49.

40 Several centuries earlier, the Greek explorer Eudoxus of Cyzicus, on his third trip to India, also took along a supply of young slave musicians: Strab. 2.99.

41 Heliod. Aeth. 5.14.1: τοιαύτη μὲν καὶ πᾶσα ἐξ Ἰνδῶν τε καὶ Αἰθιόπων ἀμέθυσος.

42 V. E. Ciocani, ‘Virginity and Representation in the Greek Novel and Early Greek Poetry’ (PhD thesis, Toronto 2013) 228-37.

43 On this amethyst and the scene engraved on it as a reference to Longus, see Bowie, E., ‘Names and a Gem: Aspects of Allusion in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica ’, in D. Innes (ed.), Ethics and Rhetoric: Classical Essays for Donald Russell on his Seventy-Fifth Birthday (Oxford 1995) 269-280 Google Scholar; E. M. Rush, ‘Writing Gems: Ekphrastic Description and Precious Stones in Hellenistic Epigrams and Later Greek Prose’ (PhD thesis, UCLA 2012) 88-96.

44 Heliod. Aeth. 1.3.2: χρυσοῦ δὲ καὶ ἀργύρου καὶ λίθων πολυτίμων καὶ σηρικῆς ἐσθῆτος.

45 The βούκολοι, who feature at the beginning of the Aethiopica, actually revolted against Rome in 172 ce: Heliod. Aeth. 1.5-6, 2.2.1; Ach. Tat. 3.9 and 4.7-18 = Dio Cass. 72.4.1-2; SHA Marc. 21.2; Avid. Cass. 6.7. See G. Bowersock, Fiction and History (Berkeley, CA 1997) 51-3. For the βούκολοι, see also Alston, R., ‘The Revolt of the Boukoloi: Geography, History and Myth’, in K. Hopwood (ed.), Organized Crime in Antiquity (London 1999) 129-153 Google Scholar; Rutherford, I., ‘The Genealogy of the “Boukoloi”: How Greek Literature Appropriated an Egyptian Narrative-Motif’, JHS 120 (2000) 106-121 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Dowden, K., ‘“But There Is a Difference in the End...”: Brigands and Teleology in the Ancient Novel’, in M. Paschalis and S. Panayiotakis (eds.), The Construction of the Real and the Ideal in the Ancient Novel (Groningen 2013) 41-59 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 Heliod. Aeth. 1.22.3: Ὁλκὰς οὖν ἐπληροῦτο χρυσοῦ τε καὶ ἀργύρου καὶ ἐσθήτων.

47 Heliod. Aeth. 2.17.2: χρυσοῦ μὲν καὶ ἀργύρου καὶ ἐσθῆτος ἀφθονία.

48 Heliod. Aeth. 5.31.2: δάφνης τε φέρουσαν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς στέφανον καὶ χρυσοϋφεῖ στολῇ καταυγάζουσαν.

49 Heliod. Aeth. 7.3.2: … ὑπὸ ἁλουργοῖς καὶ χρυσοϋφέσι παραπετάσμασιν.

50 Heliod. Aeth. 7.2.1: ἡδονῆς παρανόμου καὶ ἀκρατοῦς ἐλάττων. Her husband, the satrap Oroöndates, can also be proud (Heliod. Aeth. 8.2.1, 8.3.1) and inwardly evil (Heliod. Aeth. 9.10.2).

51 Heliod. Aeth. 7.27.1: … στρεπτοῖς τε χρυσοῖς καὶ περιαυχενίοις λιθοκολλήτοις. See also Heliod. Aeth. 7.8.6, 18.1, 19.1, 19.4. The eunuch of Artaxerxes tries to impress Callirhoe with the king’s wealth in Charito 6.5. See. M.-F. Baslez, ‘De l’histoire au roman: la Perse du Chariton’, in Le monde du roman grec (n.3) 199-212. The Persian king Cambyses brings the same presents to the Ethiopians through the agency of the tribe of the Ichthyophagi (‘fish-eaters’): Hdt. 3.20.

52 On the significance of this episode, as counterbalancing Cnemon’s story in Athens, see Morgan, J. R., ‘The Story of Knemon in Heliodoros’ Aithiopika ’, JHS 109 (1989) 99-113 CrossRefGoogle Scholar and especially Papadimitripoulos, L., ‘Love and Reinstatement of the Self in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica ’, G&R 60 (2013) 101-113 Google Scholar.

53 Heliod. Aeth. 9.24.1: ἡμῶν δὲ οὐ χρυσὸς οὐ λίθοι τὰ λάφυρα, πρᾶγμα κατ’ Αἰθιοπίαν εὔωνον καὶ σωρηδὸν ἐν τοῖς βασιλείοις ἀποκείμενον.

54 As described in Heliod. Aeth. 10.5.2.

55 For a general introduction to the genre, see N. Holzberg, ‘Utopias and Fantastic Travel: Euhemerus and Iambulus’, in The Novel in the Ancient World (n.1) 621-8. Specifically on utopian novels as models for Heliodorus’ Meroe, see Alvarès, J., ‘Utopian Themes in Three Novels’, AN 2 (2002) 1-29 Google Scholar, esp. 16-21; Futre Pinheiro, M., ‘Utopia and Utopias: A Study on a Literary Genre in Antiquity’, in G. L. Schmeling et al. (eds.), Authors, Authority, and Interpreters in the Ancient Novel (Groningen 2006) 147-171 Google Scholar, esp. 159-64. See also generally Ferguson, J., Utopias of the Classical World (London 1975)Google Scholar and Romm, J., The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought (Princeton, NJ 1994)Google Scholar.

56 See Török, L., Herodotus in Nubia (Leiden 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 Cf. the case of the gymnosophists depicted after the philosophers who inhabited India and Ethiopia. See Robiano, P., ‘Les gymnosophistes éthiopiens chez Philostrate et Héliodore’, REA 94 (1992) 413-428 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Morgan, J. R., ‘The Emesan Connection’, in K. Demoen and D. Praet (eds.), Theios Sophistes: Essays on Flavius Philostratus’ Vita Apollonii (Leiden 2009) 263-282 Google Scholar.

58 See Morgan, J. R., ‘History, Romance, and Realism in the Aithiopika of Heliodorus’, ClAnt 1 (1982) 221-265 Google Scholar. On Heliodorus as a source to illuminate Ethiopian history and society, see also Marengo, S. M., ‘L’Etiopia nel romanzo di Eliodoro’, in P. Janni and E. Lanzilotta (eds.), ΓΕΩΓΡΑΦΙΑ: Atti del secondo convengno maceratese du Geographia e cartografia antica. Macerata, 16-17 aprile 1985 (Rome 1988) 105-120 Google Scholar; R. Lonis, ‘Les Éthiopiens sous le regard d’Héliodore’, in Le monde du roman grec (n.3) 233-41; Hägg, T., ‘The Black Land of the Sun: Meroe in Heliodorus’ Romantic Fiction’, in L. B. Mortersen and E. Tormod (eds.), Parthenope: Selected Studies in Ancient Greek Fiction (Copenhagen 2004) 345-375 Google Scholar; Morgan, J. R., ‘Le blanc et le noir: perspectives païennes et chrétiennes sur l’Éthiopie d’Héliodore’, in B. Pouderon (ed.), Lieux, décors et paysages de l’ancien roman des origines à Byzance: actes du 2 e colloque de Tours, 24-26 octobre 2002 (Lyon 2005) 309-318 Google Scholar; J. Ndione, Les Éthiopiques d’Héliodore: document historiques ou fiction romanesque (PhD thesis, Nancy 2008).

59 We can recall the example of the first great Ethiopian king, Ergamenes, a contemporary of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who received a Greek education (Diod. 3.6.3). Zoskales, ruler of Axum during the 1st century ce, was also well versed in Greek and even had some command of Latin (PME 5-6). On the Hellenisation of Meroe, see Desanges, J., ‘L’Hellenisme dans le royaume de Méroë’, Graeco-Arabica 2 (1983) 275-296 Google Scholar; Burstein, S. M., ‘The Hellenistic Fringe: The Case of Meroë’, in P. Green (ed.), Hellenistic History and Culture (Berkeley 1993) 38-54 Google Scholar; Wildung, D., ‘Meroe and Hellenism’, in D. Wildung (ed.), Sudan: Ancient Kingdom of the Nile (Paris 1997), 370-380 Google Scholar; Burstein, S. M., ‘When Greek Was an African Language: The Role of Greek Culture in Ancient and Medieval Nubia’, Journal of World History 19 (2008) 41-61 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 41-9. For the material culture, see L. Török, Hellenizing Art in Ancient Nubia 300 bc-ad 250 and Its Egyptian Models: A Study of ‘Acculturation’ (Leiden 2011).

60 See Desanges, J., Recherches sur l’activité des mediterranéens aux confins de l’Afrique (Rome 1978)Google Scholar and Haaland, R., ‘The Meroitic Empire: Trade and Cultural Influences in an Indian Ocean Context’, African Archaeological Review 31 (2014) 649-673 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 See further Hansen, W., ‘Strategies of Authentication in Ancient Popular Literature’, in S. Panayiotakis, M. Zimmerman, and W. Keulen (eds.), The Ancient Novel and Beyond (Leiden 2003) 301-314 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

62 Chinese silk: ταινία τις ἀπὸ σηρικοῦ νήματος… (Heliod. Aeth. 2.31.2).

63 Ethiopian letters: γράμμασιν Αἰθιοπικοῖς (Heliod. Aeth. 4.8.1).

64 For references to the silk waistband, see Heliod. Aeth. 2.31.2-4, 4.8.1-8, 4.11.3-4, 8.11.9, 10.13.1-14.7.

65 Secret virtues: ἀπορρήτῳ δυνάμει… καθιερωμένον (Heliod. Aeth. 4.8.7).

66 Holy letters: γράμμασι δὲ ἱεροῖς τισιν ἀνάγραπτος (Heliod. Aeth. 8.11.8).

67 The pantarba in action: Heliod. Aeth. 8.9.6-16 and 8.11.2-8.

68 Heliod. Aeth. 2.32.2: … ἐπέταττεν ἀπέχεσθαι τῶν σμαραγδείων μετάλλων ὡς Αἰθιοπίᾳ προσηκόντων. We know that Ethiopian representatives came to Egypt (Diod. Sic. 3.11.3; Aristid. Or. 36.35) and were also among the learned audiences of the lecture halls of Alexandria (Dio Chrys. 32.3). From the inscriptions of the Isis temple at Philae, we also know of another Ethiopian embassy. See B.G. Haycock, ‘The Foreign Relations of the Napatan-Meroitic Kingdom in the Sudan from the 8th Century b.c. to the 4th Century a.d’. (PhD thesis, Durham 1965) 112-34.

69 The conflict over the emerald mines: Heliod. Aeth. 2.32.2, 8.1.1-3, 9.6.5, 9.26.2-3, 10.11.1.

70 The Σμάραγδος ὄρος / Smaragdus mons (‘Emerald Mountain’) was at a distance of a 25-day journey from Coptos and not far from Berenike: Plin. HN 37.69; Ptol. Geog. 4.5.15; OGIS 717 (Inscription at Edfou-Apollonopolis Magna). See further A. V Maxfield and D. P. S. Peacock (eds.), Mons Claudianus 1987-1993, Survey and Excavations, vol. 2: Excavations, Part I (Cairo 2001); Peacock, D. P. S. and A. V. Maxfield (eds.), The Roman Imperial Quarries: Survey and Excavation at Mons Porphyrites 1994-1998 , vol. 2: The Excavations (London 2007)Google Scholar.

71 See specifically J. R. Morgan (n.58) 246 and n.105.

72 In spite of the Roman forts constructed in this region and the troops stationed there. See S. E. Sidebotham, A. M. Hense, and H. M. Nouwens, The Red Land: The Illustrated Archaeology of Egypt’s Eastern Desert (Cairo 2008)Google Scholar.

73 The emperors Aurelian (ad 270-275) and Probus (ad 276-282), after their campaigns in Egypt, exhibited the Blemmyes (or Beja) in their triumphal processions in Rome in 274 and 280 ce respectively: SHA Aurel. 33.4 and 41.10; Prob. 17.2-3 and 19.2. See Török, R. L., (1984) ‘A Contribution to Post-Meroitic Chronology: The Blemmyes in Lower Nubia’, RSO 58 (1984) 201-243 Google Scholar; T. Updegraff, ‘The Blemmyes I: The Rise of the Blemmyes and the Roman Withdrawal from Nubia under Diocletian’, ANRW 2.10.1 (Berlin 1988) 44-106; Browne, G. M., ‘Blemmyes and Beja’, CR 54 (2004) 226-228 Google Scholar.

74 For the Troglodytes, see Strab. 16.4.4-5 and Plin. HN 6.33.163-6.34.176. On the problems posed by them in Roman times, see H. Cuvigny, Ostraca de Krokodilô: La correspondance militaire et sa circulation (O. Krok. 1-151). Praesidia du désert de Bérénice II (Cairo 2005).

75 See Heliod. Aeth. 10.5.2 (elephant training grounds), 9.16.2, 17.1-2, 18.3-7, 22.2-3 (elephants in battle formation), 10.25.2 (an old elephant, gift of Hydaspes). The Trogodytic country and the border area with Ethiopia were first explored in search of elephants during the Ptolemaic period. See Casson, L., ‘Ptolemy II and the Hunting of African Elephants’, TAPhA 123 (1993), 247-260 Google Scholar; Burstein, S. M., ‘Elephants for Ptolemy II: Ptolemaic Policy in Nubia in the Third Century bc ’, in P. McKechnie and P. Guillaume (eds.), Ptolemy II Philadelphus and His World (Leiden 2008) 135-148 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nadig, P., ‘Hunting for Elephants: How the Ptolemies Kept Up with the Seleucids’, Archaiognosia 16 (2010-2012) 71-84 Google Scholar; Cobb, M., ‘The Decline of Ptolemaic Elephant Hunting: Analysis of the Contributory Factors’, G&R 63 (2016) 192-204 Google Scholar.

76 Heliodorus may also rely here on Herodotus: Heliod. Aeth. 10.26.2 = Hdt. 3.102-105 (ant-gold from India and Ethiopia); Heliod. Aeth. 10.26.2 = Hdt. 3.116.1, 4.13.1, 4.27.1 (Griffin). On the legend of the gold-digging ants, see P. Li Causi and R. Pomelli, ‘L’India, l’oro, le formiche: storia di una rappresentazione culturale da Erodoto a Dione di Prusa’, Hormos 3-4 (2001-2002) 177-246.

77 The Axumites were also paraded in the triumphs of Aurelian and Probus. See G. Bowersock, ‘The Aethiopica of Heliodorus and the Historia Augusta’, in G. Bonamente and F. Paschoud (eds.), Historiae Augustae Colloquia n.s. 2: Colloquium Genevense 1991 (Bari 1994) 42-52.

78 Heliod. Aeth. 10.27.1: φόρου μὲν οὐκ ὄντες ὑποτελεῖς, φίλιοι δὲ ἄλλως καὶ ὑπόσπονδοι. For the rise of the kingdom of Aksum, see Bowersock, G., The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam (Oxford 2013)Google Scholar. For the commercial relations and military conflicts between Axum and Meroe, see Hatke, G., Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa (New York, NY 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

79 Pliny (HN 8.27.69) reports that the giraffe was first seen in Rome on the occasion of the games offered by Caesar in 46 bce. Giraffes also featured in Aurelian’s triumph of 273 ce: SHA Aurel. 33.4. See P. L. Gatier, ‘Des girafes pour l’empereur’, Topoi 6 (1996) 903-41.

80 Heliod. Aeth. 9.16.2, 9.19.2, 9.19.3 (οἱ τῆς κινναμωμοφόρου).

81 Heliod. Aeth. 10.26.1: οἱ Ἀράβων τῶν εὐδαιμόνων (Arabia Felix).

82 Heliod. Aeth. 10.26.1: … φύλλου τε τοῦ θυώδους καὶ κασίας καὶ κινναμώμου καὶ τῶν ἄλλων οἷς ἡ Ἀραβία γῆ μυρίζεται.

83 See G. Bowersock, Roman Arabia (Cambridge, MA 19942); A. De Maigret, Arabia Felix: An Exploration of the Archaeological History of Yemen (London 2002). On the spice trade, see J. I. Miller, The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire 29 b.c. to a.d. 641 (Oxford 1969); F. De Romanis, Cassia, Cardamomo, Ossidiana (Rome 1996).

84 Heliod. Aeth. 10.25.8: οἱ Σηρῶν… πρεσβευταί. Silk was usually dyed in bright colours: Plin. HN 21.11. For the word φοινικοβάφης (‘dyed in purple’), see also Heliod. Aeth. 3.3.5 and Philostr. Ep. 3.36.

85 Verg. G. 2.121; Plin. HN 6.54; Sen. Her. O. 667.

86 Heliod. Aeth. 10.25.8: τῶν παρ᾿ αὐτοῖς ἀραχνίων νήματα … = Paus. 6.26.6-7 and Philostr. Imag. 2.28. For the use of oral sources in the discussion on the origin of silk, see J. P. Sánchez Hernández, ‘Pausanias and Rome’s Eastern Trade’, Mnemosyne 69 (2016) 955-77.

87 For ‘Ethiopian’ or dark-skinned Chinese, see Ov. Am. 1.14.6; Luc. 10.291-2; Paus. 6.26.9. Other ancient travellers described the Chinese merchants as having blue eyes and red hair (Plin. HN 6.23), but these accounts probably referred to Tocharian merchants coming to India via Xinjiang: cf. B. Sergents, ‘Les Seres sont les soi-disant “Tokhariens”, c’est à dire les authentiques Arsi’Kuchi’, DHA 24 (1998) 7-40. On the idealisation of the Chinese and their vague geographic location, see Poinsotte, J. M., ‘Les Romains et la Chine : Réalités et Mythes’, MEFRA 91 (1979) 431-479 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

88 Pausanias (6.26.9), e.g., records that some claimed that the Chinese lived on an island called Seria (ἡ Σηρία νῆσος), located next to the islands of Abasa (Ἄβασα) and Sacaea (Σακαία) in a recess of the Red Sea. A Red Sea town by the name of Sacaea is also mentioned by Pliny the Elder (HN 6.52) and in the Periplus Maris Erythraei (PME 4.1.20-1).