Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c12.4

c12.4

In spite of temporary set-backs caused by these wars, the land-borne trade between Europe and the East flourished exceedingly. We have already mentioned that it consisted chiefly of Chinese silk, but Indian goods found their way, wholly or partly, by these routes to Europe in considerable quantities as well¹. Great cities sprang up, created by this traffic. One of the chief roads—the one which ran from the Parthian capital at Hekatompylus—passed through Ekbatana and Ktesiphon. At Ktesiphon it branched off in several directions, the main track running through Mesopotamia, crossing the Tigris by the famous flying bridge between Zeugma and Apamea, and ending at the port of Antioch². Another important branch of the road ran to Palmyra, and then to Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, and Sidon, and joined the network of highways which converged at Petra³. The great city of Petra played a very large part in Eastern trade, more, however, Arabic than Indian. Most of the Indian goods which came up the Red Sea naturally found their way to Alexandria, but some were unshipped at Leuke Kome for Petra¹. These no doubt included silks and other stuffs which went to Tyre to be re-dyed. Gaza and Rhinokolura (the latter originally an Ethiopian convict settlement), were both convenient ports from Petra for the Mediterranean. Petra was a lovely spot, built in an oasis, with springs and gardens, and a large cosmopolitan population. It was visited by Strabo’s friend Athenodorus, and its noble ruins are still an object of admiration. It owed its great prosperity to the caravans from the mouth of the Euphrates, and from the spice, incense, and gold lands of Arabia Felix which converged in its bazaars. It was reduced, however, by Trajan in 105 A.D. for helping the Parthians, when Palmyra took its place as the great *entrepôt* of the Oriental land-trade, till she, too, fell before the Roman arms in 273 A.D. after a career of unexampled splendour and prosperity.