Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c6.25

c6.25

The Persian Gulf trade was at first principally in the hands of the Chaldaeans, a troublesome nation, given to piracy, but they were exterminated in 694 B.C. by Sennacherib with the aid of a great fleet which he built upon the Tigris. Sennacherib, after breaking up this nest of pirates, sent them to dwell in Gerrha, where the heat was so fierce that they were forced to use blocks of salt to build their houses¹. The trade of the Persian Gulf then fell into the hands of the ubiquitous Phoenicians, a colony of whom, according to Justin², had settled in the Babylonian marshes, having been driven out of their own land by earthquakes. Abundant evidence of the presence of these merchants was visible in the days of Strabo on the Bahrein Islands, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf³. These remains have lately been excavated and many interesting relics were recovered⁴.