PREFACE.
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In the Preface to my former work, Ancient India as described by Megasthens and Arrian, I informed the reader that it was my intention to publish from time to time translations of the Greek and Latin works which relate to ancient India, until the series should be exhausted, and the present volume is the second instalment towards the fulfilment of that undertaking. It contains a translation of the Peripls (i.e. Circumnavigation) of the Erythran Sea, together with a translation of the second part of the Indika of Arrian describing the celebrated voyage made by Nearkhos from the mouth of the Indus to the head of the Persian Gulf. Arrians narrative, copied from the Journal of the voyage written by Nearkhos himself, forms an admirable supplement to the Peripls, as it contains a minute description of a part of the Erythran Coast which is merely glanced at by the author of that work. The translations have been prepared from the most approved texts. The notes, in a few instances only, bear upon points of textual criticism, their main object being to present in a concise form for popular reading the most recent results of learned enquiry directed to verify, correct, or otherwise illustrate the contents of the narratives.
The warm and unanimous approbation bestowed upon the first volume of this series, both by the Press in this country and at home, has given me great encouragement to proceed with the undertaking, and a third volume is now in preparation, to contain the Indika of Ktsias and the account of India given by Strabo in the 15th Book of his Geography.
Patna College, June 1879.
PERIPLUS OF THE ERYTHRAN SEA.
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Introduction.
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The Peripls of the Erythran Sea is the title prefixed to a work which contains the best account of the commerce carried on from the Red Sea and the coast of Africa to the East Indies during the time that Egypt was a province of the Roman empire. The Erythran Sea was an appellation given in those days to the whole expanse of ocean reaching from the coast of Africa to the utmost boundary of ancient knowledge on the Eastan appellation in all appearance deduced from the entrance into it by the Straits of the Red Sea, styled Erythra by the Greeks, and not excluding the Gulf of Persia.
The author was a Greek merchant, who in the first century of the Christian era had, it would appear, settled at Berenk, a great seaport situated in the southern extremity of Egypt, whence he made commercial voyages which carried him to the seaports of Eastern Africa as far as Azania, and to those of Arabia as far as Kan, whence, by taking advantage of the south-west monsoon, he crossed over to the ports lying on the western shores of India. Having made careful observations and inquiries regarding the navigation and commerce of these countries, he committed to writing, for the benefit of other merchants, the knowledge which he had thus acquired. Much cannot be said in praise of the style in which he writes. It is marked by a rude simplicity, which shows that he was not a man of literary culture, but in fact a mere man of business, who in composing restricts himself to a narrow round of set phrases, and is indifferent alike to grace, freedom, or variety of expression. It shows further that he was a Greek settled in Egypt, and that he must have belonged to an isolated community of his countrymen, whose speech had become corrupt by much intercourse with foreigners. It presents a very striking contrast to the rhetorical diction which Agatharkhids, a great master of all the tricks of speech, employs in his description of the Erythran. For all shortcomings, however, in the style of the work, there is ample compensation in the fulness, variety, accuracy, and utility of the information which it conveys. Such indeed is its superiority on these points that it must be reckoned as a most precious treasure: for to it we are indebted far more than to any other work for most of our knowledge of the remote shores of Eastern Africa, and the marts of India, and the condition of ancient commerce in these parts of the world.
The name of the author is unknown. In the Heidelberg MS., which alone has preserved the little work, and contains it after the Peripls of Arrian, the title given is ' . Trusting to the correctness of this title, Stuckius attributed the work to Arrian of Nikomedia, and Fabricius to another Arrian who belonged to Alexandria. No one, however, who knows how ancient books are usually treated can fail to see what the real fact here is, viz. that since not only the Peripls Maris Erythri, but also the Anonymi Peripls Ponti Euxini (whereof the latter part occurs in the Heidelberg MS. before Arrians Ponti Peripls) are attributed to Arrian, and the different Arrians are not distinguished by any indications afforded by the titles, there can be no doubt that the well-known name of the Nikomedian writer was transferred to the books placed in juxtaposition to his proper works, by the arbitrary judgment of the librarians. In fact it very often happens that short works written by different authors are all referred to one and the same author, especially if they treat of the same subject and are published conjointly in the same volume. But in the case of the work before us, any one would have all the more readily ascribed it to Arrian who had heard by report anything of the Parapls of the Erythran Sea described in that authors Indika. On this point there is the utmost unanimity of opinion among writers.
That the author, whatever may have been his name, lived in Egypt, is manifest. Thus he says in 29: Several of the trees with us in Egypt weep gum, and he joins the names of the Egyptian months with the Roman, as may be seen by referring to 6, 39, 49, and 56. The place in which he was settled was probably Berenk, since it was from that port he embarked on his voyages to Africa and Arabia, and since he speaks of the one coast as on the right from Berenk, and the other on the left. The whole tenor of the work proclaims that he must have been a merchant. That the entire work is not a mere compilation from the narratives or journals of other merchants and navigators, but that the author had himself visited some of the seats of trade which he describes, is in itself probable, and is indicated in 20, where, contrary to the custom of the ancient writers, he speaks in his own person:In sailing south, therefore, we stand off from the shore and keep our course down the middle of the gulf. Compare with this what is said in 48: .
As regards the age to which the writer belonged: it is first of all evident that he wrote after the times of Augustus, since in 23 mention is made of the Roman Emperors. That he was older, however, than Ptolemy
