Overview

This volume presents a systematic and fresh interpretation of a mid-second-century AD papyrus - the so-called Muziris papyrus - which preserves on its two sides fragments of a unique pair of documents: on one side, a loan agreement to finance a commercial enterprise to South India and, on the other, an assessment of the fiscal value of a South Indian cargo imported on a ship named the Hermapollon. The two texts, whose informative potential has long been underexploited, clarify several aspects of the early Roman Empire's trade with South India, including transport logistics, financial and legal elements in the loan agreement funding the commercial enterprise, the trade goods included in the South Indian cargo, and the technicalities of calculating and collecting Roman customs duties on the Indian imports. This study also considers imperial fiscal policy as it related to the South Indian trade, the overall evolution of Rome's trade relations with South India, the structure and organization of South Indian trade stakeholders, and the role played by private tax-collectors. The in-depth analysis sheds new light on this important sector of the Roman economy during the first two centuries AD in two innovative ways: through a balanced consideration of South Indian sources and data, and by drawing comparisons with the pepper trade from late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and early modernity, resulting in a longue durée perspective on the western trade in South Indian pepper.

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9780198842347

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In sum, this is an impressive scholarly effort that greatly enhances our under-standing of intercontinental trade in antiquity and (proto-)globalisation. It will be the standard reference on Indo-Roman trade for years to come. Moreover, due to its multidisciplinary approach it will be an indispensable work for all students of the longue durée history of the Indian Ocean trade, whether they deal with Arab, Persian, Indian or Portuguese trade of the Medieval and Early Modern periods. * Bram Fauconnier, Literaturkritik * The volume is a monumental work in various respects: exegetical care, the quantity and multiplicity of the sources and data collected; the breadth of the historical span ranging from the Roman period, the second century of the Muziris papyrus, and earlier and later times up to the pre-modern era. Federico De Romanis offers much more than the title promises by reconstructing a large multidisciplinary mosaic of interest to the ancient historian, the papyrologist, the ancient geographer, the scholar of ancient economies, and the Indianist. * M. Lauretta Moioli, Università degli Studi di Milano, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

In sum, this is an impressive scholarly effort that greatly enhances our under-standing of intercontinental trade in antiquity and (proto-)globalisation. It will be the standard reference on Indo-Roman trade for years to come. Moreover, due to its multidisciplinary approach it will be an indispensable work for all students of the longue duree history of the Indian Ocean trade, whether they deal with Arab, Persian, Indian or Portuguese trade of the Medieval and Early Modern periods. * Bram Fauconnier, Literaturkritik * The volume is a monumental work in various respects: exegetical care, the quantity and multiplicity of the sources and data collected; the breadth of the historical span ranging from the Roman period, the second century of the Muziris papyrus, and earlier and later times up to the pre-modern era. Federico De Romanis offers much more than the title promises by reconstructing a large multidisciplinary mosaic of interest to the ancient historian, the papyrologist, the ancient geographer, the scholar of ancient economies, and the Indianist. * M. Lauretta Moioli, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

The volume is a monumental work in various respects: exegetical care, the quantity and multiplicity of the sources and data collected; the breadth of the historical span ranging from the Roman period, the second century of the Muziris papyrus, and earlier and later times up to the pre-modern era. Federico De Romanis offers much more than the title promises by reconstructing a large multidisciplinary mosaic of interest to the ancient historian, the papyrologist, the ancient geographer, the scholar of ancient economies, and the Indianist. * M. Lauretta Moioli, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

Author Information

Federico De Romanis is Associate Professor in Roman History at the Università di Roma ""Tor Vergata"" in Rome, Italy. He received his doctorate in historical sciences from the Università della Repubblica di S. Marino in 1992 and has taught at the Università di Catania and at the Università della Tuscia, as well as holding fellowships at the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici in Naples (1987-8) and at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University (2012-3). His previous publications include Cassia, cinnamomo, ossidiana: Uomini e merci tra Oceano Indiano e Mediterraneo (L'Erma Di Bretschneider, 1996).

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