Periplus of The Erythraean Sea - Overview

Overview

The work consists of 66 chapters, most of them about the length of a long paragraph in English. For instance, the short Chapter 9 reads in its entirety:

"From Malao (Berbera) it is two courses to the mart of Moundou, where ships anchor more safely by an island lying very close to the land. The imports to this are as aforesaid, and from it likewise are exported the same goods, and fragrant gum called mokrotou (cf. Sanskrit makaranda). The inhabitants who trade here are more peaceful."

In many cases, the description of places is sufficiently accurate to identify their present locations; for others, there is considerable debate. For instance, a "Rhapta" is mentioned as the farthest market down the African coast of "Azania", but there are at least five locations matching the description, ranging from Tanga to south of the Rufiji River delta. The description of the Indian coast mentions the Ganges River clearly, yet after that is somewhat garbled, describing China as a "great inland city Thina" that is a source of raw silk.

The Periplus says that a direct sailing route from the Red Sea to India across the open ocean was discovered by Hippalus (1st century BC).

Many trade goods are mentioned in the Periplus, but some of the words naming trade goods are seen nowhere else in ancient literature, and so we can only guess as to what they might be. For example, one trade good mentioned is "lakkos chromatinos". The name lakkos appears nowhere else in ancient Greek or Roman literature. The name re-surfaces in late medieval Latin as lacca, borrowed from medieval Arabic lakk in turn borrowed from Sanskritic lakh, meaning lac i.e. a red-colored resin native to India used as a lacquer and used also as a red colorant. Some other named trade goods remain obscure.

The Periplus text derives from a Byzantine 10th-century manuscript in minuscule hand, contained in the collections of the University Library Heidelberg (CPG 398: 40v-54v), and a copy of it dating from the 14th or 15th century in the British Museum (B.M. Add 19391 9r-12r). In the 10th-century manuscript, the text is attributed to Arrian, probably for no deeper reason than that the manuscript was adjacent to the Periplus Ponti Euxini written by him. The Periplus was edited by Sigmund Gelen (Zikmund Hruby z Jeleni of Prague) and first published in a modern edition by Hieronymus Froben in 1533. This edition was corrupt and full of errors but served for later editions for three centuries until the rediscovery of the 10th century Heidelberg manuscript which was taken to Rome during the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), then to Paris under Napoleon, and finally returned to Heidelberg in 1816.