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Roman trade in the Indian Subcontinent (see also the spice trade and incense road) and Indian trade in Europe and the mediterranean through the overland caravan routes via Asia Minor and the Middle East, though at a relative trickle compared to later times, antedated the southern trade route via the Red Sea and monsoons which started around the beginning of the Common Era (CE) following the reign of Augustus and his conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE.〔 The route so helped enhance trade between the ancient Roman Empire and the Indian subcontinent, that Roman politicians and historians are on record decrying the loss of silver and gold to buy silk to pamper Roman wives, and the southern route grew to eclipse and then totally supplant the overland trade route.〔 Roman and Greek traders frequented the ancient Tamil country, present day Southern India and Sri Lanka, securing trade with the seafaring Tamil states of the Pandyan, Chola and Chera dynasties and establishing trading settlements which secured trade with South Asia by the Greco-Roman world since the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty〔 a few decades before the start of the Common Era and remained long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.〔Curtin 1984: 100〕 As recorded by Strabo, Emperor Augustus of Rome received at Antioch an ambassador from a South Indian king called Pandyan of Dramira. The country of the Pandyas, Pandi Mandala, was described as ''Pandyan Mediterranea'' in the ''Periplus'' and ''Modura Regia Pandyan'' by Ptolemy.〔The cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia By Edward Balfour〕 They also outlasted Byzantium's loss of the ports of Egypt and the Red Sea〔Holl 2003: 9〕 (c. 639-645 CE) under the pressure of the Muslim conquests. Sometime after the sundering of communications between the Axum and Eastern Roman Empire in the 7th century, the Christian kingdom of Axum fell into a slow decline, fading into obscurity in western sources. It survived, despite pressure from Islamic forces, until the 11th century, when it was reconfigured in a dynastic squabble. ==Background== The Seleucid dynasty controlled a developed network of trade with South Asia which had previously existed under the influence of the Achaemenid Empire. The Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, controlling the western and northern end of other trade routes to Southern Arabia and South Asia,〔Potter 2004: 20〕 had begun to exploit trading opportunities in the region prior to the Roman involvement but, according to the historian Strabo, the volume of commerce between South Asians and the Greeks was not comparable to that of later Indo-Roman trade.〔 The Periplus Maris Erythraei mentions a time when sea trade between Egypt and the subcontinent did not involve direct sailings.〔Young 2001: 19〕 The cargo under these situations was shipped to Aden:〔 The Ptolemaic dynasty had developed trade with South Asian states using the Red Sea ports.〔Shaw 2003: 426〕 With the establishment of Roman Egypt, the Romans took over and further developed the already existing trade using these ports.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Indo-Roman trade relations」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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