India and Sri Lanka in the time

of the Roman Julio-Claudians

by

Keith Armstrong

2013
London
 Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Ms Julie Bowles, Miss Cecile Mairat, Miss Rachel O'Dowd, Dr Dylan Esler
and Miss Eva Skoulariki for transcribing from the original text. I would also like to thank
the many people who have helped me to live and given me the energy and encouragement to
complete this article. This includes the people of Camden and my late mother Mrs. Nina
Armstrong. I am particularly grateful to the kind members of staff at all levels within the
British Library in London.

-----------

I must point out that any factual errors or sentiment unwittingly suggested are my
responsibility alone. The punctuation and typeface of the authors quoted have at
times been modified.

All rights are reserved. The author's moral rights are asserted. No part of this paper
may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without written permission from the author.

© Copyright 2013 Keith Armstrong, London.

Gaius Plinius Secundus, (23 - 79 CE) known as Pliny the Elder, was born during the time
of Emperor Tiberius. 1 Pliny the Elder was only eighteen when Claudius came to the throne.
Suetonius informs us in Vita Plinii Secundi, (titled in English as Lives of Illustrious Men):

[that Pliny] after performing with energy the military service required of
members of the equestrian order, administered several important
stewardships in succession with the utmost justice, gave so much attention to
liberal studies that hardly anyone who had complete leisure wrote more than
he. For instance, he gave an account in twenty volumes of all the wars which
were ever carried on with Germany, besides completing the thirty-seven
books of his "Natural History." He lost his life [in 79 CE] in the disaster in
Campania. He was commanding the fleet at Misenum, and setting out in a
Liburnian galley during the eruption of Vesuvius to investigate the causes of
the phenomenon from nearer at hand, he was unable to return because of
head winds. He was suffocated by the shower of dust and ashes, although
some think that he was killed by a slave, whom he begged to hasten his end
when he was overcome by the intense heat. 2

He wrote a number of books, but only one by the title Natural History still survives. His writings
cast light on an intriguing connection between the Romans and the South Asian island of Sri Lanka
(known to the Romans as Taprobane) 3, which lies in the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka, - 'Lanka the
Blessed ' (lately reconstructing itself from the recent devastation caused by the Tsunami on 26th of
December 2004), and a bloody civil war, was known to English speakers as 'Ceylon' until 1972.

In the History of Ceylon by Michael Zaleski it is stated that "it is a historical fact that just at the
time when St. Peter was Pope and resided in Rome, and the Apostles were still living, the Roman
Emperor Claudius received an embassy from a King of [Sri Lanka]." 4

Donald Obeyesekere writing on the Sri Lankan monarch, King Sanda Muhuna or Chanda Mukha
Siwa (44 - 52 CE) in his Outlines of Ceylon History writes that:

[...] [Chanda Mukha Siwa] signalised his reign by constructing a tank and dedicating
it to Isurumunni Vihara [a Buddhist
monastery]. [...] After a reign of eight
years and seven months, Candamukha
Siva was murdered by his younger
brother Yasalaka Tissa at an aquatic
festival held at the Tissa tank. 5

Second Century Roman map of

6
Sri Lanka by Claudius Ptolemy
Roman Sri Lanka
Pliny the Elder considered Sri Lanka to be 'the Land of the Counterlanders'. It was long
considered to be another world. However, he writes that Alexander the Great supplied clear proof
of it being an island. Buddhist ambassadors from Sri Lanka were received by Claudius' court.

From Pliny the Elder's Natural History, we learn that:

[...] during the principate of Claudius, [...] an embassy actually came to

Rome from the island of [Sri Lanka]. The circumstances were as follows:
Annius Plocamus had obtained a contract from the Treasury to collect the
taxes from the Red Sea; a freedman of his while sailing round Arabia was
carried by gales [... and ] after a fortnight made the harbour of Hippuri in
[Sri Lanka], where he was entertained with kind hospitality by the king, and
in a period of six months acquired a thorough knowledge of the language;
and afterwards in reply to the king's enquiries he gave him an account of the
Romans and their emperor. The king among all that he heard was
remarkably struck with admiration for Roman honesty, on the ground that
among the money found on the captive the denarii were all equal in weight,
although the various figures on them showed that they had been coined by
several emperors. This strongly attracted his friendship, and he sent four
envoys, the chief of whom was Rachias [possibly for Raja, king]. 8

The adventurous Roman freedman mentioned by Pliny is known as Hippalus. James

Tennent, in viewing the role played by the Roman captain, writing in his Ceylon: an
account of the island, physical, historical and topographical, states that:

An exploit so adventurous and so triumphant, rendered Hippalus the

Columbus of his age, and his countrymen, to perpetuate his renown, called
the winds which he had mastered by his name. His discovery gave a new
direction to navigation, altered the dimensions and build of the ships
frequenting those seas, and imparted so great an impulse to trade, that within
a very brief period it became a subject of apprehension at Rome, lest the
empire should be drained of its specie [payment in kind e.g. coins] to
maintain the commerce with India; — silver to the value of nearly a million
and a half sterling, being annually required to pay for the spices, gems,
pearls, and silks, imported through Egypt. An extensive acquaintance was
now acquired with the sea-coast of India, and the great work of Pliny,
compiled less than fifty years after the discovery of Hippalus, serves to attest
the additional knowledge regarding [Sri Lanka], which had been collected
during the interval. 9

The Romans learned much about Sri Lanka from Rachias and his party of diplomats. Pliny
compares the two societies at the time of Claudius:

[... Sri Lanka], although banished by Nature beyond the confines of the
world, is not without the vices that belong to us: gold and silver are valued
there also, and a kind of marble resembling tortoise-shell and pearls and
precious stones are held in honour; in fact the whole mass of luxury is there
carried to a far higher pitch than ours. They told us that there was greater
wealth in their own country than in ours, but that we made more use of our
riches: with them nobody kept a slave, everybody got up at sunrise and
nobody took a siesta in the middle of the day; their buildings were of only
moderate height; the price of corn was never inflated; there were no law
 courts and no litigation; the deity worshipped was Hercules [Pliny's name
for Buddha]; the king was elected by the people on the grounds of age and
gentleness of disposition, and as having no children, and if he afterwards
had a child, he was deposed, to prevent the monarchy from becoming
hereditary. 10

Pliny continues:

Thirty Governors, they told us, were assigned to the king by the people, and
capital punishment could only be inflicted by a vote of a majority of these;
and even then there was a right of appeal to the people, and a jury of seventy
members was appointed to try the case, and if these acquitted the accused
the thirty Governors were no more held in any esteem, being utterly
disgraced. [...] If the king committed a delinquency he was punished by
being condemned to death, though nobody executed the sentence, but the

Hercules and the Golden Apple

whole of the people turned their backs on him and refused to have any
communication with him or even to speak to him. [...] Agriculture was
industriously practised, but the vine was not grown, although orchard fruit
was abundant. [...] They looked upon a hundred years as a moderate span
of life. 11
Tennent, in examining Pliny's account of the discovery, considers that:

It is impossible to read this narrative of Pliny without being struck with its
fidelity to truth in many particulars; and even one passage, to which exception
has been taken as an imposture of the Singhalese [Sinhalese] envoys, when they
manifested surprise at the quarters in which the sun rose and set in Italy, has
been referred to the peculiar system of the Hindus, in whose maps north and
south are left and right; but it may be explained by the fact of the sun passing
over and to the north of [Sri Lanka], in his transit to the summer solstice;
instead of hanging about the south, as in Italy. 12

Pliny's reference to the god Hercules might suggest that the Sri Lankan delegation first
arrived on the Roman mainland at Ostia. Russell Meiggs points out in his Roman Ostia,
that:
The finding of a large temple to Hercules was one of the great surprises of
the excavation programme begun in 1938; for there was little to suggest in
the inscriptions and earlier excavation of Ostia that Hercules held an
emphatic position in the religious life of the town. [...] The type of
workmanship of the cella walls and the substantial use of travertine indicate
that this temple dates from the last quarter of the second century, or the first
half of the first century [BCE]. The large altar in front of the temple is
dedicated to Hercules Invictus. [...] 13

From Pliny's account, Sri Lankan society at that time appears to have been more forward thinking
and advanced than the so-called civilised western societies of today.

Zaleski considers that "for at that time India and [Sri Lanka] were in communication with
the Roman Empire, and better known in Europe, than they were a thousand years later." 14

Ajoy Kumar Singh, writing in The Indo-Roman Trade, points out that India itself had no
direct contact with Rome; however, Singh states that:

Imperial Rome had certainly close commercial relations with India and this
is confirmed by the recovery of Imperial coins to India. Augustus
inaugurated an era of commercial contacts. Six finds of coins exclusively of
his period are on record. The expansion of Roman contacts during the reign
of Tiberius is borne out from the five finds which contain exclusively the
coins of Tiberius. Three finds of the period of Claudius have also been
unearthed which have exclusively the coins from Augustus to Claudius. The
commercial activities of the Roman Empire also continued during the time
of Nero as we have four finds where the contents of the hoards end with the
coins of Nero. Most likely the tempo of the Roman trade lasted only for
about three quarters of a century. After Nero we do not get any finds of
Roman coins. The finds of the Roman coins, thus, indicate that the Roman
trade in the first century [CE] was brisk in India and the entire peninsula was
buzzing with the activities of the Roman merchants. 15

Tamilnadu or Tamil Nadu is the southern most state of India and in Roman Antiquities
in Tamilnadu by S. Suresh, it is reported that "early Roman coins abound in Tamilnadu
(including those of Claudius I). The majority of the finds occur as hoards, usually in
earthenware pots." 16
Suresh continues:

[...] some of the Roman finds from North-West India (Ahin-Posh, Kabul
valley and Manikyala) were part of ritualistic deposits within Buddhist
stupas, the use of Roman coins as ritualistic offerings was almost unknown
in the south. The finds of Roman coins below the foundations of an old
Hindu temple at Nellore and maybe at Saidapet (within Madras city) are the
only known exceptions. 17

The importation of exotic animals and animal products such as ivory and pearls, as well as
expensive spices, herbs and precious stones caused a major trade imbalance between Rome and
the Indian subcontinent. It was to have an unfavourable impact on the Roman economy. 18

In Pompeii: The Living City by Alex Butterworth and Ray Laurence, it is reported that:

Sometime around the middle of the first century [CE], such a caravan
transported a carved ivory tripod table on the first stage of its journey from
Satavahana in the northern Indian kingdom of Deccan to Pompeii, where it
would end up in fragments. All that remains of it today is a section of one
leg that was found in the House of the Four Styles: a caryatid [a pillar in
the form of a draped ornamental female figure] in the shapely form of the
goddess Lakshmi [the Hindu goddess of wealth and beauty], two tiny
acolytes by her side, posed in a manner that bears an uncanny resemblance
to statues of the equivalent Roman goddess, Venus. 19

Eric Warmington states in The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India that:

[...] outside the eastern boundaries of the Empire the specially large ships
being sent to the coast of Malabar, [...] all larger vessels used or needed by
the Romans in the Indian Ocean were not so much for taking imperial
products to India as for bringing large quantities of Indian products into the
Roman Empire; and, to speak generally, the very nature of the articles of
merchandise which formed this trade reveals that the separate articles of
exportation from the Empire to India, often suited to the tastes of the
receivers, consisted largely of materials much weightier and bulkier than
those which were brought from India, [...] 20

The larger animals such as elephants came by land. Warmington adds that:

Of the developments detrimental to the silver currency of the Roman Empire

the exportation of it to India was at first the most serious because the trade
between India and the Roman Empire was the greatest traffic of antiquity,
and while approaching in a way that of more modern times, was at the same
time conducted without the economic background which was required for a
state of economic safety. But of these same developments it appears to me
to have been in the long run not the most detrimental because it was the only
one which was checked in any way. There was no economic reserve-that was
the fault [...] 21
The Roman Empire traded in Europe and also with Africa and Asia. 22 It is conceivable that
the fame or infamy of the Roman Empire reached (to some degree at least) even as far as Tibet. 23
End Notes

Note 1: Professor John Healy writing in his introduction to The Natural history: a
selection considers that Pliny holds a place of exceptional importance in the tradition
and diffusion of Western culture. This book gives an:

[...] encyclopaedic account of the state of Roman scientific knowledge in the first
century [...] contains material from works no longer extant and is of unique value for
our assessment of early imperial science and technology.

Healy notes that:

While he was in charge of a Roman fleet at Misenum his scientific curiosity,

ironically, led to his death. He lingered too long observing the eruption of Vesuvius
and died on 24 August, 79 CE.

He was also the uncle of Pliny the Younger.

Healy, John F., (1991, 2004: i), The Natural history : a selection / Pliny the Elder ; [Trans. from the
Latin] with an introduction and notes by John F. Healy, (London : Penguin).

Note 2: Suetonius, Tranquillus, Caius, (1997, 2001: 480-481). The Lives of the Caesars : Lives of
Illustrious Men: Vol. II, Loeb Classical Library No. 38, [Trans. from the Latin by
J. C. Rolfe], (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press).

Note 3: Tennent, James Emerson, (1860: 321), Ceylon : an account of the island, physical,
historical and topographical, with notices of its natural history, antiquities and productions, Vol. I,
(5th Ed.), (London : Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts).

Note 4: Zaleski, Ladislao Michael, (1913: 8 - 9), History of Ceylon / an abridged translation [from
the French] of Professor Peter Courtenay's work by M. G. Francis, (Mangalore : Codialbail Press).

Note 5: Obeyesekere, Donald, (1911: 53), Outlines of Ceylon History, (Colombo ; London : Times
of Ceylon).

Note 6: Tennent, James Emerson, (1860: 599), Ceylon : an account of the island, physical,
historical and topographical, with notices of its natural history, antiquities and
productions, Vol. I, (5th Ed.), (London : Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts).

Note 7: Tennent, James Emerson, (1860: 321), Ceylon : an account of the island, physical,
historical and topographical, with notices of its natural history, antiquities and
productions, Vol. I, (5th Ed.), (London : Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts).

Note 8: Pliny (The Elder), (1942, 1999: 401), Natural History, Books 3-7: VI. XXIV,
[Trans. from the Latin by H. Rackham], (Cambridge: Loeb Classical Library).

Note 9: Tennent, James Emerson, (1860: 555), Ceylon : an account of the island, physical,
historical and topographical, with notices of its natural history, antiquities and
productions, Vol. I, (5th Ed.), (London : Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts).
Note 10: Pliny (The Elder), (1942, 1999: 405, 407), Natural History, Books 3-7: VI. XXIV, [Trans.
from the Latin by H. Rackham], (Cambridge: Loeb Classical Library).
Note 11: ibid.

Note 12: Tennent, James Emerson, (1860: 558), Ceylon : an account of the island, physical,
historical and topographical, with notices of its natural history, antiquities and productions, Vol. I,
(5th Ed.), (London : Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts).

Note 13: Meiggs, Russell, Roman (1973, 1997: 347 - 348), Ostia, (2nd Ed.), (Oxford:
Clarendon Press).

Note 14: Zaleski, Ladislao Michael, (1913: 8 - 9), History of Ceylon / an abridged translation
[from the French] of Professor Peter Courtenay's work by M. G. Francis, (Mangalore : Codialbail
Press).

Note 15: Singh, Ajoy Kumar, (1988: 101), Indo-Roman trade, (New Delhi, India : Commonwealth
Publishers).

Note 16: Suresh, S., (1992: 11) Roman Antiquities in Tamilnadu, (Madras: C. P.
Ramaswami Aiyar Institute of Indological Research C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation).

Note 17: Suresh, S., (1992: 11), Roman Antiquities in Tamilnadu, (Madras: C. P.
Ramaswami Aiyar Institute of Indological Research C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation).

Note 18: Warmington, Eric Herbert, (1928: 272 - 318), The Commerce between the Roman Empire
and India, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Note 19: Butterworth, Alex, and Laurence, Ray, (2005: 54 - 55), Pompeii The Living City, (London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson).

Lay, Paul (ed.), in The Lure of the Orient, History Today Ltd, History Today, vol 60.8, 2010

Note 20: Warmington, Eric Herbert, (1928: 273), The Commerce between the Roman Empire and
India, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Note 21: Warmington, Eric Herbert, (1928: 317), The Commerce between the Roman Empire and
India, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Discoveries published on the Internet in 2006 could indicate that some trade continued
with the Romans much later than was previously thought. The marine branch of the
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has found Roman artefacts dating back to the 5th and 6th
centuries on Elephanta Island. The find included artefacts like wine amphorae (vases), pot sheds,
storage devices, and stone anchors. The discovery indicates that trade between Rome and India
continued much later than previously thought. Historians believed that the trade, which was
conducted via Arabia in the early period of the Roman Empire, declined by the turn of the first
millennium.

BBC 24: 'Search for India's ancient city' as retrieved on 11 June 2006.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4970452.stm>.

Sheth, Ninad D., 'Roman relics found near Elephanta' (NDA), as retrieved on 15 September 2006.
<http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1053100>
Note 22: Smith, William, (Ed.), (1842: 567), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, (London:
Taylor and Walton).

Note 23: Dylan Esler (a scholar in Tibetan studies from the London School of Oriental and African
Studies: SOAS) states that during the expansion of the Tibetan Empire in the 7th and 8th centuries
CE, the Tibetans came into contact with the Arab conquerors in western Central Asia, from whom
they gained some knowledge (albeit hearsay) of Rome and Byzantine. It is probable that Rome
(Tibetan Khrom) represented for Tibetans a mighty empire, of whose location they were,
nevertheless, uncertain.

See Snellgrove, David L., and Richardson, Hugh, (2003: 49), A Cultural History of Tibet,
(Bangkok: Orchid Press).

Bibliography

BBC 24: 'Search for India's ancient city' as retrieved on 11 June 2006.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4970452.stm>.

Butterworth, Alex, and Laurence, Ray, (2005), Pompeii The Living City, (London: Weidenfeld and
Nicolson).

Healy, John F., (1991), The Natural history : a selection / Pliny the Elder ; [Trans. from the Latin]
with an introduction and notes by John F. Healy, (London : Penguin).

Lay, Paul (ed.), in The Lure of the Orient, History Today Ltd, History Today, vol 60.8, 2010

Meiggs, Russell, Roman (1973, 1997), Ostia, (2nd Ed.), (Oxford: Clarendon Press).

Obeyesekere, Donald, (1911), Outlines of Ceylon History, (Colombo ; London : Times of Ceylon).

Pliny (The Elder), (1942, 1999), Natural History, Books 3-7: VI. XXIV,
[Trans. from the Latin by H. Rackham], (Cambridge: Loeb Classical Library).

Sheth, Ninad D., 'Roman relics found near Elephanta' (NDA), as retrieved on 15 September 2006.
<http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1053100>

Singh, Ajoy Kumar, (1988), Indo-Roman trade, (New Delhi, India : Commonwealth Publishers).

Smith, William, (Ed.), (1842), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, (London: Taylor and
Walton).

See Snellgrove, David L., and Richardson, Hugh, (2003: 49), A Cultural History of Tibet,
(Bangkok: Orchid Press).

Suetonius, Tranquillus, Caius, (1997, 2001). The Lives of the Caesars : Lives of Illustrious Men:
Vol. II, Loeb Classical Library No. 38, [Trans. from the Latin by J. C. Rolfe], (Cambridge,
Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press).

Suresh, S., (1992), Roman Antiquities in Tamilnadu, (Madras: C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Institute of
Indological Research C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation).
Tennent, James Emerson, (1860), Ceylon : an account of the island, physical, historical and
topographical, with notices of its natural history, antiquities and productions, Vol. I, (5th Ed.),
(London : Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts).

Warmington, Eric Herbert, (1928), The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Zaleski, Ladislao Michael, (1913), History of Ceylon / an abridged translation [from the French]
of Professor Peter Courtenay's work by M. G. Francis, (Mangalore : Codialbail Press).