Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

28 Economy and trade 195
compensation from Byzantium. This agreement stayed in place until the
end of the relations. 107
28: Economy and trade
Although the numerous military conflicts between Rome and the Sasanian
Empire impeded uninterrupted trade, both sides showed a strong interest
in close economic relations. Primarily in order to secure the revenues from
customs duties they designed a diplomatic framework which established
the conditions for a regulated exchange of goods. Numerous treaties that
were concluded between the empires and their details on economic and
trade related issues attest to this.
When relations between Rome and the Parthian kingdom intensified it
was above all luxury goods from the Far East, in particular silk and silk
products, which were traded at great profit and therefore important goods
of trade in East and West. 108 The ancient sources reveal the wide range of
goods that were imported from the East and had to be declared, for example
spices, incense, gems or even wild beasts and enslaved Indian eunuchs. 109
They also attest to the wider circulation of these goods. 110
The fourth-century Latin work of an anonymous author, the so called
Expositio totius mundi et gentium, gives a description of all territories of the
ancient world and their populations, including trade and its products. 111
Expositio totius mundi et gentium 19 (pp. 153–4, ed. Rougé)
After these there are the Persians, who are the neighbours of the Romans. The
history books say that they are particularly bad and brave in war. . . in all other
respects, however, they are said to have everything in abundance; for the nations
neighbouring their territory are given the opportunity to engage in trade and
therefore they themselves also seem to have plenty of everything.
In this passage the anonymous author, who draws on an unknown Greek
source, 112 emphasises the Sasanian trade policy. For rather selfish reasons
they permitted the neighbouring peoples to engage in trade as they pleased.
The Sasanians made good profit from the exchange of luxury goods, not
only silk but also precious stones, spices, incense and ivory. The traditional
trade route was the famous Silk Road (map 13), 113 which went from China
107 Blockley 1985a: 72. 108 Cf. Young 2001.
109 Dig. xxxix.4.16 (7); cf. also Pigulevskaja 1969: 78–9.
110 On the wide range of goods that entered the Roman Empire see Miller 1969: 34–109; in general on
the Roman eastern trade see Raschke 1978: 604–1378; Loewe 1971: 166–79.
111 Rougé 1966 and Drexhage 1983. 112 On the author see Pigulevskaja 1969: 46–50.
113 Haussig 1983 and Klimkeit 1990.