Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

196 6 Shared interests: Continuing conflicts
via Central Asia, Horāsān and Northern Persia to Mesopotamia from where
the goods could then be shipped to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. 114
Trade relations between the Graeco-Roman world and the Far East and
India existed already during the early Principate. In late antiquity these
contacts intensified.
Until late in the third century the most important trade route from the
Persian Gulf to the centres of the Roman province of Syria and the Mediterranean
ports followed the river Euphrates. 115 There are early attestations to
the transport of goods to Nikēphorion-Kallinikos via the Euphrates, and
from there to the markets in Edessa, Batnai or Harran, from where the
merchants transported their merchandise to the Mediterranean centres. 116
Isidorus of Charax, who was a geographer of the Augustan period, gives
us a detailed description of the major trade routes and bases for supplies.
According to the author the traffic of goods went from the Parthian capital
Seleucia on the Tigris/Ktēsiphōn to the Roman Empire via the trading
centres along the Euphrates, namely Neapolis, Anath, 117 Bēlesi Biblada, 118
Phaliga, Nikēphorion, to Zeugma. 119
The intense trade between the Far East, India and the Persian Gulf did
not cease after the fall of Hatra (22) and Palmyra (23); Persian traders
themselves participated in the lucrative trade with India. 120 After 273 at the
latest, possibly already after the fall of Hatra, the traffic of goods may have
shifted towards the Tigris river, and as a result this waterway, which so far
had been rather insignificant for trade purposes, became much more attractive.
121 This view is supported by the decision of 298 to make Nisibis the
only centre for an exchange of goods. 122 Because of a lack of archaeological
investigation along the Tigris we do not have any immediate testimonies
for such a ‘shift’ of trade but new studies show that there were significant
demographic movements from the Hatrene towards the Tigris. 123 Intensified
settlement patterns throughout late antiquity can be observed also
114 Bivar 1970: 1–11.
115 See Young 2001: 188–90.
116 Chaumont 1984: 63–107.
117 Kennedy 1986: 103–4 and Kennedy and Northedge 1988: 6–8.
118 Kennedy and Riley 1990: 224–5.
119 Isid. of Charax Mansiones Parthicae 1; on this source see Chaumont 1984: 63–107 and Luther 1997:
237–42.
120 Williams 1972: 97–109; Whitehouse and Williamson 1973: 29–49; Whitehouse 1996: 339–49 and
Morony 2004: 184–8.
121 This development also affected strategic considerations; according to Amm. xxiii.3.1 before embarking
on his Persian campaign Julian had to decide at Carrhae whether to take the route along the
Tigris or along the Euphrates.
122 See Millar 1996: 483–4, who argues that the peace of 298 indicates a possible shift of trade from the
Euphrates to the Tigris.
123 Hauser 2000: 187–201.