Federico De Romanis
Biographic Data
| ID | 1441659 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Federico De Romanis |
| GIVEN NAMES | Federico |
| FAMILY NAME | De Romanis |
| SIGNATURE | DE ROMANIS F |
| AFFILIATIONS | A-R Editions |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7151-0054 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 28 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Introductory Notes
The P.Vindob. G 40822 is a fragment of a papyrus 38 cm high and 27 cm wide, written on both sides. The blank space on the top and at the bottom shows that no line is missing on top or at the bottom of recto col. ii and verso col. iii. First edition by Harrauer/Sijpensteijn (1985). Afterwards, ...
The Other Cargo Items
This chapter discusses col. ii of the Muziris papyrus verso text. Apart from the almost fully preserved third column, the Muziris papyrus also retains the ends of most of the lines of verso col. ii. Gangetic nard, sound ivory, and schidai , the three cargoes whose three-quarter portions are evaluated in col. iii (ll. 1–26) were just minor cargoes. Although based on incorrect assumptions, the editors arrived nevertheless at the right conclusion: t…
South Indian Perspectives
This chapter details pepper production and collection in ancient India. From Antiquity to Early Modernity, South India’s pepper trade was influenced by the geographical and cultural diversity of the communities who made the pepper available for overseas consumption: the gatherers in the upland forests of the Western Ghats, and the lowland peoples who brought it to the emporia. Because of the ecological, cultural, and socio-economic variability wi…
Pepper Lands
This chapter looks at the pepper-producing lands in ancient India. Broadly speaking, from Antiquity up to the Early Modern Age, South India was the only source of black pepper exported to the west. However, within South India, the precise geographical loci of pepper appear to have been subject to local intraregional shifts over time. Specifically, a first shift occurred during the transition to Late Antiquity, when the pepper trade centres moved …
Selling and Repaying
This chapter addresses the question of how a borrower actually repaid his debt—not only on the subject of the Muziris papyrus contract, but also, more generally, on the mechanisms of maritime credit in classical antiquity. At first glance, the details provided by the loan contract on the Muziris papyrus recto do not help to answer this question. Yet establishing how the borrower was to repay his debt while his cargo was ‘under the power and seal’…
Bridging Disconnected Seas
This chapter is a review of how the challenges to the interchange between the Mediterranean and Red Seas were met during Antiquity. Over the centuries, the need to overcome the logistical problems posed by navigating the Red Sea, crossing the desert, and sailing the Nile in order to link the Mediterranean and Red Seas resulted in a series of different strategies for each stage of the journey. The fact that each combination could be deemed more su…
Maris Rubri Vectigal
This chapter focuses on the Red Sea tax. The double (import to and export from Egypt) customs duties on Indian commodities referred to by Strabo and the ‘Red Sea tax’ ( maris Rubri vectigal ) mentioned by Pliny were one and the same. The Muziris papyrus texts provide crucial details regarding how and when these customs duties were assessed and paid. Theoretically, the customs duties on Indian commodities could be paid either in money or in kind, …
Text and Translation of the Extant Columns
Recto i -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ii iii ii 1 [---] ̣μένων ego ...ο .̣μένων edd. ἐπι ̣[τ ]ρόπων ego ἐπ [ι ]τρό ̣πων edd. ἐπ [...
Deadline and Whereabouts
This chapter focuses on the time and place of the execution of the recto text of the Muziris papyrus, which is a loan contract signed by a single borrower and a single lender. In the extant column of the recto text, the borrower promises to transport a cargo, first with a camel caravan from the Red Sea to Coptos, then on a ship from Coptos to the customs warehouse of the quarter-tax in Alexandria, where he will put the cargo under the lender’s co…
Three Minor Cargoes
This chapter assesses the last three lines of col. iii of the Muziris papyrus verso text, which evaluates the three-quarter portions of the items imported by a ship named the Hermapollon . The preceding lines of col. iii (ll. 1–26) record the evaluation process of the portions of three items in that cargo: Gangetic nard, entire tusks of sound ivory, and schidai (the trimmings of ivory tusks). The manner in which these commodities are evaluated is…
Loan and Logistics
This chapter explores the loans that were carried across the sea, but not at the creditor’s risk, and the loans that were carried only in part or not carried at all across the sea. The loan of the Muziris papyrus was not used to buy commodities either in Egypt or in India. It was secured to pay transport costs in Egypt—across the Eastern Desert, and along the Nile—on both the outward and the return journeys. Therefore, it was only in part exposed…
Contrasts
This chapter examines three pertinent comparisons arising from the reconstruction of the Hermapollon ’s cargo. The first concerns the size of the ships involved in the pepper trade and its relationship to both the region from which the spice was exported and the sea route by which it was transported. The pepper trade can take different forms, and the pattern detailed by the Muziris papyrus proves to be unique in the long history of the South Indi…
Content (and Hypothetical Content) of the Extant and Missing Columns
Loan contract in support of a commercial enterprise to Muziris col. i(i) [or coll. (i) and i(i )]: Names of the co-signatories; Specifics of the loan (value, extent, aim, yield, collateral, names of the ship and its captain); Terms for the outward journey (Nile sailing, desert crossing, sea voyage); Terms for the business in India; Terms for the return sea voyage; Unloading of the cargo;...
Introduction and Synopsis
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the two texts of the Muziris papyrus. The publication of the Muziris papyrus texts—and the slow, tedious process of their interpretation and explanation—marks a turning point for studies on Indo-Roman trade specifically, and on the Roman economy more broadly. On the Roman side, apart from showing the impressive organizational and financial potential of ancient mercantile communities, the Muziris p…
Epilogue
The epilogue summarizes what the two texts of the Muziris papyrus tell us about the pepper and ivory production of the ancient Cēra kingdom, South Indian commercial connections with the Ganges Valley, the logistics of the Red Sea–Alexandria transports, the complex relationships between the South India traders and the contractors of the Red Sea tax, and the assessment and payment of the import and export customs duties. It also looks at what the t…
Supporting Sources
This chapter studies literary sources that are critical for understanding the extant parts of the Muziris papyrus texts and for reconstructing those parts that are lost. Written several generations before the Muziris papyrus, some passages from Strabo, Pliny, and Periplus give precious information on what were probably consistent features of the South India trade during the first two centuries of the Roman Empire. These features include the items…
Riding the Monsoons
This chapter examines the trade model reflected in the Muziris papyrus, contrasting its peculiarities with those of other trade patterns between Egypt and the west coast of India. The history of trade relations between India and Egypt from Antiquity to the Early Modern era may be divided into periods based on the role played by the emporia in the Gulf of Aden, which over time operated either as stopovers for ships sailing all the way from Egypt t…
Dramatis Personae
This concluding chapter identifies the two co-signatories of the loan contract. The manager of the department charged with levying customs duties on Indian commodities ( paralemptes ) was also the lender of the loan contract written on the recto of the Muziris papyrus. In all likelihood, the borrower was the owner of the Hermapollon . However, the cargo imported from Muziris was so enormous that it could hardly have belonged to a single merchant,…
The Indo-Roman Pepper Trade and the Muziris Papyrus
This book offers an interpretation of the two fragmentary texts of the P. Vindobonensis G 40822, now widely referred to as the Muziris papyrus. Without these two texts, there would be no knowledge of the Indo-Roman trade practices. The book also compares and contrasts the texts of the Muziris papyrus with other documents pertinent to Indo-Mediterranean (or Indo-European) trade in ancient, medieval, and early modern times. These other documents re…
Matthew Adam Cobb. Rome and the Indian Ocean Trade from Augustus to the Early Third Century ce
An Exceptional Survivor and Its Submerged Background
Across the Ocean
Across the Ocean contains nine essays, each dedicated to a key question in the history of the trade relations between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean from Antiquity to the Early Modern period: the role of the state in the Red Sea trade, Roman policy in the Red Sea, the function of Trajan’s Canal, the pepper trade, the pearl trade, the Nabataean middlemen, the use of gold in ancient India, the constant renewal of the Indian Ocean ports of t…
Across the Ocean Vol. 41
"Across the Ocean contains nine essays, each dedicated to a key question in the history of the trade relations between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean from Antiquity to the Early Modern period: the role of the state in the Red Sea trade, Roman policy in the Red Sea, the function of Trajan’s Canal, the pepper trade, the pearl trade, the Nabataean middlemen, the use of gold in ancient India, the constant renewal of the Indian Ocean ports of …
In tempi di guerra e di peste Horrea e mobilità del grano pubblico tra gli Antonini e i Severi
Si esaminano i problemi logistici connessi al trasferimento del grano pubblico destinato all’approvvigionamento di Roma negli anni segnati dalla peste antonina e dalle campagne militari orientali di Lucio Vero e Settimio Severo
Crossings
The Indo-Roman Pepper Trade and the Muziris Papyrus
This book offers an interpretation of the two fragmentary texts of the P. Vindobonensis G 40822, now widely referred to as the Muziris papyrus. Without these two texts, there would be no knowledge of the Indo-Roman trade practices. The book also compares and contrasts the texts of the Muziris papyrus with other documents pertinent to Indo-Mediterranean (or Indo-European) trade in ancient, medieval, and early modern times. These other documents re…
Graffiti greci da Wādi Menīh el-Ḥēr. Un vestorius tra Coptos e Berenice
Hypalos
Cassia, cinnamomo, ossidiana
Crossings
In tempi di guerra e di peste Horrea e mobilità del grano pubblico tra gli Antonini e i Severi
Si esaminano i problemi logistici connessi al trasferimento del grano pubblico destinato all’approvvigionamento di Roma negli anni segnati dalla peste antonina e dalle campagne militari orientali di Lucio Vero e Settimio Severo
Across the Ocean
Across the Ocean contains nine essays, each dedicated to a key question in the history of the trade relations between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean from Antiquity to the Early Modern period: the role of the state in the Red Sea trade, Roman policy in the Red Sea, the function of Trajan’s Canal, the pepper trade, the pearl trade, the Nabataean middlemen, the use of gold in ancient India, the constant renewal of the Indian Ocean ports of t…
Across the Ocean Vol. 41
"Across the Ocean contains nine essays, each dedicated to a key question in the history of the trade relations between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean from Antiquity to the Early Modern period: the role of the state in the Red Sea trade, Roman policy in the Red Sea, the function of Trajan’s Canal, the pepper trade, the pearl trade, the Nabataean middlemen, the use of gold in ancient India, the constant renewal of the Indian Ocean ports of …
An Exceptional Survivor and Its Submerged Background
Introductory Notes
The P.Vindob. G 40822 is a fragment of a papyrus 38 cm high and 27 cm wide, written on both sides. The blank space on the top and at the bottom shows that no line is missing on top or at the bottom of recto col. ii and verso col. iii. First edition by Harrauer/Sijpensteijn (1985). Afterwards, ...
The Other Cargo Items
This chapter discusses col. ii of the Muziris papyrus verso text. Apart from the almost fully preserved third column, the Muziris papyrus also retains the ends of most of the lines of verso col. ii. Gangetic nard, sound ivory, and schidai , the three cargoes whose three-quarter portions are evaluated in col. iii (ll. 1–26) were just minor cargoes. Although based on incorrect assumptions, the editors arrived nevertheless at the right conclusion: t…
South Indian Perspectives
This chapter details pepper production and collection in ancient India. From Antiquity to Early Modernity, South India’s pepper trade was influenced by the geographical and cultural diversity of the communities who made the pepper available for overseas consumption: the gatherers in the upland forests of the Western Ghats, and the lowland peoples who brought it to the emporia. Because of the ecological, cultural, and socio-economic variability wi…
Pepper Lands
This chapter looks at the pepper-producing lands in ancient India. Broadly speaking, from Antiquity up to the Early Modern Age, South India was the only source of black pepper exported to the west. However, within South India, the precise geographical loci of pepper appear to have been subject to local intraregional shifts over time. Specifically, a first shift occurred during the transition to Late Antiquity, when the pepper trade centres moved …
Selling and Repaying
This chapter addresses the question of how a borrower actually repaid his debt—not only on the subject of the Muziris papyrus contract, but also, more generally, on the mechanisms of maritime credit in classical antiquity. At first glance, the details provided by the loan contract on the Muziris papyrus recto do not help to answer this question. Yet establishing how the borrower was to repay his debt while his cargo was ‘under the power and seal’…
Bridging Disconnected Seas
This chapter is a review of how the challenges to the interchange between the Mediterranean and Red Seas were met during Antiquity. Over the centuries, the need to overcome the logistical problems posed by navigating the Red Sea, crossing the desert, and sailing the Nile in order to link the Mediterranean and Red Seas resulted in a series of different strategies for each stage of the journey. The fact that each combination could be deemed more su…
Maris Rubri Vectigal
This chapter focuses on the Red Sea tax. The double (import to and export from Egypt) customs duties on Indian commodities referred to by Strabo and the ‘Red Sea tax’ ( maris Rubri vectigal ) mentioned by Pliny were one and the same. The Muziris papyrus texts provide crucial details regarding how and when these customs duties were assessed and paid. Theoretically, the customs duties on Indian commodities could be paid either in money or in kind, …
Text and Translation of the Extant Columns
Recto i -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ii iii ii 1 [---] ̣μένων ego ...ο .̣μένων edd. ἐπι ̣[τ ]ρόπων ego ἐπ [ι ]τρό ̣πων edd. ἐπ [...
Deadline and Whereabouts
This chapter focuses on the time and place of the execution of the recto text of the Muziris papyrus, which is a loan contract signed by a single borrower and a single lender. In the extant column of the recto text, the borrower promises to transport a cargo, first with a camel caravan from the Red Sea to Coptos, then on a ship from Coptos to the customs warehouse of the quarter-tax in Alexandria, where he will put the cargo under the lender’s co…
Three Minor Cargoes
This chapter assesses the last three lines of col. iii of the Muziris papyrus verso text, which evaluates the three-quarter portions of the items imported by a ship named the Hermapollon . The preceding lines of col. iii (ll. 1–26) record the evaluation process of the portions of three items in that cargo: Gangetic nard, entire tusks of sound ivory, and schidai (the trimmings of ivory tusks). The manner in which these commodities are evaluated is…
Loan and Logistics
This chapter explores the loans that were carried across the sea, but not at the creditor’s risk, and the loans that were carried only in part or not carried at all across the sea. The loan of the Muziris papyrus was not used to buy commodities either in Egypt or in India. It was secured to pay transport costs in Egypt—across the Eastern Desert, and along the Nile—on both the outward and the return journeys. Therefore, it was only in part exposed…
Contrasts
This chapter examines three pertinent comparisons arising from the reconstruction of the Hermapollon ’s cargo. The first concerns the size of the ships involved in the pepper trade and its relationship to both the region from which the spice was exported and the sea route by which it was transported. The pepper trade can take different forms, and the pattern detailed by the Muziris papyrus proves to be unique in the long history of the South Indi…
Content (and Hypothetical Content) of the Extant and Missing Columns
Loan contract in support of a commercial enterprise to Muziris col. i(i) [or coll. (i) and i(i )]: Names of the co-signatories; Specifics of the loan (value, extent, aim, yield, collateral, names of the ship and its captain); Terms for the outward journey (Nile sailing, desert crossing, sea voyage); Terms for the business in India; Terms for the return sea voyage; Unloading of the cargo;...
Introduction and Synopsis
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the two texts of the Muziris papyrus. The publication of the Muziris papyrus texts—and the slow, tedious process of their interpretation and explanation—marks a turning point for studies on Indo-Roman trade specifically, and on the Roman economy more broadly. On the Roman side, apart from showing the impressive organizational and financial potential of ancient mercantile communities, the Muziris p…
Epilogue
The epilogue summarizes what the two texts of the Muziris papyrus tell us about the pepper and ivory production of the ancient Cēra kingdom, South Indian commercial connections with the Ganges Valley, the logistics of the Red Sea–Alexandria transports, the complex relationships between the South India traders and the contractors of the Red Sea tax, and the assessment and payment of the import and export customs duties. It also looks at what the t…
Supporting Sources
This chapter studies literary sources that are critical for understanding the extant parts of the Muziris papyrus texts and for reconstructing those parts that are lost. Written several generations before the Muziris papyrus, some passages from Strabo, Pliny, and Periplus give precious information on what were probably consistent features of the South India trade during the first two centuries of the Roman Empire. These features include the items…
Riding the Monsoons
This chapter examines the trade model reflected in the Muziris papyrus, contrasting its peculiarities with those of other trade patterns between Egypt and the west coast of India. The history of trade relations between India and Egypt from Antiquity to the Early Modern era may be divided into periods based on the role played by the emporia in the Gulf of Aden, which over time operated either as stopovers for ships sailing all the way from Egypt t…
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