A Confusion of Indias

Asian india and African India in the Byzantine Sources

Bibliographic Data

ID3963447
AuthorsPhilip Mayerson (corresponding author)
Year1993
Volume113
Issue2
Pages169
Publication date1993-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Oriental Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0279 • E-ISSN: 2169-2289
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/603021
OpenAlexW2316653623
LanguageEN
Citations received27

more than one in articles subsumed under that name in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, in the Greek lexica of Liddell and Scott and Lampe, and in the new Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium; and barely more than a hint in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopadie.2 Historians, dealing with commerce between Rome and the East, however, are aware of several Indias. Warmington, speaking of the so-called trade with Indians following the fourth century, states that it in reality trade with the Ethiopians and even under Justinian in the sixth century Byzantine subjects visited not so much as Arabia and Axumite realms (particularly Adulis) and the ignorance now shown about was truly prodigious.3 As a general statement, Warmington is on the mark, but there remains a confusion in determining specifically what is meant-Ethiopian, Arabian, or subcontinental India. Not all sources or all scholars agree. Take for example the article India in the new Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, where it is stated that according to Philostorgios, Constantine

Ancient history · Byzantine architecture · Confusion · Geography · African history and culture analysis · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · Psychology

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