Death of Alexander might have brought
an end of his dreams of establishing a worldwide Greek Empire, but it could
said that his desire was accomplished by the spread of Greek culture and
philosophy from the West to the East, with the ideas, themes and symbols from
ancient Greece being introduced to the east, the regions in between serving as
the connecting bridge between the two.
Greek language became the lingua
franca of the Roman world by in the first century AD. It would be recalled that
the whole of New Testament, including Paul’s letters, was written in Greek. Greek
language can be heard all over Central Asia and even in the Indus valley. It
was in vogue in Asia, for more than a century after the death of Alexander.
Maxims from Delphi, the oracle of Apollo in Delphi, Greece were found carved on
a monument in Ai Khanoum in northern Afghanistan, a city founded by Seleucus.
Tax receipts and documents regarding the soldiers’ pay from Bactria around 200
BC were written down in Greek.
Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, who ruled in
268 BC, propagated his Buddhist tenets through his edicts, which are found in
the north west of Indian subcontinent, had parallel Greek translations for the
benefit of the local population. Buddha statues started to appear around the
time when the cult of Apollo started to be established in Gandhara valley and
western India. Buddhism till then had no visual representation of Buddha.
In southern Tajikistan images of
Apollo and miniature ivories depicting Alexander have been found. Homer and
tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides were studied and taught in Persia and
Asia. It may not be far fetched to say that Indian epic poem Ramayana was
influenced by Iliad and Odyssey, epics of Ancient Greece, where the elopement
of Helen with Paris of Troy triggered the Trojan War. In Ramayana abduction of
Sita by Ravana triggered the war! Mahabharata, another epic of Indian
subcontinent is said to have influenced Aeneid, a Latin epic poem written by
Virgil in 29-29 BC. The cultural influence thus flew from both the sides
enriching each other.
China was rising in the east, pushing
its frontiers to include the northern steppes, during their dynasty of Hans,
206 BC – 220 AD. Their territories extended up to Hindu Kush. There was a
vibrant trade up to tens of thousands of head of cattle head, which the Chinese
bought from the steppe tribes, including Scythian in Central Asia. Chinese
required horses to keep vigilance over their territory and tribal chieftains of
the region of Xinjiang made a fortune selling horses to them. The Chinese
Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, who died in 210 BC was buried with 80 of his favored
steeds, along with some 8000 terracotta soldiers, recently excavated in Xi’an.
The feared tribes of the steppes of
Mongolia, Xiongnu, were kept in good humor by the Chinese Emperors, through a
formal system of tribute of rice, wine and textiles, mainly silk. Chinese silk
soon became the symbol of political and social power among the rulers of the
steppe and elsewhere. In 1 BC, Xiongnu were given 30,000 rolls of silk as peace
offering! China tried to deal with these tribes once and for all, by pushing
them up to Pamir mountains and beyond where lay a new world. China had opened a
door leading to a trans-continental network for trade. The Silk Roads were
born.
China sent explorers to find out
about the culture and economics of the countries of Indus valley, Persia and
Central Asia. The nomads displaced by the Chinese had descended on the Central
Asia, they observed. Military strength of these countries was poor, but trade
flourished in the capital Bactra. Trade between China and these regions soon started
to develop, but slowly. They had to navigate treacherous places like Gobi
desert, Taklmakan desert, passes of Pamirs and other mountains. The route was dangerous
and deadly. To weather the sand storms in the region, Bactrian camels were
found to be useful.
In spite of the dangers of the route
and death of animals and traders, luxury items like silk started to flow along these
routes. Under Hans dynasty silk was used to pay troops along with coins and
grain. Bolts of raw silk were regularly used as currency. Very soon silk became
international currency and also a much sought after luxury product.
Chinese controlled the traders who
were entering their territory and leaving, by maintaining exhaustive records on
bamboo and wooden tablets. Visitors had to stick to designated routes, issued
with written passes and were regularly counted by Chinese officials to ensure
all those entered the country went back! Sounds a bit like communist regime,
isn’t it? But the thing to note is globalization is not a modern phenomena, it
was there in the world even in 2nd Century BC!
By the 1st century AD Rome,
established in the shores of Italy, came to dominate Mediterranean and their
demands stirred up the flow of luxury items from the east. With a highly
disciplined and trained army, Rome soon took up the reigns as a world power.
Conquest of Gaul in the now central Europe brought gold into Roman Empire. But
the real profits for Roman Empire came from its conquest of Eastern
Mediterranean and the regions beyond.
Egypt under Ptolemy was fabulously
rich and Alexandria had become a great city of wealth. Food grains left its
shores by ships for distant lands and brought in wealth. This rich Egypt was
conquered by Octavius in 30 BC and on return he was bestowed with the title
Augustus by the Senate and Rome itself had became an empire.
As the wealth of the rich Nile river
poured into Rome, its economy got transformed. Rome ruthlessly expropriated
Egypt’s tax revenue and its economic resources, a repeat performance by the
British Empire in India, many centuries later. A new poll tax was introduced,
which was payable by every male member of the age between 16 and 60, who were
registered in a census. This census was for taxation purposes.
The sucking of the resources was
extended to Judaea too, and births and deaths were recorded, to increase the
revenue by taxing each male member of the society. In one such process Jesus’
parents traveled to Bethlehem to be enumerated in a census ordered by Quirinius,
who was the Governor of Syria.
The east, especially Asia was seen as
a rich and fabulous place with reputation for lazy luxury and fine living. In 1
BC, Augustus ordered a detailed survey of both sides of Persian Gulf and the
trade in the region along the sea routes. He also investigated the land routes
leading deep into Central Asia through Persia. His officers recorded the
important locations from the Euphrates up to modern Kandahar in Afghanistan in
the east. Trade exploded with India, but some Romans would moan that the Asian
decadence destroyed the old fashioned Roman virtues.
Ports
in western and eastern coasts of India served as the market place for goods brought from all over eastern and south-eastern Asia, shipped to the Rome.
Similarly Kushan Empire established in the north western India became so rich
by serving as the market place for the goods secured from all over India,
Central Asia and China, and trading it with the Romans.
Chinese silk was increasingly available in
Mediterranean and the wealthy resorted to using it as their attire. Pliny the
Elder would complain that the Roman coffers were being emptied in this effort
to adorn the rich women of Rome. He indicated that 100 million sesterces per
year were pumped out of the Roman economy to provide for such luxuries, which
amounted to 10% of the annual budget of the Roman Empire.
No wonder Rome wanted to extend its
empire to India and beyond to China. The country of Persia lay in its way, so
the Roman emperors waged war against Persia time and again, sometimes to win
and other times to lose.
More of this in the next blog; hope you
are enjoying what you are reading.
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