Trade and Conquest of Nations

Already Romans considered themselves the rulers of the whole world, and not just the world around the Mediterranean Sea. There was no point of extending their rule westward into Europe; there was hardly any revenue, it was dry and cold with no resources. But conquest of Egypt added riches to the Roman Empire and increased the surplus wealth of the population that could be invested in buying the riches from the east – India and China.

Romans wanted to conquer India and China too so that the wealth of these nations would pour into Rome. Horace, that popular Roman poet, who lived (65-8 BC) during the time of Emperor Augustus, wrote of the imagined Rome’s mastery of the entire world, including India and China. This involved moving against Persian Empire which lay in between and it became a preoccupation of the Roman Emperors to plan expeditions against Persia, which was the heart of the world.

Emperor Trajan led a huge army against Persia in 113 AD, and speedily captured Mesopotamia and other Persian cities like Babylon, Seleucia and Ctesiphon quickly fell into the Roman’s hands. Coins were minted and issued declaring Persia has been captured. He went up to Basra at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and looked wistfully at a merchant ship that set sail to India. Unfortunately, he couldn’t become a second Alexander the Great and march up to the shores of India, for on the heel of these victories, Trajan passed away of cerebral oedema! Hearing this news revolt spread quickly starting with Judaea, all over the conquered lands.

Roman Emperors did not give up their dreams so easily. Successive Emperors kept fighting the Persian Empire. In 260 AD, Emperor Valerian, in his skirmish, was taken a prisoner by Persian army and was humiliated. He was used as a human footstool for the Persian ruler to mount his horse. His body on death was flayed; skin stripped off the flesh, stuffed, dyed with vermilion and placed in their temple as a trophy.

Persia itself flourished as a land lying in between the rich and fabulously wealthy lands of China and India on one hand and the Roman Empire on the other. Trade passed through the Persian land and it added revenue to the government. Glazed pottery from Persia headed to India and Sri Lanka during the first two centuries AD. A new ruling dynasty named Sasanians emerged in Persia around 220 AD, who centralized the administration and gave power to their officials to record their decisions and stamp on them their seals.

Guilds were organised for producers and traders, specific areas allocated in bazaars, which made it easy for the traders to be inspected and to ensure quality and quantity standards set and collect tax and duties. Countless new cities were founded and urban development blossomed all over Central Asia, Iranian land, Mesopotamia and the Near East. Large scale irrigation projects were taken up in Khuzistan and Iraq, to boost agricultural production. Meticulous records were maintained of all transactions and many of these records and seals have survived and dug up in archaeological surveys.

As Persia soared Rome tottered. By 300 AD, Rome became a victim of its own success. The barbaric and violent tribes and nations living beyond its borders started to attack it on all sides. Cost of defending the long borders skyrocketed, while the tax revenue dwindled. During the reign of Diocletian, Roman tax inspectors spread throughout the land, assessing the cost and price of everything from shoe lace to sugar to collect tax. Diocletian divided the Roman territory into four and ruled it along with another Emperor and two junior Deputy Emperors named Caesars. They just about managed to keep the Empire intact.

You will be surprised to know that in the so-called Roman Republic, it was the soldiers and the Praetorian guards (the elite units of the Imperial Roman Army whose members served as personal body guards to the Roman Emperors), who really elected a promising general as the Emperor and the Senate was forced to ratify the selection. Hence people of obscure origins could by sheer dint of hard work and distinction in the military service, come to occupy the highest post in the Empire.

On coming to be vested with the Royal Purple, the Emperor’s first act was to bountifully reward the soldiers, his benefactors, with Roman gold and wealth. Doesn’t it sound similar to our politicians offering money to cross over, and Chief Ministers offering plum ministries to their supporters and defectors from the other parties? Well, Romans have done it earlier! Why, don’t all empires thrive on bloodshed and bribe and corruption?

When the elected Emperor fell short of their expectations, the soldiers mutinied and killed the Emperor and massacred their supporters. Military might was able to make and unmake the Emperors in the Roman world. I feel sometimes that a hereditary ruler from a dynasty is far better than these unruly soldiers making an Emperor.

Diocletian was followed by Emperor Constantine. His father was Constantius, who had served as Deputy Emperor, Caesar, under the Tetrarchy of Diocletian. After his father’s death, Constantine overcame the others in the civil war and became the sole Emperor of Rome. He successfully guarded the Empire from the tribes on Roman frontiers, the Franks, Alamanni, Goths, and Sarmatians. He brought in many improvements in administration.

He had a new vision and built a brand new capital city on the site of the old town Byzantium, on the banks of Bosporus and named it Constantinople, exactly on the midway, the point where Europe met Asia. He built huge palaces, Hippodrome for chariot races, and other parallel institutions as in Rome. It became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire that came to be known as the Byzantine Empire.  It survived for another 1000 years, until it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 AD. What an Empire, the longest to survive in human history!

This is the same Constantine who changed the course of the history of Christianity from a persecuted religion to a state-sponsored religion. He issued the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, declaring tolerance to the religion of Christianity. He also convened the first council of Nicaea in 325 AD, where the Nicene Creed was formulated and had become the watchword of Christian faith, being recited even today in the churches. He himself was baptized only on his death bed.

His mother was a devoted Christian and under her influence he built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on the site of Jesus’ tomb in Jerusalem. This stands even today as an important place of pilgrimage for Christians from all over the world. I had the privilege of visiting this place in 2015.  

Imagine, 2000 years back silk made by the Chinese was being worn by the rich and powerful in Carthage and the other cities of Mediterranean; pottery manufactured in southern France was found in England and in Persian Gulf; spices and condiments from India was used in the kitchens of the Romans; buildings and edicts in Afghanistan carried inscription in Greek, and horses from Central Asian steppes were being ridden in far east, including India. Trade had built bridges that connected the east and the west and a flourishing economic transaction flowed through them all.

It was a vibrant, competitive, efficient society that operated this world-wide net work of trade and commerce interconnecting the world, the east and the west, following the opening up of the silk route through the conquest of the world by Alexander the Great.

Is it any less than today’s globalization and neo-colonization and faint taste of imperialism? Nations fought each other to have control over trade and resources as it is today. What Romans couldn’t do, the British succeeded in doing by conquering the whole subcontinent of India, establishing the East India Company and the riches of Indian and trade of the surrounding areas filled their coffers, leaving India poor and denuded. Opium wars that British fought against China opened the gateway to China and its riches too.

Only in the 20^th century colonialism ended after the World War II and countries like India which won freedom are still struggling to come to their former glory. China, we can vouchsafe has almost come to its former greatness and economic power. When would India match up to that? If the Lord tarries, may be one day!