Holiday in Big Apple!

Setting aside the blogs on history, I decided to write on my recent trip abroad that was so very interesting and eventful. On a rainy night we left, my brother his wife and me, on a grand plan to tour the world, which was unfortunately limited to USA and Canada.

We left Bangalore on 23^rd May 2018 early morning, 1.45 am to be precise and landed in New York, via Amsterdam on 23^rd itself by 1 pm. Amazing isn’t it? To have traveled 13,360 kms in 19.50 real flying hours, with a change of flight at Amsterdam with a waiting time of 2 hours, and then to land on the other side of the globe on the same day! Wow, that is definitely a marvel of human invention!

We had booked our hotel rooms right in the heart of New York City, in Manhattan itself, in Comfort Inn Middletown West, which is located at 48^th Street, in between 10^th and 11^th Avenue roads. Excellent location, just 1 km away from Times Square! Hiring a taxi cab at the airport, we reached the hotel, booked into the room and immediately started in search of the places to visit and the means of visiting. Three of us were total strangers and had no one to guide us around. Well, I was the leader of the pack and off we marched to explore the city.

First we walked towards the subway, planning to take the tube, so that we can go around the city. When we saw the ticket vending machine, and people inserting dollars and getting the tickets, not having a clue about how to do that correctly, we beat a hasty retreat and came up to the terra firma. As we crossed the 7^th Avenue, we saw the Big Bus hop on, hop off bus service and booked our tickets for the next day visit and heaved a sigh of relief, mission accomplished.

                                                                                                                        Time Square running Ads

On the way back, without knowing it, accidentally we strayed into the Time Square. It was there itself in the 7^th Avenue. We sat there in the steps and kept gawking at the running colorful advertisements all over the place with childish glee. One could see all the humanity there – black, brown, yellow, white and mixed colors, politely called, differently colored.

We bought hot dogs from a street vendor and ate it with relish. Throughout the four days of our stay in New York, we did that unabashedly – hotdogs, hamburgers, muffins, Mexican rice dish and so on. Morning breakfast was courtesy the hotel - bed and breakfast, so nice and heavy. It was all an adventure, trying to save the dollars that we spent on room rent!

Pleasantly tired we returned to the hotel which was just 20 minutes walk and we popped into our beds for a sound sleep. I was very particular that we don’t sleep in the afternoon of the first day so that we don’t get into the problem of jet lag. Having been busy, walking up and down, we slept off the night.

Next day early morning we left by walk to to 7^th Avenue again to catch the Big Bus for the day trip to see New York City. New York City is formed by interconnecting five islands, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island, which were consolidated in 1898. We got on to the top of the 8 am bus and of the many stops I will narrate only the important ones. We got down at the Empire State Building, bought the ticket and got on to open-air observation deck on the 86^th floor.

Amazing sights and facts awaited us. I was able to spot out the Chrysler tower among the many skyscrapers around. Statue of Liberty and the Hudson River joining the Atlantic Ocean were visible at a distance.

Chrysler tower among others viewed

from Empire State Building

The construction itself, as exhibited there, was with structural steel, reinforced cinder concrete arches, Indiana limestone exterior with chrome nickel steel trim and aluminium spandrels. But the amazing fact is the cost of construction per sq.ft was only $9.20! The total cost of construction including the land price was $40,948,900, while the cost of the building alone was $24,718,000. That was of course in 1930, when the construction was started. Still it is so meagre. May be General Depression had to do something with it. 

                                                                    Liberty Island and Ellis Island from 

                                                                             Empire State Building. 

The building was completed within one year and 45 days. One floor per day was the construction rate! On an average 3500 workers per day worked on the construction. It has 86 floors at 1050 feet height, then up to 102 floors another 250 ft, and from there to the tip, another 230 ft, the total height being 1480 ft. Though it was the tallest building when it was built, it is now the 5^th tallest in USA.

                                                                     Memorial Pools with names of the martyrs

From the giddying heights of Empire State Building, we got down and onto the bus to alight at the 9/11 memorial site. The place where the Twin Towers stood, the Ground Zero, there are two memorial pools with running water cascading like a perpetual waterfall, with the names of all the 2977 people who died on that day in the 9.11.2001 terrorist attacks, inscribed all around the edges of the pools. There are holes around the names where roses and flowers can be placed in honor of the dead. It is heart-rending to see the names of some of the Indians who had died in the tragedy, Alok Agarwal and Chowdhury. The dead will live in the hearts of their loved ones and the visitors like us.

9/11 Museum is a grand one, built like a huge white bird alighting on the ground, with its wings still open. It is a beautiful memorial to those whose lives were taken in an unnecessary frenzy of hatred by some misguided people.

         Like a huge white bird

That evening we spent time again at the Times Square, observing all the customs and dresses of the people assembled there from all over the world and cheekily passing comments. We ate the stuff they sold there and returned to the hotel to sleep and rest.

                 Inside the Museum of 9/11

The next day we were picked up by an eminent student of my brother, who has done very well in New York, having his own company. He very graciously took us around to show around the Big Apple that day. He took us to the Freedom Tower, built in the place of the Twin Towers, which was very close to where we had been the previous day. This is a new tower built in the place of the twin towers and is called the “One World Trade Center.” It shines as a brand new building in blue, beautifully arising out of the ashes of the previous one.

      The Freedom Tower

The names of the dead on 9/11 are inscribed on a wall here too. We pass through a cave where the rocks on which it is built could be seen. As the lift took us to the topmost floor, history of the building and the sky-scrappers around and the construction process of the building, etc., came in quick succession on the walls of the lift as we ascended and almost in split seconds we were at its 102^nd floor, which has an Observation Deck.  

                       Bedrocks under Manhattan

For a second time we had a spectacular view of the buildings around New York City and the Hudson River with the Statue of Liberty and all the paraphernalia. We could see ferries arriving and leaving the shores of Hudson, giving it all a busy appearance.  

     Ferries busying around

In a circular glass pedestal inside the 102th  floor of the Freedom Tower, one can see the vehicular traffic deep underneath on the busy streets of Manhattan. Very scary experience indeed!

We also visited the Statue of Liberty that day, from the side of New Jersey, travelling through Holland Tunnel one way and through Lincoln Tunnel the other way. Both the tunnels run under the Hudson River! marvelous feat of engineering, unthinkable in India in 1927, when the Holland Tunnel, named after the engineer who constructed it was thrown open to the public.  

  

      

State Cruises run by the State to ferry people 

to and fro Liberty Island

       Statue of Liberty

                                    Statue of Liberty was standing on its pedestal in Liberty Island, beckoning every immigrant since 19^th century as they entered the New York harbor, offering them hope and a future. This is a copper statue, 93 meters high, a gift from the people of France to the people of America. It shows a robed woman, representing the Roman goddess of Liberty, known as Libertas, worshiped by the Ancient Romans. She holds a torch aloft in her right hand and in her left hand holds a book, inscribed in Roman numerals July 4, 1776, the date of United States’ Declaration of Independence.  

        Having said that, I would also like to point out that this figure was influenced by the sun god and the ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility Isis and the ancient Babylonian fertility goddess known as Ishtar, both of which were adopted by the Romans as goddess Libertas. Good to know that, isn’t it?

      Museum in Ellis Island                                 Central Railway of New Jersey

       

         

       As we boarded the Cruise run by the State, we also glimpsed the Ellis Island, where 80% of the immigrants to USA were received, inspected and passed through. It was opened in 1892 and some 12 million immigrants had passed through its inspections, before it was closed down in 1954. Presently it houses a Museum of Immigration. We also walked through the Central Railroad of New Jersey, opened in 1889 and abandoned in 1967, after having done its duty of transporting the immigrants and others to all over USA.

       We ended the day with a good lunch at an Indian restaurant and a visit to the Princeton University and treading the ground once trod by the great mind like Einstein, whom our host respected immensely. He also introduced us to his family and graciously treated us to dinner at his beautiful house in New Jersey, before getting us dropped at our hotel.     

Well, New York City and its attractions really dazzled and amazed us. It was nice to have spend two and a half days in visiting the various places of interest within the city, some on our own and some with the help of well-wishers. 

Grateful to God for the wonderful time He gave us in this marvelous city.

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!    

Hellenisation and opening up of the Silk Trade

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 2^nd Century BC!

By the 1^st 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.

Along the Silk Roads!

For millennium trade routes flourished between the countries of the East and the West. Along these trade routes happened the exchange of ideas, inflow of cultural influences, spread of religious ideas and philosophy, from one side to the other. No wonder Kings and Queens and the political leaderships set on conquering these nations and countries, which they presumed to be fabulously rich and resourceful, so that the riches will flow into their kingdoms and make them powerful.

It was delightful to read “The Silk Roads,” by Peter Frankopan, subtitled “A New History of the World.’[1] It is totally a new way of looking into history, not from the view points of conquerors and kingdoms, but the trade routes and economic activities of nations across the world, from Mediterranean to Hindu Kush and beyond up to China, a history of mankind for more than 5000 years. Many interesting facts get thrown on as one read the book.

The countries that lie between the east and the west are most important as the connecting bridge between the two sides of the world. God created Garden of Eden in the rich soil between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates, so says the Bible. Ancient civilization of Sumeria flourished in and around Mesopotamia, and the area named Fertile Crescent, from these rivers in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. From here we get the first recorded code of laws by Hammurabi, King of Babylon, 4000 years ago.  

Harappa and Mohenjo-daro civilizations in the Indus valley were of renown, all existing some 5000 years ago. Other great centers of civilizations rose in Babylon, Nineveh, Ur, Akkad in Mesopotamia, almost all of them mentioned in the Biblical narrative in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.

Persians became prominent in the area around 6^th century BC, from Southern Iran, and reached up to Egypt, conquering the lands in between. Their forays into Ancient Greece were stopped in the battles at Marathon and Salami by the brave Spartans and Athenians in 490-470 BC. Persian kingdom extended up to Hindu Kush and north-west India. It connected the Mediterranean with the heart of Asia.

A highly educated bureaucracy maintained meticulous records of all the payments made, quality and quantity of goods brought in and sold in the markets, maintenance of roads in the Empire and so on. Tolerance of minorities was legendary by the Persian rulers. Cyrus, the Mede was the Emperor, who allowed the exiled Jews to return to their country in Palestine to rebuild their temple in 539 BC.

Trade flourished in ancient Persia and spectacular buildings arose in Babylon, Persepolis, Pasargadae and Susa, where King Darius built a magnificent palace, with ebony and silver imported from Egypt, cedar from Lebanon, gold from Bactria, Lapis and cinnabar from Sogdiana, turquoise from Khwarezm and ivory from India.

Cyrus the Great of the Persian Empire in 6^th century BC, was killed trying to subjugate the ferocious nomads, Scythian from the northern steppes, extending from Black Sea through Central Asia to Mongolia. It is said that his head was carried around in a skin, filled with blood and they drank from it. Still it would take a few more centuries before Persians could be completely conquered.

Greece had its own civilization starting from Minoan civilization originating in Crete and then Mycenaean civilization in the mainland Greece. By the 6^th century BC, Athens was experimenting with the formation of democracy, giving voting power to all males of eighteen years and more, both rich and the poor, in running the affairs of their city-state. Of course women were excluded, but they were the queens in their homes, like elsewhere in ancient civilizations.

 From the northern Greece arose a typhoon, Alexander the Great from Macedon, who became the ruler in 336 BC. He turned his gaze towards Asia and not Europe, for the then Europe had no cities, no culture, no prestige and no profit. His heart was to win the East, including Persia. He crushed the Persians army under the command of Darius III, in a decisive battle in Gaugamela, a place near the modern town of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, in 331 BC.

City after city surrendered to Alexander’s command. The wealth of the Empire and the beautiful palaces of Persia and Babylon became his. He allowed the local people to continue in their ways, especially religious manners, showing tolerance and respect. He restored the desecrated tomb of Cyrus the Great and gave a decent burial to Darius III, whose body had been dumped in a wagon. He also relied on the local elite to rule the conquered places as his representatives. 

Alexander also founded cities bearing his name, in Herat, Kandahar and Bagram, with fortifications. These became his rallying points for further conquest and push towards the east. He pushed relentlessly across Asia, up to Hindu Kush and Indus valley in northwest India. On mutiny of his own battle-tired soldiers, who refused to go any further, Alexander returned to Babylon, only to die in 323 BC.

In thirteen years Alexander had conquered the then known world and established a permanent like between the west and the east, which will flourish henceforth. Culture, philosophy and language of Greece were carried through to all these places, and influenced those in Persia, India, Central Asia and eventually China too. The cultures and ideas of the places he conquered influence Greece and its culture and thinking too. It was the start of a cultural exchange, or Hellenization, which will last for a long time to come.

The Empire of Alexander was in turmoil after his death, but four enclaves emerged soon under his generals. Seleucus took charge of the lands from Tigris River to Indus River, consisting of today’s Syria, Iraq, Iran, Central Asia, and India. Seleucid dynasty founded by him will rule for the next three centuries. Egypt went to Ptolemy, along with Palestine, Cilicia, Petra and Cyprus. Cassander took over Macedonia and Greece. Lysimachus ruled Thrace, Asia Minor, including parts of modern Turkey, Phrygia, Lydia and Ionia.   

It is interesting to note that Daniel in the Bible mentions that he saw in a vision,[2] a Ram with two horns standing by the river Ulai in Shushan, the capital, the horns being the Kingdoms of Media and Persia. Then he goes on to say that he saw a shaggy goat arise and attack the ram and break his horns. This is the Greek (Macedonian) King Alexander, who conquered Persia. Then he goes on to say that he saw its large horn was broken and four kingdoms will come in its place. These are the four kingdoms that arose after Alexander’s death, as divided among his four generals.

Amazing, isn’t it? That Daniel, an Israelite taken as captive by the Babylonians in 605 BC should leave accounts of history that would happen three centuries later on the plains of Mesopotamia!

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[1] Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, Bloomsbury, London, 2016

[2] Daniel 8:3, 5, 20-22. Interpretation is given by the angel Gabriel to Daniel.

Hannibal, the Carthaginian General

What an inspiring life Hannibal led! He marched his army over the Alps Mountains in winter and defeated the Romans on the other side of the mountain, a formidable task! Hannibal’s Alpine crossing had fired the imagination of many a warrior, especially Wellington, the 19^th century British Commander and Napoleon, the First Emperor of France.    

Hannibal Barca was born to Hamilcar, a Carthaginian general, in 247 BC in Carthage, Tunisia, in North Africa. His father took Hannibal at a very young age of nine years to Spain, along with his brother, to rough it up in the war fronts. Carthage had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Rome in the First Punic War of 264-241 BC. Hamilcar had made his two boys, swear an oath never to show goodwill to the Romans, an oath of eternal enmity.

As Hamilcar sank to his death in a river during the battle with an Iberian tribe in 229 BC, both the sons witnessed it and fled for their lives. Hannibal was 18 years old then. The leadership of Carthaginian forces passed on to his elder brother Hasdrubal, who negotiated a peace treaty with Rome. When he was assassinated in Spain, Hannibal at the age of 26 was elected general by popular vote of the Carthaginian troops in Spain, ratified by the Senate in Carthage.

Within three years Hannibal tore up the treaty that his brother had worked so assiduously with Romans and laid siege to the Roman town Saguntum, south of the Ebro River in Spain. From there he marched across Pyrenees mountains and then Alps to swoop down on Italy. Basically the fight was to determine who will be the masters of the Mediterranean waters and the surrounding lands.

Hannibal led his forces atop Alps, in the summer of 218 BC. His was the first ever troops to cross the Alps with an army, since the Greek hero Heracles (Hercules), who according to traditions was the first to force a route through Alps. Hannibal was supposed to have started with 90,000 infantry, 12000 cavalry and 37 African elephants. He and his troupes started to climb Alps early November at the very onset of winter. By the time he crossed over he was left with only 50,000 infantry and 9000 cavalry but all the 37 elephants.

Hannibal’s army tried to cross over Alps through one of the 6 narrow passes, with the rugged and steep mountain peaks rising before them and bitter cold winds howling through the narrow passes, with bone-chilling effects. With the stirring speeches of Hannibal and grit, and the reward of reaching the fertile plain of Po valley down on the side of northern Italy on crossing the mountain, the troops made the journey in an amazing 9 days.

The bewildered animals, horses and elephants and the pack animals slipped over the snow and skidded to their death. On reaching Po valley, Hannibal did not give them rest for too long. He pushed them to move on, as the snow fall was heavy and if immobile, they might freeze to death.

As the passage was too narrow for the pack animals and soldiers to move, men worked hard building a path along the cliff side, packing the path with any material that was available. In a single day they created a path wide enough for horses and pack animals to pass and descend.

Then came the elephants, which were stuck in the snow. The path had to be widened and made strong enough for the elephants to cross. Men worked tirelessly around the animals for three days and created a path good enough for them to cross. They reached Turin, exhausted and frost-bitten and malnourished, and despondent. They had lost 70,000 infantry, half the cavalry and many elephants. War was yet to begin.  

Romans were in panic on hearing that Hannibal with his army had crossed over the Alps Mountain within 15 days in mid-November winter and landed in Italy in 218 BC. Hannibal fought many battles in Italy: battle of Ticinus in November, 218; battle at Trebbia in December 218; in June 217 at the battle of Trasimene and the battle of Cannae in August 216, and won all of them, in spite of all odds.

His army was emaciated and depleted, but he held the element of surprise. His huge war elephants from Africa were enough to strike terror into the hearts of Roman soldiers. His strategy was superb; he had uncanny ability to place his troops in the position most appropriate to their fighting skill. Had Hannibal pushed straight for Rome, he could have captured it, but he knew his limits, so never went against Rome itself.

Romans were so scarred of Hannibal’s advance; they quickly sacrificed a Gallic man and woman and a Greek man and woman, burying them alive in dual sacrifice to get the goodwill of their gods! But Hannibal and his army were was not in good shape. His compatriots back home in Carthage were refusing to send in additional reinforcements. He is said to have stripped the dead Romans of their rings and sent these home to be poured out before the Senate, who impressed by this gesture, agreed to send in more men and elephants.

Hannibal sent in ambassadors to Rome to force them to come to the negotiating table. Romans refused and persisted in fighting Hannibal to finish. Hannibal’s men were tired with the perpetual war and needed to return, may be just like Alexander’s army that revolted on the banks of Indus River in 327 BC. In 215 BC, when Romans faced them once again in Cumae, Hannibal suffered his first ever defeat in Italy.

Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio had reached the den of the lion by landing Roman troops in Spain itself and Hannibal had to divert men and material to defend his home base. In 205 BC, Hannibal in his forties was war weary and steadily losing, losing Spain and other allies to Romans. Roman army was progressing towards Carthage. The Senate hurriedly agreed to all the terms dictated by Romans to negotiate peace. Hannibal was asked to return to Carthage and fight the Romans, which he did.

In the last fight in 202 BC, Hannibal and Scipio met and fought at Zama, near Carthage. Hannibal’s army lost. Thousands of Carthaginians died, many thousands were taken prisoners; some managed to escape, including Hannibal. He rode 120 miles over two days at full gallop and evaded his pursuers. He returned to Carthage, but on learning that Romans had asked for him as a hostage and the willingness of Carthaginians to give him up, he escaped again and reached Tyre, the ancestral home of Carthaginians, where he was welcomed as a hero. 

Rome emerged victorious and as undisputed masters of central and western Mediterranean and surrounding coastlines. Hannibal continued his tirades against Rome, by first serving as adviser to Antiochus III of Seleucid Empire, and goading him to go against Rome. In 191 BC, Antiochus lost the battle at Thermopylae, Greece, where 300 Spartans had resisted the Persians in 480 BC.

Hannibal fled once again from the Romans, this time to the royal court of King Prusias of Bithynia, a small kingdom on the shores of Black Sea. He aided in the king’s campaigns against king of Pergamon, a long time ally of Rome. In 182 BC the Romans persuaded King Prusias to hand over Hannibal to them. Hannibal aged 63, not wanting to end up a Roman prisoner and having lost all his options, took his life by drinking poison.

Thus ended the magnificent story of Hannibal, an all time great military general world had produced, who succeeded in holding Romans in anxiety and fear for a long time. Hannibal was an enigma; there are no written records left by him. All the accounts we have of him were written by his enemies, Livy the Roman historian and Polybus, the Greek historian.

Even his enemies admired his ability to survive hardship, deprivation and uncertainty. He was most formidable under extreme pressure. He not only performed, but goaded his men to perform difficult feats of endurance and bravery. He was a brilliant strategist and fearsome to his enemies.

A great general, nevertheless he lost to the Romans, whom he had vowed to hate till the end. Rome was left as the Queen of Mediterranean with no one to challenge her once Hannibal left the stage.    

Pots of Gold in the Backyard!

Really, no joke! There was a time when gold coins minted in Rome were hoarded in South India. There was an active and prosperous trade going on with the Romans as early as 2^nd century BC and through to the 2^nd century AD. The Roman conquest of Egypt linked Alexandria, the famous port in Egypt to Rome and via Arabian Sea to the South Indian ports in the Indian peninsula.

Yavana traders, as the Indians called the Greek traders, had become active in South India. Arabs by the end of mid-first century AD had learned to use the monsoon winds to travel speedily across the mid-ocean rather than winding up the coasts.

Ships sailing from the southern end of Red Sea would wait for the South West Monsoon to pass its peak before they set sail for India, using the now less ferocious wind. The returning North East Monsoon from across India in the winter would bring these ships back. The seamen and traders from Egypt had to stay a short while in Indian coastal cities to wait for the favorable monsoon winds. Thus there sprang colonies of Yavanas in Indian coastal area.

Shipping was brisk and South Indians took up long distance voyagers to Red sea or South East Asia for trade. Pliny, the Roman author and naturalist, a naval and army commander of early Roman Empire, who lived in the first century AD, says that Indian ships were of 75 tons and some could even hold up to 700 passengers.

Indian traders sailed to South East Asia to obtain spices which were not readily available in India and traded it with the Roman traders. They sailed by sea to Java, Sumatra and Bali, earning immense profits as they resold these to the Alexandrian merchants in India. They went even to Myanmar and Cambodia.

An Indian Brahmin, Kaundinya, was said to have married a Cambodian princess and introduced Indian culture, especially Hinduism in Cambodia. Angkor Wat stands a testimony to this cultural exchange. For almost 5 centuries, starting from 5^th century to 15^th century AD, majority of Cambodian population were Hindus, until they were gradually converted into Buddhism after the decay and demise of the Indian kingdoms there.

It was a global trade even during 1^st Century AD. Unfortunately gradually Arab traders took over the Western coast commercial maritime initiative and replaced Indian traders as intermediaries. Indian traders became the suppliers and no more the carriers of goods to countries westward.  

Indian vessels brought rice, wheat, and textiles to Socotra in the Arabian Sea, now a part of Yemen. The imports to India were pearls, dyes, wine, dates, gold and specially trained slaves. Roman traders purchased spices from Indian traders, especially pepper, which was used in preservation and in medicine by the Roman world. Such spices were exchanged for Roman gold and silver coins, coral and wine.

Semi-precious stones, particularly beryl, jewels, textiles, pearls, sandalwood, ebony and teak were also exported from India. To amuse the rich patrons in Rome, they imported from India ivory and animals like apes, parrots and peacocks, in addition to textiles, jewels and spices.

Important ports on the eastern coast of India were Poompuhar or Kaveripattinam, Arikamedu and others. A Greek maritime geography of the 1^st Century AD, called Periplus, lists out a compendium of ports and routes along Red Sea and the Indian coast. Kodangallur or Cranganore near Kochi on the western coast of India was linked to the trade in pepper, spices and beryl. Rich pepper trade with Malabar Coast continued for centuries until the time of Portuguese.

There was a settlement of Yavanas in Arikmedu, in south east India from 1^st century BC. It seems textiles were manufactured locally, but to the specification of the Romans and shipped west to eventually reach Rome. What is it except outsourcing, as our textile factories and tailoring units are doing today in the 21^st century!

Roman merchants who traded in India were not necessarily Romans from Rome, but consisted of Egyptians Jews, Greeks from Alexandria and Eastern Mediterranean and also some from North Africa, from all parts of Roman Empire.  

Wine, Olive oil and fish sauce had come from the southern Italy and Greek islands for the use of the Yavana traders, who had settled in South India. Korkai, Alangankulam, Kodumanal, all had such contacts with the Romans. Pot shreds with the names of Indians inscribed on them, some in Tamil Brahmi and some in Prakrit languages have been recently excavated in the ports on the Red Sea, providing evidence of Indian’s extended seafaring activity to distance shores in search of profits in trade.

Most importantly, hoards of Roman imperial coins have been unearthed in some Buddhist sites in Deccan and deep in south India. These coins were of earlier Roman Emperors like Augustus and Tiberius. The debased coins of Nero were not thought worthy of hoarding. Excavations have also shown attempts by Indian rulers to imitate the portraits of Roman coins with substandard portraits of the local rulers.

Roman historian Pliny complained that the trade with the east was causing a serious drain on the income of Rome, to the extent of 550 million sesterces, every year, of which at least one fifth went to India. (Sesterce, a large brass coin of early Rome, has been calculated to be equivalent to $1.55 in 2015). Balance of trade seems to be very much in favor of India. Roman currency denarius was freely in circulation in South India.

Roman gold and silver coins have been found in South India, literally in hoards; even recently such pots full of Roman gold coins have been accidentally unearthed in people’s backyards, while digging for construction of a house or a well. What a find! Of course one has to unfortunately surrender such treasures to the government! These coins were used largely as bullion or as high values currency, leading it to be hoarded; it might have been used as an item of gift-exchange among the local chiefs or as potential capital for further exchange.

With all the brisk trade and pots full of Roman gold and silver coins made by the Indian traders, hardly any written account has been left by the Indians on the places they visited or traded with. Whereas Marco Polo, who visited India in 1288 and 1293, during Pandyan kingdom, has left such elaborate account of India, its rulers, people, their customs, etc. No such account by Indians is forthcoming. Why so?

May be Indians were so full of their own greatness, and arrogance that they are the best in the world, prevented them from taking an active interest in the countries around them! When they are the best, then where is the need to learn from the others! Within their own country, as Marco Polo observed, Indians will not pass on their knowledge to the others belonging to other castes, let alone to the foreigners. No exchange of knowledge took place. 

Well, at least they had hoarded pots of gold and silver coins, which we still keep surfacing! Wish the people who do unearth such hoards are lucky enough to keep it and not surrender it to the government. Ahh, how sad, we live in democratic republic! All exotic things belong to the government. Very unfair, of course.

First Experiment in Imperial Government in India

The first Empire in India, extending from Sind River to Ganges was established by the Mauryans. Chandragupta Maurya managed to win his Empire from the remnants of Nanda kingdom in 321 BC and established his throne securely in the Gangetic plain first. Gradually he turned his attention to north-west of India, where Seleucid kings were ruling.

In a fight against the Greek Seleucus Nicator in 305 BC, Chandragupta Maurya seemed to have won and a favorable treaty was signed in 303 BC. Areas of present East Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Makran were ceded to Maurya from Nicator’s domain, in return of 500 elephants, highly useful in wars in those days.

A marriage alliance was negotiated and the daughter of Nicator was given in marriage to Chandragupta. She came to live in Pataliputra, the capital of Maurya kingdom and along with her came many Greek maiden as her companions. Envoys were exchanged and Megasthenes from the court of Nicator came to live in Pataliputra, and left his impressions of India in a write up called Indica.

Chandragupta was of Shudra caste and not a kshatrya. His Prime Minister Kautilya, a Brahman, was the one who skillfully managed to win the throne of Nandas to Chandragupta. It was an interesting combination – a shrewd Brahman adviser and a Shudra man with muscles. Kautilya, also known as Chanakya, still stands in India for shrewdness or ‘Chanakya tantra.’ The book he wrote, Arthasastra bears witness to this fact.

At the end, Chandragupta became an ardent Jaina, abdicated in favor of his son Bindusara and retired to Sharavanabelgola in today’s Karnataka. He became an ascetic and in the orthodox traditions of Jain religion, he ended his life by regulated slow starvation - self euthanasia? Well, Jain religion permits the same.

Interestingly, the next ruler, Bindusara, asked and received as gifts from Greek King Antiochus I, sweet wine, dried figs and a sophist! On his death in 276 BC, after a period of scuffle with his brothers over the throne, Ashoka succeeded in enthroning himself as an Emperor in 272 BC. His empire extended from north-western India to the east and up to Karnataka in the south. Kalinga was outside his empire and he waged a war and won it.

In the southern peninsula, the Chera, Chola and Pandya kings were ruling and Ashoka seemed to have had friendly relations with them and also with the Sri Lankan king. He had contacts with Antiochus II Theos of Syria, (260-246 BC); Ptolomy II Philadelphus of Egypt (285-247 BC); Antigonus Gonatus of Macedonia (276-239 BC); Magas of Cyrene and Alexander of Epirus.

There were a lot of Greek influences on the Mauryan kings and the people and vice versa. Capitals of the Ashokan pillars are remarkably similar to those at Persepolis and the very idea of engraving on rocks by Ahoka could have come to him on hearing those of the King Darius. He made many Major and Minor Rock Edicts and later engraved on polished sandstone monolithic pillars with animals depicted as capitals, called Pillar Edicts.

Ashoka campaigned against Kalinga kingdom in 260 BC and won. But the destruction caused by the war filled him with deep remorse. 150,000 people were deported; 100,000 soldiers died fighting; and many more perished. The misery caused to the families and the survivors touched his heart. “This participation is all men in suffering weighs heavily on my mind,” he engraved in his Major Rock Edict XIII.

Gradually Ashoka became an ardent Buddhist and adopted non-violence as his principle. The Third Buddhist Council was held during his time at Pataliputra. Decision to spread Buddhism actively was taken during this council and proselytizing was taken up all over India and Asia. His own son Mahinda went to Sri Lanka to preach Buddhism.

It is of interest to note that Ashoka gifted a branch of the original Bodhi tree under which Buddha obtained enlightenment to Sri Lankan Prince and that had survived till today, whereas unfortunately the original tree in India itself was vandalized by anti-Buddhist elements and got destroyed completely.

Emperor Ashoka died in 232 BC and the empire broke up soon afterwards and it ended when the last Mauryan ruler was assassinated by his Commander-in- Chief, Pushyamitra, a Brahman. The usurper founded the Shunga dynasty; thus ended the first experiment in imperial government in India.

Many historians have blamed Ashoka’s non-violence policy, his emphasis on social ethics and his taking active part in propagating Buddhism which went against the grain of Vedic Brahmanism, as the causes for the Empire’s decline and demise. Not necessarily. The real causes may have to be looked at elsewhere.

Vast resources were required to maintain a great standing army, the payment of salary to the higher bureaucracy, the highly centralized administration, and such other costs of maintaining the Empire would have been a great strain on the treasury. The main tax revenue was land revenue, as it was very much an agrarian economy, through trade also flourished. Towards the end there seemed to have been a drought and decline in the fortunes of the empire.