Roman Exports to the Tamil Kingdoms

Roman merchants offered the Tamils red coral, peridot, antimony sulphide and realgar. There was also a market for a substance called orpiment that the Tamils used for making clothing dyes and vivid yellow paints. Wine appears last on the list of Roman exports, but is well represented in the archaeological record. Fragments of Roman amphorae have been found at more than fifty sites in India including the Tamil lands. The Periplus specifies ‘wine - in limited quantities, as much as goes to Barygaza’.142 Wine heads the list of Roman exports to Barygaza, so perhaps the amount exported to the Tamil ports was only ‘limited’ compared with other cargo, especially base metals. When Roman writers refer to merchants from the Empire offering Italian products to Indian spice dealers, they are probably referring to wine. Persius mentions the appearance of ‘someone who barters beneath the rising sun (distant east) and hands over the produce of Italy for wrinkled pepper and pale cumin seed’.143

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Indian kingdoms received relatively ordinary Mediterranean wines and most of the batches delivered to India were similar to wines enjoyed by Roman garrisons on the European frontiers.144 These vintages tended to have a higher salt content and were less prone to spoiling on long journeys. The Tamils did not cultivate grape vines, but drank an alcoholic beverage known as ‘toddy’ produced from the fermented sap and fruit of palm trees. In India, ordinary Roman wines were therefore considered to be high-status commodities enjoyed by royal courts and Tamil poets describe how servants poured exotic foreign wines for the ruling elite. The Purananuru pictures how, ‘with joy and pleasure the women, wearing shining bangles, pour into decorated gold-cups the sweet, cool wine brought by the superb Yavana ships’.145

Roman wine sent to Nelcynda was loaded aboard Tamil ships and taken to a trade-station on the east coast of India called Poduke (Arikamedu).146 Hundreds of Roman pottery shards have been found at Arikamedu and about half of these finds are from Italian wine vessels. Many of the fragments have black volcanic grit in their ceramic composition, indicating that they were fired with clay from Campania in central Italy. When the volcano Vesuvius erupted in August AD 79, it destroyed the wine industry in Campania and this affected Roman exports to

India.147 This crisis probably forced many Italian businessmen to increase their reliance on bullion for trade exchanges.

Pliny the Elder was in command of the Roman fleet at Naples during the devastating eruption of Vesuvius. While trying to evacuate civilians from the disaster zone he succumbed to the cloud of dust and ash, collapsed and died from asphyxiation.148 Pliny’s warning that Indo-Roman trade was draining bullion lirom the Empire therefore predates this volcanic disaster. Consequently, his estimate for bullion exports to India (50 million sesterces) refers to a time when Campanian wine was still a viable bulk cargo for eastern shipments.149 Pliny’s calculations therefore underestimate the long-term increase in bullion flow from the Empire to India.

The Tamils called Roman coins cirupuram which was their name for the nape of the neck. This was probably a reference to the image of the Emperor which appeared on Roman coins as a head-portrait in profile, detached at the neck.150 Roman merchants also brought the Tamils plain clothing, multi-coloured textiles and large amounts of glass, copper, tin and lead. This trade was large-scale and Pliny believed that India relied on the Roman Empire for most of its base metals. He reports that ‘India has no copper or lead, so the country procures these metals in exchange for pearls and precious stones’.151

The Tamils had a debased silver and copper currency so they used Roman money as gold and silver bullion. Roman coins were given a premium value in southern India because of their trusted metal content and distinctive designs. The sharp and detailed images struck on imperial money also gave Roman coins the decorative appeal of fine jewellery.

Roman hordes found in Tamil India generally contain either gold or silver coins and rarely include issues from other Indian kingdoms.152 There have been more than twenty Roman coin hoards found in southern India, nearly all from inland locations.153 The money was stashed by local people in small clay pots, leather purses or cloth bags that have decomposed through time. The concentration of coins found near the Cheran capital Karuvur could be representative of a short period of unrest, perhaps during a war that encouraged many people to hide their wealth.154 Many of the coins were buried years, or decades, after they first entered Tamil society and represent the available bullion circulating at the time they were hidden.

The Kottayam hoard found on the Malabar Coast is the only coin batch possibly deposited by Roman subjects.155 This find is the largest Roman coin hoard recovered from southern India and it was discovered in a sand-dune just north of ancient Nelcynda. The hoard could have been a coin consignment assembled for a single Roman trade venture. It contained over 8,000 gold aurei held in a large brass bowl. The latest coins in the find date to the reign of the Emperor Nero (AD 54-68) when there was an upsurge in Roman spending on eastern goods. The Kottayam hoard might have been stashed by a shipwrecked Roman crew who, for whatever reason, were unable to return to the site to recover their wealth.156 This amount of gold represents 800,000 sesterces in imperial money and confirms that bullion exports were a serious issue for the Roman Empire. If this represents a typical coin consignment for a voyage to southern India, then only sixty Roman ships could easily have exported more than 50 million sesterces of bullion from the Empire per annum.

This export figure seems plausible when ancient Chinese evidence is added to the debate. In AD 166 a Roman ship reached the Chinese Empire and the Han Court questioned the merchants who arrived aboard the vessel. Based on this information the Hou Hanshu reports ‘the Romans conduct a sea trade with Parthia (Anxi) and India (Tianzhu) and their return gain is ten to one’.157 This tenfold price gain between Egypt and India is confirmed by sixteenth century accounts that record how a quantity of pepper acquired in India for one gram of silver could be sold in Alexandria for about ten times that amount.158 This means that a Roman ship would probably have had to export about a million sesterces of Mediterranean wealth to return with the type of Indian cargo documented in the Muziris Papyrus (worth 9.2 million sesterces).159 The Kottayam hoard comes close to this figure with its monetary value of about 800,000 sesterces.

In most cases the date when a coin was issued in the Empire is not a good guide as to when it might have been exported to India. The Tamils preferred certain coin issues that had been minted by particular Emperors (mostly Augustus and Tiberius). Roman merchants secured better deals with these coins and special efforts were made to accumulate these particular coin types for export. A similar situation was occurring in northern Europe and Tacitus describes how German tribes living far from the frontier liked to receive ‘trusted’ Roman coin types in trade deals. They had a preference for ‘the old and well-known money, preferring the coins that show a two-horse chariot’.160 Writing in the sixth century, the Greek traveller Cosmas explains how Roman coins were chosen for eastern export on the basis of their design and quality with ‘finely shaped pieces formed lirom bright metal being specially selected for export’.161

It seems that Roman merchants began sending coins to southern India during the reign of the Emperor Augustus (27 BC-AD 14). Also, as Roman hoards found in India generally contain more gold aurei from the reign of Tiberius than from the time of Augustus, this might indicate an increase in trade during this period (AD 14-37). The Tamils preferred silver Augustan denarii that depicted the imperial princes Gaius and Lucius, and large quantities of these coins were minted in Lyon from 2 BC to AD 14. The Tamils also valued a widely produced silver denarius issued by the Emperor Tiberius that portrayed his mother Livia.162

Almost all the silver denarii found in India are coins minted before the currency reforms instigated by the Emperor Nero in AD 64.163 This was probably because Nero introduced base metal into new issues of denarii, so that more coins could be minted from existing government stocks of silver, thereby increasing cash for imperial spending. However, these debased silver coins could not be used as pure bullion in foreign markets. The reforms probably had little immediate impact on eastern trade because there were millions of pre-reform denarii still in circulation. These earlier coins did not disappear from the Roman economy until the second century AD and when this occurred, merchants visiting India simply switched to exporting silver bullion.

It made sense for Roman merchants to export older pre-reform coin in favour of newer issues. Most Julio-Claudian denarii contained 3.9 grams of pure silver, whereas newer coins had only 3.4 grams of silver. Both coins had the same monetary value in the Roman Empire, but in foreign trade the older denarii had a greater metal value.164 This gave the older coins better exchange rates in the money markets of northern India which had their own debased currencies. Certain denarii found in southern India show evidence of heavy wear consistent with old coins that had circulated within the imperial economy for several decades. These were probably exported in the period between AD 70 and AD 100.165 For example, a heavily worn Augustan denarius from the Budinatham hoard bore a countermark of the Emperor Vespasian (AD 69-79).166

Julio-Claudian denarii had a premium value in India because of its trusted silver content and decorative charm. But Roman merchants also exported bullion when sufficient amounts of coin were unavailable. The Nicanor Archive records that 3 talents-weight of silver bullion were sent to Myos Hormos in AD 62.167 This quantity of silver was equivalent to more than 25,000 denarii and would have been worth over 100,000 sesterces in Roman markets. A papyrus letter dating to AD 117 indicates that silver bullion was routinely sold at Coptos and that the price continually fluctuated. The text reads, ‘un-coined (silver) is now 362 (drachmas). As you know the best prices in Coptos change day by day.’168

About half of the gold hoards found in southern India contained aurei from later Emperors ranging from the reign of Vespasian to Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-180).169 Although the currency reforms introduced by Nero reduced the weight of newly minted gold aurei, it did not change the purity of the metal. This meant that newer aurei were still valuable as bullion in foreign markets, but merchants preferred to export older coins because of their higher gold content (8 grams compared to only 7.3 grams). When the heavier Julio-Claudian aurei disappeared from circulation in the second century AD, Roman merchants switched to the newer issues, or simply used bullion.