Exports to Ethiopia

Roman traders offered commonplace and inexpensive goods to the merchants at Adulis who dealt in ivory and turtle-shell. These included large quantities of Egyptian fabric including linens, double-fringed items, scarves from Arsinoe and coloured cloaks made from printed cloth. Roman merchants also traded in vividly-coloured glass stones and glass-globes with multi-coloured millefiori decorations made in Diospolis. These gem-like items were probably used in local jewellery and attached as ornamental fittings to other objects. Many of the goods offloaded at Adulis would have been delivered, or passed on to, consumers in the Ethiopian cities of Koloe, or Aksum.

There was a market for low-value Roman metals in Ethiopia and Aksumite traders accepted brass and copper pans and drinking vessels from the Empire. The African craftsmen cut apart these metal objects to make decorative armlets and anklets for local women to wear. Sheets of copper and brass were also cut into regular pieces to serve as token coinage in the kingdom. There was a market for Roman woodworking tools in the Aksumite Kingdom including axes, adzes (a wood-cutting tool with a right-angled blade) and knives. Local iron supplies were insufficient, or of poor quality, so Roman traders provided local dealers with iron to manufacture better weapons for hunting and warfare. The Periplus explains that Roman iron was used ‘in spears for use on elephants and other wild animals and for war’.76

There were foreign traders residing long-term in the Aksumite Kingdom including Roman subjects who sourced and stockpiled African goods for export to the Empire. The Periplus therefore advised visiting traders to bring ‘a little Roman money for the resident foreigners’. These dealers were also prepared to accept a limited quantity of Italian wine and olive oil as an alternative to cash, since these essential Mediterranean goods were not produced in Ethiopia.77

Royal agents probably controlled the bulk of ivory stocks available in the Aksumite Kingdom and the Periplus records that most of the valuable goods sent into the region were destined for the king. The Aksumite King Zoskales was on good terms with the Romans who visited his royal court, but he was notorious as a hard bargainer when it came to making deals with foreign merchants. The Periplus reports that ‘Zoskales is astute about his possessions and in his dealings with us he is always holding out for more. But in all other respects he is a fine person and he is well versed in Greek reading and writing.’78

Roman dealers offered Zoskales valuable gold and silver tableware from the Empire that had been ‘fashioned in the local manner’. In the Aksumite court communal drinking and feasting from expensive tableware was an important social feature. The Ethiopian highlands experienced cold winters, so the Aksumite King also accepted batches of heavy Roman cloaks, ‘with no adornment and modest in price’.79 These garments were probably issued to Aksumite soldiers and royal retainers in the African capital.

Roman merchants also offered King Zoskales valuable goods from India in order to acquire precious Aksumite stocks of African ivory. This included ‘Indian iron and steel’ produced using eastern techniques unknown to Roman metalworkers. The king also accepted a variety of Indian cotton fabrics, waistbands and a limited amount of pre-made cotton clothing.80 A final commodity on the trade list is Indian lac-dye which the Aksumite king possibly used to equip his royal soldiers, or court officials, with scarlet-coloured uniforms.