Cassia, cinnamomo, ossidiana: Uomini e merci tra Oceano Indiano e Mediterraneo.

• Author: Sidebotham, Steven E.
• Position: Review

By FEDERICO DE ROMANIS. Saggi di storia antica, vol. 9. Rome: "L'ERMA" DI BRETSCHNEIDER, 1996. Pp. 324, illustrations, 20 plates.

This volume is a slightly modified version of de Romanis' Ph.D. dissertation, completed in 1992 at the University of San Marino. It begins as a philological study of the terms cassia, cinnamon, and obsidian, items imported to Egypt, the Levant, and the Mediterranean from Eritrea, the Horn of Africa, and south Arabia between the seventh or sixth centuries B.C. and the third quarter of the first century A.D.

Many terms for these imports first appear in Greek during and immediately after the Egyptian Suite period (Dynasty 26, ca. 672-525 B.C.), an era of considerable Greek commercial (e.g., emporium of Naukratis) and military (Egyptian use of Greek mercenaries) contact with Egypt and the Levant (especially the Phoenicians and Achaemenid Persians who were also active in the Red Sea trade during their occupation of Egypt).

Many of de Romanis' etymological associations are intriguing and his use of ancient literary and epigraphic evidence is wideranging. The study heavily emphasizes hieroglyphic, Semitic, Greek and, to a lesser extent, Latin philology, but makes relatively little use of recent archaeological or anthropological data.

There is an epigraphic investigation of late republican and early imperial Roman families (the Opsii, Numidii, Annii, Calpurnii, and Munatii) from Italy (mainly Campania and Latium) involved in this lucrative trade in the [Greek text omitted] (Red Sea, Indian Ocean), which was merely an extension of their prior commercial interests in Syria, Asia Minor, and Egypt. Here de Romanis uses dedications and graffiti found in Egypt's Eastern Desert, especially those at the Paneion in Wadi Menih on the Berenike-Coptos road and inscriptions from the Mediterranean.

De Romanis argues unconvincingly that pentaconters and triremes were first used as cargo ships on the Red Sea before the advent of merchant vessels of various sizes. He asserts that larger merchantmen ([Greek text omitted]) made the long trips to south India and back and smaller commercial vessels handled most of the trade within the Red Sea itself. While there is some discussion of the Berenike-Coptos road, there is little about other overland trade routes or the ancient Red Sea-Indian Ocean ports themselves.

De Romanis stereotypes the commerce as one...