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Trade between the Romans and the Empires of Asia

• 
  Open bowl, 1st century a.d.
  Nabataean; Jordan
  Ceramic

  Diam. 8 5/8 in. (22 cm)
  Purchase, H. Dumscombe Colt Gift, 1977 (1977.234.12)

• 
  Gravestone with funerary banquet, 2nd–3rd century
  Excavated at Palmyra, Syria
  Limestone

  H. 20 1/4 in. (51.4 cm)
  Purchase, 1902 (02.29.1)

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By the end of the first century B.C., there was a great expansion of international trade involving five contiguous powers: the Roman empire, the Parthian empire, the Kushan empire, the nomadic confederation of the Xiongnu, and the Han empire. Although travel was arduous and knowledge of geography imperfect, numerous contacts were forged as these empires expanded—spreading ideas, beliefs, and customs among heterogeneous peoples—and as valuable goods were moved over long distances through trade, exchange, gift giving, and the payment of tribute. Transport over land was accomplished using river craft and pack animals, notably the sturdy Bactrian camel. Travel by sea depended on the prevailing winds of the Indian Ocean, the monsoons, which blow from the southwest during the summer months and from the northeast in the fall.

A vast network of strategically located trading posts (emporia) enabled the exchange, distribution, and storage of goods.

Related

Timelines (7)

• Central and North Asia, 1000 B.C.–1 A.D.
• China, 1000 B.C.–1 A.D.
• China, 1–500 A.D.
• Italian Peninsula, 1–500 A.D.
• Mesopotamia, 1000 B.C.–1 A.D.
• South Asia, 1000 B.C.–1 A.D.
• South Asia, 1–500 A.D.

Primary Thematic Essays (7)

• Han Dynasty (206 b.c.–220 a.d.)
• Kushan Empire (ca. 2nd century b.c.–3rd century a.d.)
• Nabataean Kingdom and Petra
• Palmyra
• The Roman Empire (27 b.c.–393 a.d.)
• Trade between Arabia and the Empires of Rome and Asia
• Trade Routes between Europe and Asia during Antiquity

Other Thematic Essays (16)

• The Art of the Mamluk Period (1250–1517)
• Commercial Exchange, Diplomacy, and Religious Difference between Venice and the Islamic world
• The Damascus Room
• Eastern Religions in the Roman World
• Ethiopia's Enduring Cultural Heritage
• Gandhara
• Internationalism in the Tang Dynasty (618–906)
• Jewish Art in Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium
• List of Rulers of Mesopotamia
• List of Rulers of the Roman Empire
• The Mon–Dvaravati Tradition of Early North–Central Thailand
• Roman Housing
• Silk Textiles from Safavid Iran, 1501–1722
• Trade and Commercial Activity in the Byzantine and early Islamic Middle East
• The Vibrant Role of Mingqi in Early Chinese Burials
• The Year One

Maps (1)

• World, 1000 b.c.–1 a.d.

Index Terms (17)

Art Movement/Style

• Early Imperial Art in Ancient Rome
• Egyptian Art in the Roman Period
• Han Dynasty of China
• Kushan Period in Indian Art
• Mid–Imperial Art in Ancient Rome
• Xiongnu Type in Ancient Near Eastern Art

Geography/Place

• Arabian Peninsula
• Central and North Asia
• China
• Iran
• Rome (Ancient)
• South Asia

Material and Technique

• Relief Sculpture from West Asia

Object

• Vessel from West Asia

Subject Matter/Theme

• Archaeology from Asia
• Archaeology from Europe
• Trade (1–500 A.D.)

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A vast network of strategically located trading posts (emporia) enabled the exchange, distribution, and storage of goods. Isodorus of Charax, a Parthian Greek writing around the 1 A.D., described various posts and routes in a book entitled Parthian Stations. From the Greco-Roman metropolis of Antioch, routes crossed the Syrian Desert via Palmyra to Ctesiphon (the Parthian capital) and Seleucia on the Tigris River. From there the road led east across the Zagros Mountains to the cities of Ecbatana and Merv, where one branch turned north via Bukhara and Ferghana into Mongolia and the other led into Bactria. The port of Spasinu Charax on the Persian Gulf was a great center of seaborne trade. Goods unloaded there were sent along a network of routes throughout the Parthian empire—up the Tigris to Ctesiphon; up the Euphrates to Dura-Europos; and on through the caravan cities of the Arabian and Syrian Desert. Many of these overland routes ended at ports on the eastern Mediterranean, from which merchandise was distributed to cities throughout the Roman empire.

Other routes through the Arabian desert may have ended at the Nabataean city of Petra, where new caravans traveled on to Gaza and other ports on the Mediterranean, or north to Damascus or east to Parthia. A network of sea routes linked the incense ports of South Arabia and Somalia with ports in the Persian Gulf and India in the east, and also with ports on the Red Sea, from which merchandise was transported overland to the Nile and then to Alexandria.

Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. "Trade between the Romans and the Empires of Asia". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/silk/hd_silk.htm (October 2000) Further Reading Milleker, Elizabeth J., ed. The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Simpson, St. John, ed. Queen of Sheba: Treasures from Ancient Yemen. London: British Museum Press, 2002. Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. Whitfield, Susan, with Ursula Sims-Williams, eds. The Silk Route: Trade, Travel, War and Faith. London: British Library, 2004. Related exhibitions and online features Special Exhibitions (including upcoming, current, and past exhibitions) The Roman Mosaic from Lod, Israel The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West

These related Museum Bulletin or Journal articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship. Harper, Prudence Oliver, Andrew Oliver, Jr., Nora Scott and Christine Lilyquist. "Origin and Influence Cultural Contacts: Egypt, and the Ancient Near East, and the Classical World." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 29, no. 7 (March, 1971). JSTOR | PDF