The Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology, 2021, 3(1); doi: 10.25236/FSST.2021.030112.
Nan Zeng
College of Art, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China
Periplus leave numbers of the Roman empire trade records in the Indian Ocean. This paper mainly takes the transaction items of the purple clothes from Periplus as the entry point. Purple clothes are luxury goods with expensive value and hierarchical significance. The luxury purple clothing is usually sold along the Mediterranean coast but appears in the Indian Ocean market. Through the location and trade route of purple clothing in the Indian Ocean trading market, this paper reanalyzes the new diplomatic mode that the Roman Empire may carry out in the Indian Ocean, namely the local King obtains the authorization of the Roman Empire through purple clothes. If purple clothing is not only a luxury, but also a symbol of imperial power, then its presence in Indian Ocean trade will have political influence, not only as a diplomatic gift, but also as a potentially authorized item. It also reflects the different forms of expansion of the Roman Empire in the Indian Ocean.
Purple clothes, Indian Ocean, Roman, Periplus
Nan Zeng. Purple empowerment --The political skills of Roman merchants over the Indian Ocean trade. The Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology (2021) Vol. 3, Issue 1: 79-82. https://doi.org/10.25236/FSST.2021.030112.
[1] Lionel Casson. The Periplus Maris Erythraei. Text with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary [J]. The Classical World. 1990.83. 236.
[2] Gaius Plinius Secundus. Natural history [M]. Boston: Harvard University, 1942:416.
[3] Masci, Giulia. Fighting Hydra-like Luxury: Sumptuary Regulation in the Roman Republic. [M] London, England: Bristol Classical Press, 2011:433.
[4] Herodotus. History [M]. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015:321.
[5] Grant Parker, Ex Oriente Luxuria: Indian Commodities and Roman Experience: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient [J]. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient .Vol. 45, No. 1 2002. 40-95
[6] Lioyd B. Jensen, Royal purple of Tyre [J]. Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 1963, 104-118
[7] Victoria Finlay. Color: A Natural History of the Palette [M]. New York: Random House.2004:211
[8] Tansen Sen, Early China and the Indian Ocean networks [J]. World. 2017, 536-547
[9] Bangu. Hanbook. [M]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2007:503.
[10] Jairus Banaji,’Regions that Look Seaward’: Changing Fortunes, Submerged Histories, and the Slow Capitalism of the Sea [J]. Across the Ocean: Nine Essays on Indo-Mediterranean Trade. 2015, 114-126.