The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy & The Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia & India, Raoul McLaughlin, c. 2014, 2018

The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy & The Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia & India, Raoul McLaughlin, c. 2014, 2018

Conversion:

• 25 silver denarii = 1 gold aureus

Today:

• 70 American Silver Eagles (BU) at $20 each = one Krugerrand (BU) at $1,400 each

The book deals with one fundamental question: how did the Roman Empire function, and, in particular, how did it pay for its military costs?

What I am interested in: connecting the dots of pagan Roman rites, Saudi Arabia, and Christian myths and legends.

The final civil war of the Roman Republic was fought in 31 BC when the Roman general Octavian, adopted son of Julius Caesar, declared war on the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra (yes, she really was a real person) and her consort Mark Antony.

Cleopatra fled back to Egypt when it appeared that Mark was going to lose bigley. He did. The Romans annexed Egypt and the rest is history, as they say.

Egypt introduced a quarter-rate tax on trade between the eastern Mediterranean and the Far East. One-fourth of all trade was returned to Rome. Rome used that to money to fund the first professional army in the history of mankind.

All goods sent to the Egyptian Red Sea ports at that time had to stop at Coptos/Qift.

From the net:

Koptos was an important station on the way from the Nile valley over desert routes to the Red Sea ports.

One of these ports was Myos Homos, which was relatively close to Koptos.

However, the Red Sea has tempestuous and dangerous currents and air flows, and more southerly ports were preferred. With the foundation by Ptolemy II of the Red Sea port Berenike about 255 BC Koptos became especially important.

The desert route to Berenike started normally at Edfu, but with the Theban rebellion about 207/206 BC the town was no longer part of the Ptolemaic empire, and the caravans may have had to start at Koptos instead.

Berenike is mentioned in ancient literature as the port for the import of African elephants, which were needed for warfare. However, it was also important for the trade with India and Arabia.

Koptos was also the starting point for expedition to several quarries, which were very important especially for the Romans.