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THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
Mehmet TEZCAN
D.Sc. (Hist.), Assistant Professor at the Chair of History, Department of Literature, Karadeniz Technical University (Trabzon, Turkey).
EASTERN TRADE DURING THE HELLENIC AND ROMAN PERIODS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR EAST-WEST TRADE IN THE CAUCASUS
Abstract
T
hroughout their histories, the states that replaced one another in Anatolia invariably tried to find the shortest
road to the Orient to ensure their political and economic domination. The states in Iranian territory (crossed by the land route to
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the Orient) displayed a lot of interest in Anatolia and the Caucasus and interfered with the smooth functioning of the land route.
The Hellenic states in Iranian territory and to the east of it waged a perpetual war among themselves: until the 1st century, the political situation in western Central Asia remained vague.
In the 3rd century B.C. the Seleucids tried to reach the Orient by crossing the Caspian. Later, when the land route across Iran became unsafe or was even blocked off altogether, Rome and Byzantium had no choice but to follow in the Seleucids' footsteps. The numerous archeological artifacts produced by wide-scale diggings in the
region finally convinced the academic community that what Strabo and Pliny had written in their time about a cross-Caspian trade route that extended to the East and reached China was true.
This route was used until the late 3rd century, that is, until the end of the Kush-an Empire and the Chinese Han Dynasty; trade was disrupted around the 4th-5th centuries when the Oxus (Amu Darya) changed its course and no longer reached the Caspian; antagonism among the states in Iranian territory and the instability in Bactria were two more negative factors. In the mid-6th century, when the Turkic Kha-ganate was set up, trade was revived along the north Caspian route.
Introduction
Late in the 2nd century B.C., Rome conquered Western Anatolia and reached Asia. It should be said that Anatolia held a special place among the other Roman domains in Asia. In the mid-3rd century B.C. the Seleucids (312-64 B.C.) ruled in the larger part of Anatolia and the territories which are today western Syria and Iraq; Iran was ruled by a Parthian dynasty of Arsacids (249 B.C.-228); the Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom (250-125 B.C.) occupied Bactria and Northern India; Northeastern Anatolia, the east and the middle part of the contemporary Black Sea region, and the Crimea were united into a Pontic Kingdom (280-63 B.C.); it survived until 343 as the Bosporan Kingdom; the Ptolemies (323-30 B.C.) ruled Egypt until it was conquered by Rome.
Early in the 2nd century B.C., a fairly strong Pontic Kingdom occupied the area between the middle part of the Black Sea region and the shores of Colchis (in contemporary Georgia). In 189 B.C., the Romans defeated the Seleucids in the Battle at Magnesia (Manisa); and in 188 B.C., Antiochus the Great signed the Treaty of Apamea and retreated to the north of the Taurus Mountains.
In this way, by the late 2nd century B.C., the Romans dominated Anatolia, its western part, and the Mediterranean coast; the eastern part of Anatolia and its northern and southeastern regions remained an apple of discord and a cause of wars, which repeatedly flared up between the local states, Iran and Rome.
From time immemorial, Anatolia attracted its neighbors because of its strategic position at the crossroads of important trade routes and its considerable subsoil and other resources. Nearly all the Hellenic states that appeared in the territory of Anatolia and Iran fought one another and Rome (starting with the 2nd century B.C.); this did nothing to benefit either the region or world trade.
Later, the Romans who were fully aware of Anatolia's importance undertook several military inroads and finally captured the larger part of Anatolian territory.
They sought control over the Fertile Crescent (Anatolia and the fertile lands of contemporary Iraq, Syria, and Egypt), the main sea and land trade routes that crossed Anatolia, and the ports of the Great Silk Road in an effort to keep the Persian Achaemenid Dynasty away: in the 6th century B.C., it captured the entire territory of Anatolia, from which it regularly attacked Greece (across the sea and by land). The Persian dynasty established control over the trade routes that crossed Hither Asia and interfered with trade contacts of the states to the west of the area.
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While devising new conquests in the East, the Romans were aware of possible political threats in the Black Sea region. Had they conquered this region, they could move in to the Greek colonies (set up there in ancient times) in order to continue unhampered trade with the Orient (also selling the commercial goods of the newly conquered region).
Rome, however, never realized its plans in full: the Parthian Kingdom (set up in the 3rd century B.C. in Iran) and the Sassanid Empire (founded in the 3rd century), which controlled the main trade routes (the land stretch of the Great Silk Road, in particular, which crossed Iran), were determined to keep the Romans away from the cheap Oriental goods. The Romans sought other roads to the Orient; they crossed the Red Sea to reach India or moved by land to the ports of Georgia and further on across the Transcaucasian Route and the Caspian Sea to Turkestan.
Silk and the Great Silk Road
The term Great Silk Road (Seidenstrasse) was coined by German academic Ferdinand von Richthofen in 1877. The road,1 which the Romans needed so much, connected the East and the West. It began in the Chinese capitals—Luoyang and Changan; after crossing the Gansu province, it branched off to the north and the south and after passing through the city-states along the northern and southern margins of the Taklamakan Desert, the two roads reunited in Kashgar and went further to the West.
The western stretch of the caravan roads went across Sogdiana and Merv, or across the Pamirs, Northern Afghanistan, and Balkh, depending on the political situation and the roads' safety. Both routes led to Iran; if these routes became dangerous, another route was used: it started in the Kingdom of Khotan in Eastern Turkestan, crossed contemporary Pakistan and India, and followed the River Indus to reach the northwestern Indian ports.
After unloading, the caravans returned, while the goods were moved across the Red Sea to Egyptian ports and further on to Mediterranean ports.2
Egypt was the main hub of Roman trade with the Orient. Strabo informs us that 120 ships departed from one Egyptian Red Sea port to India every year; he mentioned even larger flotillas.3 The Roman Empire did not limit itself to silk in its trade with the Orient: it bought raw materials, including lapis lazuri (lazurite), jade, resins used to make medicines and dyes, and spices.
During antiquity, the Greeks and Romans called China "the Seres" (Serica), a word derived from the Chinese word for silk; in the latter half of the 1st millennium B.C. silk became one of the main Chinese products; in the 4th century B.C., silk technologies reached India and then the oases
1 For more on the Great Silk Road and its main trade routes, see: A.A. Ierusalimskaya, "Ipek Yolunda Kaf-kaslar," in: Turkler, ed. by H.C. Guzel, K. Cigek, S. Koca, Vol. 3, Yeni Turkiye Yayinlari, Ankara, 2002, S. 243, 244; B.Ia. Staviskiy, "The Silk Road and its Importance in the History," in: The Turks, ed. by H.C. Guzel, C. Cem Oguz,
0. Karatay, Vol. I, Ankara, 2002, pp. 222, 225; M. Tezcan, "Ipek Yolu ve XIV. Yuzyila Kadar Ipek Yolu Ticaretinde Trabzon'un Yeri," in: Trabzon ve Qevresi Uluslararasi Tarih-Dil-Edebiyat Sempozyumu Bildirileri 3-5 Mayts 2001,
1. Cilt. Tarih / Yayina Hazirlayanlar: Prof. Dr. Mithat Kerim ARSLAN—Yard. Do?. Dr. Hikmet OKSUZ, T.C. Trabzon, 2002, S. 70-74; M. Tezcan, "The Iranian-Georgian Branch of the Silk Road in I-IV Centuries," in: 1st International Silk Road Symposium 25-27 June, 2003, Tbilisi, Georgia, Izmir, 2004, pp. 208-210.
2 There are two important works dated to the 1st century which supply information about the marine silk route, the main trade routes, and commodities: Stathmoi Parthikoi contains valuable information about the Iranian route of the Silk Road, while Periplus Maris Erythraei is practically the only source of information about Rome's trade with the Orient. For more information, see: [http://parthia.com/parthian_stations.htm]; L. Casson, The Periplus Maris Erythraei, Text with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1989, pp. 50-93.
3 See: B.Ia. Staviskiy, op. cit., p. 224.
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of eastern Turkestan; in the 1st-2nd centuries, they reached Hami, and early in the 5th century, Turpan.
According to historian al-Masoudi, Iran started silk production under Sassanian King Shapur II (309-379); cultivation of mulberry silkworms and silk production began in Byzantium in the latter half of the 6th century under Emperor Justinian I (527-565).4
The Great Silk Road, the safety of which depended on the political situation on the continent, changed its routes throughout history.5 The main West-East trade route started in the contemporary Turkish port of Antakya, crossed the Euphrates and Seleucia at the Tigris, Ecbatana in Western Iran (contemporary Hamadan), Rhages (Rey), and Merv to reach Central Asia. Depending on the political situation and security in the East, the road went further either across Sogdiana to Western Turkestan, or through Balkh and the Pamirs to Eastern Turkestan. At Tashkurgan, it joined the roads from the east; according to western authors merchants exchanged their goods at this point.
For safety reasons, the main trade route of the Great Silk Road, which crossed China to reach Iran and Ecbatana (in the northwestern part of the Iranian Plateau), branched off to the north or the south.
A legend says that Indian goods were moved across the Caspian and the Kura and Phasis; Pliny confirms this information. David Braund6 doubted this and pointed to natural obstacles, such as the Surami (Likhi) Range in Western Iberia; another author pointed out that "there was a parallel northern route through Caucasian Albania, Iberia, and Colchis debouching to the Black Sea."7
The Route from Iran to the Caucasus and the Black Sea
According to Tabula Peutingeriana (the Peutinger Map) of the latter half of the 4th century, the route that ran along the southern Caspian coast from Ecbatana in two different directions—to the northwest and to the south—reached Tabriz and continued on to Artaxata, which during the time of the Arsacids (the Parthians) was the region's center on the left-hand bank of the Arax; it ran further on to Dvin and the territory of contemporary Georgia.
Tabula Peutingeriana contains information about numerous roads which ran, in particular, "from Artaxata (Dvin) to Iberia—Armastika (Armazi) and Tiflis (Tbilisi); to the cities of Aksaraporti and Akvilei in the east; and to Dioscurias (Sebastopolis/Sukhumi) and Phasis (Poti) on the Black Sea
4 See: E. Rtveladze, Velikiy shelkovy put. Entsiklopedicheskiy spravochnik. Drevnost i rannee Srednevekovie, State Academic Publishing House Uzbekiston milliy entsiklopediyasi, Tashkent, 1999, pp. 11-12.
5 On the main trade route, see: W.W. Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria & India, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1951, pp. 61, 112; A. Aymard, J. Auboyer, Rome et son Empire (Troisième Edition revue et corrigée). Tome II, Histoire Générale des Civilisations, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1959, pp. 612-619; T.T. Rice, Ancient Arts of Central Asia, Thames and Hudson, London, 1965, p. 176; R. Grousset, L'Empire des Steppes. Attila. Gengis-Khan. Ta-merlan, Quatrième edition, Payot, Paris, 1969, pp. 78-80; Vostochny Turkestan v drevnosti i rannem Srednevekovie. Ocherki istorii, ed. by S.L. Tikhvinskiy, B.A. Litvinskiy, Nauka Publishers, Main Editorial Office of Oriental Literature, Moscow, 1988, pp. 212-222; A.R. Mukhamedjanov, "Economy and Social System in Central Asia in the Kushan Age," in: History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Vol. II, The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D. 250, ed. by J. Harmatta, UNESCO Publishing, 1994, p. 287; B.Ia. Staviskiy, op. cit., pp. 765-766.
6 See: D. Braund, Georgia in Antiquity: A History of Colchis and Transcaucasian Iberia, 550 BC-AD 562, Clarendon Press, Oxford; Oxford University Press, New York, 1994, pp. 40-41.
7 D.M. Lang, "Iran, Armenia and Georgia," in: The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3 (1), The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods, ed. by E. Yarshater, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983, p. 509.
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coast at the mouth of the River Phasis (Rioni) in the west."8 Artaxata was founded by King Artashes in 176 B.C. and developed into a large trading center; it connected Sebastopolis and Phasis on the Black Sea coast with Ecbatana and other trading centers.9
Some believe that in antiquity (before Christ), the route between Artaxata and Anatolia went to Amisos and Sinope through Comana on the southern Black Sea, not to Trapezus (Trabzon). According to Tabula Peutingeriana, it reached the River Phasis and Dioscurias which, according to William Tarn, "was one of the most polyglot of ports"10; the road leading to Trapezus was built in our era when the Roman emperors came to power in the entire region.11
The old trade route, which went from Ardabil to Tiflis and connected Iran and Dvin, later ran across the city of Partaw (Perozapat, now Barda), which was the capital of Arran during the period of Caucasian Albania and the Islamic period.12 From Tiflis, the trade route followed the Kura and Phasis rivers and ended at the port of Poti (Phasis), its westernmost point.
Phasis and Dioscurias were big centers of transit caravan trade. Strabo called it a "Colchis storehouse of goods;" this city was an important point of Roman control. The River Phasis, which reached the inner areas, was a natural route for goods and soldiers, while the fortress of the same name protected trade.13 From that point, goods were sent to the west by sea.
The Transcaucasian Route across the Caspian
Another route from the Orient went across Azerbaijan and Georgia; it used the River Uzboy, the old bed of the Oxus (Amu Darya), and stretched further across the Caspian into the Transcaucasia. According to certain sources, there was a fourth route between the Far East and the Mediterranean rounding the northern coast of the Caspian Sea. It was widely used in the first half of the 1st century.14
The sea route, as well as the land route across the northern Caspian coast to the Black Sea, appeared because the frequent clashes between Anatolia and Iran15 interfered with the use of the
8 N.V. Pigulevskaia, "Vizantiyskaia diplomatia i torgovlia shelkom v V-VII vv.," Vizantiyskiy Vremennik, XXVI (1), 1947, p. 197; N. Pigulewskaja, Byzanz auf den Wegen nach Indien. Aus der Geschichte des byzantinischen Handels mit dem Orient vom 4. bis 6.Jahrhundert, Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Institut für griechisch-römische Altertumskunde, Berliner byzantinistische Arbeiten, Bd. 36, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin; Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam, 1969, S. 156.
9 See: R.H. Hewsen, Armenia. A Historical Atlas, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2001,
p. 62.
10 W.W. Tarn, op. cit., p. 112.
11 See: H.A. Manandian, The Trade and Cities of Armenia in Relation to Ancient World Trade, Transl. from the Second Revised Edition by Nina G. Garsoian, Livraria Bertrand, Lisbon, 1965, pp. 51-52, 106-110. For more detail about this route, see: Ya. Manandian, "O mestonakhozhdenii Caspia via and Caspia portae," in: Ya. Manandian, "Kaspiyskaia doroga," in: Proceedings V, Academy of Sciences of the Armenian S.S.R., Institute of History, AS of A.S.S.R. Publishers, Erevan, 1984, p. 359.
12 The territory on the eastern bank of the Kura was called Arran (Ar-Ran), while the territory on its northern bank was Shirvan (see: V.F. Minorskiy, Istoria Shirvana i Derbenda X-XI vekov, Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan S.S.R., Institute of Oriental Studies, Oriental Literature Publishing House, Moscow, 1963, p. 38).
13 See: H.A. Manandian, op. cit., p. 50; D. Braund, op. cit., p. 192.
14 For more detail, see: Cl. Rapin, "La route commerciale de l'Inde au Pont-Euxin chez Strabon: entre mirage cartographique et réalité archéologique," available at [http://claude.rapin.free.fr/1BiblioTextesGeogrPDF/Rapin_StraboFr_ incomplet.pdf]; S. Suleymanova, Transkaspiyskaia doroga i istoria sviyzey mezhdu Tsentralnoy Aziey i Kavkazom, Çerqçûnasliq lnstitutu-50 Elmi Araçdirmalar, Baki, 2008, pp. 315-317.
15 See: N.V. Pigulevskaia, op. cit., p. 196.
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other routes; for the same reason, the Caucasian roads became important trade routes. However, some members of the academic community (E.H. Bunbury, V.V. Bartold, W.W. Tarn, K.V. Trever, H.A. Manadian, S.P. Tolstov, and P. Daffina) doubted that the trans-Caspian route was used at all.
William Tarn who, having studied the question of whether the Oxus entered the Caspian,16 Greek sources, Strabo and Pliny in particular, and information extracted from what Vasily Bartold wrote about Arab evidence, concluded that Prof. Herrmann's theory could be either right or wrong; in the absence of physical or documentary evidence, "the 'Oxus question' will, for the Greek scholar, remain forever the nightmare which it has always been."17
Edward Bunbury earlier arrived at the same conclusion18: there had never been a trade route between the Transcaucasia and the Black Sea (along the rivers of Kura and Phasis) across the Caspian. Strabo, in his time, merely mentioned this possibility as a fairly easy option. Later his words were distorted or misinterpreted (by Pliny, in particular) and used as proof that this route had existed.19
Sergey Tolstov, for example, relied on air photographs and geological surveys to insist in practically all his works that the Uzboy had never carried the waters of the Oxus. It was after the studies carried out in 1955 and 1956 that he admitted that in the 4th-5th centuries there had been a stream which entered the Caspian, because the Amu Darya entered the Sary Kamish depression. He also agreed that Igly Kala, the fortress on the left-hand bank of the Middle Uzboy had been built in the 4th century by the Xionites to defend against attacks by the Sassanids.20
P. Daffina, well known for his works about the Sak tribes, agreed that there had been a branch of the Oxus called Uzboy, but in ancient times it had been dry.21 Hakob Manandian, in turn, concluded that Indian goods did not arrive in the Northern Caucasus and southern Russian steppe across the Caspian, they were brought by land across the Median Empire and Atropatena. He argued that the Caspian was a fairly stormy sea little suited to navigation and supported his argument with the fact that no Central Asian coins had been found in the Transcaucasia and vice versa.22 Recently this has been refuted by new finds in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Geological surveys carried out after the 1970s between the Aral and Caspian seas revealed a Parthian settlement (Igdy Kala) and western goods. This and information supplied by Herodotus, Strabo, and Pliny convinced A. Herrmann, M. Vorobieva, A. Ierusalimskaia, B. Staviskiy, H. Iusupov, D. Durdyev, B. Vainberg, O. Lordkipanidze, H.W. Haussig, P. Callieri, Cl. Rapin, and S. Suleymanova that the Oxus entered the Caspian through the Uzboy.23
16 See: W.W. Tarn dwelled on three main routes when discussing the Oxus issue (see: W.W. Tarn, "Patrocles and the Oxo-Caspian Trade Route," JHS, The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, XXI, 1901, pp. 10-11).
17 W.W. Tarn, The Greeks... p. 493.
18 See: E.H. Bunbury, A History of Ancient Geography among the Greeks and Romans from the Earliest Ages till the Fall of the Roman Empire, 1879, Vol. I, p. 574, Note. 3; Vol. II, p. 411.
19 "There was never then in existence more than one independent statement about an Oxo-Caspian trade-route ... and the word 'easily' shows that its real meaning was, 'You can easily make a trade-route from Bactria across the Caspian to the Black Sea if you like.' .There is no evidence at all that, in Greek times, any such trade-route from India ever existed" (W.W. Tarn, The Greeks..., pp. 488-490). For the final conclusion Tarn made with respect to this argument, see: W.W. Tarn, Patrocles., p. 28.
20 See: S.P. Tolstov, "Khorezmskaia arkheologo-etnograficheskaia ekspeditsia 1955-1956 gg.," Sovetskaia arkhe-ologiia (SA), No. 1, 1958, pp. 110-111, 125, 127.
21 See: P. Daffinà, "Aral, Caspio, Tanais," RSO, No. 4 (43), 1968, pp. 366, 377-378.
22 See: H.A. Manandian, op. cit., pp. 49-50.
23 See: A. Aymard, J. Auboyer, op. cit., pp. 616-617, Fig. 30; H.G. Franz (Hrsg.), Kunst und Kultur Entlang der Seidenstrasse, 2., verbesserte Auflage, Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz, 1987, p. 19; B.Ja. Staviskij, La Bac-triane sous les Kushans. Problèmes d'Histoire et de Culture, Edition revue et augmentée, traduite du russe par P. Bernard, M. Burda, F. Grenet, P. Leriche, Librairie d'Amérique et d'Orient, Paris, 1986, p. 190, Note 79; (see also: B.I. Vainberg, Etnogeografia Turana v drevnosti. VII v. do n..e.—VIII v. n.e., RAS, Miklukho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Vostochnaia literatura Publishers, RAS, Moscow, 1999, p. 223).
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When writing about the Massagetae, Herodotus (1.202) said that "he has heard dimly of the Oxus or Jaxartes as a river with 40 mouths, all ending in marshes but one, which flows clear into the Caspian; there are islands in it as big as Lesbos, inhabited by savage fish-eaters and other strange people."24 Igor Pyankov believed that Herodotus had borrowed information from Heca-taeus.25
Yahya Gulyamov, likewise, wrote that in antiquity a stream had branched off the Oxus and headed for the Sary Kamis depression, filling it with water that then ran into the Uzboy. There was another stream that ran along the Uzboy and was filled with water at least part of the year. In this way, Khwarezm maintained contacts with the Middle Eastern states via the Karakum desert (the Shakhris-tan Route); according to Gulyamov, the long chain of ancient cities and fortresses along the route was the best proof of the above.26
A. Ierusalimskaia based her opinion that goods came to the Northern Caucasus not from Sassa-nid Iran, but from China and Sogdiana on the artifacts of immense archeological and cultural value found in the Northern Caucasus (the Moshchevaia Balka site, in particular). Sogdian merchants brought Chinese silks together with goods produced in Sogdiana; this is confirmed by information supplied by Alexander Iessen.
Dr. Ierusalimskaia calculated the percentage of silk products in the total number of archeological finds in the Northern Caucasus and concluded: "There was a constantly used trade route between Central Asia and Byzantium that crossed the Northern Caucasus."27 This is confirmed by a great number of Byzantine coins found recently in Central Asia and China.
Boris Staviskiy, well know all over the world as an expert in the Kushans and the East-West trade, also believes that the route existed.28
B. Vainberg relies on the finds of the last ten years to write that throughout antiquity, there was a large stream which ran into the Sary Kamish depression between the Aral and Caspian seas.
Written sources and numerous archeological finds confirm that there was a shorter trade route across the Caspian that connected Khwarezm and the large states in the West.29 Igor Pyankov agrees with this.30
Some believe that the route was used in Kushan times; in the 1st century, the Kushans set up a large state at the site where the busiest routes of the Great Silk Road met: it is surmised that there was a route that led to the Caspian and ran along the lower reaches of the Oxus and its old (dried by that time) stream called the Uzboy. The diggings along the Uzboy route (between the Aral and Caspian seas) produced numerous evidence of ancient cities and water canals, as well as of what remained of Oriental goods. This means that even at the time of the Persians, people still lived there in cities and trade was flourishing.
Otar Lordkipanidze supplied information about the stretch that ran from the Caspian across the Caucasus and about regular trade between India and the Western world in the 4th-3rd centuries
24 W.W. Tarn, Patrocles..., p. 22; I.V. Pyankov, "Massagety Gerodota," VDI, No. 2, 1975, p. 47.
25 See: I.V. Pyankov, op. cit., p. 56.
26 See: Ya.G. Gulyamov, "Rabovladelcheskiy period," in: Istoria Khorezma s drevneyshikh vremen do nashikh dney, ed. by I.M. Muminov, [Monograph], Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek S.S.R., Institute of History, Fan Publishers, Tashkent, 1976, pp. 37-38.
27 A.A. Ierusalimskaia, "O severokavkazskom 'Shelkovom puti' v rannem Srednevekovye," SA, No. 2, 1967, pp. 68-72 (see also: idem, "Alanskiy mir na 'Shelkovom puti' (Moshchevaia Balka—istoriko-kulturny kompleks VIII-IX vekov)," in: Kultura Vostoka. Drevnost i rannee Srednevekovie, Collection of articles, The Order of Lenin State Hermitage, Department of the Orient, Avrora Publishers, Leningrad, 1978, pp. 152-160; A.A. Ierusalimskaya, "Ipek Yolunda Kafkaslar," S. 244-249).
28 See: B.Ia. Staviskiy, op. cit., p. 765.
29 See: B.I. Vainberg, op. cit., p. 26.
30 Igor Pyankov substantiated his position in his books and articles: Sredniaia Azia v antichnoy geograficheskoy traditsii, Moscow, 1997; Istoria i kultura Aralo-Kaspia, Collection of articles, Almaty, 2001; Velikie reki—attractory lokalnykh tsivilizatsiy, Dubna, 2002.
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B.C. He relied on archeological finds to conclude that one of the main transit trade routes ran "from India to the Caspian, crossed the Transcaucasia along the Kura, crossed the Suram pass and went further on to Phasis;" it then crossed the sea to reach Asia Minor and the Mediterranean.31
Iusupov and Vainberg agreed that by the 4th century B.C., the Uzboy was filled with water from the Oxus; archeological finds from Ichyanly depe speak of the people on the northern bank as cattle breeders.32 In the 1st century B.C.-1st-3rd century A.D., the Oxus changed its course; by the 4th century, water no longer reached the Sary Kamish depression; this made the 5th-7th centuries the "darkest" period in the history of the Oxus.
Archeological finds testify to the fact that between the 7th century B.C. and the 4th-5th centuries A.D., Sary Kamish Lake and the stream that brought water to it were filled by the Oxus.33 In the 4th century, when the Uzboy dried up, people left its banks.
Information about the lower reaches of the Oxus, which flowed to Iran, is no less interesting. It is supplied by a Chinese source called Shui-ching-chu published by Luciano Petech; it was written in the early 6th century and was based on much earlier information. One of the manuscripts called Shih-shih Hsi-yu-chi compiled by an anonymous Buddhist monk (probably in the 4th century) writes about the I-lo-ch'i-ti river (probably the Oxus). Petech relies on this information to write about the western part of the same river and its functions.34 This source suggests that, at least in the 5th century, the Oxus entered the Aral Sea; in the 5th or 6th centuries or between 1220 and 1570, the Oxus changed its course.35
Hans Wilhelm Haussig referred to Strabo to assert that the route between Khwarezm and the Caspian reached the Kura by water where it split into two roads, one of them going to Artaxata,36 the other followed the Arax, crossed Iberia, Mtskheta, and Colchis to reach the Black Sea.37 This is confirmed by what other sources say about a transit trade route that followed the Kura and Arax rivers and reached Ecbatana. According to Aelianus Tacticus who lived at the turn of the 2nd century, caravan trade in fish glue was going on between the Caspian and Ecbatana; there was no such trade between the Caspian and Black seas.38
During the Parthian period, Parthian merchants played an important role in the trade along the Great Silk Road.39 In Kushanic times, the merchants crossed the Caspian and landed in the Transcaucasia, on what is now the Azeri coast.
B. Vainberg offered a figure of about 350 km, the length of the sea route between the mouth of Uzboy in the Turkmen Bay of the Caspian to the Kura and the Sefid-Rud (Qizil Uzun) river. It led to
31 See: Arkheologia SSSR. Drevneishie gosudarstva Kavkaza i Sredney Azii, ed. by G.A. Koshelenko, Nauka Publishers, Moscow, 1985, p. 52.
32 See: B.I. Vainberg, H.Iu. Iusupov, "Kultovy kompleks drevnikh skotovodov na Uzboe," in: Kulturnye sviazi narodov Sredney Azii i Kavkaza. Drevnost i Srednevekovie, ed. by A.M. Leskov, B.Ia. Staviskiy, the U.S.S.R. Ministry of Culture, State Museum of the Art of Peoples of the East, Nauka Publishers, Main Editorial Office of Oriental Literature, Moscow, 1990, pp. 30-31.
33 See: B.I. Vainberg, op. cit., pp. 32-36, 233.
34 See: L. Petech, Northern India according to the Shui-ching-chu, Serie Orientale Roma, II, Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Roma, 1950, p. 62: "The unknown monk who compiled the Shih-shih His-yü-chi seems to have very hazy idea about the Farthest West. He connects the Caspian Sea with the Persian Gulf and perhaps even with the Mediterranean and Black Sea, to form one great ocean surrounding Iran."
35 See: H.G. Franz, op. cit., p. 19.
36 See: J. Marquart agreed that there was a route mentioned by Ptolemy and Tabula Peutingeriana—it ran from Artaxata to the Caspian and back (see: J. Marquart, Skizzen zur historischen Topographie und Geschichte von Kaukasien. Das Itinerar von Artaxata nach Armastica auf römischen Weltkarte, Studien zur armenischen Geschichte, Mechitharisten-Buchdruckerei, Wien, 1928, p. 63, Tafel I, Abb. 2).
37 See: H.W. Haussig, Die Geschichte Zentralasiens und der Seidenstrasse in vorislamischer Zeit, Grundzüge Bd. 49, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1983, p. 79.
38 See: M. Bais, Albania Caucasia. Ethnos, storia, territorio attraverso le fonti greche, latine e armene. Mimesis, saggi e narrazioni di estetica e filosofia, Milano, 2001, p. 71; D. Braund, op. cit., p. 41.
39 See: Arkheologia SSSR. Drevneyshie gosudarstva Kavkaza i Sredney Azii, p. 222.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
Atropatena, Media, and Gilan and from there into the Diyala basin and on to Ecbatana, the administrative center of the Achaemenid Kingdom.40 The river divided into two streams (the Kura and the Arax), crossed Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, and entered the Caspian.41 In order to reach the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, merchants went up the Kura, crossed Georgia, and reached the Black sea by the Phasis.42
According to Warmington, during political disturbances in the Iranian State when merchants could not use the land routes, they moved their goods from India via the Caspian to the Transcaucasia, following land routes westward—first from the mouth of the Arax to Artaxata and then closer to the western areas of Asia Minor where the road bifurcated.43
This is confirmed by Strabo (60 B.C.-A.D. 25) in his Geographica and by Pliny the Elder (2379) in his The Natural History. Both wrote about a trade route that ran from India to the Caspian, crossed the Transcaucasia, and reached the Black Sea.44
Strabo referred to earlier sources (Aristobulus in particular) to write that during the time of Alexander the Great, the Oxus had been navigable; goods were brought across the Caspian, which Strabo called the Hyrcanian Sea.45 Pliny the Elder wrote that the Oxus flowed into the Caspian.46 He also wrote that people could have been moved along the Oxus, into the Caspian and up the Kura, while Indian goods could be brought to Phasis (at the mouth of the eponymous river) separated from the Colchis by five days of travel.47
Pliny the Elder probably referred to this route48 when he wrote that Seleucid Emperor Seleucus I Nicator (312-281 B.C.), who was very interested in the eastward water routes, had wanted to dig a
40 See: B.I. Vainberg, op. cit., p. 26.
41 See: R.H. Hewsen, The Geography of Ananias of Sirak (ASXARHACjOYCj). The Long and the Short Recensions, Introduction, Translation and Commentary, Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1992, p. 133. There is no agreement on whether in antiquity the Kura and the Arax flowed into the Caspian as one river or separately.
42 See: E.H. Warmington, The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India, Second edition, revised and enlarged, Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd, Delhi, 1974, p. 26.
43 See: Ibid., p. 26.
44 For more on Pliny's information, see: E.H. Bunbury, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 411; and on the transit trade route from India to the Black Sea, see: O.D. Lordkipanidze, "O tranzitno-torgovom puti iz Indii k Chernomu moryu," Soobshchenia AN Gruzii, 1957, pp. 377-484.
45 For more detail, see: M.G. Raschke, "New Studies in Roman Commerce with the East," in: Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt. Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung. II. Principat, 9.2, Hrsg. H. Temporini, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 1978, p. 746, n. 435; M. Tezcan, ipek Yolu... p. 73, n. 18; Cl. Rapin, op. cit.
46 According to B. Vainberg, Igor Pyankov translated what Pliny had written about the Amu Darya, which reached the Caspian through the Uzboy, in the following way: "The river flowed through Lake Oax." This means that Pliny faithfully described the situation whereby the streams of Amu Darya entered Sari Kamish Lake to leave it as the Uzboy (see: B.I. Vainber, op. cit, p. 226; O. & E. Lattimore, Asia Seen through the Eyes of its Discoveries. Silks, Spices and Empire, Delacorte Press, 1968, pp. 11-13).
47 See: H.A. Manandian, op. cit., p. 47; E.H. Warmington, op. cit., p. 26; Cl. Rapin, op. cit. W. Tarn offered the following translation: "Pliny (i.e. Varro) says that it was found out (not 'explored') on Pompey's expedition that in seven days goods came through (or could come through) from India to the river of Bactra, which ran into the Oxus, 'and from the Oxus the goods, carried (or 'if carried') across the Caspian to the Cyrus, can be brought down the Phasis to the Black Sea with a land porterage not exceeding five days" (W.W. Tarn, The Greeks..., p. 489). He studied the entire body of information about the means and methods used to deliver Indian goods across the Caspian and Black seas in the Hellenic period and said that there was no evidence that this route ever existed and no reason whatever for supposing that it did (see: ibid., pp. 112-113).
48 See: R.N. Frye, The History of Ancient Iran, C.H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich, 1984, p. 153; M. Bais, op. cit., pp. 70, 76, Note 302 (see: Pliny VI.31: "aliqui inter Pontum et Caspium mare non amplius interesse tra-diderunt, Cornelius Nepos: tantis iterum angustiis infestatur Asia. Claudius Caesar a Cimmerio Bosporo ad Caspium mare prodidite aque perfodere cogitasse Nicatorem Seleucum quo tempore sit ab Ptolemaeo Cerauno interfectus, a Portis Cau-casiis ad Pontum esse constat fere," available at [http://www.ku.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/L7Roman/Texts/ Pliny_the_Elder/ 6*.html]—"Some authorities have reported the distance between the Black Sea and the Caspian as not more than 375 miles, while Cornelius Nepos makes it 250 miles: by such narrow straits is Asia for a second time beset.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
canal49 between the Caspian and the Black seas to control the Caspian Sea.50 In 283-282 B.C., with the same aim in view, great seafarer Patrocles studied the Caspian littoral.51 The Kura and Phasis were connected by a stone-paved road,52 the journey along which took four days; goods were then moved along the River Phasis, which flowed in the gorges close to the Sarapana Fortress and reached the Black Sea.
In 66-65 B.C., defeated ruler of Pontus Mithradates VI Eupator (120-63 B.C.)53 escaped to Colchis; after conquering Iberia, Roman military commander Pompeius moved to Colchis.54 The Roman general went down the Kura to the River Phasis, from which he moved to Sarapana and reached the Black Sea via Kutaisi and Phasis (Poti).55
The Sebastopolis-Artaxata route reached the Kura valley and crossed the Zekar Pass.56 It took merchants several days to get from the Black Sea via Phasis to the important ports of Amisos and Sinope57; in Roman times, the Orient began beyond Colchis,58 the last point of the road, which ran across the Caspian and the Kura and Arax. It was in the 20s B.C. and at the time of Tigranes the Great (95-55 B.C.) that the Romans consolidated their presence in the region; in 66 (or 72) B.C., thanks to Pompeius, it became (together with Pontus) a Roman province.59 After 66 B.C., the Romans established good relations with the Albanian and Iberian tribes, which radically changed the situation in the East.60
Historical sources supply information about the route of the later expedition of Pompeius to Albania and back.61 The land route from the Orient ran along the Tigris past Rhages (Rey) and Ecba-
Claudius Caesar gives the distance from the Straits of Kertsch to the Caspian Sea as 150 miles, and states that Seleucus Nicator at the tune when he was killed by Ptolemy Ceraunus was contemplating cutting a channel through this isthmus. It is practically certain that the distance from the Gates of the Caucasus to the Black Sea is 200 miles," available at [http:// www.archive.org/stream/naturalhistory02plinuoft/naturalhistory02plinuoft_djvu.txt]).
49 See: D. Braund, op. cit., p. 42 ("presumably to be cut north of the Caucasus mountains").
50 See: T.T. Rice, op. cit., p. 22.
51 See: W.W. Tarn, Patrocles., pp. 14-21; M. Bais, op. cit., p. 70, 76; Cl. Rapin, op. cit.
52 On the Kura-Rioni/Phasis route, see: Arkheologia SSSR. Drevneyshie gosudarstva Kavkaza i Sredney Azii, p. 98.
53 N. Lomouri wrote that Mithradates ascended the throne in 121 B.C.; he proceeded from the date of his birth in Sinope (133 B.C.); it is known that he ascended the throne at the age of 11 or 12 (see: N. Lomouri, Iz istorii Pontiysko-go tsarstva, Part I, AS Georgian SSR, Metsniereba, Tbilisi, 1979, pp. 48, 73-74); M. Arslan uses the date 120 B.C. (see: M. Arslan, Mithradates VIEupator. Roma'nm Büyük Dü$mam, Odin Yayincilik, 2007, S. 73).
54 See: N. Lomouri, op. cit., p. 113.
55 See: H. Manandian, Tigrane II & Rome, Nouveaux ecclaircissements à la Lumiere des Sources originals, Traduit de L. Armenien Oriental par H. Thorossian, Imprensa Nacional, Lisbonne, 1963, pp. 180-181; Ya. Manandian, op. cit., p. 227 (Map 2). A merchant who moved in the opposite direction either went up the River Phasis or moved to the opposite side of the Caspian littoral mountains and went down to the Oxus valley, to the Afghan passes and India (see: G.I. Bratianu, La mer Noire. Des origines à la conquête ottomane, Societas Academica Dacoromana, Acta Historica tomus IX, Monachii, 1969, p. 73).
56 See: Ya. Manandian, op. cit., pp. 366, 371 ("the Meoto-Colchis road").
57 Neither archeological, nor literary, nor historical sources confirm that a land route existed from Phasis to Trape-zus; this confirms that the route from Phasis to Amisos and Sinope was used (see: R.H. Hewsen, Armenia..., p. 65).
58 See: H.W. Haussig, "Die ältesten Nachrichten der griechischen und lateinischen Quellen über die Routen der Seidenstrasse nach Zentral- und Ostasien", AAASH, No. 28, 1980, S. 14.
59 See: M.-L. Chaumont, "L'Arménie entre Rome et l'Iran. I. De l'avènement d'Auguste a l'avènement de Dioclét-ien," in: Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt. Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung. II. Principat, 9.1, Hrsg. H. Temporini, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 1976, p. 67; D.M. Lang, op. cit., p. 16; Arkheologia SSSR. Drevneyshie gosudarstva Kavkaza i Sredney Azii, p. 56; R.H. Hewsen, The Geography..., p. 125; idem, Armenia.., p. 38; M. Bais, op. cit., p. 75 (see also: D. Braund, op. cit., pp. 152-170).
60 See: N. Pigulevskaja, "Les Villes de l'État Iranien aux Époques Parthe et Sassanide. Contribution à l'histoire sociale de la Basse Antiquité," in: École Pratique des Hautes Études-Sorbonne, Documents et Recherches sur l'Économie des Pays Byzantins, Islamiques et Slaves et leurs Relations commerciales au Moyen Age, Préface de Claude Cahen, Mouton & Co, La Haye, Paris, 1963, pp. 56-57.
61 On Pompeius' back route via "Caspia via," see: H. Manandian, Tigrane II., p. 185; Ya. Manandian, op. cit., pp. 232-233 (Map 3); 233-237 (Map 4); S. Suleymanova, op. cit., pp. 321-322.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
tana on the Great Silk Road and connected them with Artaxata. It was completely controlled by Parthian Iran, but it was impossible to control the Caspian and Caucasian tribes that lived father north.62
From this it follows that the Oxus and the Caspian helped promote East-West trade. There is information that in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries, under emperors Trajan (98-117) and Hadrian (117-138), Rome and the Kushans established some sort of diplomatic relations.63
A. Mukhamedjanov, an archeologist from Uzbekistan, has studied not only the goods that reached the West via Central Asia late in the 1st century, but also the routes that connected the Mediterranean countries with India and the Far East to conclude that this trade route did exist.64 German historian A. Herrmann was of the same opinion.65
Relations between the Roman Empire and China;
Interference of Iran and the Struggle for Eastern Trade in the Transcaucasia
The relations between the Mediterranean and China are four thousand years old; the history of the Great Silk Road goes back two thousand years. The traditional history of China says that it appeared in 115 or 105 B.C.; on the whole, information about this period is scarce.
Roman merchants were the first to investigate the Great Silk Road. Geographer Ptolemy, who lived in the mid-2nd century, wrote that in the 100s a certain Macedonian merchant called Maes Ti-tianus sent his people to the east to find stone milestones—trail markers; according to legend they were taken for Buddha messengers.66
Ptolemy also wrote that the first valuable and reliable information on the Great Silk Route had been provided in the 110s by great geographer Marinus of Tyr in his Corrected Geographical Tables. The original did not survive; we know about it thanks to Ptolemy, who included the information it supplied in his work titled Geography.61
Ambassador Chang Ch'ien, whom Chinese Emperor Wu-ti sent to the West in 136-128 B.C., supplied a report about what he had seen in Western Turkestan and about the road to the West. This information68 helped the Chinese emperors "establish and maintain diplomatic and trade relations with the Parthian Kingdom in Iran and through it with Rome." In 97, ambassador Kan Ying,69 sent by
62 See: E.H. Warmington, op. cit., pp. 26-27, 34.
63 See: B.N. Puri, "The Kushans," in: History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Vol. II, pp. 256-257.
64 He wrote the following: "From there (Bactria) merchants travelled by boat down the Amu Darya, over the Caspian Sea and across Transcaucasia to the Black Sea" (A.R. Mukhamedjanov, op. cit., p. 285).
65 See: A. Herrmann, An Historical Atlas of China, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1966, pp. 18-19.
66 See: G. Bratianu, op. cit., p. 102.
67 See: E. Rtveladze, op. cit., p. 233. About Titianus, see: E. De La Vassière, Histoire des Marchands Sogdiens, Bibliothèque de l'Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, Vol. XXXII, Collège de France, Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, 2002, p. 43.
68 See: B.Ia. Staviskiy, op. cit., p. 223.
69 See: I.M. Franck, D.M. Brownstone, To the End of the Earth. The Great Travel and Trade Routes of Human History. Facts on File Publications, 1984, p. 385. Some believe that the ambassador did not reach the eastern borders of the Roman Empire, but turned back after reaching the Euphrates because the Parthians tried to prevent direct contacts between China and Rome (see: B.Ia. Staviskiy, op. cit., p. 223). On Kang Ying's travels and routes about which he informed
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
Viceroy of Han Emperor He-ti in Eastern Turkestan Pan Ch'ao, reached a region of the Roman Empire that the sources of the 3rd century called Ta Ch'in (later Fu-lin). It seems that they were the Oriental domains of the Roman Empire—Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, or Egypt.70
There is information that ambassadors of the Roman Empire paid return visits to China. In 166, in the days of Ta-ts'in Emperor An-tun (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus [161-189]), Rome sent an embassy to China to deal with the problem. Information about the mission can be found in the Chinese sources Hou Han-shu and Liang Shu. Regrettably, no Roman sources contain similar information.71
Some of the Roman emperors sent ambassadors to the Kushan rulers, whose empire was situated in Northern India; they were probably looking for trade routes with the Orient outside Parthian Iran. The return missions show that Rome had its own reasons to seek trade ties with the East; it avoided the main Great Silk Road that crossed Iran and preferred other routes.
Here is a detailed description of the trade routes mentioned above. All attempts by the Roman Empire to organize regular trade with the Orient, and with China in particular, were cut short, first, by the Parthians and later by the Sassanids72 who clutched at the lucrative role of middleman in silk trade with China.73 No wonder they spared no effort to prevent direct contacts between China and Rome.
The Parthians and later Sassanids profited from the geographic location of their empire: at that time, "the Western merchants could not reach the East and the Chinese, the West." In the 570s Parthians and Sassanids interfered with the silk trade between the East and the West on land and at sea. They either bought up everything from the caravans that crossed their lands or set impossibly high prices.74
In an effort to reach the Orient, the Roman Empire waged several wars against the Parthians; each of them ended in a truce: the Parthians were not strong enough to capture the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.
In 66, the sides signed a peace treaty for 50 years so as to derive maximum profit from the silk trade.75 The Iranian stretch of the Great Silk Road remained open during this period.
Stathmoi Parthikoi (Parthian Stations) by Isidore of Charax is one of the most important sources about the overland trade route that ran across Iran in the early 1st century. It contains information about the goods and some of the stations along the road, which began in Antioch, ran across Zeugma, crossed the Euphrates, reached Horasan (the Parthian capital), and went on to Kandahar.76
Despite the truce, the Parthians, who enjoyed considerable gains from the silk trade, preserved control over the Great Silk Road that ran through Media, Armenia, Colchis, and the Black Sea ports.77 By the end of the century, however, silk and many other Oriental commodities were moved by sea (not via Iran) to the Mediterranean ports.78 In the 2nd century, when Rome finally prevailed over
the emperor, see: D.D. Leslie, K.H.J. Gardiner, The Roman Empire in Chinese Sources, Universita di Roma "La Sapien-za," "Studi Orientali," Bardi Editore, Roma, 1996, pp. 141-148, 166.
70 See: E. Rtveladze, op. cit., p. 216.
71 For more on the Roman embassy to China, see: D.D. Leslie, K.H.J. Gardiner, op. cit., pp. 53-158; S. Lieu, "Byzantium, Persia and China: Interstate Relations on the Eve of the Islamic Conquest," in: Silk Road Studies IV. Realms of the Silk Roads: Ancient and Modern, Proceedings from the Third Conference of the Australian Society for Inner Asian Studies, ed. by D. Christian & C. Benjamin, Ancient History Documentary Research Centre, Macquarie University, Brepols, 2000, p. 47.
72 See: N.V. Pigulevskaya, Vizantiyskaia diplomatia i torgovlia shelkom..., p. 186.
73 See: K. Enoki, G.A. Koshelenko, Z. Haidary, "The Yüeh-chih and Their Migrations," in: History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Vol. II, p. 187.
74 See: M. Tezcan, ipek Yolu..., p. 75.
75 See: T.T. Rice, op. cit., p. 91.
76 See: Parthian Stations by Isidore of Charax. An Account of the Overland Trade Route between the Levant and India in the First Century B.C., available at [http://parthia.com/parthian_stations.htm].
77 See: T.T. Rice, op. cit., p. 91.
78 See: M. Tezcan, The Iranian-Georgian Branch..., p. 209; L. Boulnois, The Silk Road, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1966, p. 56.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
Parthia, it started looking for sea trade routes, partly through the ports in Indian territory. At that time, Artaxata, on the banks of the Arax, was part of an important route that connected the Black Sea ports of Phasis and Sebastopolis with Ecbatana in Iran and other trading centers.79 The goods brought there were moved to the west and northwest either by the Phasis to the Black Sea (according to information supplied by Tabula Peutingeriana) or through Comana to Samsun (Amisos) and Sinope, but not to Trapezus.80
The Romans, who captured Artaxata in 163, turned it, in the first half of the 4th century, into an important center; they established their domination over the trade route that led to the Black Sea area. A short truce was established in 363 under Iranian Emperor Shapur II (A.D. 309-379) and Roman Emperor Jovian (363-364). A year later the wars resumed with even greater ferocity (364-367); the Sassanids recaptured Artaxata and other cities; Rome lost its direct political power and trade influence in Armenia and Iberia (Georgia).81 After 428, Dvin, built a little ways to the north of Artaxata, became the region's center. Tabula Peutingeriana mentions the routes between Artaxata-Dvin, Tiflis, and Sebastopolis/Phasis on the Black Sea coast.82
Phasis was another trade hub where Chinese and Indian goods were stored. Situated on the southeastern Black Sea coast, it was the westernmost point of the road, which began south of the Caspian Sea and went to the northwest via the River Arax. In the 2nd century, it was a target of political and trade rivalry between the Romans and Parthians.
According to written sources and certain archeological finds, the city was the westernmost point of the route which, starting in the 1st century A.D., connected, for 300 years, the Black Sea and Western Turkestan across the Caspian and the important centers in the Kushan Empire trading in Chinese and Indian goods.83
The finds of western goods in ancient settlements on the eastern Caspian coast prove that the East and West traded along the Uzboy (the old riverbed of the Amy Darya), which dried up in the 4th century. A certain number of coins (dated to the 2nd century B.C.) from the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom, which existed in Western Turkestan, were found in the Black Sea and Caucasian regions (in Tiflis, in particular).84
When writing about a trade route that started in India, went to the Caspian (Hyrcanian) Sea, and further on across the Transcaucasia to the Black Sea, Strabo and Pliny the Elder pointed out that, since the times of Alexander the Great, the Oxus (which ran into the Caspian) was navigable. It was used to bring goods to the Caucasus.85
There was a northern route which started at the ports on the northern Black Sea coast, ran along the northern Caspian shore, and went along the Aral coast and the Syr Darya to Western Turkmenistan, or further north to Moghulistan and China. Back in the 5th century B.C. Herodotus mentioned this "Northern" or "Steppe" route when writing about the steppe tribes living in the East. This road was little used in antiquity; at the turn of the Middle Ages, however, when the Sassanids and the Turkic Khaganate were locked in bitter rivalry, the route became much more popular.
79 See: R.H. Hewsen, Armenia..., p. 65.
80 See: H. Manandian, The Trade and Cities of Armenia, pp. 51-52.
81 See: E. Honigmann, Bizans Devletinin Dogu Smtrt. Grekfe, arabca, Süryanice ve Ermenice kaynaklara göre 363'den 1071'e kadar. Tercüme eden: Prof. Dr. Fikret Ijiltan, Istanbul, 1970, S. 4.
82 On the main routes, see: M. Tezcan, The Iranian-Georgian Branch..., pp. 211-212.
83 For more on this trade road and its main routes, see, for example: Ibid., pp. 212-214.
84 See: P. Callieri, "L'esplorazione geografica dell'Iran in epoca ellenistica e romana: il contributo dell documen-tazione archeological," OCNUS, No. 7, 1999, p. 41. For more on the recent finds of ancient goods and coins in Azerbaijan, see: S. Suleymanova, op. cit., p. 316, Note 2.
85 See: W.W. Tarn, The Greeks..., p. 489; P. Callieri, op. cit., p. 38; M. Tezcan, The Iranian-Georgian Branch..,
p. 213.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
Certain finds (Roman and Bosporan coins found in Jungaria and in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, Graeco-Bactrian coins found in the Black Sea and Caucasian regions, as well as Chinese goods)86 point to direct trading contacts between Rome and China. For example, the gravestone dated to the 2nd-3rd centuries found in the Crimea had a relief and an inscription in Chinese dated approximately to the Han Dynasty.87 The city of Tanais at the mouth of the Don was the main Black Sea station of the Northern (Steppe) route.
Hou Han-shu said the following about the situation caused by the Parthian (An-hsi) policy of interference: "They [Rome (Ta-ts'in)] traffic by sea with An-hsi [Parthia] and T'en-chu [India], the profit of which trade is ten-fold... Their kings always desired to send embassies to China, but the An-hsi [Parthians] wished to carry on trade with them in Chinese silks, and it is for this reason that they were cut off from communication. This lasted till the ninth year of the Yen-hsi period during the emperor Huan-ti's reign [=A.D. 166]."88 As mentioned above, in A.D. 166 the Roman Emperor Antoninus sent an embassy to China.
It was obviously highly important to somehow "push aside" the Parthians' political power to trade in silk directly with China.
In the first three centuries A.D., the role of middleman in Roman overland silk trade with the Orient belonged to the Kushan Kingdom, which occupied the territories of Northern India, Afghanistan, and Bactria. At that time, China and India traded across the Pamirs or Bactria, while the eastern part of the caravan routes was controlled by Kushans.
The Kushan Kingdom reached its heyday in the 1st and 2nd centuries when Northern India, Bactria, and the south of Sogdiana became very rich. Kushan merchants figured prominently in their trade with China.89 Merchants from Western Turkestan, likewise, played an important role; they brought Buddhism to China and founded colonies in the oases of Eastern Turkestan, Changan, the capital of China, and elsewhere. They were mostly interested in silk and other Oriental products.
The Sogdians90 were also involved in silk trade with China; early in the 4th century, they brought the written language to Central Asia and organized colonies in Central Asia and even in the steppes of Moghulistan.91 In 370-750, Sogdiana was known as a "trading empire;" its language was lingua franca, that is, the language of trade and traders.92
Conclusion
The Roman Empire, which persisted in its efforts to contact the Orient across the Caspian (something which the Sassanids tried to achieve in the Hellenic period) by overcoming the obstacles—the Parthians and later the Sassanids—in carrying out overland trade on the Great Silk Road, never completely succeeded.
86 See: M. Tezcan, The Iranian-Georgian Branch..., p. 210. It remains unknown how these objects reached these lands
87 See: B.Ia. Staviskiy, op. cit., p. 225.
88 F. Hirth, China and the Roman Orient. Researches into their Ancient and Medieval Relations as represented in Old Chinese Records, Ares Publishers Inc., Chicago, 1975, p. 42; D.D. Leslie, K.H.J. Gardiner, op. cit., p. 51; A.A. Ieru-salimskaja, Die Gräber der Moseevaja Balka. Frühmittelalterliche Funde an der nordkaukasischen Seidenstrasse, Hrsg. Bayerischen Nationalmuseum München und von der Staatlichen Ermitage Sankt Petersburg, Editio Maris, München, 1996, S. 120; M. Tezcan, ipek Yolu..., p. 76; M. Tezcan, The Iranian-Georgian Branch..., p. 209.
89 See: E. De La Vassiere, op. cit., pp. 89-90.
90 For more on the role of the Sogdians in trade with China and India B.C. and early A.D., see: De La Vassiere, op. cit., pp. 40-97; Liu Xinru, The Silk Road in World History. The New Oxford World History, Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 67-69.
91 See: R.N. Frye, "The Merchant World of the Sogdians," in: Silk Road Studies VII. Nomads, Traders and Holy Men along China's Silk Road. Papers presented at a symposium held at The Asia Society in New York, 9-10 November, 2001, ed. by A.L. Juliano, J.A. Lerner, Brepols, 2001, p. 72.
92 See: E. De La Vassiere, op. cit., pp. 102-192.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
In 64 B.C., Rome, which wanted to enter the Transcaucasia, conquered the Pontic Kingdom and captured its fleet (based in Trapezus), which dominated the Black Sea. At first Rome intended to join the region to the empire to ensure safe trade navigation between the Sea of Marmara and Phasis on the eastern Black Sea coast and establish Roman control over the road to Armenia. The Roman Empire, however, might have been looking further: it might have planned to reach the so-called Gates of Alexander, spread to the northeast,93 and reach the Caspian to establish control over the eastern trade route between India and Bactria and the Black Sea via Oxus, the Caspian, and the Kura.94
According to the historical sources, in the 1st-2nd centuries, Rome established ties with the Kushan Empire (which occupied Northern India and Bactria) to gain access to Indian and Chinese goods.
We also know that at that time China sent their ambassadors to the West to establish direct contacts: the main stretch of the Great Silk Road went across Bactria; it belonged to the Kushans who had grown rich in silk trade and intended to trade with the West themselves.95 In the 1st century the Kush-ans began moving Oriental goods along the Uzboy to the Caspian and further on to the west.
In the 3rd century, the Chinese Han Dynasty fell; very soon the Kushan Empire collapsed, which plunged the region into instability. At the turn of the 5th century, the Uzboy dried up; in the 6th century, trade across the Caspian was discontinued. This and the changed relations between the Turkic Khaganate and Byzantium moved this route to the north of the Caspian.
Later, the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire tried to open the road to the Orient and the Transcaucasia.
In the 6th century, Shakhinshah Khosrau I (Anushirvan), who ruled in Iran, interfered in the overland and sea routes that crossed the Red Sea (Yemen). This forced Emperor Justinian I (527-565), who wanted to gain access to the Orient, to turn his gaze toward the Caucasus and start talking to the Turks. When dispatching a diplomatic mission across the Caucasus, he probably instructed them to explore the territory and to revise the records of the Hellenic and Roman periods.96
The Roman emperor decided to explore a more dangerous route that moved north along the Caspian coast because of what was going on in Iran. The Sassanids, who controlled the Daryal and Derbent passes, closed the road that went from the north down to the south and the ancient sea route between the East and the West.
Meanwhile, after the 4th century, the Uzboy no longer flowed into the Caspian. We know that Emperor Heraclius I organized and personally commanded two marches, in 624-625 and 627-628. The Eastern Roman Empire organized similar military campaigns in the Caucasus. Heraclius I initiated the expeditions97 to find allies to oppose the Khazars and Sassanids, establish his rule in the Transcaucasia, and take control over safety of the ancient trade route.
93 See: D. Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor to the End of the Third Century after Christ, Vol. I, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1950, pp. 561-562.
94 See: Ibid., Vol. II, p. 1418.
95 Liu Xinru, op. cit., p. 48 ("The Kushans also controlled both the steppe and oasis routes of the Central Asian Silk Road. Both the rulers and traders of the Kushan Empire profited from the trade and enjoyed goods from all over Eurasia").
96 Writing about the relations between Justinian I and the Orient and Iran, British historian Edward Gibbon deemed it necessary to clarify the geographic location and ethnic composition of the Caucasian region (for more detail, see: Cl. Rapin, op. cit.).
97 For more on Heraclius' expeditions and routes, see: Ya. Manandian, "Marshruty persidskikh pokhodov impera-tora Iraklia," in: Ya. Manandian, Proceedings V, pp. 375-405.
