1851.1 Remarks on some lately-discovered Roman Gold Coins. 3 



// 



which goes far to prove that his knowledge of the countries beyond 

 the Indus was extremely limited.* 



It is most probable that the Romans never exerted themselves to 

 penetrate to any great distance for the commodities they procured from 

 the East, being contented to carry on their trade at those markets on 

 the Malabar coast, which were easiest of access and sufficient for the 

 purposes required. One or more ports such as Musiris or Barace were 

 most likely the chosen spots to which were gathered the necessary 

 products of the Indian countries from whatever side they were brought, 

 and from thence they were shipped to Egypt and thence to the shores 

 of Italy. Merchandize was also conveyed, and perhaps still more fre- 

 quently than by sea, across the country, enriching several towns and 

 cities on the route which became the Emporia of such commercial 

 goods as were despatched from the Eastern to the Western coast. 



Thus the modern town of Arambooly, called Arguropolis by the 

 Greeks, was celebrated in those days for its extent and for the busy 

 trade carried on there. Ptolemy also and Pliny mention Kotar or 

 Nagercoil, under the names of Cottiara and Cottora Metropolis, while 

 the Greek and Egyptian mariners being afraid of doubling Cape 

 Comorin, used to find a safe anchorage for their vessels in the little 

 harbours of Covalum and Colachull to the northern part of that Cape, 

 and which were called in those days the former Colis or Colias and the 

 latter Cojaci.f 



The chief articles of export from India during the time of the occu- 

 pation of Egypt by the Romans were spices of various kinds. Dia- 

 monds and other precious stones, ivory, pearls, silk, &c. the latter 

 probably brought from China only. Cinnamon was perhaps more 

 extensively imported from Arabia or the Eastern coast of Africa, in al- 

 lusion to which a modern writer has remarked that the seaport of Aden, 



* The passage in Arrian to which I allude is the following rb §e irpbs votov re 

 ave/j.01 teal /xeo"J7jU/3pn?s, Kai avrr) 7) fxeyaXr] QaXacrcra airelpyei t)]v 'ivd&v yijv, kcu t& 

 Trpbs eco avrrj f} BaXacraa aTrelpyeL, a'vague remark which shows that Arrian was not 

 the author of the " Periplus Maris Erythrsei" wherein the coast of India and especi- 

 ally the Western part of it, is so minutely described. — Arriani Hist. hid. Cap. II. 



f Robertson affirms on the authority of the author of the ' Periplus of the Ery- 

 threan sea/ that the inhabitants of the Coromandel coast traded in vessels of their 

 own with those of the Malabar coast, a fact which may account for the discovery of 

 coins on the Eastern side of the Continent. 



