A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 / Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and / Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth / Century, By William Stevenson

by Robert Kerr; William Stevenson

Varro, who was Pompey's lieutenant during the war against the pirates, and obtained a naval crown on that occasion, among the almost infinite variety of topics on which he wrote, was the author of a work on navigation; unfortunately, however, only the title of it is extant: had it yet remained, it would have thrown much light on the state of navigation, geography, and commerce among the Romans in his time.

Julius Caesar's attention to science in the midst of his wars and perils is well known. He first formed the idea of a general survey of the whole empire; and for this purpose obtained a decree of the senate. The survey was finished by Augustus: the execution of it was committed to three Greek geographers. The survey of the eastern portion of the empire was committed to Zenodoxus, who completed it, in fourteen years, five months, and nine days. The northern division was finished by Theodoras in twenty years, eight months, and ten days: and the southern division was finished in twenty-five years, one month, and ten days. This survey, with the supplementary surveys of the new provinces, as they were conquered and added to the empire, formed the basis of the geography of Ptolemy. It appears from Vegetius, that every governor of a province was furnished with a description of it, in which were given the distance of places, the nature of the roads, the face of the country, the direction of the rivers, &c.: he adds, that all these were delineated on a map as well as described in writing. Of this excellent plan for the itineraries and surveys of the Roman empire, from which the ancient geographers obtained their fullest and most accurate information, Julius Cæsar was the author.

Julius Cæsar certainly added much to geographical knowledge by his conquests of Gaul and Britain: his information respecting the latter, however, as might be expected, is very erroneous. Yet, that even its very northern parts were known by name to the Romans soon after his death, is apparent, from this circumstance, that Diodorus Siculus, who died towards the middle of the reign of Augustus, mentions Orkas; which, he says, forms the northern extremity of the island of Britain. This is the very first mention of any place in Scotland by any writer.

One of the first objects of Augustus, after he had reduced Egypt, was to explore the interior of Africa, either for the purpose of conquest, or to obtain the precious commodities, especially frankincense and aromatics, which he had learned were the produce of those countries. Ælius Gallus was selected by the emperor for this expedition, and he was accompanied by the geographer Strabo; who, however, has not given such accurate information of the route which was pursued as might have been expected. This is the more to be lamented, as Pliny informs us that the places which were visited during this expedition are not to be found in authors previous to his time.

Gallus was directed by the emperor to explore Ethiopia, the country of the Troglodytæ and Arabia. The expedition against Ethiopia, which Gallus entrusted to Petronius, we shall afterwards examine, confining ourselves at present to the proceedings and progress of Gallus himself. His own force consisted of 10,000 men, to which were added 500, supplied by Herod, king of the Jews; and 1000 Nabathians from Petra; besides a fleet of eighty ships of war and 130 transports. Syllæus, the minister of the king of the Nabathians, undertook to conduct the expedition; but as it was not for the interest either of his king or country that it should succeed, he betrayed his trust, and, according to Strabo, was executed at Rome for his treachery on this occasion. His object was to delay the expedition as much as possible: this he effected by persuading Gallus to prepare a fleet, which was unnecessary, as the army might have followed the route of the caravans, through a friendly country, from Cleopatris, where the expedition commenced, to the head of the Elanitic Gulf. The troops, however, were embarked, and, as the navigation of the Sea of Suez was intricate, the fleet was fifteen days in arriving at Leuke Kome: here, in consequence of the soldiers having become, during their voyage, afflicted with various disorders, and the year being far advanced, Gallus was obliged to remain till the spring. Another delay was contrived by Syllæus on their leaving Leuke Kome. After this, they seem to have proceeded with more celerity, and with very little opposition from the natives, till they came to a city of some strength: this they were obliged to besiege in regular form; but, after lying before it for six days, Gallus was forced, for want of water, to raise the siege, and to terminate the expedition. He was told that at this time he was within two days' journey of the land of aromatics and frankincense, the great object which Augustus had in view. On his retreat, he no longer trusted to Syllæus, but changed the route of the army, directing it from the interior to the coast. At Nera, in Petræa, the army embarked, and was eleven days in crossing the gulf to Myos Hormos: from this place it traversed the country of the Troglodytes to Coptus, on the Nile. Two years were spent in this unfortunate expedition. It is extremely difficult to fix on the limit of this expedition, but it is probable that the town which Gallus besieged, and beyond which he did not penetrate, was the capital of the Mineans. From the time of this expedition, the Romans always maintained a footing on the coast of the Red Sea; and either during the residence of Gallus at Leuke Kome, or soon afterwards, they placed a garrison in this place, where they collected the customs, gradually extending their conquests and their geographical knowledge down the Gulf, till they reached the ocean. This seems to have been the only beneficial consequence resulting from the expedition of Gallus.

We must now attend to the expedition of Petronius against the Ethiopians. This was completely successful, and Candakè, their queen, was obliged, as a token of her submission, to send ambassadors to Augustus, who was at that time in the island of Samos. About this period the commerce of the Egyptians,--which, in fact, was the commerce of the Romans,--was extended to the Troglodytes,--with whom previously they had carried on little or no trade.

The first account of the island of Ceylon, under the name of Taprobane, was brought to Europe by the Macedonians, who had accompanied Alexander into the east. It is mentioned, and a short description given of it, by Onesicritus and Eratosthenes. Iambulus, however, who lived in the time of Augustus, is the first author who enters into any details regarding it; and though much of what he states is undoubtedly fabulous, yet there are particulars surprizingly correct, and such as confirm his own account, that he actually, visited the island. According to Diodorus Siculus, he was the son of a merchant, and a merchant himself; and while trading in Arabia for spices, he was taken prisoner and carried into Arabia, whence he was carried off by the Ethiopians, and put into a ship, which was driven by the monsoon to Ceylon. The details he mentions, that are most curious and most conformable to truth, are the stature of the natives and the flexibility of their joints; the length of their ears, bored and pendant; the perpetual verdure of the trees; the attachment of the natives to astronomy; their worship of the elements, and particularly of the sun and moon; their cotton garments; the men having one wife in common; the days and nights being equal in length; and the Calamus, or Maiz. It is extraordinary, howeve'r, that Iambulus never mentions cinnamon, which, as he was a dealer in spices, it might have been supposed would have attracted his particular attention.

One of the most celebrated geographers among the ancients, flourished during the reign of Augustus;--we allude to Strabo: his fundamental principles are, the globosity of the earth, and its centripetal force; he also lays down rules for constructing globes, but he seems ignorant of the mode of fixing the position of places by their latitude or longitude, or, at least, he neglects it. In order to render his geographical knowledge more accurate and complete, he travelled over most of the countries between Armenia on the east and Etruria on the west, and from his native country, on the borders of the Euxine sea, to the borders of Ethiopia. The portion of the globe which he describes, is bounded on the north by the Baltic, on the east by the Ganges, on the south by the mouth of the river Senegal, and on the west by Spain. In describing the countries which he himself had visited, he is generally very accurate, but his accounts of those he had not visited, are frequently erroneous or very incomplete. His information respecting Ceylon and the countries of the Ganges, seems to have been derived entirely from the statements brought to Europe by the generals of Alexander.

In the reign of Claudius, the knowledge of the Romans respecting the interior of Africa, was slightly extended by the expedition of Suetonius Paulinus; he was the first Roman who crossed Mount Atlas, and during the winter penetrated through the deserts, which are described as formed of black dust, till he reached a river called the Niger. Paulinus wrote an account of this expedition, which, however, is not extant: Pliny quotes it. In the reign of Claudius, also, the island of Ceylon became better known, in consequence of an accident which happened to the freedman of a Roman, who farmed the customs in the Red Sea. This man, in the execution of his duty, was blown off the coast of Arabia, across the ocean to Taprobane, or Ceylon; here he was hospitably received by the king, and after a residence of six months was sent back, along with ambassadors, to Claudius. They informed the emperor that their country was very extensive, populous, and opulent, abounding in gold, silver, and pearls. It seems probable that the circumstance of the freedman having been carried to Ceylon by a steady and regular wind, and this man and the ambassadors having returned by a wind directly opposite, but as steady and regular, had some influence in the discovery of the monsoon. As this discovery led necessarily to a direct communication between Africa and India, and grea'ly enlarged the knowledge of the Romans respecting the latter country, as well as their commercial connections with it, it will be proper to notice it in a particular manner.

This important discovery is supposed to have been made in the seventh year of the reign of Claudius, answering to the forty-seventh of the Christian era. The following is the account given of it by the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, as translated by Dr. Vincent: