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334
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
DECEMBER, 1879.
time of the author of the Periplus the town had recently been destroyed by a Roman emperor which he simply designates as Caesar.as We know that the title of Caesar was applied in a special way to the first twelve emperors, some because they belonged to the family of Julius Caesar, and others because their family was originally of Rome. Scholars who refer the composition of the Periplús to the first century have found a confirmation of their opinion in this. But after the first twelve emperors, the Romans continued to give their princes the title of Caesar: frequently they were called by no other name. It is by this word only that the younger Pliny designates Trajan in his Panegyric. The title of Caesar to designate the Roman and Byzantine emperors was spread to the remotest east, and is found in Syriac, Arab, Persian, Turkish, and even Chinese writers. As to the destruction of Arabia Felix by the Romans the matter is very simple. The Romans had a lucrative commerce in the eastern seas, and it led from time to time to conflicts; perhaps Arabia Felix had given refuge to pirates. The prince who destroyed Arabia Felix was probably Septimus Severus."0
Now we come to a fact decisive for the date I assign to the composition of the Periplds. The ship in pursuing its course to the south of Arabia delays, a little before entering the Persian Gulf, at a port defended by a Persian guard. In 246 Persia was under the rule of Sa por I. The existence of a Persian guard on the south coast of Arabia naturally applies to time when the Persians held Bahrein and all the borders of the Persian Gulf. Till about the year 225 A.D., that is, until the fall of the kingdom of Mosene, the Persian kings had neither maritime commerce nor fleet. Why and how had they established a port in a country so distant ?
Leaving this, the ship, entering the Persian Gulf, sails to Spasini-Kharax and moors at the quay of Obollah." This city which the author takes care to say was a place of Persian commerce, is indicated under the Greek form of Apologos. It is the first occasion on which the name occurs. It is not found in Ptolemy,--a fresh proof that the work of Ptolemy is long anterior to the Peri
3. Kaioap.
* The word Caesar is found in Syrie writers of the age of the Periplas (see Acta Martyr. Pers. by Asseman, t. I., passim). For the Chinese testimonies, see the memoir of M. Pauthier on the authenticity of the inscription of Singan-fa, Paris, 1857, p. 82. The Chinese form is Kai-sa. It may be noted that in Greek the word Kaioap is preoed. od by the article.
30 In fact it is said by Eutropius (lib. viii. c. 18) that Septimus Severus conquered Arabia and reduced it to a Roman province. See also Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus. Septimus Severus moreover was favoured with special titles from the eastern provinces (see Amédée Thierry, Tableau de l'empire romain, Paris, 1862, p. 170). I
plds. Shall we say that if Ptolemy does not menttion this town, it is from sheer forgetfulness? Ptolemy does not forget things of the kind.
Next the ship sets sail to the south by the coast of Persia, and proceeds towards the mouths of the Indus. After 6 days' sail it anchors at a place called Omana, which was then the rendezvous of traders from India, O bollah, the south coast of Arabia, and the Red Sea. It next reached
place on the coast which was independent of Persia, and was called Oraia. It was situated on abay from the middle of which a promontory ran out, near the mouth of a navigable river; at a distance of seves arches into the interior was a city where the kir.g of the country resided. C. Müller places Oman on the south coast of Persia near the town of Tiz; Oræa he places in the country of the Oritos. O mana, it seems to me, should be placed at the entrance of the Persian Gulf in the neighbourhood of Ormus. The name of Ormus is of great antiquity, and though the city many times changed, its position at the entry of the Persian gull necessarily preserved its importance. A Persian writer mentions that Ardeshir on mounting the throne set himself to restore the town. His successors followed his example. It appears to me then that the ship, needing to revictual, or rather having goods to ship or to discharge, could not help visiting this place. As for the name oman it was applied here to Kerman and to the whole coast of the Persian kingdom washed by the Indian Ocean. Whence came this? Was it from the name of the country forming the south-east of the Arabian peninsula? What is certain is that the author of the Arabic dictionary of Geography called M &rasid, speaking of the town of Tiz, says it was situated in the face of Oman.
The country to which the Periplas given the name of Parsidai, and which formed a separate state, appears to correspond to Makran of the Arabs and the Gedrosia of the ancients. This is now included in Beluchistan. I place the bay of which the author speaks, and which he calls Terabdon at the place now called Guetter. This is not far from the town of Kej, the chief town of the province of Makran. A consider
31 AMX non tîs llepoídos, see $ 83, ante p. 186. 83 & 85, ante p. 137.
33 Mém. de l'Acad. des inscrip. tom. XXIV. pt. ii. pp. 199 ff.
** Quatremère remarks that the name of Obollah is mentioned in the Arabio work on Nabathean Agriculture. This is an additional proof that the composition of that treatiso does not belong to a very early period. Jour. Asiat. févr. 1861, p. 158.
35 $$ 36, 37, ante p. 138. * Silvestre de Sacy. Transl. of Mirkhond, pp. 277, 293. » See Juynboll's ed. tom. I. p. 222; also below, next page.
Horsburg, Sailing Directions.
