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The 'Myth' of the Silk Road
#20
Bryan wrote:

So we know that in antiquity elephants were transferred from India/Asia all the way to the Mediterranean area. They only moved large numbers of giant mammals along a land route and nothing else?

 That is probably the case in regards to Indian elephants to the Mediterranean, I have not heard of Asian elephants crossing overland at least in ancient times. There were transport ships for elephants at the time but probably not suitable for Indian Ocean travel.  Seleucus I Nicator transferred to Chandragupta Maurya’s kingdom his easternmost satrapies in exchange for 500? elephants and their mahouts and a treaty was sealed with a marriage where Chandragupta married a female relative of Seleucus.

 Considering how his war elephants played a major role in the defeat of Antigonus Monophthalmus at the battle of Ipsus and the fact that he probably didn’t have the forces to hold onto his eastern satrapies while fighting a war in the west anyway, it was probably a good deal for Seleucus. It is highly unlikely that he had the naval resources to transport 500 elephants and fodder as well as fresh water so he would have marched the elephants and their mahouts along with his army back to Babylon.

 It seems fitting as this thread is about land versus sea trade that the southern Egyptian Red Sea ports with elephant stations which were later used and improved by the Romans much later for the Indian Ocean trade, were developed by Ptolemy II Philadelphus when he sent hunting expeditions to find African elephants from for his army, as access to larger Indian elephants was blocked by his enemies the Seleucids. Shipping elephants from India was clearly not feasible, or if possible it would have been extremely hazardous, and would have resulted in an unacceptably high attrition rate of elephants, ships, and crews, and would certainly have been expensive so an alternate source had to be found closer to home from Sudan and Eritrea. Elephants were not the only reason for the development of ports, roads and canals on the Red Sea coast but the Egyptians felt they needed elephants to match the large war elephants of the Seleucid armies. He had his sailors ship them in specially designed ships called ‘elephantegoi’ as described by Diodorus Siculus for Red Sea navigation.
For ships, then, which are equipped with oars the place is suitable enough, since it rolls along no wave from a great distance and affords, furthermore, fishing in the greatest abundance; but the ships which carry the elephants, being of deep draft because of their weight and heavy by reason of their equipment, bring upon their crews great and terrible dangers.  For running as they do under full sail and often times being driven during the night before the force of the winds, sometimes they will strike against rocks and be wrecked or sometimes run aground on slightly submerged spits. Smile
Regards
Michael Kerr
Michael Kerr
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
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Messages In This Thread
The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-12-2017, 01:17 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Dan Howard - 03-12-2017, 02:08 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 03-12-2017, 04:41 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-12-2017, 08:52 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Dan Howard - 03-13-2017, 12:03 AM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Alanus - 03-13-2017, 05:00 AM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-13-2017, 12:28 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 03-13-2017, 03:16 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-13-2017, 07:26 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Alanus - 03-13-2017, 09:00 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-13-2017, 09:32 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 03-14-2017, 03:59 AM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-14-2017, 12:21 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 03-28-2017, 04:07 AM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-28-2017, 08:14 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Alanus - 03-29-2017, 03:47 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Bryan - 03-29-2017, 05:13 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Alanus - 03-29-2017, 07:37 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Bryan - 03-30-2017, 02:51 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-31-2017, 12:04 AM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 03-30-2017, 10:16 AM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Alanus - 03-30-2017, 10:39 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 03-31-2017, 12:31 AM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 04-04-2017, 04:52 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 04-13-2017, 03:47 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 04-15-2017, 06:38 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 04-16-2017, 01:09 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 06-25-2017, 06:44 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Mikeh55 - 06-28-2017, 05:17 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 06-28-2017, 05:39 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 06-28-2017, 11:00 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 06-30-2017, 05:45 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Robert - 07-14-2017, 11:09 AM

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