Ancient Rome and India

by Rosa Maria Cimino

Since ancient times, the Western Mediterranean had trading contacts with the Oriental world, which were more intense than we could imagine. They took place along the caravan routes through Central Asia, and the maritime routes across the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Ideas, new technologies, and different experiences of political and social life accompanied the commercial goods to be traded. The frequency and intensity of these exchanges justifiably allows us to consider the Oriental and Western countries as part of one continent, the Euro-Asiatic continent. India, because of its geographical position, played a privileged role in commercial trading and cultural exchanges between the East and the West. The exhibition proposes to bring to light the importance of such exchanges that developed in a particular way during the Roman era, when the Pax Augusta enabled the broadening of the markets, because of the ever growing request for spices and luxury products by the rich Roman middleclass. Amphorae, vases, commonly-used bronze objects, Mediterranean terracotta statuettes and cameos and above all Roman coins, found in abundance, testify to the frequency of trading exchanges. Indian texts speak about the colonies of yavanas, Westerners, along the coast. The archaeological discoveries and literary references well justify the presence of Western influences in Indian territory, even in the artistic field; witness to this is the school of Gandharan art, which developed in the North-West regions, and the production of statuettes of Western imitation found in Central-Southern India.