Adlai - 4. Chapter 4

Interlude 9CE – 15CE

The First decade CE ³⁵ was dominated by a disastrous Roman defeat. In 9CE, a Roman army under Tiberius Quintilius Varro was defeated by Germanic tribes at the battle of Teutoburg forest. Not just defeated – it was annihilated.

Twenty thousand men were slaughtered with the loss of three Roman standards. The Emperor Augustus was often seen roaming the rooms of his Palace crying out,

“Varus, Varus – give me back my legions.”

As a result, the Rhine River was established as the boundary between the Latin and German speaking worlds. In effect, all Roman expansion ceased for both the Northern and Eastern empires.

This pause gave the Parthian ³⁶ and Indo-Scythian ³⁷ Empires time to consolidate. In 11 CE Artabanus II became ruler of Parthia and in Hindustan, Satakarni ³⁸ began his reign.

Also in 12 CE Annius Rufus was appointed Prefect of Judea.

But the most important event was the death of Augustus in 14 CE who was succeeded by his son- in-law Tiberius. In the same year, a census was taken which disclosed that there were 4,973,000 Roman citizens throughout the empire.

In 15, CE Annas was deposed as High Priest in Jerusalem to be followed by three new high priests over the next three years to 18 CE. At the same time, Valerius Gratus was appointed Prefect of Judea.

And from about the first decade CE trading goods began to flow from the Silk Road down the Indus River to Barbarikon for transshipment to Egypt and the Eastern Roman empire.

At that time, North West Hindustan and Pakistan were dominated by the Indo-Scythians who had migrated from southern Siberia around the second century BCE. Their administrative capital was Taxila some five hundred kilometers north of the coast in Pakistan so settlements like Barbarikon were important to the Indo-Scythians for trade.

From Barbarikon went such luxuries as costus ³⁹, bdellium ⁴⁰, lycium ⁴¹, nard, turquoise, lapis lazuli, skins, cotton cloth, silk yarn, and indigo. Sailors set out with the Hindustan Etesian ⁴² winds, about the month of July. It is more dangerous then, but with these winds, the voyage is more direct, and sooner completed.

Imported into Barbarikon were a great deal of thin clothing, figured linens, topaz, coral, storax, frankincense, glass vessels, silver and gold plate, and a little wine.

Some of the goods were diverted upriver to Minnagara 43, a large Scythian settlement. But gradually trade goods flowed to Barigaza on the Manadus River. Then relying on monsoon winds goods, were transported through the Red sea to Egypt and the Eastern Roman empire, including Judea.