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in the Kabul valley to have been broken already by the Yueh-chi or “Rushan” dynasty, but their subsequent complete conquest by the Yueh-chi had not yet been consummated.
The political conditions described in the Periplus were probably those that followed the death of Gondophares, the last powerful Indo- Parthian ruler in the Panjab. This is supposed to have occurred about 51 A. D. After some years of anarchy and civil war, the Saka power was again consolidated under two lines of rulers; the “Northern Sa- traps” from the Indus to the Jumna, and the “Western Satraps” in Kathiawar, Gujarat and Malwa. Both these dynasties were at first tributary, and later subject to the Kushan power.
More distant southern raiding by the Indo-Parthians led to the “Pallava” dynasties along the west coast, which after a couple of centuries succeeded in gaining control of much of Southern India. These princes were thought by Fabricius to be the ones referred to in § 52 as ruling in Calliena, near Bombay.
39. Figured linens. — The text is polymita. Pliny (VIII, 74) says: “Babylon was very famous for making embroidery in different colors, and hence stuffs of this kind have obtained the name of Babylonian. The method of weaving cloth with more than two threads was invented at Alexandria; these cloths are called polymita-, it was in Gaul that they were first divided into chequers. ”
Martial’s epigram, “ Cubicularia polymita ” (XIV, 150) indicates that the Egyptian tissue was formed in a loom, like tapestry, and that the Babylonian was embroidered with the needle.
39. Topaz. The text is chrysolithos. This stone, according to Pliny, came from Aethiopia (Abyssinia) and islands in the Red Sea; and he adds that the best sort came from India. Here is a confusion be- tween two kinds of stone; the Red Sea gem being the true topaz and the Indian either chrysolite or yellow sapphire. The knowledge of the Romans in regard to precious stones was vague, and we are apt to be led astray by assuming that because we have borrowed the Greek or Latin name we have applied it to the same stone.
The chrysolithos mentioned in the text was almost certainly our topaz, which was produced in abundance in the Red Sea islands, being an important item in the east-bound exports of Egypt, under the Ptolemies and Rome.
Strabo says: (XVI, iv, 6) “After Berenice is the island Ophiodes. It was cleared of the serpents by the king, on account of the topazes found there. . . . A body of men was appointed and maintained by the kings of Egypt to guard and maintain the place where these stones were found, and superintend the collection of them. ”
