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have the money of both; you have the gold coin of the one king, and the drachma of the other, that is, the milliarense; compare the images of both, and you will see the truth. ” And he, approving and assenting, bade that both be produced. . Now the gold coin was fine, bright, and well-shaped; for thus are the best exported thither; and the milliarense was of silver and I need hardly say, not to be com- pared with the gold coin. The king looked at both obverse and reverse, and then at the other; and held forth the gold coin with admiration, saying, “Truly the Romans are magnificent and powerful and wise.” And he commanded that Sopater should be treated with honor; that he should be seated upon an elephant, and led around the whole city with drums, and acclaimed. This Sopater told me, and those also from Adulis, who voyaged with him to that island. And when these things happened, so they say, the Persian was greatly ashamed. ”
61. Almost touches Azania. — Our author’s ideas of the world in general are similar to those of Pomponius Mela, with whom he was nearly contemporary; whose map (reproduced on p. 100) retains the old idea of a balancing southern “continent of the Antich- thones, ” with the eastern end of which he identifies Taprobane. The Periplus does not indicate quite that extent for Ceylon, but ex- aggerates its size tenfold. The confusion may have been partly due to the grandiloquent descriptions left by the Ceylonese embassy which visited the Emperor Augustus. (See Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography , Vol. II. )
62. Masalia. — This is the Maisolia of Ptolemy, who has a river Maisolos, probably the Kistna. In Sanscrit, as McCrindle shows, the name is Mausala, which survives in Machhlipatana, the modern Masulipatam (16° 11' N. , 81° 8' E. ), until the construction of the Bombay railway the chief port of entry for the Deccan. At the date of the Periplus it was, no doubt, the greatest market of the Andhra kingdom. Tavernier found it (I, xi) “the best anchorage in the Bay of Bengal, and the only place from which vessels sail for Pegu, Siam, Arakan, Bengal, Cochinchina, Mecca, and Hormus, as also for the islands of Madagascar, Sumatra, and the Manillas. ”
The text notes the great quantity of cotton cloth made there. In Tavernier’s time it was especially noted for its painted, or pen- cilled, chintzes (II, xii) “called calmendar, that is to say, made with a brush.” He contrasted these fine hand-painted fabrics with the coarse printed goods from Bengal. The supply, he observes, was never equal to the demand.
See also Imperial Gazetteer, XVII, 215.
