Barbarike

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Barbarike or Barbarikon (Βαρβαρικόν) was the name of a sea port near the modern-day city of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan, important in the Hellenistic era in Indian Ocean trade. It is also a Greek version of the term Barbaricum, designating areas outside civilization and/or the Roman Empire.

Barbarikon is mentioned briefly in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea:

"This river (Indus) has seven mouths, very shallow and marshy, so that they are not navigable, except the one in the middle; at which by the shore, is the market-town, Barbaricum. Before it there lies a small island, and inland behind it is the metropolis of Scythia, Minnagara; it is subject to Parthian princes who are constantly driving each other out."

Its principal function beyond supplying its immediate hinterland was as a transshipment port for supplies of Persian turquoise and Afghan lapis lazuli, to be carried overland to Egypt.[1]

References

  1. Wendrich, W. Z.; R. S. Tomber; S. E. Sidebotham; J. A. Harrell; R. T. J. Cappers; R.S. Bagnall (2003). "Berenike Crossroads: The Integration of Information". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (Brill) 46 (1): 59–60. doi:10.1163/156852003763504339

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