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The Most Distant Places Visited by the Romans [14:52]
YouTube ^ | July 29, 2022 | Garrett Ryan, Ph.D (as toldinstone)

Posted on 10/11/2025 10:47:08 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

The Romans sailed south to Zanzibar, north to the Hebrides, and east to China. 
The Most Distant Places Visited by the Romans | 14:52 
toldinstone | 608K subscribers | 1,216,082 views | July 29, 2022
The Most Distant Places Visited by the Romans | 14:52 | toldinstone | 608K subscribers | 1,216,082 views | July 29, 2022 
0:00 Introduction 
0:48 The world known to the Romans 
2:37 ClickUp 
3:50 Arabia 
4:38 East Africa and the Nile 
5:39 West Africa and the Sahara 
6:58 The Canaries and Madeira 
7:42 Britain 
8:23 Thule 
8:59 Around the Baltic 
9:39 Around the Black and Caspian Seas 
10:15 Central and northern Asia 
10:55 India 
12:20 China

(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: ancientnavigation; garrettryan; garrettryanphd; godsgravesglyphs; historianscraft; knowledgia; quirkyhistory; romanempire; romantrade; thehistorianscraft; toldinstone

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The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, alpha:


1 posted on 10/11/2025 10:47:08 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
·Introduction
0:03·In the ninth year of the Yanxi Era, the twentieth in the reign of Han Huan Di, 27th emperor
0:09·of the Han Dynasty, a small party of foreigners was received in the imperial palace at Luoyang.
0:16·Although the gifts they brought – elephant tusks, rhinoceros horn, and turtle shell – were
0:22·not especially impressive, they claimed to have come from a great realm in the far west,
0:28·as vast and powerful as the Middle Kingdom itself, where an emperor named Marcus Aurelius
0:33·reigned.
0:34·We don't know who these men were, or why they traveled so far.
0:38·But their presence at the court of the Chinese emperor illustrates the vast range and reach
0:45·of Roman merchants and adventurers.
0:47·The Mediterranean – or, as the Romans called it, Mare Nostrum (our sea) – was always
·The world known to the Romans
0:54·the heart of the classical world; Plato famously compared the Greeks, with their coastal cities,
1:01·to frogs around a pond.
1:03·By Plato's time, Greek scholars knew the whole span of the sea, from the Pillars of
1:07·Hercules to the Nile Delta, and had divided its coasts into the three continents of Europe,
1:14·Asia, and Africa.
1:16·The campaigns of Alexander the Great made the Middle East and Central Asia familiar
1:21·to classical cartographers.
1:23·And the Romans, with their far-ranging conquests and massive trade networks, came to know much
1:29·of the Old World.
1:32·Around the middle of the second century, the Roman mathematician Claudius Ptolemy produced
1:36·a map of the known world, systematically assigning latitudes and longitudes to some 8,000 places
1:43·across the three continents.
1:45·The world plotted in Ptolemy's coordinates is a wide one, stretching from the Canary
1:50·Islands to western China.
1:52·It is also an immediately recognizable one, though its accuracy diminishes with distance
1:58·from the Mediterranean.
2:01·As Ptolemy's map illustrates, the Romans – for all their rhetoric about universal
2:06·empire – were aware that the world was much larger than their domains.
2:11·Like the Greeks before them, they knew that the world was round.
2:15·Thanks to Eratosthenes, who had calculated the circumference of the Earth with remarkable
2:20·accuracy, they knew their empire occupied a relatively small portion of the globe.
2:26·And despite the agonies of ancient travel, a steady trickle of scouts, merchants, and
2:32·missionaries ventured deep into the blank spaces of Ptolemy's map.
·ClickUp
2:38·[ad text redacted]
3:49·And now, to resume our topic: what were the most distant places explored by the Romans?
·Arabia
3:57·Southward, as in every direction, geography and opportunity determined the distances that
4:03·the Romans traveled.
4:05·Mediterranean merchants routinely visited Arabia Felix – modern Yemen – the land
4:10·of frankincense and myrrh.
4:13·Despite the fact that the spice-bearing regions were said to be tormented by flying snakes,
4:19·Augustus sent an army to conquer the whole southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula.
4:24·The failure of that campaign prevented Arabia Felix from becoming part of the empire, but
4:31·a legionary detachment was eventually stationed on the Farasan Islands, just off the Arabian
4:37·coast.
·East Africa and the Nile
4:39·Roman merchants also followed the monsoon winds down the east coast of Africa.
4:44·By the second century, they had crossed the equator, reaching the vicinity of Zanzibar.
4:49·A few ventured even farther south, to places where the gargantuan Mountains of the Moon
4:55·loomed on the horizon.
4:58·These mythical peaks – possibly inspired by distant views of Kilimanjaro – were rumored
5:03·to be source of the Nile.
5:05·The Nile itself, of course, was the most convenient inland route into Africa.
5:12·Although the province of Egypt reached only to the rapids of the Second Cataract, near
5:16·the modern border between Egypt and Sudan, Roman influence extended much further – especially
5:21·under Augustus, when a Roman army marched through Nubia.
5:25·Later, when Nero was considering an invasion of Ethiopia, a group of legionaries was sent
5:31·as far as the Sudd, a vast swamp in what is now South Sudan that defied exploration until
5:38·the nineteenth century.
·West Africa and the Sahara
5:40·West of the Nile was the Sahara Desert, virtually impassable before the introduction of the
5:45·camel around the beginning of the Roman imperial era.
5:49·During the reign of Claudius, a Roman general ventured deep into the Sahara, where he reported
5:55·finding plains blanketed in dust and mountains blackened by the heat.
6:00·About a half-century later, a Roman merchant set out from Libya with a caravan, spent four
6:05·months in the desert, and emerged in a fertile land teeming with rhinoceroses – probably
6:11·the tropical savannah of what is now southern Chad.
6:16·Southerly trade winds made it easy for ancient ships to sail down the Atlantic coast of Africa.
6:22·The difficulty of returning north against those winds, however, limited the reach of
6:27·exploration.
6:29·After the Third Punic War, the historian Polybius led a Roman fleet as far as what is now southern
6:35·Morocco.
6:37·Centuries earlier, a Carthaginian navigator named Hanno had reportedly voyaged much farther,
6:42·passing a great volcano known as the Chariot of the Gods.
6:46·Although a few scholars think Hanno may have seen Mount Cameroon, it's unlikely that
6:52·any ancient fleet could have sailed so far south and returned against the prevailing
6:57·winds.
·The Canaries and Madeira
6:58·An expedition sent by Juba – the African client king who married a daughter of Antony
7:04·and Cleopatra – discovered the Canary Islands, named for the wild dogs (canes) that roved
7:10·their shores.
7:12·Spanish navigators had already discovered the Madeira archipelago, which came to be
7:17·identified with the mythical Isles of the Blessed.
7:20·The vast expanse of the Atlantic beyond, the void from which Plato had conjured Atlantis,
7:27·was unknown.
7:28·A few Greek thinkers speculated about a continent in the uttermost west, whose rivers choked
7:34·the surrounding seas with silt.
7:37·But to the best of our knowledge, no attempt was ever made to reach it.
·Britain
7:42·Although their existence had been known for centuries, the British Isles only became familiar
7:47·to Mediterranean scholars after the Roman conquest of Britain.
7:51·The process of reconnaissance continued for decades: long after the province had been
7:57·established, Demetrius of Tarsus, a Greek scholar, was sent with a detachment of troops
8:03·to reconnoiter the Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall.
8:07·And it was only during the governorship of Agricola, a generation after the initial Roman
8:12·invasion, that an imperial fleet circumnavigated Britain.
8:16·Agricola's men were not the first Mediterranean sailors to reach the northern tip of Britain.
·Thule
8:24·Centuries before, Pytheas of Massalia – a Greek astronomer apparently motivated by scientific
8:29·curiosity – had explored the British coast before continuing north to a mysterious island
8:35·called Thule.
8:37·Pytheas described Thule as a dismal place, shrouded in fog and soaked by freezing rains,
8:43·where the summer sun scarcely set.
8:47·Although Thule has been variously identified with Shetland, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland,
8:53·it's most likely that Pytheas reached the coast of modern Norway.
·Around the Baltic
8:59·After visiting Thule, Phytheas sailed east into the Baltic Sea, apparently as far as
9:04·the vicinity of modern Hamburg.
9:07·A Roman fleet replicated this feat in the reign of Augustus, and at least one Roman
9:12·merchant ventured even farther east, traveling overland to what is now the north coast of
9:18·Poland to gather amber for Nero.
9:21·Despite these forays, Roman knowledge of northeastern Europe remained vague: Scandinavia was thought
9:28·to be an island, and the regions east of the Baltic were said to be inhabited by men with
9:33·the bodies of beasts.
9:36·Much of central Asia was equally mysterious.
9:38·Although the coasts of the Black Sea were seeded with Greek colonies, from which adventurous
·Around the Black and Caspian Seas
9:44·travelers ventured into the immensity of the Ukrainian steppe, the lands beyond were largely
9:50·cut off from the Mediterranean world by rugged terrain and the hostile power of Parthia.
9:55·There were, however, a few exceptions: an inscription discovered near the shore of the
10:02·Caspian Sea documents the presence of Roman legionaries in what is now Azerbaijan, and
10:08·Roman troops may have briefly occupied what is now northern Iran during the reign of Nero.
·Central and northern Asia
10:15·Roman geographers were familiar with the shape of the Caspian Sea and the courses of the
10:20·great rivers around the lost Greek kingdom of Bactria.
10:24·But the northern reaches of central Asia were populated by monsters and legends.
10:30·Even the relatively sober Pliny the Elder located Amazons and a tribe known as the lice-eaters
10:36·there.
10:37·It was sometimes said that, beyond a range of mountains shrouded in perpetual night,
10:43·the Hyperboreans dwelt in a land never troubled by a bitter breeze.
10:49·But by the Roman imperial era, it was known that an icy sea crowned the globe.
·India
10:55·The northern reaches of Eurasia had little appeal for the Greeks and Romans.
11:00·The Far East, by contrast, with its spices and silks, held out the irresistible allure
11:07·of enormous profits.
11:10·Trade with India was especially lucrative.
11:13·In the wake of Alexander's conquests – and, later, those of the Indo-Greek kingdoms, which
11:18·briefly occupied territory as far east as the Ganges valley – the geography of northern
11:23·India was relatively well-known.
11:25·But it was only in the first century BC, and especially after the Roman conquest of Egypt,
11:32·that Mediterranean merchants began to cross the Indian Ocean routinely.
11:37·Setting out from ports along the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea, these merchants used
11:42·the monsoon winds – which blow northeast in the winter, and southwest in summer – to
11:47·navigate to and from India, where they traded for pepper, cinnamon, and Chinese silk.
11:54·The immense value of this trade – a single ship could carry cargoes worth millions of
11:58·sestertii – attracted both captains and investors; by the reign of Augustus, 120 Roman
12:06·ships were sailing for India every year.
12:09·Although most trade was confined to ports along the west coast of the subcontinent,
12:14·a few Roman merchants may have operated as far east as what is now southern Vietnam.
·China
12:21·Silk brought the Romans even farther from the Mediterranean.
12:24·After its initial appearance in Roman markets during the first century BC, Chinese silk
12:30·became an indispensable luxury, used in everything from legionary standards to the robes of the
12:35·emperors.
12:36·Supply, however, lagged far behind demand, since the flow of silk was controlled (and
12:43·heavily taxed) by the Parthian Empire.
12:46·In an effort to lower prices, Roman merchants developed trade routes that circumvented the
12:52·Parthians.
12:53·The most important of these, which reached China via Central Asia, began from the ports
12:59·of western India Very few Roman merchants traveled to China,
13:04·since it was much safer and swifter to deal with central Asian or Indian middlemen.
13:10·A few, however, made the long journey.
13:14·Sometime in the early imperial era, an enterprising businessman from Roman Syria crossed the Parthian
13:20·Empire and made his way over the steppe to the Chinese frontier.
13:24·The party of Romans that reached the court of the Chinese emperor during the reign of
13:29·Marcus Aurelius was almost certainly composed of merchants.
13:33·Another merchant reached China in the mid-third century, after the collapse of the Han Dynasty.
13:39·He was sent home with a party of captives and a Chinese officer as his escort.
13:44·A troupe of acrobats from Roman Syria, sent by the King of Parthia, flipped and tumbled
13:50·in the Chinese court.
13:52·Roman Syria also produced the Nestorian Christian missionaries who founded a cathedral in the
13:57·Chinese capital.
13:59·But the most poignant evidence of contact between China and Rome was discovered at the
14:04·oasis settlement of Miran.
14:07·There, on the rim of the bitter Taklamakan Desert, a Buddhist shrine was discovered,
14:13·walls aglow with classicizing frescoes.
14:16·The name of the artist, painted in one corner, was Titus.
14:21·If you enjoyed this video, please consider supporting toldinstone on Patreon.
14:26·You might also enjoy my book, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants.
14:33·Thanks for watching.

2 posted on 10/11/2025 10:48:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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The Garrett Ryan / toldinstone keywords, sorted:

3 posted on 10/11/2025 10:48:38 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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Sub-Saharan Africa was explored by Roman expeditions between 19 BCE - 90 CE, most likely in an effort to locate the sources of valuable trade goods and establish routes to bring them to the seaports on the coast of North Africa, thereby minimizing disruption in trade caused by conflicts among indigenous tribes and kingdoms. 
Roman Expeditions in Sub-Saharan Africa | 24:48 
Study of Antiquity and the Middle Ages | 346K subscribers | 45,409 views | February 25, 2020
Roman Expeditions in Sub-Saharan Africa | 24:48 | Study of Antiquity and the Middle Ages | 346K subscribers | 45,409 views | February 25, 2020


4 posted on 10/11/2025 10:49:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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Did the Romans explore deeper into Africa? | 10:35 
Knowledgia | 2.12M subscribers | 345,083 views | March 13, 2020
Did the Romans explore deeper into Africa? | 10:35 | Knowledgia | 2.12M subscribers | 345,083 views | March 13, 2020

5 posted on 10/11/2025 10:49:17 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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The Roman Empire reached many distant places, from China, to Norway, to the Canary Islands. But how deeply did they journey in Sub-Saharan Africa? 
Rome's Exploration of Sub-Saharan Africa: How Far Did They Reach? | 12:50 
The Historian's Craft | 122K subscribers | 19,344 views | October 10, 2025
Rome's Exploration of Sub-Saharan Africa: How Far Did They Reach? | 12:50 | The Historian's Craft | 122K subscribers | 19,344 views | October 10, 2025

6 posted on 10/11/2025 10:49:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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Romans in Africa: How far did the Romans reach in Africa? | 3:20 
Quirky History | 1.98K subscribers | 940 views | July 14, 2020
Romans in Africa: How far did the Romans reach in Africa? | 3:20 | Quirky History | 1.98K subscribers | 940 views | July 14, 2020

7 posted on 10/11/2025 10:49:51 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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To: 240B; 75thOVI; Adder; albertp; asgardshill; At the Window; bitt; blu; BradyLS; cajungirl; ...
The weekly digest list of topics is up top.

8 posted on 10/11/2025 10:51:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Thank you for posting this! History degree though I have, the extent of ancient Rome’s reach is something I’ve at times wondered about but never investigated on my own. You’ve enlightened me :-)


9 posted on 10/11/2025 11:00:32 PM PDT by Ciaphas Cain
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To: Ciaphas Cain
Thanks! The first one is the best of the bunch IMHO, the rest are the best of the bunch that showed up during a YouTube search. There's a lot of apparent plagiarism on YouTube, not to mention purported history buffs who don't know how to spell or pronounce what they're talking about. 😊
from the FRchives:

10 posted on 10/11/2025 11:12:09 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Bookmark


11 posted on 10/11/2025 11:28:26 PM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how they. control you. )
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To: SunkenCiv

The Romans used to do a brisk trade with India. Read the book “The Golden Road” by William Dalrymple


12 posted on 10/11/2025 11:54:27 PM PDT by Cronos
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To: SunkenCiv

I’ve always been surprised that the Romans were not more exploratory, as it were.
Did they circumnavigate Africa? I don’t recall that they did.
Did they press westward past the Orkneys? Not recorded...
Iceland? Greenland? North America?
I am not even sure they actually reached Poland or Norway...their trade goods and some objects may have but those items could have traded their way there at the end of trade networks.
Maybe when they “read” more scrolls from Herculaneum, we will stumble on more...


13 posted on 10/12/2025 2:33:29 AM PDT by Adder (End fascism...defeat all Democrats.)
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To: SunkenCiv

So what year did they visit China? I suspect that the wise men from the east were instrumental in establishing the silk road.


14 posted on 10/12/2025 3:00:19 AM PDT by SovereignVA
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To: Cronos

Thomas and Nathaniel (Bartholomew) separately went to India, presumably by water. IIRC the expensive spice brought back to Rome was black pepper.


15 posted on 10/12/2025 5:15:27 AM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: SunkenCiv

Every day we look, the extent of the Roman influence continues to amaze!


16 posted on 10/12/2025 5:41:05 AM PDT by Chainmail (You can vote your way into Socialism - but you will have to shoot your way out.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Bkmk


17 posted on 10/12/2025 5:46:35 AM PDT by sauropod
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To: 11th_VA
Thanks for the link!
A story we first told you about went viral around the world. And now we have found the answer as to how that ancient Roman grave marker got into the back yard garden of a shotgun in the Riverbend area.

The man who had it in his home taught voice lessons at Loyola, and even worked with French Quarter entertainer Chris Owens in his home studio...

Since it was found while clearing vines in May, Tulane and UNO scholars figured out the marble slab was the grave marker for a member of the Roman imperial Navy around 100 AD and had been missing since an Italian museum was bombed in 1943 during WWII. We reported that the FBI was in possession of the ancient tomb stone and has plans to repatriate it to the Italian museum next summer...

Erin Scott O'Brien showed us that in her 20s, her family moved into that Riverbend shotgun, and they unceremoniously acquired that marble slab from her mom, who had acquired it after her mom and dad passed away in the 80s. Erin just thought it was one of the grandfather's interesting collectables from World War II...

Master Sergeant Charles E. Paddock was in the USO in the special service section, stationed in Italy. His bride, Adele Vincenza Paoli was Italian, an artist, and violin player. They married there in 1946.
WWL-TV
WWL-TV

18 posted on 10/12/2025 7:45:59 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Carthaginians beat em to it by 400 years.


19 posted on 10/12/2025 7:53:04 AM PDT by bunkerhill7 (Don't shoot until you see the whites of their lies)
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To: bunkerhill7
It was a colony, and the Tyrians arrived by sea, but Carthage was not founded 400 years before Rome, more like a century.
The 'Periplus of Hanno' keyword, sorted:

20 posted on 10/12/2025 8:06:46 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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