John Roberts - The Princess and the Pirates

I passed the stalls of the silk merchants, the glass sellers, the cutlery mongers, the sellers of bronze ware, and the rest. My nose led me to a section devoted to such things as perfumes, spices, medicines, and, naturally, incense.

The largest such stall was owned by a fat Greek who clearly did not share his countrymen’s passion for athleticism.

“How may I help you, Senator? I am Demades, and I sell incense of all kinds and in all quantities. I can sell you a pinch to burn before your household gods or a year’s supply for the largest temple in Rome. I have cedar incense from Lebanon, subtle cardamom incense from India, fir gum incense from Iberia, balm incense from Judea. I even have the rarest of all, an incense compounded with oil of sandalwood. It comes from trees that grow on an island far east of India. From another island of that sea I have incomparable benzoin, as useful for embalming as for burning before the gods. I have incense of myrrh from Ethiopia, famed for its healing properties. What is your pleasure?”

“Tell me about frankincense.”

“Ahh, frankincense. The noblest of all the fragrances, and the most pleasing to all the gods. How much do you want?”

“Actually, I want to know about its history and where it is harvested and how it gets from its place of origin to places such as-well, here, for instance.”

“You are a scholar?” he asked, somewhat puzzled.

“Of sorts. Immensely curious, in any case. And whenever I desire to learn about a subject, I always go to the one likely to know the most about it. When I inquired about frankincense, I was told that Demades was the very man I needed.” Flattery costs nothing and often yields handsome results.

He beamed. “You were informed correctly. My family has engaged in the frankincense trade for many generations. There is no aspect of the traffic with which I am unacquainted.” At his hospitable gesture, I took a chair at the rear of the booth, and he sat on a large, fragrant bale. He sent a slave boy off to fetch us refreshments.

“First off, I know that it comes from Arabia Felix, but I am a little hazy concerning the geography of that part of the world.”

“Arabia Felix takes its name from its near-monopoly on the frankincense trade,” he said. “If I had that monopoly, I would be happy, too.”

“You said ‘near-monopoly’?”

“Yes. The greater part of the frankincense gum is harvested in a small district near the southern coast of Arabia, but the shrub also grows in a small area of Ethiopia bordering the Red Sea. The greater quantity is harvested in Arabia, but the Ethiopian gum is of higher quality, almost white in color. It burns with a brilliant flame and leaves less ash residue. In both areas, local tribesmen harvest the gum, scratching the bark of the shrubs, letting the sap bleed forth and harden. These droplets, called ‘tears,’ are then scraped off, bagged, and carried on camels to the ports. The tribesmen are jealous of their harvesting grounds and trade routes. They fight fiercely to defend them.”

“Where is it shipped from these ports?”

“Some travels eastward to India and to lands known only in legend and lore, but most is taken north up the Red Sea. From the Sinai it is carried overland to Alexandria, whence it is shipped all over the world. My own family resides in the Greek Quarter of Alexandria, and our business is based there.”

“All of it goes to Alexandria?”

“Indeed. In the days of the Great King much went up the coast to Jerusalem and Susa and Babylon, but the first Ptolemy made the trade a personal monopoly of the Egyptian crown. Royal agents buy the gum at Sinai and sell it to trading firms like my family’s at a great yearly auction in Alexandria.”

“I take it that your trade routes are very old and established?”

“Oh, very much so,” he assured me. “The traffic in frankincense is one of the few things that never changes through the centuries, despite alterations of dynasty and empire.”

“How is this?” I asked him, fascinated as I often am by the words of a man who truly knows his business, especially when it is a subject about which I know all but nothing.

“Consider, sir. Frankincense is one of those rare commodities that is valued by all peoples. So is gold, but gold is stolen, hoarded, buried in Egyptian tombs, used to decorate monuments and wives. A great haul of gold, as when your General Lucullus sacked Tigranocerta, will depress the price of gold throughout the world.

“But frankincense is entirely consumed. That which is burned at a single ceremony must be replaced soon by the same amount. Where the amount of gold in circulation changes from year to year, that of frankincense remains almost constant. The trees are little affected by changes of rainfall; their number neither increases nor decreases. Only a freak storm on the Red Sea, sinking many ships of the incense fleet, is likely to alter the amount of the product delivered to Sinai. But the climate of the Red Sea and its winds at that time of year are almost as predictable as the rise and fall of the Nile.”

He gestured eloquently. “Consider jewels. Everyone values them highly, but nobody agrees which are the most valuable. The emerald, the ruby, and the sapphire are valued in most places, but traders from the Far East scorn them. They want coral and the green stone called jade. You Romans use the colored stones for amulets and seal rings, but prize pearls above all to adorn your women. Everyone esteems amber, but as much for its reputed medicinal qualities as for its beauty.

“But every god must have frankincense. It is burned before the altars of the Olympian deities, in the groves of Britannia, in the great Serapeum of Alexandria, before the images of the thousand gods of Egypt, and the many Baals of the East. Herodotus affirms that, each year at the great festival of Bel, the Assyrians burnt frankincense to the weight of one thousand talents before his altar. Think of it! Thirty tons transformed to smoke at a single ceremony! Of old the Arabians yielded a like amount to Darius as tribute. The nameless god of the Jews gets his share, and each year I set aside a large consignment for the Aphrodisia celebrated here. A goodly poundage will go up in the funeral pyre of our late Governor Silvanus, too.”

“Yours is a great and ancient trade,” I acknowledged. “But surely your ships are often preyed upon by pirates, and this must represent a hazard of the business.”

“Ah, but your General Pompey nearly eliminated that threat. And I understand that you, Senator, are here to put down the recent revival of that disreputable activity.”

“Still, it seems such a desirable cargo. I would think that nautical miscreants would single out ships bearing frankincense as their natural prey.”

He gestured eloquently, a combination shrug and spreading of palms that suggested a comfortable complacency. “As to that, sir, the two trades-one legitimate, the other felonious-came to an understanding many, many years ago.”

At last we were getting to the important part. “How so?”

“The pirates, you understand, are-were, I should say, organized, rather like a corporation, almost like a small state in fact.”

“Of course.”

“This being the case, it has been possible to treat with them: representatives, bargaining sessions, business arrangements, the whole panoply of diplomatic arrangements between states was possible between the frank-incense cartel and the pirates.”

“And I take it that the Ptolemies formed one side of this arrangement?”

“Not directly,” said the merchant. “After all, the frankincense is sold in Alexandria. Once at sea, what concern has the king what happens to it? The next year he will sell that year’s delivery as always.