The Fragrance of Life: Cinnamon in the Bible

Prabo Mihindukulasuriya Introduction Biblical scholars and historians alike have been intrigued by references to cinnamon in the Bible. There are four references: three in the OT (Ex. 32.28; Pr. 4.14 and SS 7.17); and one in the NT (Rev. 18.2). The plant species identified as cinnamon by modern botanical classification, Cinnamomum verum (Berchthold & Presl) or Cinnamomum zeylanicum (Blume), is indigenous to southwestern India and Sri Lanka.1 If indeed this is the same species as mentioned in the Bible, scholars ask, how did it reach the Mediterranean world at such an early date? Beginning with Herodotus (5th cent. BC), ancient and modern historians have speculated about where cinnamon was produced, and named regions as wide apart as Ethiopia and China. 2 A detailed historical investigation of the ancient spice trade will not be pursued here. This article will focus on the biblical texts themselves and seek to understand the significance of cinnamon usage in their specific contexts. 1. Cinnamon as an ingredient in the Holy Anointing Oil (Exodus 30.23) Among the carefully prescribed components of Israels cultic worship is the sacred anointing oil with which all the priests and tabernacle furnishings were to be consecrated. The ingredients are listed as follows:
The LORD spoke to Moses: "Take the finest spices: of liquid myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet-smelling cinnamon half as much, that is, two hundred and fifty, and two hundred and fifty of aromatic cane, and five hundred of cassiameasured by the sanctuary shekeland a hin of olive oil; and you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil blended as by the perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil." (Ex. 30.23-25 NRSV)

The four aromatic ingredients are collectively described as the finest spices (bemm r'; cf. raib shamim, SS. 4.14), meaning in this context, premium spices, the best varieties available. This may explain why cinnamon appears in the compound form qinneman-beem (fragrant cinnamon), as does the next item qenhbem (fragrant cane). The adjectival distinction either specified the premium commodity from other varieties of the generic item or simply highlighted its superlative aromatic quality. The listing of cinnamons perennial companion cassia (qiddah) serves to disambiguate the two products, which are otherwise confusable, and also attests to the higher quality of cinnamon, of which half as much was sufficient. The spelling of the name here (qinnemn) varies slightly from its subsequent occurrences (qinnmn) in the later texts of Pr. 7.17 and SS. 4.1. Perhaps the former is a more archaic form, a clue to the antiquity of the ingredients-list.3
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The narrative states that the immediate source of the spices was the Israelite exodees (Ex. 25.1-7; 35.4-9, 20-29). It also indicates that they, in turn, had obtained these and other valuable commodities from their sympathetic Egyptian neighbours in the emergency collection just prior to their departure (12.35-36). Egyptologist Lise Manniche has explained how ordinary Egyptian households could come to possess such royal temple offerings as cinnamon through priests who would either recirculate them in exchange for other
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P.N. Ravindran, K. Nirmal Babu and M. Shylaja (eds.), Cinnamon and Cassia: The genus Cinnamomum (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2004), 14-16. For recent historical studies see J.I. Miller, The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire 29 B.C.-A.D. 641 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), 42-47; 74-77; 153-172; Lionel Casson, Cinnamon and Cassia in the Ancient World in Ancient Trade and Society (Detroit, MI: Wayne State Univ. Press, 1984), 225-246; Patricia Crone, Appendix 1: The Provenance of Classical Cinnamon in Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2004), 253-63. Even a critical scholar such as Martin Noth concedes that although the Pentateuch was given its final shape in the post-exilic period, the recipe itself may well have been taken over from an older usage. Exodus: A Commentary (OTL), (Eng. tr. London: SCM Press, 1962), 238-9.

commodities, or, since they formed the medical profession as well, used it in their preparation of drugs.4 Although the ingredients are listed, the text does not specify any one of the many applicable techniques of producing the aromatic oil.5 However, the task is specifically assigned to the specialized work of the perfumer (30.25; 37.29). Ample evidence places Egypt at the forefront of aromatics production and consumption in the ancient Mediterranean world.6 The Israelite master-craftsman Bezalel who prepared the anointing oil (37.29) would easily have acquired the technology in Egypt. With the speech-act "This shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations... it is holy, and it shall be holy to you (30.31-32) the Lord sanctified the formula and decreed it for perpetuity; thus assuming that the ingredients, including cinnamon, will continue to be available.7 Imposition of the penalty of excommunication for the cosmetic manufacture and use of the formula as an ordinary perfume further emphasize its sanctity (vv. 32-33).8 These restrictions appear to have had two main intentions. Firstly, the spiritual need to instill in the Israelite people reverence for the Lord as holy by 'setting apart,' among other things, a holy oil for exclusive cultic usage. Secondly, perhaps, to discourage dependence on exotic luxuries in Israelite society, as a counter-cultural value vis--vis Egyptian habits (cf. the warning in 1 Sa. 8.13). The cultic significance of the aromatic anointing oil is brought out well by C. Houtman. 9 He reminds us that in the cultural context of ancient Israel the sense of smell was regarded as an important medium for perceiving conditions of life: from fullness of life, health and pleasantness on the one hand (eg. SS. 4.11; Hos. 14.7; Jer. 48.11, etc.), to death, disease and decay on the other (Ex.7.18, 21; 8.10; 16.20, 24; Is. 19.6; 34.3, 12; Joel 2.20; Amos 4.10; Ps. 38.6; Eccl. 10.1, etc.). Therefore, the sweet fragrance of spices was an olfactory symbol of God's holiness because it denoted life and health as opposed to the stench of disease and death. Moreover,
The fragrance, which is spread abroad by the anointing oil, is determined by its composition. By claiming the exclusive right to the composition of the sacred anointing oil, YHWH reserves its special fragrance for himself. By anointing his fragrance is transmitted to his dwelling and its inventory (Ex. xxx 26-9) and to the priests, devoted to his service (Ex. xxx 30). So YHWHs fragrance becomes attached to his house and his attendants. So they are marked by his personality. Their exclusive belonging to YHWH is expressed for an organ of sense in a perceptible way. Because YHWHs aroma envelopes them, by nose they can be known as YHWHs representatives.10

If indeed the cinnamon of the OT is the spice indigenous to South Asia, it is breathtaking to contemplate that even before our island was civilized (c. 5th cent BC), the Lord required for His worship spices from a part of His earth that the Israelites did not yet know of. It is a vivid glimpse of a Creator who
Lise Manniche, Sacred Luxuries: Fragrance, Aromatherapy and Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt (NY: Cornell University Press, 1999), 90. 5 For a discussion on the process see Douglas Stuart, Exodus: The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2006), 643-47. Also, Jean-Pierre Brun, 'The Production of Perfumes in Antiquity: The Cases of Delos and Paestum,' American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 104, No. 2 (Apr., 2000), 277-308. 6 Manniche, op. cit. 7 Upon their return from Babylonian exile, a group of Levites were assigned to the specialized task of "mixing the spices" required for the oil and incense (1 Chr. 9.29-30). This may have been a restoration of a pre-exilic practice. Josephus reports that when the Romans sacked Jerusalem in AD 70, they plundered "a mass of cinnamon and cassia and a multitude of other spices" from the Temple treasury (Jewish War 6.8.3). 8 W.H.C. Propp cites 14 other violations incurring this penalty. Among them: violating the Sabbath, failure to commemorate the Day of Atonement and child sacrifice. Exodus 1-18, Anchor Bible Commentary (NY: Doubleday, 1998), 403-4. 9 On the Function of the Holy Incense (Exodus XXX 34-8) and the Sacred Anointing Oil (Exodus XXX 22-33), Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 42, Fasc. 4. (Oct. 1992), 458-465. 10 Ibid., 465.
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delights in the natural treasures of his own good creation, distributed throughout diverse ecological niches. And even if the ancient Israelites may not have known the nations and lands of South Asia by name, perhaps vaguely as a distant land (cf. Jer. 6.20), they were nevertheless connected by long-distance trade to the network of nations in whose midst, and for whose sake, God was working in Israel's own history. 2. Cinnamon as sensual enticement of the adulteress (Pr. 7.17) As with all of the Creator's good gifts, cinnamon too would be used for sacred as well as profane purposes. The 'foreign woman' names qinnmn among the three aromatic spices with which she has perfumed her bedstead to heighten the sensuality of her enticement of the aimless youth:
I have decked my couch with coverings, coloured spreads of Egyptian linen; I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; let us delight ourselves with love. (Pr. 7.16-18)

The three aromatics myrrh, aloes and cinnamon are also included in the longer list of SS 4.13-14. The action "I have sprinkled my couch" (17) could mean either that dry spices in powder form were sprinkled on the bedding,11 or that the "Egyptian linen" (16) was scented with the aromatic perfume in liquid form.12 The heady sensuality of the love nest 'spiced up' with fragrances is unmistakable. But as Robert O'Connell has suggested, the details of linen and spices may hold "deceptive or ominous nuances".13 Assuming that burial customs remained relatively unchanged over the centuries, O'Connell noted that, as in the case of Jesus, the body was "wrappedwith the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews" (Jn. 19.40). The royal burial of King Asa (c. 869 BC), chronologically closer to the writing of the Proverbs, also involved spices and an open bier (2 Chr. 16.14). O'Connell's sense of the ambivalence of the spices as signaling both illicit sexual pleasure and preparation for burial are confirmed by the narrator. "Right away he follows her," he observes sadly, "like an ox to the slaughtera stag towards the trapa bird rushing into a snare, not knowing that it will cost him his life" (22-23). The boudoir scene culminates in the macabre dnouement that "Her house is the way of Sheol, going down to the chambers of death" (27). The kind of wanton sensuality associated with the lavish use of expensive spices such as cinnamon, as depicted here in the Proverbs, seems to be exactly the sort of lifestyle that Israel was cautioned to eschew. The mention of cinnamon here is a sober reminder that God's natural gifts to humankind could be used for purposes signifying life and holiness, as well as decadence and death. 3. Cinnamon as delight of true love (Song of Songs 4.14) In lush horticultural imagery, the Lover extols the Beloved's nubile graces:
A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a garden locked, a fountain sealed.
The classical Greek botanist Theophrastus (c.371-c.287 BC) wrote that, "the powders are used for bedding, so that they may come in contact with the skin, for this kind of preparation gets a better hold and is more lasting, men use it thus, instead of scenting their bodies directly" (On Odours 12). Theophrastus (Eng. trans. Arthur F. Hort), Enquiry into Plants and other minor writings on odours and weather signs: in two volumes (Vol. 2), Loeb Classical Library (London: Heinemann, 1968), 379. 12 Keil and Delitzsch, OT Commentary: Psalms LXXVIII Isaiah XIV (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1978), 501-2. The transitive verb hanip with double accusative indicates sprinkling of some sort. 13 Robert H. O'Connell, 'Proverbs VII 16-17: A Case of Fatal Deception in a "Woman and the Window" Type-Scene,' Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 41, Fasc. 2 (April 1991), 235-241.
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Your channel is an orchard of pomegranates with all choice fruits, henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all chief spicesa garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon. (SS. 4.12-15)

The Beloved is compared to "a garden locked up" (Persian hapax pards, a private pleasure garden) with orchards of fruit and spice trees, including qinnmn (4.13-14). The other spices mentioned are henna, nard, saffron, calamus, myrrh and aloes. They are collectively described as "all the finest spices" (rai-beshamim 14e; cf. bemm r' Ex. 30.23). In 1973, Chaim Rabin proposed that stylistic and thematic elements in SS bear a remarkable similarity to the love poetry of the Tamil Sangam anthologies (which he dated to 1000 BC).14 He also observed that the spices named in SS have Dravidian and Sanskrit etymologies. Both these features, Rabin concluded, indicate trade-based cultural contact between Israel and South India, via South Arabia. He supposed that the genre's distinctive "female yearning" may have arisen due to the long absences of the menfolk who ventured on distant spice trading voyages from India to South Arabia and the Levant. He further conjectured that SS 3.6 is a reference to the lover's caravan, the lover himself being a spice merchant:
Who is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant?

Rabin's identification is unconvincing.15 As remarkable as the thematic affinities are, the chronological correspondence is also unlikely. Historians of Tamil literature now date the Sangam period as 200 BC 200 16 th AD; much too late for any plausible connection with 10 century BC Israel. However, Rabin is right to highlight the poet's awareness of the spice trade. The flourishing of international trade ties in the Solomonic period apparently increased Israel's acquaintance with and consumption of spices. Following the visit of the unnamed queen of Sheba (the key SW Arabian transshipment centre of the ancient spice trade) who presented Solomon with such "a great quantity of spices" that "never again did spices come in such quantity" (1 Ki. 10.10 = 2 Chr. 9.9). What these spices were is not specified, but the Sabaean royal visit appears to have secured their trade routes through Israelite territory while enriching Solomon with tribute and revenues (1 Ki. 10. 14-15, 25). Noticing how the narrator 'inter leaves' the accounts of Solomon's dealings with the queen of Sheba and the nautical venture with king Hiram of Tyre, Kenneth Kitchen suggests that,
[I]n the light of the rise of a new overland trade between SW Arabia and the Near Eastduring the 12th and 9th centuries BC, the real reason for any such visit is more likely to have had an economic motive, i.e. the Sabaeans saw this new sea-venture between the Levant and Arabia as a potential threat to their overland camel-borne trade north to that same quarter, and sought to sort matters out t first hand [The queen] could have pressed upon a Solomon the superiority of the camel-route
'The Song of Songs and Tamil Poetry', Studies in Religion, Vol. 3, No. 3 (1973), 205-19; critiqued by P.C. Craigie, 'Biblical and Tamil Poetry: Some Further Reflections,' Studies in Religion , Vol. 8 (1979), 169-65. See also Abraham Mariaselvam, The Song of Songs and Ancient Tamil Love Poems (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute Press, 1988). 15 The "who (fem.) coming out of the desert" (6) is explicitly identified as "Solomon's carriage (fem.) escorted by sixty warriors" (7); and is compared to a column of perfumed smoke. Not the supposed caravan of the lover, as Rabin suggests. See the critique (and more credible etymological evidence) of Athalya Brenner, 'Aromatics and Perfumes in the Song of Songs,' Journal of the Study of the Old Testament, Vol. 25, No. 1 (February 1983), 25-81. 16 See K.V. Zvelebil, Tamil Literature (Leiden/Kln: E.J. Brill, 1975), 31.
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for light-weight, high-value goods such as aromatics and spice.17

In terms of its literary influence, the Edenic allusion of the "walled garden" (gan in Ge. 2.8 is synonymous) to which the Beloved is compared did not go unnoticed by post-biblical Jewish writers. Cinnamon is named as one of the trees of Paradise in rabbinic literature.18 After the dispersion from Palestine following the abortive Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-136 AD), Jewish writers looked back at their lost homeland with idyllic nostalgia where "Goats fed on the cinnamon tree"19 and "the (fuel) logs of Jerusalem were of cinnamon trees, and when lit their fragrance pervaded the whole of Erez Israel." 20 The Pseudepigrapha also refer to Eden as the source of cinnamon. In the Apocalypse of Moses, Adam pleads with the angels to be allowed back into the garden to "take away fragrant herbs from paradise, so that I may offer an offering to God after I have gone out of paradise that he hear me." With God's permission "he took four kinds: crocus and nard and calamus and cinnamon and the other seeds for his food"21 In the Life of Adam and Eve, Eve and Seth return to the environs of Paradise to implore the archangel Michael for "oil from the tree of mercy" to relieve the mortal pain of Adam. When the archangel refuses, Eve and Seth nevertheless return with "herbs of fragrance, i.e. nard and crocus and calamus and cinnamon,"22 presumably as ingredients for a close substitute for the inaccessible healing oil. 4. Cinnamon as a luxury consumed by Rome (Revelation 18.13) Kinnammon is listed in a long inventory of valuable cargoes regularly imported into the metropolis 'Babylon the Great,' a thinly disguised cryptonym for imperial Rome (cf. 17.18). The context of the inventory is a dramatic declaration of judgement and destruction upon the city by the Heavenly Christ23 (18.4-20).
The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more- cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men [i.e. slaves]. (Rev. 18.11-13)

John models the judgement over Rome on Ezekiel's lament over Tyre (27.1-28.19) to whom also, in a previous 'world order', foreign merchants had brought "the chief of all spices" (27.22). Each of the 28 named commodities and categories are all well attested in 1st century Roman commerce.24 Kinnammon stands at the head of the sub-list of aromatics: "cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense" (13). The point that these cargoes are imported from other nations is a matter of theological importance in the text. International trade is alluded to by the many references to "the merchants of the earth" (3, 11, 15). Furthermore, long-distance maritime trade is clearly in view with references to "[e]very sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea[will cry,] 'Woe! Woe, O great city,
Kenneth A. Kitchen, 'Sheba and Arabia,' in Lowell K. Handy (ed.), The Age of Solomon: Scholarship at the Turn of the Millennium (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 138-39. 18 Genesis Rabba 33.6 19 TJ, Pe'ah 7:4; Genesis Rabba 65:17. 20 TJ Shabbath 63a. 21 Apocalyspe of Adam 29.1-7 (R.H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1913)). 22 Life of Adam and Eve 36.1-43.3 (Ibid.) 23 The voice is neither that of an angel ("another voice from heaven", 4), nor of God (who is spoken of in the third person, 5, 8, 20); but of one who can nevertheless address the oppressed saints as "my people", 4). 24 See for example Lionel Casson (trans. and ed.), The Periplus Maris Erythraei (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1989); Casson, Ancient Trade and Society (Detroit, MI: Wayne State Univ. Press, 1984); Gary K. Young, Rome's Eastern Trade: International Commerce and Imperial Policy, 31 BC- AD 305 (London/NY: Routledge, 2001; Roberta Tomber, IndoRoman Trade (London: Duckworth, 2008); Peter F. Bang, The Roman Bazaar (Cambridge: CUP, 2009).
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where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth!' (19). The point that John makes is that the wealth of the nations, including luxury spices of which cinnamon was foremost, are not deserved by the centres of global consumption driven by their greed, corruption and exploitation. All products of human labour, including its harvests of valuable botanical commodities, have only one legitimate home: the New Jerusalem. Here the Lord of the Nations will receive them as the tributary worship offered by His creation. When John declares that the "the kings of the earth will bring their splendour into it" (21.24) and "The glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it" (26), he is witnessing the same prophetic vision as was revealed to Isaiah (chs. 2 and 60) where each nation offers to the Lord the best of their economic and cultural wealth; and Ezekiel (47.1-12), where the healing trees of Paradise will again be accessible to a transformed humanity. Conclusion References to qinnemn/qinnmn and kinnammon in the Bible are rich with theological meanings. The holy anointing oil, in which the commodity is an ingredient, functions as an olfactory symbol of God's purity and beauty (Ex. 30.23). It exemplifies the moral ambiguity with which God's good gifts are often misused as by the extravagant seductress (Pr. 7.17). In the imagination of the Lover it is a symbol of his Beloved's sheer delightfulness (SS. 4.14). And in the vision of humanity's final judgement, it is one of many earthy treasures that the appreciative Creator receives, not merely as a commodity of lucrative trade (Rev. 18.13), but as acceptable tribute for worship. The presence of cinnamon (and other exotics) in the Hebrew Scriptures testify to God's desire to have his far-flung creation represented in His tabernacle, which was itself symbolic of the created universe. Missiologically, the inclusion of long-distance trade goods such as cinnamon in the biblical narrative may also underline the connection between the ethno-geographical epicentre of God's salvation drama and the Nations who have spread out over the Earth who await its climactic blessings. The 'world of the Bible' is therefore much wider than the so-called Ancient Near East or the Mediterranean region. Many more peoples, cultures and lands are represented in the biblical story by their products of trade than are identifiably named by its authors. Conversely, the surprising interconnection between ancient 'world systems' also challenges the civilizational compartmentalization at the heart of many religious traditions. For example, the tendency of the Indic religious ethos to marginalize the biblical narrative as 'Semitic' or 'Abrahamic' misses the incarnational point of God's chosen way of addressing all cultures and their religious experiences. Therefore, simple historical factors such as intercultural trade connections serve to 'zoom out' to a more inclusive panorama of humanity's common story which is held together by God's covenant with Israel.

Bibliography Bang, Peter F. The Roman Bazaar (Cambridge: CUP, 2009). Brenner, Athalya. 'Aromatics and Perfumes in the Song of Songs,' Journal of the Study of the Old Testament, Vol. 25, No. 1 (February 1983), 25-81. Brun, Jean-Pierre. 'The Production of Perfumes in Antiquity: The Cases of Delos and Paestum,' American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 104, No. 2 (Apr., 2000), 277-308. Casson, Lionel (trans. and ed.), The Periplus Maris Erythraei (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1989). Ancient Trade and Society (Detroit, MI: Wayne State Univ. Press, 1984). Craigie, P.C. 'Biblical and Tamil Poetry: Some Further Reflections,' Studies in Religion, Vol. 8 (1979), 169-65. Crone, Patricia. Appendix 1: The Provenance of Classical Cinnamon in Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2004). Houtman, C. On the Function of the Holy Incense (Exodus XXX 34-8) and the Sacred Anointing Oil

(Exodus XXX 22-33), Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 42, Fasc. 4. (Oct. 1992), 458-465. Keil, C.F. and Delitzsch, F. OT Commentary: Psalms LXXVIII Isaiah XIV (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1978). Kitchen, Kenneth A. 'Sheba and Arabia,' in Handy K., Lowell (ed.). The Age of Solomon: Scholarship at the Turn of the Millennium (Leiden: Brill, 1997). Manniche, Lise. Sacred Luxuries: Fragrance, Aromatherapy and Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt (NY: Cornell University Press, 1999). Mariaselvam, Abraham The Song of Songs and Ancient Tamil Love Poems (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute Press, 1988). Miller, J.I. The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire 29 B.C.-A.D. 641 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969) Noth, Martin. Exodus: A Commentary (OTL), (Eng. tr. London: SCM Press, 1962). O'Connell, Robert H. 'Proverbs VII 16-17: A Case of Fatal Deception in a "Woman and the Window" TypeScene,' Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 41, Fasc. 2 (April 1991), 235-241. Propp, W.H.C. Exodus 1-18, Anchor Bible Commentary (NY: Doubleday, 1998). Rabin, Chaim. 'The Song of Songs and Tamil Poetry', Studies in Religion, Vol. 3, No. 3 (1973), 205-19. Ravindran, P.N., Babu, K. Nirmal and Shylaja, M. (eds.). Cinnamon and Cassia: The genus Cinnamomum (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2004). Stuart, Douglas. Exodus: The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2006) Theophrastus, On Odours. Eng. trans. Arthur F. Hort, Enquiry into Plants and other minor writings on odours and weather signs: in two volumes (Vol. 2), Loeb Classical Library (London: Heinemann, 1968). Tomber, Roberta. Indo-Roman Trade (London: Duckworth, 2008). Young, Gary K. Rome's Eastern Trade: International Commerce and Imperial Policy, 31 BC- AD 305 (London/NY: Routledge, 2001). Zvelebil, K.V. Tamil Literature (Leiden/Kln: E.J. Brill, 1975).