Alexandria And India
( Originally Published Early 1900's )
The commercial and intellectual importance of Alexandria continued for many centuries. Anticipating the account we shall presently give of the rise of the Roman power, we may tell here that under the Empire Alexandria became the greatest trade centre in the world. The Roman Alexandrian merchants had numerous settlements in South India. At Cranganore on the Malaise Coast there was a temple dedicated. to Augustus, and the settlement was defended by two Roman cohorts. Embassies were sent from the Emperor to various South Indian potentates. Moreover Clement, Chrysostom, and other early Christian writers speak about the Indians of Alexandria and their cults.