<P> Aden--Arabia Eudaimon was called the fortunate, being once a city, when, because ships neither came from India to Egypt nor did those from Egypt dare to go further but only came as far as this place, it received the cargoes from both, just as Alexandria receives goods brought from outside and from Egypt . </P> <P> The Ptolemaic dynasty had developed trade with Indian kingdoms using the Red Sea ports . With the establishment of Roman Egypt, the Romans took over and further developed the already existing trade using these ports . </P> <P> Classical geographers such as Strabo and Pliny the Elder were generally slow to incorporate new information into their works and, from their positions as esteemed scholars, were seemingly prejudiced against lowly merchants and their topographical accounts . Ptolemy's Geography represents somewhat of a break from this since he demonstrated an openness to their accounts and would not have been able to chart the Bay of Bengal so accurately had it not been for the input of traders . It is perhaps no surprise then that Marinus and Ptolemy relied on the testimony of a Greek sailor named Alexander for how to reach "Cattigara" (most likely Oc Eo, Vietnam, where Antonine - period Roman artefacts have been discovered) in the Magnus Sinus (i.e. Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea) located east of the Golden Chersonese (i.e. Malay Peninsula). In the 1st - century CE Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, its anonymous Greek - speaking author, a merchant of Roman Egypt, provides such vivid accounts of trade cities in Arabia and India, including travel times from rivers and towns, where to drop anchor, the locations of royal courts, lifestyles of the locals and goods found in their markets, and favorable times of year to sail from Egypt to these places in order to catch the monsoon winds, that it is clear he visited many of these locations . </P> <P> Prior to Roman expansion, the various peoples of the subcontinent had established strong maritime trade with other countries . The dramatic increase in the importance of Indian ports, however, did not occur until the opening of the Red Sea by the Greeks and the Romans' attainment concerning the region's seasonal monsoons . The first two centuries of the Common Era indicate a marked increase in trade between western India and the Roman east by sea . The expansion of trade was made possible by the stability brought to the region by the Roman Empire from the time of Augustus (r . 27 BCE--14 CE) which allowed for new explorations and the creation of a sound silver and gold coinage...</P>

How did indo roman trade routes aid indian trade