From this source:
It was the Ptolemaic dynasty, historians tell us, that had initiated Graeco-Roman maritime trade contact with India, using the Red Sea ports. The historian, Strabo, interestingly, once noted a vast increase in trade following the Roman annexation of Egypt. His account indicates that the hazards of the Indian monsoon were well known in Athens, Rome and Alexandria. [snip]
The sea-trade routes of old had to be cleverly devised to make them cost-effective and also protected from both the pirates of the sea and the havocs of nature in the season the monsoon winds and rains came. Similarly, the famous trade routes by land — the spice route and the silk route — had to be as carefully maintained and properly guarded against marauders on roads spreading from what is modern Afghanistan through Central Asia. [snip]Indian enclaves were present in Alexandria. Christian and Jewish settlers from Rome lived in India in settlements during and even after the fall of the Roman Empire.
I had once seen an Egyptian mummy lying in its coffin. Parts of the body seemed covered in a delicate fabric that I was told came from India. That mummy probably was a few thousand years old. The covering fabric looked suspiciously like fine cotton that could well have come all the way from East India where the famous muslin would one day become world-renowned. I would not be surprised if some Indian merchants or even technicians were around when the mummy’s dressing was being put on. The use of Indian products might well have needed accompanying experts. Perhaps some of the Indian settlers living in Alexandria and elsewhere in the Old World were only welcome high-quality manpower. They would have been among the original non-resident Indians who had endowed themselves with India-made human capital but were stationed abroad for servicing their country’s wares when needed.
Trade Routes Indian Ocean (World History Wall Maps)
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