4. FBG como sensor de temperatura: Análisis teórico y físico
4.5. Comparación de las predicciones teóricas con el experimento
Despite notions that travel was unusual or that it was reserved for a slim
minority of the population it is becoming increasingly evident that the
inhabitants of Roman and Byzantine Egypt were more mobile and travelled
more extensively than was once thought. As one recent study has pointed
out:
3 On the use of letters in late antiquity to consider larger issues of travel and epistolary
networking see Scott Bradbury, “Libanius’ Letters as Evidence of Travel and Epistolary Net- works Among Greek Elites in the Fourth Century,” in Travel, Communication and Geography in Late Antiquity: Sacred and Profane, ed. Linda Ellis and Frank L. Kidner (Aldershot, Hants, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004), 73–74.
4
Given the nature of the epistolary evidence, this section of the chapter will not deal extensively with the travels of the emperor or other high officials in Egypt given their travel experiences would have been somewhat different from the ordinary traveller.
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Roman Egypt was a society characterized by movement and connectivity—
and the Nile was central to this. The manifold opportunities offered to indi-
viduals by Roman control arguably had the effect of creating a freer and more
mobile society than had existed in Egypt in previous periods.
5At any given time the roads, minor highways, and footpaths that stretched
throughout the Nile Valley and the rest of Egypt were bustling with sol-
diers, officials, messengers, traders, merchants, refugees, and a host of other
individuals. During certain periods such as tax time, which conveniently
coincided with the harvest in the spring, the roads were especially busy
as grain was being transported to local centres so it could be shipped to
Alexandria and tax collectors were relentlessly traversing the countryside
collecting dues.
6Likewise, travel volume was significantly increased during
periods of upheaval and distress when streams of refugees and other dis-
placed peoples were forced to leave their homes.
7Owing to its unique geography and accompanying topography travel
in Egypt was much easier, relatively speaking, than in many of the other
regions of the Mediterranean.
8The Nile River provided a vital travel artery
that ran through the middle of Egypt and served as a large highway that
effectively united Upper and Lower Egypt and greatly facilitated travel,
communication, and administration. Most of the cites and villages in Mid-
dle and Upper Egypt were located in the Nile Valley and were usually no
more than 15–20 km from the river due to the fecundity of this area com-
bined with the generally inhospitable conditions of the outlying desert
regions. Parodying the fact that for all intents and purposes “Egypt” was
5
Colin Adams, Land Transport in Roman Egypt: A Study of Economics and Administration in a Roman Province (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 43.
6
Colin Adams, Land Transport in Roman Egypt, 19–22. Evidence from other parts of the Empire suggests that during the winter months (November to March) many roads, especially those at higher elevations or through mountain passes, were mostly closed and travel volume decreased significantly (Vegetius, De Re Militari 4.39). However, it was probably during the summer months in Egypt when extreme temperatures set in and when the Nile inundation occurred that travel volume decreased significantly. On this point see Chrysi Kotsifou, “Papy- rological Evidence of Travelling in Byzantine Egypt,” in Current Research in Egyptology 2000 (BAR International Series 909), ed. Angela McDonald and Christina Riggs (Oxford: Archaeo- press, 2000), 57.
7 The fifth-century Vandal incursions into North Africa (429 ce) resulted in waves of
refugees fleeing into Egypt. In Augustine’s letter to fellow bishop Honoratus of Thiave (Ep. 228), written as the Vandals approached, he argued that for the laity and most other people it was permissible to flee; however, for members of the clergy who had pastoral responsibilities they ought to be obliged to stay and not abandon their ecclesiastical duties.
8
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largely confined to the Nile Valley the second-century sophist Aelius Aris-
tides reports that in those places where the Nile’s breadth occupied the
whole width of the valley the province was only as wide as the river itself.
9Besides the Nile waterway that split into various heads just north of
Babylon to form the Delta, there were a number of other waterways in the
province. Canals of various sizes could be found throughout the Nile Valley
and Fayum with the most notable being the Ba
˙
hr Y ¯usuf (Joseph’s Canal), a
branch of the Nile on the western side of the valley that split off just north
of Abydos in the Thebaid and emptied into lake Moeris in the Fayum a
distance of some 400 km. During most times of the year these bodies of
water were literally dotted with a number of different vessels that ranged
in size from small catamarans or rafts that served individual purposes to
much larger vessels that could carry 2,500 artabas of grain (about 75 met-
ric tons).
10Besides small fishing vessels most ships on the Nile were com-
mercial freighters, carrying cargo of various sorts, as water transport was
generally much easier, quicker, and cost effective, than land transport for
large-scale movement of goods.
11The most common freight was grain since
Egypt supplied huge amounts to Rome and later Constantinople with the
anonna—the imperial gift of free grain to the urban populations of these
two centres.
12Nevertheless, Egypt also exported other items such as oil,
wine, stone, papyrus, animals, building materials, and a number of exotic
items such as obelisks and mummies.
9
Aelius Aristides, Or. 36.46.
10
Between the months of June and September when the river flooding occurred it seems that Nile traffic decreased as conditions became more hazardous. During such time it was only possible to travel downstream on the Nile since the current was much stronger (Diodo- rus Siculus 1.33.1), although it may have also been possible to travel up river via a canal network. See Colin Adams, Land Transport in Roman Egypt, 19. On the different kinds of ships attested on the Nile see Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity, 35–36. For the different types of ships and boats mentioned in Byzantine papyri see A.C. Johnson and L.C. West, Byzantine Egypt: Economic Studies (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949), 139–140.
11
H-J. Drexhage, Preise, Mieten/Pachten, Kosten und Löhne im römischen Ägypten (St. Katharinen: Scripta Mercaturae, 1991), 337–350; Moses I. Finley, The Ancient Economy, reprint, 1973 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 126–127; A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire 284–602, 2 Vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964), ii 841–884. Jones argued that land transport was far more expensive than water transport based on an anal- ysis of Diocletian’s Edict of Maximum Prices (Ed. Diocl. 17.3–5). See also A. Burford, “Heavy Transport in Classical Antiquity,” Economic History Review 13 (1960): 1–18.
12 Josephus, J.W. 2.386; Tacitus, Ann. 2.59; NewDocs 7.112–129; Naphtali Lewis, Life in
Egypt Under Roman Rule (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983), 165; Geoffrey Rickman, The Corn Supply of Ancient Rome (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980), 61, 67–71. Given the importance of grain export even privately owned boats might be periodically requisitioned to transport grain or other cargo (Cod. Theod. 13.5–9).
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Given that passenger ships were almost unheard of in Egypt, as well as
the rest of the Mediterranean in antiquity, persons desiring to travel via
ship on the Nile or on other waterways typically obtained passage on a
freighter.
13In such cases arrangements might be made with the captain
whereby passengers could stay on deck provided they brought their own
provisions.
14Despite the general ease with which passage along the Nile
afforded since it required little physical effort and tended to be a faster mode
of travel than by land,
15it could be quite tedious depending on the number
of stopovers the vessel was making and even the best fares were relatively
expensive.
16However, for those who could not afford to pay the cost of water
transit it was always possible to sneak on board a ship as a stowaway to get
to your final destination.
17The alternative to water travel in Egypt was travel by land. A number of
major roads, lesser highways, and caravan trails ran throughout the Nile Val-
ley and the rest of Egypt.
18At least one major north/south road ran through
the valley and roughly paralleled the Nile on its eastern side. However, any
archaeological evidence for roadways in the valley have been completely
13
P.Cair.Goodsp. 28 (II) (Karanis) and P.Amh. II 128 (17 July 128) (Hermopolites) are the only two extant boat tickets from antiquity; however, they do not give the price of the ticket but only render the location where the boat was boarded.
14 Maribel Dietz, Wandering Monks, Virgins, and Pilgrims: Ascetic Travel in the Mediter-
ranean World A.D. 300–800 (University Park, PA.: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005), 14; Colin Adams, “ ‘There and Back Again’: Getting Around in Roman Egypt,” in Travel and Geography in the Roman Empire, ed. Colin Adams and Ray Laurence (London and New York: Routledge, 2001), 146–147; L. Casson, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, reprint, 1971 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 180–181; Acts 27:37; Josephus, Life 15.3; Lucian, Navigium; P.Oxy. XIV 1749. However, it was not always easy to procure a passage (P.Oxy. XIV 1773 [III]; XLVI 3314 [IV]).
15
River travel on the Nile was relatively easy as the current ran north and the prevailing winds blew toward the south. In favourable conditions ships going down river could probably average about 11 km per hour but would typically dock for the night given the inherent treacheries of night travel. See Colin Adams, Land Transport in Roman Egypt, 21.
16
Colin Adams, “ ‘There and Back Again’,” 147. On the generally higher cost of river passage over sea passage see Kevin Greene, The Archaeology of the Roman Economy (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986), 39–41. The higher costs accrued for travel on the Nile were at least partially due to a number of taxes and levies that would have to be paid at various toll stations along the river.
17 Palladius tells the story of an Egyptian holy man by the name of Serapion who was able
to sneak on board an Alexandrian vessel bound for Rome. When he was discovered on the fifth day of the voyage, instead of being thrown overboard, the crew took pity on him since he had not eaten the whole time and allowed him to stay on board the rest of the trip (Hist. Laus. 37.9–11).
18
Raymond Chevallier, Roman Roads, trans. N.H. Field (London: B.T. Batsford LTD, 1976), 145–147.
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lost due to the annual inundation and the changing course of the Nile valley
over the last fifteen hundred years. Therefore, evidence for the road system
in the Nile Valley has to be largely reconstructed from miscellaneous refer-
ences in the papyrological record and various itineraria and tabellaria, most
notably the Antonine Itinerary and the Peutinger Table.
19From these two
sources it would appear that between Syene (modern Aswan) and Babylon
(near Cairo) the roads in the Nile Valley were primarily orientated towards
linking the various metropoleis (capital cities) of the nomes. In the Eastern
Desert archaeological evidence for roadways and caravan trails is much bet-
ter attested.
20While overland travel was usually more labour intensive than water
travel and roads were not always well maintained,
21it did have certain
benefits. Not only did it tend to be more cost effective so long as one was not
hauling cargo over long distances, the individual traveller could largely set
their own schedule and itinerary as they usually did not have to worry about
securing passage or adhering to someone else’s timetable.
22As a result,
calculating the rate with which overland travel could be accomplished is
notoriously difficult to gauge given the number of variables involved at any
one time. The standard estimation commonly employed is that in most
cases a person travelling by foot could cover a distance of about 30 km
per day.
23Likewise, it is often assumed that travel with pack animals or by
19
Colin Adams, Land Transport in Roman Egypt, 22–23.
20
Colin Adams, Land Transport in Roman Egypt, 196–210. The major highway in the Eastern Desert was the Via Hadriana that was constructed after 130 ce and ran east from Antinoopolis to the Red Sea and then south along the coast to Berenike. A number of other highways linked up with the Via Hadriana at various junctures that connected centres such as Koptos and Ombos. Rome’s increasing investment in the Eastern Desert was made on account of the region’s rich mineral deposits, quality stone, and the opening up of trade with the east. See Gary K. Young, Rome’s Eastern Trade: International Commerce and Imperial Policy, 31 BC – AD 305 (London and New York: Routledge, 2001), 27–88.
21
Especially in the Nile Valley where roads might be annually washed out, road condi- tions were not always very good. In P.Oxy. XXXIII 2680 (II/III) a woman named Arsinoe writes to her friend Sarapis to inform her that the roads are not yet firm and therefore unfit for travel. In another letter, P.Oxy. I 118 V (late III), two business associates are advised they should take a ferry-boat on account of the poor road conditions. The Cod. Theod. 15.3 contains a whole section on maintenance and problems of roads.
22 In Egypt one of the obvious difficulties of land travel was crossing the many canals
that were scattered throughout parts of the Nile Valley and Fayum. Bridges were not always readily available and a person might be forced to rely on local ferries. Likewise, there were no bridges crossing the Nile and ferry-boat was the only way across.
23
Dig. 2.11.1. Assumes that litigants can travel about 30 km per day to appear in court. The Gnomon of the Idios Logos BGU V 1210 (ca. 149) section 100 may also elucidate travel within Egypt as it sets forth some general timetables for when documents need to be
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wagon yielded approximately the same rate provided one stayed on a road.
While such estimations seem reasonable and there are examples within
Egypt where a 30 km rate per day is roughly maintained over the course of
a journey,
24such an average could easily change depending on a number of
factors such as terrain, weather conditions, stopovers, exigencies, sickness,
etc.
25For overland travel it would appear that most people travelled by foot
unless long distances were being covered or cargo was being transported,
in which cases travel was usually undertaken via wagon or pack animal.
Given that most often travel was undertaken for routine purposes, for work,
to go to the market, or to undertake some pressing task, even if travel
was undertaken regularly it was primarily local, to nearby villages where
economic and social ties tended to be the strongest.
26Villages were usually
located within a few kilometres of each other and travel between them
could easily be completed in an hour or so. Longer travel within the nome
to the metropolis or to an outlying village would take longer but given the
geographical layout of most nomes, travel across them usually required no
more than a day or two.
27registered in Alexandria. Documents from the Thebaid need to be registered with 60 days while documents from other cities, presumably from the Delta, only have 30 days.
24 Pliny (the Elder) reports that the longest route from Koptos to Berenike, a distance
of some 350 km, could be made in twelve days (N.H. 6.102), which assumes an average 29.2 km/day. See Colin Adams, Land Transport in Roman Egypt, 45.
25
In P.Oxy. XLII 3052 (I), an itinerary, the traveller took a few days off thereby prolonging his trip in order to spend time at some baths. On the inherent problems or even dangers of prolonged travel see Lincoln Blumell, “Beware of Bandits! Banditry and Land Travel in the Roman Empire,” Journeys 8, no. 1 (2008): 1–20; Colin Adams, “ ‘There and Back Again’,” 154– 158; Kotsifou, “Papyrological Evidence of Travelling,” 61.
26
Giovanni Ruffini, Social Networks in Byzantine Egypt (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- sity Press, 2008), 91–93; Giovanni Ruffini, “New Approaches to Oxyrhynchite Topography,” in Proceedings of the 24th Congress of Papyrology, Helsinki, 1–7 August, 2004, ed. Jaakko Frösén, Tiina Purola, and Erja Salmenkivi (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 2007), 970–971; Katja Mueller, “Mastering Matrices and Clusters, Locating Graeco-Roman Settlements in the Meris of Herakleides (Fayum/Egypt) by Monte-Carlo-Simulation,” APF 49, no. 2 (2003): 220; Richard Alston, “Trade and the City in Roman Egypt,” in Trade, Traders and the Ancient City, ed. H. Parkins and C.J. Smith (London and New York: Routledge, 1998), 171; Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity, 138–140; Alan K. Bowman, Egypt After the Pharaohs: 332 BC – AD 642 from Alexander to the Arab Conquest (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986), 108. Even if land travel was often the most convenient means of moving short dis- tances between villages or nearby cities, in some circumstances water travel would be the most convenient given that certain areas had very efficient canal systems. See Rowlandson, Landowners and Tenants in Roman Egypt, 15.
27
For obvious administrative purposes the metropolis of a nome was geographically situated so that it in most cases it was no more than a day’s travel from its outermost borders.
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For longer overland journeys or trips where cargo was being transported
it was most often conducted via pack animal.
28From the available evidence
donkeys most often appear to have been the animal of choice given that
they were much cheaper than even the smallest boat and could be used for
multiple purposes.
29Camels are much less frequently attested than donkeys
and filled a more “specialised niche” as they were primarily used for long dis-
tance journeys through the desert where food and water were not abundant
and where roadways did not exist.
30Horses were even more rarely used than
camels and were used by higher officials, persons who had the necessary
means, or by the military and the cursus publicus.
31Along the more popular highways and thoroughfares there were likely
markers, or mileposts, inscribed with the distances to and from various
cities along the roadway and that helped guide travellers toward their des-
tinations, and many of these roads were also dotted with way stations and
hostels to accommodate travellers.
32By the fifth and sixth centuries when
monasteries could be found throughout Egypt they too served as another
place of rest and refuge for the weary traveller.
33For travellers engaged in
matters of official state business, including soldiers, or for those who worked
for the cursus publicus they could lodge at various roadway lodging houses
(mansiones) or state run staging posts (mutationes). Such resting stops could
not only house human traffic but would also service pack animals and live-
stock.
34While mansiones were reserved for travellers on official business,
28
Colin Adams, Land Transport in Roman Egypt, 49–64.
29
Roger S. Bagnall, “The Camel, the Wagon, and the Donkey in Later Roman Egypt,” BASP 22 (1985): 1–6.
30
Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity, 39; cf. Egeria, Itin. 6.1–2.
31
Colin Adams, Land Transport in Roman Egypt, 58–60.
32
Despite the general lack of archaeological evidence for the use of milestones in the Nile Valley and elsewhere, Strabo records that on a journey from Syene to Philae he noted that in many places along the road different kinds of stones had been purposely set up (Geog. 17.1.50). Colin Adams notes that such stones may have merely served to mark the course of the road and may not have actually been mileposts. See Colin Adams, “ ‘There and Back Again’,” 141–142. On the use of roadside inns and resting spots see Olivia Remie Constable, Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Trade, and Travel in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 11–39; L. Casson, Travel in the