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Eudoxus of Cyzicus was a Greek explorer of the 2nd Century BCE, from the court of the Ptolemaic Kings of Egypt. He is mostly known as the first to sail from the Red Sea all the way to India by crossing the Ocean instead of staying along the Arabian coast, thanks to his mastery of the monsoon winds. By the end of his life, he went on an expedition to explore the African coasts, on account of King Bocchus of Mauretania. He probably died during this expedition, without reaching his goal: sailing around the African continent.
Context
The Greeks, especially from Ptolemaic Egypt, traded with India for spices and the other riches of the Orient – especially silk, a luxurious tissue produced in China. However, the Greek salesmen rarely traveled all the way to India: they stopped half-way, in Arabia, and exchanged merchandise with intermediaries in port cities like Aden in modern-day Yemen. Because of the monsoon – dangerous winds agitating the Indian Ocean – their ships didn’t dare to cross the ocean, but only sailed along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula.
Eudoxus in India
Eudoxus was born around 150 BCE, in Cyzicus, a Greek city of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Around 130, he was sent as his city’s emissary for a religious festival to Alexandria, to the court of King Ptolemy VIII Physcon. Emissaries were usually elected by their fellow citizens, which shows that Eudoxus was highly respected by the inhabitants of Cyzicus. He already had a reputation as a great navigator, and was hoping to use this trip to Egypt as an opportunity to sail up the Nile.
Around the same time, an Indian sailor who had been shipwrecked in the Red Sea arrived in Alexandria. To thank the city’s inhabitants for saving him, he offered to show Greek navigators the way to India. Eudoxus of Cyzicus was chosen to lead this expedition. Some sources claim that Ptolemy VIII sent Eudoxus away to India because he was the Queen’s lover, but this is a much more recent legend.
In the following years, Eudoxus of Cyzicus sailed twice from Egypt to India, down the Red Sea, and then through the Ocean, without staying along the Arabian coast. He became the first navigator in the Western world to sail the seas agitated by the formidable monsoon winds.
For his first trip in 118, Eudoxus received the guidance of the shipwrecked Indian sailor. He returned with a cargo of aromatic herbs and precious stones, which was seized by Ptolemy VIII at his return. His second trip, in 116, shortly after Ptolemy VIII died, was organised by Queen Cleopatra III. This time, he traveled alone.
Another Greek navigator, Hippalus, is mentioned in some sources as the first to introduce knowledge of the Indian monsoon into the Greek world. He might have been the captain of Eudoxus’ ship.
Many in Antiquity doubted Eudoxus’ travels, but nowadays, modern historians consider it very likely that they really happened.
Eudoxus travels around Africa
On his return way from his second trip to India, Eudoxus was pushed South by adverse winds, along the African coast, all the way to the Somali Peninsula. There, he found the remains of a wrecked ship. The local population told him this ship had come from the South. By examining the remains, especially the horse-head figure on its prow, he understood that it was a Phoenician ship from the city of Gades, Spain, that was sailing around Africa when it got shipwrecked.
This discovery gave Eudoxus a desire to sail around Africa. Such an exploit had already been achieved several centuries earlier, by an expedition of Phoenician navigators organised by Pharaoh Necho II, but this expedition was little known at the time. Eudoxus, influenced by the works of the geographer Eratosthenes of Cyrene, probably believed the continent to be much smaller than it really is (see map above).
Eudoxus might have had an even greater ambition: reaching India by sailing around the Southern tip of Africa; this way, he could escape the control of the Ptolemy, who systematically confiscated his cargo every time he returned from India. This dream would remain unaccomplished for over 1.000 years, until 15-Century Portuguese explorers sailed around the Cape of Good Hope.
Eudoxus returned to Cyzicus, where he sold all his possessions to finance his expedition. He then went to Gades, from where he started his tour of Africa, following the itinerary of Hanno the Navigator. He stopped in Mauretania, to solicit the patronage of King Bocchus (Jugurtha‘s father-in-law, who betrayed him to the Romans). Bocchus refused to support his expedition, forcing Eudoxus back to Gades.
Shortly later, Eudoxus took sea again for another expedition. The Greek historian Posidonius, who lived in Gades and recounts Eudoxus’ expeditions, has very little to say about this second attempt: he only mentions that he still hadn’t returned to Gades around the year 100. The Roman author Pliny the Elder writes that Eudoxus reached his goal, but it is much more likely that he died during this expedition.
