Content:
The concept, which arrived the scientific literature with the Silk Road (Seidenstraße) name, was actually used to describe an East-West centered international trade roads, whose history dates back to ancient times.
In this global network where silk was traded as the main commercial commodity, and besides silk, precious stones and mines, various cultures, religions and Technologies were transported to Mediterranean ports after a long journey, and even dispersed to a significant part of Europe. Silk and silk products, which were mostly preferred by the grandee and elites, occupied a serious place in the economy of the states and became an invariable object of desire for long centuries.
After setting foot in Anatolia in 188 BC, Rome encountered the Parthians, who monopolized the Silk Road in the east. However, this encounter turned into a Roman-Parthian struggle that caused the Roman-Parthian war and spread over long centuries. After the Sassanids replaced the Parths in Iran, this struggle continued between the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) and Sassanid Empires. In this context, both powers did their best to dominate the Silk Road, and did not refrain to use from any military, political, economic or diplomatic ways. Protecting existing trade routes or drawing new ones are some of these alternatives.
Thus, silk as a luxury consumable has turned into a catalyst that enables the establishment of new routes between regions and cultures. Various routes were followed in the journey of silk from east to west and were changed or revised. The main factor of the change was the military and political struggle between the powers that wanted to dominate the silk trade. In this paper, the roads, existing or alternative new routes, passages, ports and resting points which is used between East and West silk trade in the 6th century AD will be mentioned.
Keywords:
Silk Road, Trade Routes, Eastern Roman Empire, Sassanid Empires, Silk Trade, East and West