Towards the end of the second century A.D. the direct trade between the Egyptian Greeks of the Ro- man Empire and India declined, the trafﬁc passing into the hands of the Arabians and, still more, the Auxumites of East Africa. A new era commenced with the rise of Constantinople in the fourth century A.D. Roman coins reappeared in South India, and embas- sies were received by Constantine from the people of the Maldives and Ceylon among others. Ceylon was becoming important in the trade of the Indian Ocean at this time, but the activities of the Byzantine period bear no comparison with those of the earlier age, which had drained the Roman Empire of much of its treasure and evoked protests from the ﬁnanciers of the empire as well as its moralists.