Successful Sataspes: A Persian Circumnavigation of Africa?

I found a reference to this fellow Satapses:
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Herodotus (IV 43) reports that King Xerxes (-485 to -469) remitted the sentence of death meted upon a relative by the name of Sataspes on condition that he circumnavigate Africa from the west. Sataspes left with an Egyptian ship and an Egyptian crew, but returned without accomplishing his mission on the ground that upon reaching the land of the Pygmies his ship was brought to a standstill and could not proceed any further. As a result the original sentence was executed upon Sataspes.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]An expedition like that of Sataspes could not have been sent without the approval of the Carthaginians, since by that time they controlled all the coast from their city at least as far as Soleis. If Hanno had not been the first to reach the Gulf of Guinea, he would have spoken in different terms. It seems reasonable to assume that when king Xerxes heard of the exploit of Hanno, he thought that the moment had come to go one step further and to circumnavigate Africa. The Carthaginians were interested in going as far as there was gold to be acquired, but putting the Gulf of Guinea in contact with the Indian Ocean would have been of great advantage to the subjects of the Persian Empire around the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Herodotus states that Sataspes failed to proceed further after reaching the land of the Pygmies, the Equator, whereas the Phoenicians that came from the east succeeded. This is perfectly reasonable, since Sataspes met the resistance of the Benguela current, whereas this would have helped the Phoenicians all along their trip.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Herodotus (IV 43) indicates that it was after the failure of Sataspes’ voyage that Phoenicians sailed from the Arabian Gulf to the Pillars of Herakles. He declares that he doubts their report that they had the sun to the right, that is, to the north. Since they reported a fact that apparently was against accepted cosmology, it must be a matter of empirical experience. They must have gone below the Tropic of Cancer, whereas the maximum extension of the Oikoumene accepted by a Greek geographer is 24 degrees South.[/FONT]

Could Sataspes have been successful? The Benguela current would be a very big obstacle, but I have come across a phenomenon known as the Benguala Nino. Thought to be a result of anomalous atmospheric conditions in the western tropical Atlantic, it is an effect where warm seawater from the equator moves along the southwest coast of Africa towards the pole and penetrates the cold up-welled Benguela Current. Perhaps if Sataspes was lucky, he could arrive in the area at the same time as a Nino effect, making it easier for him to sail south and to round the Cape. After he gets through that, it would be relatively easy to sail northwards to Egypt.

This might inspire Xerxes to commission another expedition, circumnavigating from the East. This could all very well come to nothing, but then again Xerxes was an ambitious and big-thinking sort of guy. Perhaps a Persian colony of sorts at the Cape, to facilitate trade with the Gulf of Guinea?
 

Thande

Donor
It might happen, but would there be any real lasting effect? I mean there doesn't seem to have been from the Carthaginian voyage (although admittedly it's hard to tell, considering how much time passed before we got records of sub-Saharan Africa).

I suppose it might inspire the Persians to be more of a seafaring nation, but history is full of counter-examples like Zheng He.
 
It might happen, but would there be any real lasting effect? I mean there doesn't seem to have been from the Carthaginian voyage (although admittedly it's hard to tell, considering how much time passed before we got records of sub-Saharan Africa).

One major effect I can think of is that sealanes become more important in trade. Circumnavigating Africa might provide the Carthaginians with the knowledge that Guinea isn't that far South, and if the Carthaginians start to regularly trade with Guinea by sea, this trade should persist into Roman times as well.

And the same might apply to East Africa, where there might be more prominent sea-trade with East Africa.

I can imagine that the Greeks and Romans knew of these circumnavigating efforts, but thought of them as more or less mythological, and not of any direct use. If such a journey was made in recent times, though, it might be of applyable use.
 

Sir Chaos

Banned
One major effect I can think of is that sealanes become more important in trade. Circumnavigating Africa might provide the Carthaginians with the knowledge that Guinea isn't that far South, and if the Carthaginians start to regularly trade with Guinea by sea, this trade should persist into Roman times as well.

And the same might apply to East Africa, where there might be more prominent sea-trade with East Africa.

I can imagine that the Greeks and Romans knew of these circumnavigating efforts, but thought of them as more or less mythological, and not of any direct use. If such a journey was made in recent times, though, it might be of applyable use.

If the circumnavigation brought home enough stories of wealthy exotic lands, and inspired enough sea trade with them, it just might have inspired Alexander the Great to go South via Egypt to Africa after conquering Persia, rather than East to India.
 
It seems to me that the sea route along the East coast, from Persia, would be more useful than the Western route, at least due to the Benguela current. The fact that the Persians are aware of the route at all might have long-term, subtle effects. Regular or even just sporadic trade around the Cape between the East and the Gulf of Guinea would likely have a significant effect on the local cultures.

The effects on the Med cultures, or on Persia itself, would probably be relatively small. The question is, whether the new trade route would have an effect on the nearby lands. It seems that Eurasian crops and animals might end up introduced to southern Africa much earlier than OTL. That, plus a little bit of regular trade, might have a rather large stimulating effect on the region.
 
In addition, profits from a big trade fleet's return could have domino effects in Persian foreign policy: "We got all of this gold, so we actually can build a bigger fleet and hire some more mercenaries, and have another go at Greece," or something along those lines.
 

Thande

Donor
In addition, profits from a big trade fleet's return could have domino effects in Persian foreign policy: "We got all of this gold, so we actually can build a bigger fleet and hire some more mercenaries, and have another go at Greece," or something along those lines.

Would the Persians be able to pull off a gold trade the first time around? The Guineans' gold trade was a bit...idiosyncratic and I'm not sure if it had even started up at this time (later on, and pre-Portuguese, the chief conduit for gold trade consisted of Arab camel trains across the Sahara).
 
Would the Persians be able to pull off a gold trade the first time around? The Guineans' gold trade was a bit...idiosyncratic and I'm not sure if it had even started up at this time (later on, and pre-Portuguese, the chief conduit for gold trade consisted of Arab camel trains across the Sahara).

Oh, it doesn't necessarily have to be gold. I would think that any goods worth sending a trade fleet to East Africa or even Guinea for will yield a profit in Memphis, Babylon, or Persepolis.
 
Would the Persians be able to pull off a gold trade the first time around? The Guineans' gold trade was a bit...idiosyncratic and I'm not sure if it had even started up at this time (later on, and pre-Portuguese, the chief conduit for gold trade consisted of Arab camel trains across the Sahara).

This would pre-date the introduction of the camel by some centuries, so it very well might be a significant improvement over the trans-Saharan trade as it existed at the time. Carthage at least in part owed it's prosperity to the West African trade of gold, slaves and ivory, so it seems to have had some economic value. It may be enough to attract sailors from the East, if they know where they're going.
 

Thande

Donor
Oh, it doesn't necessarily have to be gold. I would think that any goods worth sending a trade fleet to East Africa or even Guinea for will yield a profit in Memphis, Babylon, or Persepolis.

Well, aside obviously from slaves later on, gold was the primary export of Guinea. Again I don't know if the contemporary peoples there would have been in a state to trade but other secondaries included diamonds and ivory...
 
Well, aside obviously from slaves later on, gold was the primary export of Guinea. Again I don't know if the contemporary peoples there would have been in a state to trade but other secondaries included diamonds and ivory...

But again: would either of those be enough to tempt merchants so far? The state of naval technology may have ben relatively advanced but the ships were still small and the passage exceedingly dangerous. I think that if Henry the Navigator could barely get his ships down there the Carthaginians would take a lot of incentive to do it. Not saying that they wouldn't, but the incentive would have to be great.
 
But again: would either of those be enough to tempt merchants so far? The state of naval technology may have ben relatively advanced but the ships were still small and the passage exceedingly dangerous. I think that if Henry the Navigator could barely get his ships down there the Carthaginians would take a lot of incentive to do it. Not saying that they wouldn't, but the incentive would have to be great.

It doesn't necessarily need to be "Carthaginians sailing to Guinea". It could be "Phoenician-built ships sailing from Berenice (or the equivalent) to East Africa", which could still yield significant results, at a fraction of the distance.
 
It doesn't necessarily need to be "Carthaginians sailing to Guinea". It could be "Phoenician-built ships sailing from Berenice (or the equivalent) to East Africa", which could still yield significant results, at a fraction of the distance.

Yeah, in fact didn't Nefertiti (or was it Hapshetsut) send a delegation to Punt?

Anyway, I'm not sure what the Persians would want in the Horn of Africa. There aren't really any exotic animals nor are there many rich lands; it's mostly pastoralists and a few small city-states.
 
The pharaoh Necho who encouraged said circumnavigation of Africa was interested in gold from Mozambique. Was there still some gold left at this time?

And I could swear Punt also had something Hatshepsut wanted.
 
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