Possibly Greco-Romans arrived in the Philippines in 21 AD which is exactly 1,500 years before the Spaniards discovered it in 1521.
19According to the article Cebu, a Port City in Prehistoric and in Present Times,
The Visayan Islands had earlier encounter [sic] with the Greek traders in 21 A.D.
This is repeated in the Wikipedia article Prehistory of the Philippines almost word for word but with a specific reference to the island of Cebu, 'discovered' in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan who died there at the end of a bamboo spear. The same sentence also appears in History of the Philippines (900–1521).
The original source for all the above is a 1973 book History of Panay by Felix B Regalado and Quintin B Franco. A review of this book in the Journal of Asian and African Studies (1980) is less than complimentary in parts, notably:
the book is interspersed with a number of careless, trifling assertions
The reviewer also (rather uncharitably) describes the authors' English as "deplorable".
Unfortunately, despite being in the Philippines, I can't get my hands on a copy of this book to see from where the authors got the information about Greek traders in 21 AD. Nor have I been able to find any other clear reference to these Greek traders.
My searching did turn up several references to the Philippines relating to the geographer Ptolemy's map, including this claim:
According to Jose Rizal (national hero), on Ptolemy's map, which was made before the second century A.D., the group of islands now known as the Philippines was called Tawalisi.
Ptolemy's source was apparently a sailor called Hippalus, but there is no reference in the Wiki article to him venturing beyond the Indian ocean. Also, the Wiki article on Tawalisi says we can only guess at the location of this kingdom.
Finally, according to this Wiki page, Ptolemy referred to another Philippine island, Mindoro ('Island of Gold'), as 'Chryse' but there is no further information. Also, looking at Ptolemy's map hasn't helped (maybe because I'm hopeless at deciphering the text).
None of these references, though, are evidence of Greek (or Roman) traders having actually visited any of the Philippine islands. The only source which says this is History of Panay, the credibility of which seems to be in some doubt. However, the reference 21 AD is quite specific...
Is there any evidence to support the reference to Greek (or Roman) traders having visited any of the Philippine islands during the 1st (or even the 2nd) century AD?
Add a comment3 Answers
Highest score (default) Date modified (newest first) Date created (oldest first)7History of Panay was published by Central Philippine University (Jaro, Iloilo City). I'll leave the interpretation up to you other than to say there's nothing here to support the question's claim. From page 77-78:
The early Filipinos had trade relations with the neighboring countries of Borneo, China, Japan, and Siam. Business was carried on chiefly by barter. Long before the time of Columbus, Filipinos were already known in Mecca, Egypt, the Balkans, Macedonia, and England as "traders from the East."
As early as A.D. 31 the Ptolemy of Egypt, according to the records of ancient geographers, had knowledge of the traders from the East who were reputed to be honest, intelligent, healthy in their earnest dealings. These traders were known as "Manila-men" because they came from "Manila" or "Maniola", names encountered in the records of the most ancient geographers. The word "Manila" or "Maynila", according to the Chinese geographer Chau-Ju-Kua, came from the word "Mai", the name of all islands north of Borneo....
These traders exported to Egypt sinamay cloth, wax, mirrors, silk, sulphur, gold, silver, and pearls. They established their trading bases on the Koramandel and Malabar coasts....
Professor Austin Craig, eminent student of Philippine history, said that the ancient traders of the Philippines exported sinamay cloth to Greece in A.D. 21 and Strabo, a Roman geographer of the First Century, referred to the commodity as "Ta see sika", or 'flex combed from the trees'. Manila hemp was well known to the Caesars of Rome, and sinamay cloth was once sold to the museum of Dresden, Germany for its antiquity.
San Francisco Public Library got me a copy from University of Nevada, Reno, where it is inexplicably filed under Basque Studies. Somewhat unusually for a library book, this copy contains a bit of its own provenance in the form of a formal receipt showing that it cost 30 pesos cash in 1977.
As for Austin Craig, he wrote A Thousand Years of Philippine History Before the Coming of the Spaniards, which discusses these links in rather oblique language on the very first page. Enjoy.
Good find. It seems History of Panay read more into Craig than there is (which doesn't seem to be much at all), and it's clear that the internet sources (which seem to stem from one person) have pretty much fabricated this claim. One point, though: the question does not make any claims, it simply asked for evidence (of which, you have shown, there is none).0Since embassies from the Roman and the Byzantine empires are recorded to have arrived in China on a few occasions, It was obviously possible for persons to travel overland from Roman territory to China, or to travel from Roman territory to India in Greco-Roman ships and then get other transportation to eventually arrive in China from the south, and thus by sea.
Thus it was obviously possible for individuals of Greek or other ethnicity from Roman territory to arrive at the Philippines in antiquity, and some might have actually reached some specific city in the Philippines at some specific date. So the claim that Greek or Roman traders visited Cebu in the Philippines in 21 AD is certainly possible, but unproven without more evidence than you have found so far.
Locals in Mindanao discovered armor in 2018 of a type they had never seen before. What could these artifacts of a distant age tell us about our history, and the peoples our ancestors encountered?
Ancient Greek Armour in the Philippines?
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According to some historical accounts, there were already Greek settlers in the country as early as the 18th century. Most were sailors, traders, and fishermen. During the early 20th century, a number of Greek sailors and immigrants came to the country and settled. One group came to the city of Legazpi.
Where did the Greeks settle in the Philippines?Greeks have been settling in the Philippines since the Spanish colonial period, but peaked during the American colonization. Most have settled in Manila and other coastal cities - most notably, in Legaspi (Albay province).Mar 8, 2022
Did Greeks go to the Philippines?Greek settlement in the Philippines is a small community of descendants of ethnic Greeks who settled the country since the Spanish colonization of the country.
Greek settlement in the Philippines
Greeks in the Philippines Total population 575 (2000 Philippines census)[1] Regions with significant populations Manila Languages Religion Greek Orthodox Church Catholic Church Related ethnic groups Greek people, Spanish Filipino Greek settlement in the Philippines is a small community of descendants of ethnic Greeks who settled the country since the Spanish colonization of the country. The Greek community in the Philippines also includes Filipino citizens of Greek ancestry along with Greek expatriates and immigrants and their descendants of full or partial Greek ancestry. This also includes a small number of Greek Americans, Greek Australians and Greek Cypriots.
Overview[edit]
According to some historical accounts, there were already Greek settlers in the country as early as the 18th century. Most were sailors, traders, and fishermen.[2]
During the early 20th century, a number of Greek sailors and immigrants came to the country and settled. One group came to the city of Legazpi.[3] Their descendants on the island of Luzon make up no more than 10 families, who retain their Greek identities and have become distinguished public figures and intellectuals in the community.
Adamson University in Manila was founded by a Greek immigrant, George Lucas Adamson and his first cousins Alexander and George Athos (Adamopoulos) Adamson. He also founded the first Greek Orthodox chapel in the Philippines however Alexander Adamopoulos Adamson founded the Hellenic Orthodox Foundation which built the first true Greek Orthodox Church in Manila called the Annunciation of Theotokos and in the year 2000 His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew visited the Philippines for the first time to consecrate the Annunciation of Theotokos. Alexander (Adamopoulos) Adamson became a Filipino citizen in 1934 and founded two paper mills, and a shipping company called Adamson PHil Inc. Alexander Athos Adamson was the Honorary Consul General of Greece in the Philippines before passing away in 1993.[3] Currently Greek immigrants and expatriates come into the country to work in businesses or enter as diplomats, tourists, or as friends or family of Filipinos. The Greek community in the Philippines also helps with the Philippine Orthodox Church (with the help of the Hellenic Orthodox Community-Foundation Inc Of Philippines). However, currently the Greek population in the Philippines is officially unknown but it is estimated that there are about a few hundred Greeks currently residing in the capital and Legazpi City, the location of the Exarchate of the Philippines. But during 2013 the Greek embassy estimated about 120 Greeks permanently residing in Philippines as immigrants, migrants and expats.[4] Most of them work in shipping and trade,[5] most of them are married to Filipinos and have a permanent residency in the Philippines. However the current community is small and very few know about it. As of 2018 the Greek Community in the Philippines has created a Facebook group. Called Greeks in the Philippines, Έλληνες στις Φιλιππίνες.
Notable Filipinos of Greek descent[edit]
See also[edit]
Article
Greek settlement in the Philippines - Wikipedia
Stilianopulos Building built in 1927 by Greek Immigrants located in Legazpi, Bicol Region of the Philippines.
Greco-Romans may have introduced Christianity/ Roman Catholicism to the Philippines as early as 21 AD but somehow it didn't flourish as well compared to Spaniards in 1565.
Spain introduced Christianity to the Philippines in 1565 with the arrival of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi.
However Antonio Pigafetta, an Italian Cartographer, inserted a Roman Catholic Cross on the Philippines island in 1521 as shown on the map below. Did Roman Catholicism expansion began in 1521 instead of 1565?
Ambrosiana Voyage around the World by Antonio Pigafetta Facsimile Edition
The Voyage around the World manuscript in the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana is the only surviving Italian-language manuscript of Antonio Pigafetta's detailed eyewitness account of the first sea voyage to circumnavigate the globe. Created in 1523-1525, the manuscript dates from the years immediately following Pigafetta's return from the adventure. The text is history's chief source of information about the voyage. The manuscript features twenty maps, including three that extend across two facing pages.
Pigafetta was one of only eighteen men who completed the voyage (1519-1522) in search of a passage around or through South America to the Spice Islands of the Malucas in the Pacific Ocean led by the Portuguese seafarer Fernand de Magellan (d. 1521). Pigafetta's text is complemented by his maps charting many of the islands he visited.
Maps of Archipelagoes of the Pacific
The most famous of Pigafetta's maps—the first in the manuscript—charts the "Strait of Patagonia," known to history as the Strait of Magellan (fol. 14v). Maps of Pacific islands follow it, all rendered in color according to a fixed scheme: blue in a wavy pattern for the ocean, green for mountains, and brown for land, with unpainted parchment in the shape of dwellings for settlements.
In Search of Cloves
The map of the Mariana Islands, with the large island labeled the "Island of the Robbers," includes a representation of locals (despite their colorful European headgear) piloting a catamaran (fol. 16v). The goal of Magellan's voyage was Europe's source for cloves. Pigafetta reports that cloves grow on five islands, which he names. In one map of the Malucas, the chief source of the spice, he includes a representation of a clove tree (fols. 52v-53r). In another map of the Malucas, Pigafetta labels the island of Caphi as a place inhabited by pygmies (fols. 68v-69r).
A Curious Mind Revealed
Pigafetta records the hardships of the voyage, especially the nearly 100 uninterrupted days at sea, and the particulars of the Europeans' interactions with the indigenous peoples. He records a wealth of information about local customs and provides long vocabulary lists of local languages. With his keen interest in all he observed, he deftly meshes reportage of the European politics of the trip with adventure story and ethnography.
An Apograph Manuscript
The Ambrosiana manuscript is an apograph, a direct copy of the author's original. The text is written in elegant Cancelleresca, the formal cursive script of Italy at the time. Pigafetta's account of the voyage (fols. 1-80) is followed by a treatise on navigation (fols. 81-92) and thirty-two blank leaves (numbered 93-134 in the manuscript). The labels on the maps are in Gothic Hybrida.
Connection to the Knights of Rhodes
Pigafetta ultimately dedicated the book to the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, Philippe Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (1464-1532), from whom he sought and received patronage for its publication. Although little is known of the circumstances surrounding the genesis of the Ambrosiana manuscript, its first recorded owner is one "chevalier de Forrete," who can be identified as either Philibert de la Forest or Jean de Foret, both Knights of Malta (as the Knights of Rhodes were known after making their headquarters on Malta in 1530). The manuscript is listed in seventeenth-century inventories of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana (now Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana).
We have 1 facsimile edition of the manuscript "Ambrosiana Voyage around the World by Antonio Pigafetta": Noticia del Primer Viaje en Torno al Mundo facsimile edition, published by Ediciones Grial, 1998
Article
Ambrosiana Voyage around the World by Antonio Pigafetta « Facsimile edition (facsimilefinder.com)