Camarini become Makarinoi

The geographical dimension of the Constantinian era therefore does not lose sight of the utopian component inherited from classical antiquity, and now duly Christianized. This is shown by the excursus on the 'Camarini' people, which occupies the first chapters of the Expositio and is substantially analogous to a text handed down in Greek and Georgian from a probable Syriac original, called Itinerary from the Garden of Eden to the Romans . In the Greek version of this text, the Camarini become Makarinoi ; thus alluding to the tradition - both biblical and Hellenistic - which placed the lands of the Blessed ( makarioi). In reality, the Camarini must be identified with really existing populations: an emporium of Kamara is known for India, while the "Camari" islands are located in Arabia. However, the most suggestive hypothesis is that which refers to the Khmer , the Indochinese people known to the Arabs as Qimar . Here we insist on the utopian character of these populations, which break away from the habits common to mankind. The tone of the report seems almost ironic:

They say that the Camarini people are found in the East; from there it is said that an enormous river flows out. Therefore these men are very good and honest, nor is any wickedness found in them, in body and soul. However, if you want to learn something more precise, they say that they do not use either the bread we find, or any other food of the kind, or the fire we use. And they claim that the bread, on the other hand, rains them daily from the sky and they drink spiced wild honey. As for the fire, the sun supplies it to him: it is so hot that, as soon as it spreads from heaven to earth, everyone would be roasted if they did not immediately throw themselves into the river, where they remain wallowing until the aforementioned fire returns to its place.

Of course they govern themselves, without being subjected to domination. Nor do they eat common foods like everyone else. It goes without saying, then, that they do not have the evils of our body; there are no fleas, lice, bedbugs and nits in them, and no bodily infirmities. Nor do they certainly use ordinary clothes like everyone else: on the contrary, they have such a pure garment that they can never be defiled. If this happens, they perform the washing with a sword of fire, as burning improves.

They neither sow nor reap. Moreover, there are excellent, varied and valuable merchandise, such as precious stones: that is, emeralds, pearls, hyacinths, charcoal and sapphire, in the mountains. They all come from there, in this way: the river is born on the mountains, where it drips daily and separates the mountain tops, taking with it, in its abundant waters, their debris. The natives have cunningly devised a way of recovering what comes out of it: they set up nets in the river bottlenecks and thus collect what arrives.

Given their happy condition, they do not suffer or get sick; but they limit themselves to dying and they already know the day when they will die: in fact they all die between the ages of one hundred and eighteen or one hundred and twenty, so that the oldest never see the death of the youngest, nor the parents that of their children. Knowing the day of death, each one makes a sarcophagus with aromatic substances (because, from them, the aromas are abundant), and places himself inside it waiting to render the soul. Then, when the time comes, he pays homage to everyone by giving them goodbye, thus giving back their due, and with great ease. But this is only a part of the good things of this people: although we have many to say, we have left them out. In any case, they inhabit a territory that extends for seventy days of travel 108 .

As has been observed, the excursus on Camarini presents a sort of more realistic, in some way more 'secular' version of more ancient traditions on utopia, linked to a coherent ideological reflection, expression of a social component satisfied with its condition, who therefore did not need to look for ideal worlds 109 . It is perhaps one of the most interesting examples of the process of democratization of culture, which also implies a revisitation of the traditional characteristics of ancient ethnography.

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