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CHAPTER IV.

[1] ARABIA commences on the side of Babylonia with Maecene.¹ In front of this district, on one side lies the desert of the Arabians, on the other are the marshes² opposite to the Chaldaeans, formed by the overflowing of the Euphrates, and in another direction is the Sea of Persia. This country has an unhealthy and cloudy atmosphere; it is subject to showers, and also to scorching heat; still its products are excellent. The vine grows in the marshes; as much earth as the plant may require is laid upon hurdles of reeds;³ the hurdle is frequently carried away by the water, and is then forced back again by poles to its proper situation.

[2] I return to the opinions of Eratosthenes, which he next delivers respecting Arabia. He is speaking of the northern and desert part, lying between Arabia Felix, Coele-Syria, and Judaea, to the recess of the Arabian Gulf.

From Heroopolis, situated in that recess of the Arabian Gulf which is on the side of the Nile, to Babylon, towards Petra of the Nabataei, are 5600 stadia. The whole tract lies in the direction of the summer solstice (i. e. east and west), and passes through the adjacent Arabian tribes, namely Nabataei, Chaulotaei, and Agraei. Above these people is Arabia Felix, stretching out 12,000 stadia towards the south to the Atlantic Sea.⁴

The first people, next after the Syrians and Jews, who occupy this country are husbandmen. These people are succeeded by a barren and sandy tract, producing a few palms, the acanthus,⁵ and tamarisk; water is obtained by digging [wells] as in Gedrosia. It is inhabited by Arabian Scenitae, who breed camels. The extreme parts towards the south, and opposite to Ethiopia, are watered by summer showers, and are sowed twice, like the land in India. Its rivers are exhausted in watering plains, and by running into lakes. The general fertility of the country is very great; among other products, there is in particular an abundant supply of honey; except horses,⁶ there are numerous herds of animals, mules (asses?), and swine; birds also of every kind, except geese and the gallinaceous tribe.

Four of the most populous nations inhabit the extremity of the above-mentioned country; namely, the Minaei the part towards the Red Sea, whose largest city is Carna or Carnana.⁷ Next to these are the Sabaeans, whose chief city is Mariaba.⁸ The third nation are the Cattabaneis,⁹ extending to the straits and the passage across the Arabian Gulf. Their royal seat is called Tamna. The Chatramotitae¹⁰ are the furthest of these nations towards the east. Their city is Sabata.

[3] All these cities are governed by one monarch, and are flourishing. They are adorned with beautiful temples and palaces. Their houses, in the mode of binding the timbers together, are like those in Egypt. The four countries comprise a greater territory than the Delta of Egypt.¹¹

The son does not succeed the father in the throne, but the son who is born in a family of the nobles first after the accession of the king. As soon as any one is invested with the government, the pregnant wives of the nobles are registered, and guardians are appointed to watch which of them is first delivered of a son. The custom is to adopt and educate the child in a princely manner as the future successor to the throne.

[4] Cattabania produces frankincense, and Chatramotitis myrrh; these and other aromatics are the medium of exchange with the merchants. Merchants arrive in seventy days at Minaea from Aelana.¹² Aelana is a city on the other recess of the Arabian Gulf, which is called Aelanites, opposite to Gaza, as we have before described it.¹³ The Gerrhaei arrive in Chatramotitis in forty days.

The part of the Arabian Gulf along the side of Arabia, if we reckon from the recess of the Aelanitic bay, is, according to the accounts of Alexander and Anaxicrates, 14,000 stadia in extent; but this computation is too great. The part opposite to Troglodytica, which is on the right hand of those who are sailing from Heroopolis¹⁴ to Ptolemaïs, to the country where elephants are taken, extends 9000 stadia to the south, and inclines a little towards the east. Thence to the straits are about 4500 stadia, in a direction more towards the east. The straits at Ethiopia are formed by a promontory called Deire.¹⁵ There is a small town upon it of the same name. The Ichthyophagi inhabit this country. Here it is said is a pillar of Sesostris the Egyptian, on which is inscribed, in hieroglyphics, an account of his passage (across the Arabian Gulf). For he appears to have subdued first Ethiopia and Troglodytica,¹⁶ and afterwards to have passed over into Arabia. He then overran the whole of Asia. Hence in many places there are dykes called the dykes of Sesostris, and temples built in honour of Egyptian deities.

The straits at Deire are contracted to the width of 60 stadia; not indeed that these are now called the Straits, for ships proceed to a further distance, and find a passage of about 200 stadia between the two continents;¹⁷ six islands contiguous to one another leave a very narrow passage through them for vessels, by filling up the interval between the continents. Through these goods are transported from one continent to the other on rafts; it is this passage which is called the Straits. After these islands, the subsequent navigation is among bays along the Myrrh country, in the direction of south and east, as far as the Cinnamon country, a distance of about 5000 stadia;¹⁸ beyond this district no one to this time, it is said, has penetrated. There are not many cities upon the coast, but in the interior they are numerous and well inhabited. Such is the account of Arabia given by Eratosthenes. We must add what is related also by other writers.

[5] Artemidorus¹⁹ says, that the promontory of Arabia, opposite to Deire, is called Acila,²⁰ and that the persons who live near Deire deprive themselves of the prepuce.

In sailing from Heroopolis along Troglodytica, a city is met with called Philotera,²¹ after the sister of the second Ptolemy; it was founded by Satyrus, who was sent to explore the hunting-ground for the elephants, and Troglodytica itself. Next to this is another city, Arsinoë; and next to this, springs of hot water, which are salt and bitter; they are precipitated from a high rock, and discharge themselves into the sea. There is in a plain near (these springs) a mountain, which is of a red colour like minium. Next is Myus Hormus, which is also called Aphrodites Hormus;²² it is a large harbour with an oblique entrance. In front are three islands; two are covered with olive trees, and one (the third) is less shaded with trees, and abounds with guinea-fowls.²³ Then follows Acathartus (or Foul Bay), which, like Myus Hormus, is in the latitude of the Thebais. The bay is really foul, for it is very dangerous from rocks (some of which are covered by the sea, others rise to the surface), as also from almost constant and furious tempests. At the bottom of the bay is situated the city Berenice.²⁴

[6] After the bay is the island Ophiodes,²⁵ so called from the accidental circumstance [of its having once been infested with serpents]. It was cleared of the serpents by the king,²⁶ on account of the destruction occasioned by those noxious animals to the persons who frequented the island, and on account of the topazes found there. The topaz is a transparent stone, sparkling with a golden lustre, which however is not easy to be distinguished in the day-time, on account of the brightness of the surrounding light, but at night the stones are visible to those who collect them. The collectors place a vessel over the spot [where the topazes are seen] as a mark, and dig them up in the day. A body of men was appointed and maintained by the kings of Egypt to guard the place where these stones were found, and to superintend the collection of them.

[7] Next after this island follow many tribes of Ichthyophagi and of Nomades; then succeeds the harbour of the goddess Soteira (the Preserver), which had its name from the circumstance of the escape and preservation of some masters [of vessels] from great dangers by sea.

After this the coast and the gulf seem to undergo a great change: for the voyage along the coast is no longer among rocks, and approaches almost close to Arabia; the sea is so shallow as to be scarcely of the depth of two orguiae,²⁷ and has the appearance of a meadow, in consequence of the sea-weeds, which abound in the passage, being visible through and under the water. Even trees here grow from under the water, and the sea abounds with sea-dogs.

Next are two mountains,²⁸ the Tauri (or the Bulls), presenting at a distance a resemblance to these animals. Then follows another mountain, on which is a temple of Isis, built by Sesostris; then an island planted with olive trees, and at times overflowed. This is followed by the city Ptolemaïs, near the hunting-grounds of the elephants,²⁹ founded by Eumedes, who was sent by Philadelphus to the hunting-ground. He enclosed, without the knowledge of the inhabitants, a kind of peninsula with a ditch and wall, and by his courteous address gained over those who were inclined to obstruct the work, and instead of enemies made them his friends.

[8] In the intervening space, a branch of the river Astaboras³⁰ discharges itself. It has its source in a lake, and empties part of its waters [into the bay], but the larger portion it contributes to the Nile. Then follow six islands, called Latomiae,³¹ after these the Sabaïtic mouth,³² as it is called, and in the inland parts a fortress built by Suchus.³³ Then a lake called Elaea, and the island of Strato;³⁴ next Saba³⁵ a port, and a hunting-ground for elephants of the same name. The country deep in the interior is called Tenessis. It is occupied by those Egyptians who took refuge from the government of Psammitichus.³⁶ They are surnamed Sembritae,³⁷ as being strangers. They are governed by a queen, to whom also Meroë, an island in the Nile near these places, is subject. Above this, at no great distance, is another island in the river, a settlement occupied by the same fugitives. From Meroë to this sea is a journey of fifteen days for an active person.

Near Meroë is the confluence of the Astaboras,³⁸ the Astapus,³⁹ and of the Astasobas with the Nile.

[9] On the banks of these rivers live the Rhizophagi (or root-eaters) and Heleii (or marsh-men). They have their name from digging roots in the adjacent marsh, bruising them with stones, and forming them into cakes, which they dry in the sun for food. These countries are the haunts of lions. The wild beasts are driven out of these places, at the time of the rising of the dog-star, by large gnats.

Near these people live the Spermophagi (or seed-eaters), who, when seeds of plants fail, subsist upon seeds of trees,⁴⁰ which they prepare in the same manner as the Rhizophagi prepare their roots.

Next to Elaea are the watch-towers of Demetrius, and the altars of Conon. In the interior Indian reeds grow in abundance. The country there is called the country of Coracius.

Far in the interior was a place called Endera, inhabited by a naked tribe,⁴¹ who use bows and reed arrows, the points of which are hardened in the fire. They generally shoot the animals from trees, sometimes from the ground. They have numerous herds of wild cattle among them, on the flesh of which they subsist, and on that of other wild animals. When they have taken nothing in the chase, they dress dried skins upon hot coals, and are satisfied with food of this kind. It is their custom to propose trials of skill in archery for those who have not attained manhood.

Next to the altars of Conon is the port of Melinus, and above it is a fortress called that of Coraus and the chase of Coraus, also another fortress and more hunting-grounds. Then follows the harbour of Antiphilus, and above this a tribe, the Creophagi, deprived of the prepuce, and the women are excised after the Jewish custom.⁴²

[10] Further still towards the south are the Cynamolgi,⁴³ called by the natives Agrii, with long hair and long beards, who keep a breed of very large dogs for hunting the Indian cattle which come into their country from the neighbouring district, driven thither either by wild beasts or by scarcity of pasturage. The time of their incursion is from the summer solstice to the middle of winter.

Next to the harbour of Antiphilus is a port called the Grove of the Colobi (or the Mutilated), the city Berenice⁴⁴ of Sabae, and Sabae⁴⁵ a considerable city; then he grove of Eumenes.⁴⁶

Above is the city Darada, and a hunting-ground for elephants, called At the Well. The district is inhabited by the Elephantophagi (or Elephant-eaters), who are occupied in hunting them. When they descry from the trees a herd of elephants directing their course through the forest, they do not [then] attack, but they approach by stealth and hamstring the hindmost stragglers from the herd. Some kill them with bows and arrows, the latter being dipped in the gall of serpents. The shooting with the bow is performed by three men, two, advancing in front, hold the bow, and one draws the string. Others remark the trees against which the elephant is accustomed to rest, and, approaching on the opposite side, cut the trunk of the tree low down. When the animal comes and leans against it, the tree and the elephant fall down together. The elephant is unable to rise, because its legs are formed of one piece of bone which is inflexible; the hunters leap down from the trees, kill it, and cut it in pieces. The Nomades call the hunters Acatharti, or impure.

[11] Above this nation is situated a small tribe the Struthophagi⁴⁷ (or Bird-eaters), in whose country are birds of the size of deer, which are unable to fly, but run with the swiftness of the ostrich. Some hunt them with bows and arrows, others covered with the skins of birds. They hide the right hand in the neck of the skin, and move it as the birds move their necks. With the left hand they scatter grain from a bag suspended to the side; they thus entice the birds, till they drive them into pits, where the hunters despatch them with cudgels. The skins are used both as clothes and as coverings for beds. The Ethiopians called Simi are at war with these people, and use as weapons the horns of antelopes.

[12] Bordering on this people is a nation blacker in complexion than the others,⁴⁸ shorter in stature, and very short-lived. They rarely live beyond forty years; for the flesh of their bodies is eaten up with worms.⁴⁹ Their food consists of locusts, which the south-west and west winds, when they blow violently in the spring-time, drive in bodies into the country. The inhabitants catch them by throwing into the ravines materials which cause a great deal of smoke, and light them gently. The locusts, as they fly across the smoke, are blinded and fall down. They are pounded with salt, made into cakes, and eaten as food.

Above these people is situated a desert tract with extensive pastures. It was abandoned in consequence of the multitudes of scorpions and tarantulas, called tetragnathi (or fourjawed), which formerly abounded to so great a degree as to occasion a complete desertion of the place long since by its inhabitants.

[13] Next to the harbour of Eumenes, as far as Deire and the straits opposite the six islands,⁵⁰ live the Ichthyophagi, Creophagi, and Colobi, who extend into the interior.

Many hunting-grounds for elephants, and obscure cities and islands, lie in front of the coast.

The greater part are Nomades; husbandmen are few in number. In the country occupied by some of these nations styrax grows in large quantity. The Icthyophagi, on the ebbing of the tide, collect fish, which they cast upon the rocks and dry in the sun. When they have well broiled them, the bones are piled in heaps, and the flesh trodden with the feet is made into cakes, which are again exposed to the sun and used as food. In bad weather, when fish cannot be procured, the bones of which they have made heaps are pounded, made into cakes and eaten, but they suck the fresh bones. Some also live upon shell-fish, when they are fattened, which is done by throwing them into holes and standing pools of the sea, where they are supplied with small fish, and used as food when other fish are scarce. They have various kinds of places for preserving and feeding fish, from whence they derive their supply.

Some of the inhabitants of that part of the coast which is without water go inland every five days, accompanied by all their families, with songs and rejoicings, to the watering-places, where, throwing themselves on their faces, they drink as beasts until their stomachs are distended like a drum. They then return again to the sea-coast. They dwell in caves or cabins, with roofs consisting of beams and rafters made of the bones and spines of whales, and covered with branches of the olive tree.

[14] The Chelonophagi (or Turtle-eaters) live under the cover of shells (of turtles), which are large enough to be used as boats. Some make of the sea-weed, which is thrown up in large quantities, lofty and hill-like heaps, which are hollowed out, and underneath which they live. They cast out the dead, which are carried away by the tide, as food for fish.

There are three islands which follow in succession, the island of Tortoises, the island of Seals, and the island of Hawks. Along the whole coast there are plantations of palm trees, olive trees, and laurels, not only within, but in a great part also without the straits.

There is also an island [called the island] of Philip, opposite to it inland is situated the hunting-ground for elephants, called the chase of Pythangelus; then follows Arsinoë, a city with a harbour; after these places is Deire, and beyond them is a hunting-ground for elephants.

From Deire, the next country is that which bears aromatic plants. The first produces myrrh, and belongs to the Icthyophagi and the Creophagi. It bears also the persea, peach or Egyptian almond,⁵¹ and the Egyptian fig. Beyond is Licha, a hunting-ground for elephants. There are also in many places standing pools of rain-water. When these are dried up, the elephants, with their trunks and tusks, dig holes and find water.

On this coast there are two very large lakes extending as far as the promontory Pytholaus.⁵² One of them contains salt water, and is called a sea; the other, fresh water, and is the haunt of hippopotami and crocodiles. On the margin grows the papyrus. The ibis is seen in the neighbourhood of this place. The people who live near the promontory of Pytholaus (and beginning from this place) do not undergo any mutilation in any part of their body. Next is the country which produces frankincense; it has a promontory and a temple with a grove of poplars. In the inland parts is a tract along the banks of a river bearing the name of Isis, and another that of Nilus,⁵³ both of which produce myrrh and frankincense. Also a lagoon filled with water from the mountains; next the watch-post of the Lion, and the port of Pythangelus. The next tract bears the false cassia. There are many tracts in succession on the sides of rivers on which frankincense grows, and rivers extending to the cinnamon country. The river which bounds this tract produces (phlous) rushes⁵⁴ in great abundance. Then follows another river, and the port of Daphnus,⁵⁵ and a valley called Apollo’s, which bears, besides frankincense, myrrh and cinnamon. The latter is more abundant in places far in the interior.

Next is the mountain Elephas,⁵⁶ a mountain projecting into the sea, and a creek; then follows the large harbour of Psygmus, a watering-place called that of Cynocephali, and the last promontory of this coast, Notu-ceras (or the Southern Horn).⁵⁷ After doubling this cape towards the south, we have no more descriptions, he says, of harbours or places, because nothing is known of the sea-coast beyond this point.⁵⁸

[15] Along the coast there are both pillars and altars of Pytholaus, Lichas, Pythangelus, Leon, and Charimortus, that is, along the known coast from Deire as far as Notu-ceras; but the distance is not determined. The country abounds with elephants and lions called myrmeces (ants).⁵⁹ They have their genital organs reversed. Their skin is of a golden colour, but they are more bare than the lions of Arabia.

It produces also leopards of great strength and courage, and the rhinoceros. The rhinoceros is little inferior to the elephant; not, according to Artemidorus, in length to the crest,⁶⁰ although he says he had seen one at Alexandreia, but it is somewhat about [ * * * less]⁶¹ in height, judging at least from the one I saw. Nor is the colour the pale yellow of boxwood, but like that of the elephant.⁶² It was of the size of a bull. Its shape approached very nearly to that of the wild boar, and particularly the forehead; except the front, which is furnished with a hooked horn, harder than any bone. It uses it as a weapon, like the wild boar its tusks. It has also two hard welts, like folds of serpents, encircling the body from the chine to the belly, one on the withers, the other on the loins. This description is taken from one which I myself saw. Artemidorus adds to his account of this animal, that it is peculiarly inclined to dispute with the elephant for the place of pasture ; thrusting its forehead under the belly [of the elephant] and ripping it up, unless prevented by the trunk and tusks of his adversary.

[16] Camel-leopards are bred in these parts, but they do not in any respect resemble leopards, for their variegated skin is more like the streaked and spotted skin of fallow deer. The hinder quarters are so very much lower than the fore quarters, that it seems as if the animal sat upon its rump, which is the height of an ox; the fore legs are as long as those of the camel. The neck rises high and straight up, but the head greatly exceeds in height that of the camel. From this want of proportion, the speed of the animal is not so great, I think, as it is described by Artemidorus, according to whom it is not to be surpassed. It is not however a wild animal, but rather like a domesticated beast; for it shows no signs of a savage disposition.

This country, continues Artemidorus, produces also sphinxes,⁶³ cynocephali,⁶⁴ and cebi,⁶⁵ which have the face of a lion, and the rest of the body like that of a panther ; they are as large as deer. There are wild bulls also, which are carnivorous, and greatly exceed ours in size and swiftness. They are of a red colour. The crocuttas⁶⁶ is, according to this author, the mixed progeny of a wolf and a dog. What Metrodorus the Scepsian relates, in his book on Custom, is like fable, and is to be disregarded.

Artemidorus mentions serpents also of thirty cubits in length, which can master elephants and bulls: in this he does not exaggerate.⁶⁷ But the Indian and African serpents are of a more fabulous size, and are said to have grass growing on their backs.

[17] The mode of life among the Troglodytae is nomadic. Each tribe is governed by tyrants. Their wives and children are common, except those of the tyrants. The offence of corrupting the wife of a tyrant is punished with the fine of a sheep.

The women carefully paint themselves with antimony. They wear about their necks shells, as a protection against fascination by witchcraft. In their quarrels, which are for pastures, they first push away each other with their hands, they then use stones, or, if wounds are inflicted, arrows and daggers. The women put an end to these disputes, by going into the midst of the combatants and using prayers and entreaties.

Their food consists of flesh and bones pounded together, wrapped up in skins and then baked, or prepared after many other methods by the cooks, who are called Acatharti, or impure. In this way they eat not only the flesh, but the bones and skins also.

They use (as an ointment for the body ?) a mixture of blood and milk ; the drink of the people in general is an infusion of the paliurus (buckthorn);⁶⁸ that of the tyrants is mead; the honey being expressed from some kind of flower.

Their winter sets in when the Etesian winds begin to blow (for they have rain), and the remaining season is summer.

They go naked, or wear skins only, and carry clubs. They deprive themselves of the prepuce,⁶⁹ but some are circumcised like Egyptians. The Ethiopian Megabari have their clubs armed with iron knobs. They use spears and shields which are covered with raw hides. The other Ethiopians use bows and lances. Some of the Troglodytae, when they bury their dead, bind the body from the neck to the legs with twigs of the buckthorn. They then immediately throw stones over the body, at the same time laughing and rejoicing, until they have covered the face. They then place over it a ram’s horn, and go away.

They travel by night; the male cattle have bells fastened to them, in order to drive away wild beasts with the sound. They use torches also and arrows in repelling them. They watch during the night, on account of their flocks, and sing some peculiar song around their fires.

[18] Having given this account of the Troglodytae and of the neighbouring Ethiopians, Artemidorus returns to the Arabians. Beginning from Poseidium, he first describes those who border upon the Arabian Gulf, and are opposite to the Troglodytae. He says that Poseidium is situated within the bay of [Heroopolis],⁷⁰ and that contiguous to Poseidium⁷¹ is a grove of palm trees,⁷² well supplied with water, which is highly valued, because all the district around is burnt up and is without water or shade. But there the fertility of the palm is prodigious. A man and a woman are appointed by hereditary right to the guardianship of the grove. They wear skins, and live on dates. They sleep in huts built on trees, the place being infested with multitudes of wild beasts.

Next is the island of Phocae (Seals),⁷³ which has its name from those animals, which abound there. Near it is a promontory,⁷⁴ which extends towards Petra, of the Arabians called Nabataei, and to the country of Palestine, to this [island] the Minaei,⁷⁵ Gerrhaei, and all the neighbouring nations repair with loads of aromatics.

Next is another tract of sea-coast, formerly called the coast of the Maranitae,⁷⁶ some of whom were husbandmen, others Scenitae; but at present it is occupied by Garindaei, who destroyed the former possessors by treachery. They attacked those who were assembled to celebrate some quinquennial festival, and put them to death; they then attacked and exterminated the rest of the tribe.⁷⁷

Next is the Aelanitic⁷⁸ Gulf and Nabataea, a country well peopled, and abounding in cattle. The islands which lie near, and opposite, are inhabited by people who formerly lived without molesting others, but latterly carried on a piratical warfare in rafts⁷⁹ against vessels on their way from Egypt. But they suffered reprisals, when an armament was sent out against them, which devastated their country.

Next is a plain, well wooded and well supplied with water; it abounds with cattle of all kinds, and, among other animals, mules, wild camels, harts, and hinds; lions also, leopards, and wolves are frequently to be found. In front lies an island called Dia. Then follows a bay of about 500 stadia in extent, closed in by mountains, the entrance into which is of difficult access. About it live people who are hunters of wild animals.

Next are three desert islands, abounding with olive trees, not like those in our own country, but an indigenous kind, which we call Ethiopic olives, the tears (or gum) of which have a medicinal virtue.

Then follows a stony beach, which is succeeded by a rugged coast,⁸⁰ not easily navigated by vessels, extending about 1000 stadia. It has few harbours and anchorages, for a rugged and lofty mountain stretches parallel to it; then the parts at its base, extending into the sea, form rocks under water, which, during the blowing of the Etesian winds and the storms of that period, present dangers, when no assistance can be afforded to vessels.

Next is a bay in which are some scattered islands,⁸¹ and continuous with the bay, are three very lofty mounds⁸² of black sand. After these is Charmothas⁸³ a harbour, about 100 stadia in circumference, with a narrow entrance very dangerous for all kinds of vessels. A river empties itself into it. In the middle is a well-wooded island, adapted for cultivation.

Then follows a rugged coast, and after that are some bays and a country belonging to Nomades, who live by their camels. They fight from their backs; they travel upon them, and subsist on their milk and flesh. A river flows through their country, which brings down gold-dust, but they are ignorant how to make any use of it. They are called Debae;⁸⁴ some of them are Nomades, others husbandmen.

I do not mention the greater part⁸⁵ of the names of these nations, on account of the obscurity of the people, and because the pronunciation of them is strange⁸⁶ [and uncouth].

Near these people is a nation more civilized, who inhabit a district with a more temperate climate ; for it is well watered, and has frequent showers.⁸⁷ Fossil gold is found there, not in the form of dust, but in lumps, which do not require much purification. The least pieces are of the size of a nut, the middle size of a medlar, the largest of a walnut. These are pierced and arranged alternately with transparent stones strung on threads and formed into collars. They are worn round the neck and wrists. They sell the gold to their neighbours at a cheap rate, exchanging it for three times the quantity of brass, and double the quantity of iron,⁸⁸ through ignorance of the mode of working the gold, and the scarcity of the commodities received in exchange, which are more necessary for the purposes of life.

[19] The country of the Sabaei,⁸⁹ a very populous nation, is contiguous, and is the most fertile of all, producing myrrh, frankincense, and cinnamon. On the coast is found balsamum and another kind of herb of a very fragrant smell, but which is soon dissipated. There are also sweet-smelling palms and the calamus. There are snakes also of a dark red colour, a span in length, which spring up as high as a man’s waist, and whose bite is incurable.

On account of the abundance which the soil produces, the people are lazy and indolent in their mode of life. The lower class of people live on roots, and sleep on the trees.

The people who live near each other receive, in continued succession, the loads [of perfumes] and deliver them to others, who convey them as far as Syria and Mesopotamia. When the carriers become drowsy by the odour of the aromatics, the drowsiness is removed by the fumes of asphaltus and of goat’s beard.

Mariaba,⁹⁰ the capital of the Sabaeans, is situated upon a mountain, well wooded. A king resides there, who determines absolutely all disputes and other matters ; but he is forbidden to leave his palace, or if he does so, the rabble immediately assail him with stones, according to the direction of an oracle. He himself, and those about his person, pass their lives in effeminate voluptuousness.

The people cultivate the ground, or follow the trade of dealing in aromatics, both the indigenous sort and those brought from Ethiopia; in order to procure them, they sail through the straits in vessels covered with skins. There is such an abundance of these aromatics, that cinnamon, cassia, and other spices are used by them instead of sticks and firewood.

In the country of the Sabaeans is found the larimnum, a most fragrant perfume.

By the trade [in these aromatics] both the Sabaeans and the Gerrhaei have become the richest of all the tribes, and possess a great quantity of wrought articles in gold and silver, as couches, tripods, basins, drinking-vessels, to which we must add the costly magnificence of their houses; for the doors, walls, and roofs are variegated with inlaid ivory, gold, silver, and precious stones.

This is the account of Artemidorus.⁹¹ The rest of the description is partly similar to that of Eratosthenes, and partly derived from other historians.

[20] Some of these say, that the sea is red from the colour arising from reflection either from the sun, which is vertical, or from the mountains, which are red by being scorched with intense heat; for the colour, it is supposed, may be produced by both these causes. Ctesias of Cnidus speaks of a spring which discharges into the sea a red and ochrous water. Agatharchides, his fellow-citizen, relates, on the authority of a person of the name of Boxus, of Persian descent, that when a troop of horses was driven by a lioness in heat as far as the sea, and had passed over to an island, a Persian of the name of Erythras constructed a raft, and was the first person who crossed the sea to it; perceiving the island to be well adapted for inhabitants, he drove the herd back to Persia, and sent out colonists both to this and the other islands and to the coast. He [thus] gave his own name to the sea. But according to others, it was Erythras the son of Perseus who was the king of this country.

According to some writers, from the straits in the Arabian Gulf to the extremity of the cinnamon country is a distance of 5000 stadia,⁹² without distinguishing whether (the direction is) to the south or to the east.

It is said also that the emerald and the beryl are found in the gold mines. According to Poseidonius, an odoriferous salt is found in Arabia.

[21] The Nabataeans and Sabaeans, situated above Syria, are the first people who occupy Arabia Felix. They were frequently in the habit of overrunning this country before the Romans became masters of it, but at present both they and the Syrians are subject to the Romans.

The capital of the Nabataeans is called Petra. It is situated on a spot which is surrounded and fortified by a smooth and level rock (petra), which externally is abrupt and precipitous, but within there are abundant springs of water both for domestic purposes and for watering gardens. Beyond the enclosure the country is for the most part a desert, particularly towards Judaea. Through this is the shortest road to Jericho, a journey of three or four days, and five days to the Phoenicon (or palm plantation). It is always governed by a king of the royal race. The king has a minister who is one of the Companions, and is called Brother. It has excellent laws for the administration of public affairs.

Athenodorus, a philosopher, and my friend, who had been at Petra, used to relate with surprise, that he found many Romans and also many other strangers residing there. He observed the strangers frequently engaged in litigation, both with one another and with the natives; but the natives had never any dispute amongst themselves, and lived together in perfect harmony.

[22] The late expedition⁹³ of the Romans against the Arabians, under the command of Aelius Gallus, has made us acquainted with many peculiarities of the country. Augustus Caesar despatched this general to explore the nature of these places and their inhabitants, as well as those of Ethiopia; for he observed that Troglodytica, which is contiguous to Egypt, bordered upon Ethiopia; and that the Arabian Gulf was extremely narrow, where it separates the Arabians from the Troglodytae. It was his intention either to conciliate or subdue the Arabians. He was also influenced by the report, which had prevailed from all time, that this people were very wealthy, and exchanged their aromatics and precious stones for silver and gold, but never expended with foreigners any part of what they received in exchange. He hoped to acquire either opulent friends, or to overcome opulent enemies. He was moreover encouraged to undertake this enterprise by the expectation of assistance from the Nabataeans, who promised to co-operate with him in everything.

[23] Upon these inducements Gallus set out on the expedition. But he was deceived by Syllaeus, the [king’s] minister of the Nabataeans, who had promised to be his guide on the march, and to assist him in the execution of his design. Syllaeus was however treacherous throughout; for he neither guided them by a safe course by sea along the coast, nor by a safe road for the army, as he promised, but exposed both the fleet and the army to danger, by directing them where there was no road, or the road was impracticable, where they were obliged to make long circuits, or to pass through tracts of country destitute of everything ; he led the fleet along a rocky coast without harbours, or to places abounding with rocks concealed under water, or with shallows. In places of this description particularly, the flowing and ebbing of the tide did them the most harm.

The first mistake consisted in building long vessels [of war] at a time when there was no war, nor any likely to occur by sea. For the Arabians, being mostly engaged in traffic and commerce, are not a very warlike people even on land, much less so at sea. Gallus, notwithstanding, built not less than eighty biremes and triremes and galleys (phaseli) at Cleopatris,⁹⁴ near the old canal which leads from the Nile. When he discovered his mistake, he constructed a hundred and thirty vessels of burden, in which he embarked with about ten thousand infantry, collected from Egypt, consisting of Romans and allies, among whom were five hundred Jews and a thousand Nabataeans, under the command of Syllaeus. After enduring great hardships and distress, he arrived on the fifteenth day at Leuce-Come, a large mart in the territory of the Nabataeans, with the loss of many of his vessels, some with all their crews, in consequence of the difficulty of the navigation, but by no opposition from an enemy. These misfortunes were occasioned by the perfidy of Syllaeus, who insisted that there was no road for an army by land to Leuce-Come, to which and from which place the camel-traders travel with ease and in safety from Petra, and back to Petra, with so large a body of men and camels as to differ in no respect from an army.

[24] Another cause of the failure of the expedition was the fact of king Obodas not paying much attention to public affairs, and especially to those relative to war (as is the custom with all Arabian kings), but placed everything in the power of Syllaeus the minister. His whole conduct in command of the army was perfidious, and his object was, as I suppose, to examine as a spy the state of the country, and to destroy, in concert with the Romans, certain cities and tribes; and when the Romans should be consumed by famine, fatigue, and disease, and by all the evils which he had treacherously contrived, to declare himself master of the whole country.

Gallus however arrived at Leuce-Come, with the army labouring under stomacacce and scelotyrbe, diseases of the country, the former affecting the mouth, the other the legs, with a kind of paralysis, caused by the water and the plants [which the soldiers had used in their food]. He was therefore compelled to pass the summer and the winter there, for the recovery of the sick.

Merchandise is conveyed from Leuce-Come to Petra, thence to Rhinocolura in Phoenicia, near Egypt, and thence to other nations. But at present the greater part is transported by the Nile to Alexandreia. It is brought down from Arabia and India to Myus Hormus, it is then conveyed on camels to Coptus⁹⁵ of the Thebais, situated on a canal of the Nile, and to Alexandreia. Gallus, setting out again from Leuce-Come on his return with his army, and through the treachery of his guide, traversed such tracts of country, that the army was obliged to carry water with them upon camels. After a march of many days, therefore, he came to the territory of Aretas, who was related to Obodas. Aretas received him in a friendly manner, and offered presents. But by the treachery of Syllaeus, Gallus was conducted by a difficult road through the country ; for he occupied thirty days in passing through it. It afforded barley, a few palm trees, and butter instead of oil.

The next country to which he came belonged to Nomades, and was in great part a complete desert. It was called Ararene. The king of the country was Sabos. Gallus spent fifty days in passing through this territory, for want of roads, and came to a city of the Negrani, and to a fertile country peacefully disposed. The king had fled, and the city was taken at the first onset. After a march of six days from thence, he came to the river. Here the barbarians attacked the Romans, and lost about ten thousand men; the Romans lost only two men. For the barbarians were entirely inexperienced in war, and used their weapons unskilfully, which were bows, spears, swords, and slings; but the greater part of them wielded a double-edged axe. Immediately afterwards he took the city called Asca, which had been abandoned by the king. He thence came to a city Athrula, and took it without resistance; having placed a garrison there, and collected provisions for the march, consisting of corn and dates, he proceeded to a city Marsiaba, belonging to the nation of the Rhammanitae, who were subjects of Ilasarus. He assaulted and besieged it for six days, but raised the siege in consequence of a scarcity of water. He was two days’ march from the aromatic region, as he was informed by his prisoners. He occupied in his marches a period of six months, in consequence of the treachery of his guides. This he discovered when he was returning; and although he was late in discovering the design against him, he had time to take another road back; for he arrived in nine days at Negrana, where the battle was fought, and thence in eleven days he came to the Seven Wells, as the place is called from the fact of their existing there. Thence he marched through a desert country, and came to Chaalla a village, and then to another called Malothas, situated on a river. His road then lay through a desert country, which had only a few watering-places, as far as Egra⁹⁶ a village. It belongs to the territory of Obodas, and is situated upon the sea. He accomplished on his return the whole distance in sixty days, in which, on his first journey, he had consumed six months. From Negra he conducted his army in eleven days to Myus Hormus; thence across the country to Coptus, and arrived at Alexandreia with so much of his army as could be saved. The remainder he lost, not by the enemy, but by disease, fatigue, famine, and marches through bad roads ; for seven men only perished in battle. For these reasons this expedition contributed little in extending our knowledge of the country. It was however of some small service.

Syllaeus, the author of these disasters, was punished for his treachery at Rome. He affected friendship, but he was convicted of other offences, besides perfidy in this instance, and was beheaded.

[25] The aromatic country, as I have before said,⁹⁷ is divided into four parts. Of aromatics, the frankincense and myrrh are said to be the produce of trees, but cassia the growth of bushes; yet some writers say, that the greater part (of the cassia) is brought from India, and that the best frankincense is that from Persia.

According to another partition of the country, the whole of Arabia Felix is divided into five kingdoms (or portions), one of which comprises the fighting men, who fight for all the rest; another contains the husbandmen, by whom the rest are supplied with food; another includes those who work at mechanical trades. One division comprises the myrrh region; another the frankincense region, although the same tracts produce cassia, cinnamon, and nard. Trades are not changed from one family to another, but each workman continues to exercise that of his father.

The greater part of their wine is made from the palm.

A man’s brothers are held in more respect than his children. The descendants of the royal family succeed as kings, and are invested with other governments, according to primogeniture. Property is common among all the relations. The eldest is the chief. There is one wife among them all. He who enters the house before any of the rest, has intercourse with her, having placed his staff at the door; for it is a necessary custom, which every one is compelled to observe, to carry a staff. The woman however passes the night with the eldest. Hence the male children are all brothers. They have sexual intercourse also with their mothers. Adultery is punished with death, but an adulterer must belong to another family.

A daughter of one of the kings was of extraordinary beauty, and had fifteen brothers, who were all in love with her, and were her unceasing and successive visitors; she, being at last weary of their importunity, is said to have employed the following device. She procured staves to be made similar to those of her brothers; when one left the house, she placed before the door a staff similar to the first, and a little time afterwards another, and so on in succession, but making her calculation so that the person who intended to visit her might not have one similar to that at her door. On an occasion when the brothers were all of them together at the market-place, one left it, and came to the door of the house; seeing the staff there, and conjecturing some one to be in her apartment, and having left all the other brothers at the marketplace, he suspected the person to be an adulterer ; running therefore in haste to his father, he brought him with him to the house, but it was proved that he had falsely accused his sister.

[26] The Nabataeans are prudent, and fond of accumulating property. The community fine a person who has diminished his substance, and confer honours on him who has increased it. They have few slaves, and are served for the most part by their relations, or by one another, or each person is his own servant; and this custom extends even to their kings. They eat their meals in companies consisting of thirteen persons. Each party is attended by two musicians. But the king gives many entertainments in great buildings. No one drinks more than eleven [appointed] cupfuls, from separate cups, each of gold.

The king courts popular favour so much, that he is not only his own servant, but sometimes he himself ministers to others. He frequently renders an account [of his administration] before the people, and sometimes an inquiry is made into his mode of life. The houses are sumptuous, and of stone. The cities are without walls, on account of the peace [which prevails among them]. A great part of the country is fertile, and produces everything except oil of olives; [instead of it], the oil of sesamum is used. The sheep have white fleeces, their oxen are large; but the country produces no horses.⁹⁸ Camels are the substitute for horses, and perform the [same kind of] labour. They wear no tunics, but have a girdle about the loins, and walk abroad in sandals.⁹⁹ The dress of the kings is the same, but the colour is purple.

Some merchandise is altogether imported into the country, others are not altogether imports, especially as some articles are native products, as gold and silver, and many of the aromatics; but brass and iron, purple garments, styrax, saffron, and costus (or white cinnamon), pieces of sculpture, paintings, statues, are not to be procured in the country.

They look upon the bodies of the dead as no better than dung, according to the words of Heracleitus, dead bodies more fit to be cast out than dung; wherefore they bury even their kings beside dung-heaps. They worship the sun, and construct the altar on the top of a house, pouring out libations and burning frankincense upon it every day.

[27] When the poet says,

I went to the country of the Ethiopians, Sidonians, and Erembi,¹⁰⁰

it is doubtful, what people he means by Sidonians, whether those who lived near the Persian Gulf, a colony from which nation are the Sidonians in our quarter (in the same manner as historians relate, that some Tyrian islanders are found there, and Aradii, from whom the Aradii in our country derive their origin), or whether the poet means actually the Sidonians themselves.

But there is more doubt about the Erembi, whether we are to suppose that he means the Troglodytae, according to the opinion of those who, by a forced etymology, derive the word Erembi from ἔραν ἐμβαίνειν, that is, entering into the earth, or whether he means the Arabians. Zeno the philosopher of our sect alters the reading in this manner,

And Sidoni, and Arabes;

but Poseidonius alters it with a small variation,

And Sidonii, and Arambi,

as if the poet gave the name Arambi to the present Arabians, from their being so called by others in his time. He says also, that the situation of these three nations close to one another indicates a descent from some common stock, and that on this account they are called by names having a resemblance to one another, as Armenii, Aramaei, Arambi. For as we may suppose one nation to have been divided into three (according to the differences of latitude [in which they lived], which successively became more marked [in proceeding from one to the other]), so in like manner we may suppose that several names were adopted in place of one. The proposed change of reading to Eremni is not probable, for that name is more applicable to the Ethiopians. The poet mentions also the Arimi, whom Poseidonius says are meant here, and not a place in Syria or Cilicia, or any other country, but Syria itself. For the Aramaei lived there. Perhaps these are the people whom the Greeks called Arimaei or Arimi. But the alterations of names, especially of barbarous nations, are frequent, Thus Darius was called Darieces; Parysatis, Pharziris; Athara, Atargata, whom Ctesias again calls Derceto.¹⁰¹

Alexander might be adduced to bear witness to the wealth of the Arabians, for he intended, it is said, after his return from India, to make Arabia the seat of empire. All his enterprises terminated with his death, which happened suddenly; but certainly one of his projects was to try whether the Arabians would receive him voluntarily, or resist him by force of arms; for having found that they did not send ambassadors to him, either before or after his expedition to India, he was beginning to make preparations for war, as we have said in a former part of this work.

Geography. Strabo. Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator). London. 1854-1857.

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Current edition Perseus

Geography (English) (Strabo. The Geography of Strabo, Vols. 1-3. Hamilton, Hans Claude, translator; Falconer, William, translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854-1857.)

Editions (1)

Γεωγραφικά Perseus (Strabo. Strabonis Geographica, Vols. 1-3. Meineke, August, editor. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877.) — 16.4 focus

[1] Ἀρχὴ δὲ τῆς Ἀραβίας ἀπὸ τῆς Βαβυλωνίας ἐστὶν ἡ Μαικήνη· πρόκειται δὲ ταύτης τῇ μὲν ἡ ἔρημος τῶν Ἀράβων τῇ δὲ τὰ ἕλη τὰ κατὰ Χαλδαίους, ἃ ποιεῖ παρεκχεόμενος ὁ Εὐφράτης, τῇ δὲ ἡ κατὰ Πέρσας θάλαττα. δυσάερος δὲ οὖσα καὶ ὁμιχλώδης καὶ ἔπομβρος ἅμα καὶ καυματηρά, καλλίκαρπός ἐστιν ὅμως· ἡ δʼ ἄμπελος ἐν ἕλεσι φύεται, καλαμίναις ῥιψὶν ἐπιβαλλομένης γῆς, ὅση δέξαιτʼ ἂν τὸ φυτόν, ὥστε φορητὴν γίνεσθαι πολλάκις, εἶτα κοντοῖς ἀπωθεῖσθαι πάλιν εἰς τὴν οἰκείαν ἕδραν.

[2] Ἐπάνειμι δὲ ἐπὶ τὰς Ἐρατοσθένους ἀποφάσεις ἃς ἑξῆς περὶ τῆς Ἀραβίας ἐκτίθεται. φησὶ δὲ περὶ τῆς προσαρκτίου καὶ ἐρήμης ἥτις ἐστὶ μεταξὺ τῆς τε εὐδαίμονος Ἀραβίας καὶ τῆς Κοιλοσύρων καὶ τῶν Ἰουδαίων μέχρι τοῦ μυχοῦ τοῦ Ἀραβίου κόλπου, διότι ἀπὸ Ἡρώων πόλεως, ἥτις ἐστὶν ἐν τῷ πρὸς τὸν Νεῖλον μυχῷ τοῦ Ἀραβίου κόλπου, πρὸς μὲν τὴν Ναβαταίων Πέτραν εἰς Βαβυλῶνα πεντακισχίλιοι ἑξακόσιοι, πᾶσα μὲν πρὸς ἀνατολὰς θερινάς, διὰ δὲ τῶν παρακειμένων Ἀραβίων ἐθνῶν Ναβαταίων τε καὶ Χαυλοταίων καὶ Ἀγραίων· ὑπὲρ δὲ τούτων ἡ εὐδαίμων ἐστίν, ἐπὶ μυρίους καὶ δισχιλίους ἐκκειμένη σταδίους πρὸς νότον μέχρι τοῦ Ἀτλαντικοῦ πελάγους. ἔχουσι δʼ αὐτὴν οἱ μὲν πρῶτοι μετὰ τοὺς Σύρους καὶ τοὺς Ἰουδαίους ἄνθρωποι γεωργοί· μετὰ δὲ τούτους δίαμμός ἐστι γῆ καὶ λυπρά, φοίνικας ἔχουσα ὀλίγους καὶ ἄκανθαν καὶ μυρίκην καὶ ὀρυκτὰ ὕδατα, καθάπερ καὶ ἡ Γεδρωσία· σκηνῖται δʼ ἔχουσιν αὐτὴν Ἄραβες καὶ καμηλοβοσκοί. τὰ δʼ ἔσχατα πρὸς νότον καὶ ἀνταίροντα τῇ Αἰθιοπίᾳ βρέχεταί τε θερινοῖς ὄμβροις καὶ δισπορεῖται παραπλησίως τῇ Ἰνδικῇ, ποταμοὺς δʼ ἔχει καταναλισκομένους εἰς πεδία καὶ λίμνας, εὐκαρπία δʼ ἐστὶν ἥ τε ἄλλη καὶ μελιτουργεῖα δαψιλῆ, βοσκημάτων τε ἀφθονία πλὴν ἵππων καὶ ἡμιόνων καὶ ὑῶν, ὄρνεά τε παντοῖα πλὴν χηνῶν καὶ ἀλεκτορίδων. κατοικεῖ δὲ τὰ μέγιστα τέτταρα ἔθνη τὴν ἐσχάτην λεχθεῖσαν χώραν, Μιναῖοι μὲν ἐν τῷ πρὸς τὴν Ἐρυθρὰν μέρει, πόλις δʼ αὐτῶν ἡ μεγίστη Κάρνα ἢ Κάρνανα· ἐχόμενοι δὲ τούτων Σαβαῖοι, μητρόπολις δʼ αὐτῶν Μαρίαβα· τρίτοι δὲ Κατταβανεῖς καθήκοντες πρὸς τὰ στενὰ καὶ τὴν διάβασιν τοῦ Ἀραβίου κόλπου, τὸ δὲ βασίλειον αὐτῶν Τάμνα καλεῖται· πρὸς ἕω δὲ μάλιστα Χατραμωτῖται, πόλιν δʼ ἔχουσι Σάβαταν.

[3] μοναρχοῦνται δὲ πᾶσαι καὶ εἰσὶν εὐδαίμονες, κατεσκευασμέναι καλῶς ἱεροῖς τε καὶ βασιλείοις, αἵ τε οἰκίαι ταῖς Αἰγυπτίαις ἐοίκασι κατὰ τὴν τῶν ξύλων ἔνδεσιν· χώραν δʼ ἐπέχουσιν οἱ τέτταρες νομοὶ μείζω τοῦ κατʼ Αἴγυπτον Δέλτα· διαδέχεται δὲ τὴν βασίλειαν οὐ παῖς παρὰ πατρός, ἀλλʼ ὃς ἂν πρῶτος γεννηθῇ τινι τῶν ἐπιφανῶν παῖς μετὰ τὴν κατάστασιν τοῦ βασιλέως· ἅμα γὰρ τῷ κατασταθῆναί τινα εἰς τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀναγράφονται τὰς ἐγκύους γυναῖκας τῶν ἐπιφανῶν ἀνδρῶν καὶ ἐφιστᾶσι φύλακας, ἥτις δʼ ἂν πρώτη τέκῃ, τὸν ταύτης υἱὸν νόμος ἐστὶν ἀναληφθέντα τρέφεσθαι βασιλικῶς ὡς διαδεξόμενον.

[4] φέρει δὲ λιβανωτὸν μὲν ἡ Κατταβανία, σμύρναν δὲ ἡ Χατραμωτῖτις· καὶ ταῦτά τε καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἀρώματα μεταβάλλονται τοῖς ἐμπόροις. ἔρχονται δὲ πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐξ Αἰλάνων μὲν εἰς Μιναίαν ἐν ἑβδομήκοντα ἡμέραις· ἔστι δʼ ἡ Αἴλανα πόλις ἐν θατέρῳ μυχῷ τοῦ Ἀραβίου κόλπου τῷ κατὰ Γάζαν, τῷ Αἰλανίτῃ καλουμένῳ, καθάπερ εἰρήκαμεν· Γερραῖοι δʼ εἰς τὴν Χατραμωτῖτιν ἐν τετταράκοντα ἡμέραις ἀφικνοῦνται. τοῦ δʼ Ἀραβίου κόλπου τὸ μὲν παρὰ τὴν Ἀραβίαν πλευρὸν ἀρχομένοις ἀπὸ τοῦ Αἰλανίτου μυχοῦ, καθάπερ οἱ περὶ Ἀλέξανδρον ἀνέγραψαν καὶ Ἀναξικράτης, μυρίων καὶ τετρακισχιλίων σταδίων ἐστίν· εἴρηται δὲ ἐπὶ πλέον. τὸ δὲ κατὰ τὴν Τρωγλοδυτικήν, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἐν δεξιᾷ ἀποπλέουσιν ἀπὸ Ἡρώων πόλεως, μέχρι μὲν Πτολεμαΐδος καὶ τῆς τῶν ἐλεφάντων θήρας ἐνακισχίλιοι πρὸς μεσημβρίαν στάδιοι καὶ μικρὸν ἐπὶ τὴν ἕω· ἐντεῦθεν δὲ μέχρι τῶν στενῶν ὡς τετρακισχίλιοι καὶ πεντακόσιοι πρὸς τὴν ἕω μᾶλλον. ποιεῖ δὲ ἄκρα τὰ στενὰ πρὸς τὴν Αἰθιοπίαν Δειρὴ καλουμένη, καὶ πολίχνιον ὁμώνυμον αὐτῇ· κατοικοῦσι δὲ ἰχθυοφάγοι. καί φασιν ἐνταῦθα στήλην εἶναι Σεσώστριος τοῦ Αἰγυπτίου μηνύουσαν ἱεροῖς γράμμασι τὴν διάβασιν αὐτοῦ· φαίνεται γὰρ τὴν Αἰθιοπίδα καὶ τὴν Τρωγλοδυτικὴν πρῶτος καταστρεψάμενος οὗτος, εἶτα διαβὰς εἰς τὴν Ἀραβίαν κἀντεῦθεν τὴν Ἀσίαν ἐπελθὼν τὴν σύμπασαν· διὸ δὴ πολλαχοῦ Σεσώστριος χάρακες προσαγορεύονται, καὶ ἀφιδρύματά ἐστιν Αἰγυπτίων θεῶν ἱερῶν. τὰ δὲ κατὰ Δειρὴν στενὰ συνάγεται εἰς σταδίους ἑξήκοντα· οὐ μὴν ταῦτά γε καλεῖται νυνὶ στενά, ἀλλὰ προσπλεύσασιν ἀπωτέρω, καθὸ τὸ μὲν δίαρμά ἐστι τὸ μεταξὺ τῶν ἠπείρων διακοσίων που σταδίων, ἓξ δὲ νῆσοι συνεχεῖς ἀλλήλαις τὸ δίαρμα ἐκπληροῦσαι στενοὺς τελέως διάπλους ἀπολείπουσι, διʼ ὧν σχεδίαις τὰ φορτία κομίζουσι δεῦρο κἀκεῖσε, καὶ λέγουσι ταῦτα στενά. μετὰ δὲ τὰς νήσους ὁ ἑξῆς πλοῦς ἐστιν ἐγκολπίζουσι παρὰ τὴν σμυρνοφόρον ἐπὶ τὴν μεσημβρίαν ἅμα καὶ τὴν ἕω μέχρι πρὸς τὴν τὸ κιννάμωμον φέρουσαν, ὅσον πεντακισχιλίων σταδίων· πέρα δὲ ταύτης οὐδένα ἀφῖχθαί φησι μέχρι νῦν. πόλεις δʼ ἐν μὲν τῇ παραλίᾳ μὴ πολλὰς εἶναι, κατὰ δὲ τὴν μεσόγαιαν πολλὰς οἰκουμένας καλῶς. τὰ μὲν δὴ τοῦ Ἐρατοσθένους περὶ τῆς Ἀραβίας τοιαῦτα· προσθετέον δὲ καὶ τὰ παρὰ τῶν ἄλλων.

[5] φησὶ δʼ Ἀρτεμίδωρος τὸ ἀντικείμενον ἐκ τῆς Ἀραβίας ἀκρωτήριον τῇ Δειρῇ καλεῖσθαι * Ἀκίλαν· τοὺς δὲ περὶ τὴν Δειρὴν κολοβοὺς εἶναι τὰς βαλάνους. ἀπὸ δὲ Ἡρώων πόλεως πλέουσι κατὰ τὴν Τρωγλοδυτικὴν πόλιν εἶναι Φιλωτέραν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀδελφῆς τοῦ δευτέρου Πτολεμαίου προσαγορευθεῖσαν, Σατύρου κτίσμα τοῦ πεμφθέντος ἐπὶ τὴν διερεύνησιν τῆς τῶν ἐλεφάντων θήρας καὶ τῆς Τρωγλοδυτικῆς· εἶτα ἄλλην πόλιν Ἀρσινόην· εἶτα θερμῶν ὑδάτων ἐκβολὰς πικρῶν καὶ ἁλμυρῶν, κατὰ πέτρας τινὸς ὑψηλῆς ἐκδιδόντων εἰς τὴν θάλατταν, καὶ πλησίον ὄρος ἐστὶν ἐν πεδίῳ μιλτῶδες· εἶτα Μυὸς ὅρμον ὃν καὶ Ἀφροδίτης ὅρμον καλεῖσθαι, λιμένα μέγαν, τὸν εἴσπλουν ἔχοντα σκολιόν· προκεῖσθαι δὲ νήσους τρεῖς, δύο μὲν ἐλαίαις κατασκίους, μίαν δʼ ἧττον κατάσκιον, μελεαγρίδων μεστήν· εἶθʼ ἑξῆς τὸν Ἀκάθαρτον κόλπον καὶ αὐτὸν κατὰ τὴν Θηβαΐδα κείμενον, καθάπερ τὸν Μυὸς ὅρμον, ὄντως δὲ ἀκάθαρτον· καὶ γὰρ ὑφάλοις χοιράσι καὶ ῥαχίαις ἐκτετράχυνται καὶ πνοιαῖς καταιγιζούσαις τὸ πλέον. ἐνταῦθα δὲ ἱδρῦσθαι Βερενίκην πόλιν ἐν βάθει τοῦ κόλπου.

[6] μετὰ δὲ τὸν κόλπον ἡ Ὀφιώδης καλουμένη νῆσος ἀπὸ τοῦ συμβεβηκότος, ἣν ἠλευθέρωσε τῶν ἑρπετῶν ὁ βασιλεύς, ἅμα καὶ διὰ τὰς φθορὰς τῶν προσορμιζομένων ἀνθρώπων τὰς ἐκ τῶν θηρίων καὶ διὰ τὰ τοπάζια. λίθος δέ ἐστι διαφανὴς χρυσοειδὲς ἀποστίλβων φέγγος, ὅσον μεθʼ ἡμέραν μὲν οὐ ῥᾴδιον ἰδεῖν ἔστι (ὑπεραυγεῖται γάρ), νύκτωρ δʼ ὁρῶσιν οἱ συλλέγοντες· περικαθάψαντες δὲ ἀγγεῖον σημείου χάριν μεθʼ ἡμέραν ἀνορύττουσι· καὶ ἦν σύστημα ἀνθρώπων ἀποδεδειγμένων εἰς τὴν φυλακὴν τῆς λιθείας ταύτης καὶ τὴν συναγωγήν, σιταρχούμενον ὑπὸ τῶν τῆς Αἰγύπτου βασιλέων.

[7] μετὰ δὲ τὴν νῆσον ταύτην πολλά ἐστιν ἰχθυοφάγων γένη καὶ νομάδων· εἶθʼ ὁ τῆς Σωτείρας λιμήν, ὃν ἐκ κινδύνων μεγάλων τινὲς σωθέντες τῶν ἡγεμόνων ἀπὸ τοῦ συμβεβηκότος οὕτως ἐκάλεσαν. μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα ἐξάλλαξις πολλὴ τῆς παραλίας καὶ τοῦ κόλπου· τὸν γὰρ παράπλουν οὐκέτι συμβαίνει τραχὺν εἶναι, συνάπτειν τέ πως τῇ Ἀραβίᾳ καὶ τὸ πέλαγος ταπεινὸν εἶναι σχεδόν τι καὶ ἐπὶ δύο ὀργυιάς, ποάζειν τε τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν διαφαινομένου τοῦ μνίου καὶ τοῦ φύκους ὅπερ πλεονάζει κατὰ τὸν πόρον, ὅπου γε καὶ δένδρα φύεται καθʼ ὕδατος παρὰ τοῖς ἐνταῦθα· ἔχει δὲ καὶ κυνῶν πλῆθος τῶν θαλαττίων ὁ πόρος· εἶθʼ οἱ Ταῦροι, δύο ὄρη τύπον τινὰ πόρρωθεν δεικνύντα τοῖς ζῴοις ὅμοιον· εἶτʼ ἄλλο ὄρος ἱερὸν ἔχον τῆς Ἴσιδος, Σεσώστριος ἀφίδρυμα· εἶτα νῆσος ἐλαίᾳ κατάφυτος ἐπικλυζομένη, μεθʼ ἣν ἡ Πτολεμαῒς πρὸς τῇ θήρᾳ τῶν ἐλεφάντων, κτίσμα Εὐμήδους τοῦ πεμφθέντος ἐπὶ τὴν θήραν ὑπὸ Φιλαδέλφου, λάθρᾳ περιβαλομένου χερρονήσῳ τινὶ τάφρον καὶ περίβολον, εἶτʼ ἐκθεραπεύσαντος τοὺς κωλύοντας καὶ κατεσκευασμένου φίλους ἀντὶ δυσμενῶν.

[8] Ἐν δὲ τῷ μεταξὺ ἐκδίδωσιν ἀπόσπασμα τοῦ Ἀσταβόρα καλουμένου ποταμοῦ, ὃς ἐκ λίμνης τὴν ἀρχὴν ἔχων μέρος μέν τι ἐκδίδωσι, τὸ δὲ πλέον συμβάλλει τῷ Νείλῳ· εἶτα νῆσοι ἓξ Λατομίαι καλούμεναι· καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα τὸ Σαβαϊτικὸν στόμα λεγόμενον καὶ ἐν τῇ μεσογαίᾳ φρούριον, Τοσούχου ἵδρυμα· εἶτα λιμὴν καλούμενος Ἐλαία καὶ ἡ Στράτωνος νῆσος· εἶτα λιμὴν Σαβὰ καὶ κυνήγιον ἐλεφάντων ὁμώνυμον αὐτῷ· ἡ δʼ ἐν βάθει τούτων χώρα Τηνεσσὶς λέγεται· ἔχουσι δʼ αὐτὴν οἱ παρὰ Ψαμμιτίχου φυγάδες Αἰγυπτίων· ἐπονομάζονται δὲ Σεμβρῖται, ὡς ἂν ἐπήλυδες· βασιλεύονται δʼ ὑπὸ γυναικός, ὑφʼ ἥν ἐστι καὶ ἡ Μερόη, πλησίον τῶν τόπων οὖσα τούτων ἐν τῷ Νείλῳ νῆσος, ὑπὲρ ἧς ἄλλη ἐστὶ νῆσος οὐ πολὺ ἄπωθεν ἐν τῷ ποταμῷ, κατοικία τῶν αὐτῶν τούτων φυγάδων. ἀπὸ δὲ Μερόης ἐπὶ τήνδε τὴν θάλατταν εὐζώνῳ ὁδὸς ἡμερῶν πεντεκαίδεκα. περὶ δὲ τὴν Μερόην καὶ ἡ συμβολὴ τοῦ τε Ἀσταβόρα καὶ τοῦ Ἀστάπου καὶ ἔτι τοῦ Ἀστασόβα πρὸς τὸν Νεῖλον.

[9] παροικοῦσι δὲ τούτοις οἱ ῥιζοφάγοι καὶ ἕλειοι προσαγορευόμενοι διὰ τὸ ἐκ τοῦ παρακειμένου ῥιζοτομοῦντας ἕλους κόπτειν λίθοις καὶ ἀναπλάττειν μάζας, ἡλιάσαντας δὲ σιτεῖσθαι· λεοντοβότα δʼ ἐστὶ τὰ χωρία· ταῖς δʼ ὑπὸ κυνὸς ἐπιτολὴν ἡμέραις ὑπὸ κωνώπων μεγάλων ἐξελαύνεται τὰ θηρία ἐκ τῶν τόπων· εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ σπερμοφάγοι πλησίον, οἳ τῶν σπερμάτων ἐπιλιπόντων ὑπὸ τῶν ἀκροδρύων τρέφονται, σκευάζοντες παραπλησίως ὥσπερ τὰς ῥίζας οἱ ῥιζοφάγοι. μετὰ δὲ τὴν Ἐλαίαν αἱ Δημητρίου σκοπιαὶ καὶ βωμοὶ Κόνωνος· ἐν δὲ τῇ μεσογαίᾳ καλάμων Ἰνδικῶν φύεται πλῆθος· καλεῖται δὲ ἡ χώρα Κορακίου· ἦν δέ τις ἐν βάθει Ἐνδέρα γυμνητῶν ἀνθρώπων κατοικία, τόξοις χρωμένων καλαμίνοις καὶ πεπυρακτωμένοις οἰστοῖς· ἀπὸ δένδρων δὲ τοξεύουσι τὰ θηρία τὸ πλέον, ἔστι δʼ ὅτε καὶ ἀπὸ γῆς· πολὺ δʼ ἐστὶ παρʼ αὐτοῖς πλῆθος τῶν ἀγρίων βοῶν· ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς τούτων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων θηρίων κρεοφαγίας ζῶσιν, ἐπὰν δὲ μηδὲν θηρεύσωσι, τὰ ξηρὰ δέρματα ἐπʼ ἀνθρακιᾶς ὀπτῶντες ἀρκοῦνται τῇ τοιαύτῃ τροφῇ. ἔθος δʼ ἐστὶν αὐτοῖς ἀγῶνα τοξείας προτιθέναι τοῖς ἀνήβοις παισί. μετὰ δὲ τοὺς Κόνωνος βωμοὺς ὁ Μήλινος λιμήν· ὑπέρκειται δʼ αὐτοῦ φρούριον Κοράου καλούμενον καὶ κυνήγιον τοῦ Κοράου καὶ ἄλλο φρούριον καὶ κυνήγια πλείω· εἶτα ὁ Ἀντιφίλου λιμὴν καὶ οἱ ὑπὲρ τούτου κρεοφάγοι, κολοβοὶ τὰς βαλάνους καὶ αἱ γυναῖκες ἰουδαϊκῶς ἐκτετμημέναι.

[10] ἔτι δʼ ὑπὲρ τούτων ὡς πρὸς μεσημβρίαν οἱ κυναμολγοί, ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν ἐντοπίων ἄγριοι καλούμενοι, κατάκομοι, καταπώγωνες, κύνας ἐκτρέφοντες εὐμεγέθεις, οἷς θηρεύουσι τοὺς ἐπερχομένους ἐκ τῆς πλησιοχώρου βόας Ἰνδικούς, εἴθʼ ὑπὸ θηρίων ἐξελαυνομένους εἴτε σπάνει νομῆς· ἡ δʼ ἔφοδος αὐτῶν ἀπὸ θερινῶν τροπῶν μέχρι μέσου χειμῶνος. τῷ δʼ Ἀντιφίλου λιμένι ἑξῆς ἔστι λιμὴν καλούμενος κολοβῶν ἄλσος καὶ Βερενίκη πόλις ἡ κατὰ Σαβὰς καὶ Σαβαί, πόλις εὐμεγέθης, εἶτα τὸ τοῦ Εὐμένους ἄλσος. ὑπέρκειται δὲ πόλις Δάραδα καὶ κυνήγιον ἐλεφάντων τὸ πρὸς τῷ φρέατι καλούμενον· κατοικοῦσι δʼ ἐλεφαντοφάγοι, τὴν θήραν ποιούμενοι τοιαύτην· ἀπὸ τῶν δένδρων ἰδόντες ἀγέλην διὰ τοῦ δρυμοῦ φερομένην τῇ μὲν οὐκ ἐπιτίθενται, τοὺς δʼ ἀποπλανηθέντας ἐκ τῶν ὄπισθεν λάθρᾳ προσιόντες νευροκοποῦσι· τινὲς δὲ καὶ τοξεύμασιν ἀναιροῦσιν αὐτοὺς χολῇ βεβαμμένοις ὄφεων· ἡ δὲ τοξεία διὰ τριῶν ἀνδρῶν συντελεῖται, τῶν μὲν κατεχόντων τὸ τόξον καὶ προβεβηκότων τοῖς ποσί, τοῦ δʼ ἕλκοντος τὴν νευράν· ἄλλοι δὲ σημειωσάμενοι τὰ δένδρα οἷς εἰώθασι προσαναπαύεσθαι, προσιόντες ἐκ θατέρου μέρους τὸ στέλεχος ὑποκόπτουσιν· ἐπὰν οὖν προσιὸν τὸ θηρίον ἀποκλίνῃ πρὸς αὐτό, πεσόντος τοῦ δένδρου πίπτει καὶ αὐτό, ἀναστῆναι δὲ μὴ δυναμένου διὰ τὸ τὰ σκέλη διηνεκὲς ὀστοῦν ἔχειν καὶ ἀκαμπές, καταπηδήσαντες ἀπὸ τῶν δένδρων ἀνατέμνουσιν αὐτό· τοὺς δὲ κυνηγοὺς οἱ νομάδες ἀκαθάρτους καλοῦσιν.

[11] ̔υπέρκειται δὲ τούτων ἔθνος οὐ μέγα στρουθοφάγων, παρʼ οἷς ὄρνεις εἰσὶ μέγεθος ἐλάφων ἔχοντες, πέτασθαι μὲν οὐ δυνάμενοι, θέοντες δὲ ὀξέως καθάπερ οἱ στρουθοκάμηλοι· θηρεύουσι δʼ αὐτοὺς οἱ μὲν τόξοις, οἱ δὲ ταῖς δοραῖς τῶν στρουθῶν σκεπασθέντες τὴν μὲν δεξιὰν καλύπτουσι τῷ τραχηλιμαίῳ μέρει καὶ κινοῦσιν οὕτως ὥσπερ τὰ ζῷα κινεῖται τοῖς τραχήλοις, τῇ δὲ ἀριστερᾷ σπέρμα προχέουσιν ἀπὸ πήρας παρηρτημένης, καὶ τούτῳ δελεάσαντες τὰ ζῷα εἰς φάραγγας συνωθοῦσιν· ἐνταῦθα δʼ ἐφεστῶτες ξυλοκόποι κατακόπτουσι· καὶ ἀμπέχονται δὲ καὶ ὑποστόρνυνται τὰ δέρματα ταῦτα· πολεμοῦσι δὲ τούτοις οἱ σιμοὶ καλούμενοι Αἰθίοπες, κέρασιν ὀρύγων ὅπλοις χρώμενοι.

[12] πλησιόχωροι δὲ τούτοις εἰσὶ μελανώτεροί τε τῶν ἄλλων καὶ βραχύτεροι καὶ βραχυβιώτατοι ἀκριδοφάγοι· τὰ γὰρ τετταράκοντα ἔτη σπανίως ὑπερτιθέασιν, ἀποθηριουμένης αὐτῶν τῆς σαρκός· ζῶσι δʼ ἀπὸ ἀκρίδων, ἃς οἱ ἐαρινοὶ λίβες καὶ ζέφυροι πνέοντες μεγάλοι συνελαύνουσιν εἰς τοὺς τόπους τούτους· ἐν ταῖς χαράδραις δὲ ἐμβαλόντες ὕλην καπνώδη καὶ ὑφάψαντες μικρὸν ὑπερπετάμεναι γὰρ τὸν καπνὸν σκοτοῦνται καὶ πίπτουσι· συγκόψαντες δʼ αὐτὰς μεθʼ ἁλμυρίδος μάζας ποιοῦνται καὶ χρῶνται. τούτων δʼ ἔρημος ὑπέρκειται μεγάλη, νομὰς δαψιλεῖς ἔχουσα, ἐκλειφθεῖσα δʼ ὑπὸ πλήθους σκορπίων καὶ φαλαγγίων τῶν τετραγνάθων καλουμένων, ἐπιπολάσαντός ποτε καὶ ἀπεργασαμένου τοῖς ἀνθρώποις φυγὴν παντελῆ.

[13] μετὰ δὲ Εὐμένους λιμένα μέχρι Δειρῆς καὶ τῶν κατὰ τὰς ἓξ νήσους στενῶν ἰχθυοφάγοι καὶ κρεοφάγοι κατοικοῦσι καὶ κολοβοὶ μέχρι τῆς μεσογαίας. εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ θῆραι πλείους ἐλεφάντων καὶ πόλεις ἄσημοι καὶ νησία πρὸ τῆς παραλίας· νομάδες δʼ οἱ πλείους, ὀλίγοι δʼ οἱ γεωργοῦντες· παρά τισι δὲ τούτων φύεται στύραξ οὐκ ὀλίγος. συνάγουσι δὲ ταῖς ἀμπώτεσιν οἱ ἰχθυοφάγοι τοὺς ἰχθῦς· ἐπιρρίψαντες δὲ ταῖς πέτραις κατοπτῶσι πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον, εἶτʼ ἐξοπτήσαντες τὰς ἀκάνθας μὲν σωρεύουσι, τὴν δὲ σάρκα πατήσαντες μάζας ποιοῦνται, πάλιν δὲ ταύτας ἡλιάζοντες σιτοῦνται· χειμῶνος δʼ ἀδυνατήσαντες συνάγειν τοὺς ἰχθῦς τὰς σεσωρευμένας ἀκάνθας κόψαντες μάζας ἀναπλάττονται καὶ χρῶνται, τὰς δὲ νεαρὰς ἐκμυζῶσιν· ἔνιοι δὲ τὰς κόγχας ἐχούσας τὴν σάρκα σιτεύουσι, καταβάλλοντες εἰς χαράδρια καὶ συστάδας θαλάττης, εἶτʼ ἰχθύδια παραρριπτοῦντες τροφὴν αὐταῖς χρῶνται ἐν τῇ τῶν ἰχθύων σπάνει· ἔστι δʼ αὐτοῖς καὶ ἰχθυοτροφεῖα παντοῖα, ἀφʼ ὧν ταμιεύονται. ἔνιοι δὲ τῶν τὴν ἄνυδρον παραλίαν οἰκούντων διὰ πέντε ἡμερῶν ἐπὶ τὰ ὑδρεῖα ἀναβαίνουσι πανοίκιοι μετὰ παιανισμοῦ, ῥιφέντες δὲ πρηνεῖς πίνουσι βοῶν δίκην ἕως ἐκτυμπανώσεως τῆς γαστρός, εἶτʼ ἀπίασιν ἐπὶ θάλατταν πάλιν· οἰκοῦσι δʼ ἐν σπηλαίοις ἢ μάνδραις στεγασταῖς ἀπὸ δοκῶν μὲν καὶ στρωτήρων τῶν κητείων ὀστέων καὶ ἀκανθῶν, φυλλάδος δʼ ἐλαΐνης.

[14] οἱ δὲ χελωνοφάγοι τοῖς ὀστράκοις αὐτῶν σκεπάζονται μεγάλοις οὖσιν ὥστε καὶ πλεῖσθαι ἐν αὐτοῖς· ἔνιοι δὲ τοῦ φύκους ἀποβεβλημένου πολλοῦ καὶ θῖνας ὑψηλὰς καὶ λοφώδεις ποιοῦντος, ὑπορύττοντες ταύτας ὑποικοῦσι· τοὺς δὲ νεκροὺς ῥίπτουσι τροφὴν τοῖς ἰχθύσιν, ἀναλαμβανομένους ὑπὸ τῶν πλημμυρίδων. τῶν δὲ νήσων τινὲς τρεῖς ἐφεξῆς κεῖνται, ἡ μὲν χελωνῶν ἡ δὲ φωκῶν ἡ δʼ ἱεράκων λεγομένη. πᾶσα δʼ ἡ παραλία φοίνικάς τε ἔχει καὶ ἐλαιῶνας καὶ δαφνῶνας, οὐχ ἡ ἐντὸς τῶν στενῶν μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς ἐκτὸς πολλή. ἔστι δέ τις καὶ Φιλίππου νῆσος, καθʼ ἣν ὑπέρκειται τὸ Πυθαγγέλου καλούμενον τῶν ἐλεφάντων κυνήγιον· εἶτʼ Ἀρσινόη πόλις καὶ λιμήν, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἡ Δειρή· καὶ τούτων ὑπέρκειται θήρα τῶν ἐλεφάντων. ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς Δειρῆς ἡ ἐφεξῆς ἐστιν ἀρωματοφόρος, πρώτη μὲν ἡ τὴν σμύρναν φέρουσα, καὶ αὕτη μὲν ἰχθυοφάγων καὶ κρεοφάγων· φύει δὲ καὶ περσέαν καὶ συκάμινον Αἰγύπτιον· ὑπέρκειται δʼ ἡ Λίχα θήρα τῶν ἐλεφάντων· πολλαχοῦ δʼ εἰσὶ συστάδες τῶν ὀμβρίων ὑδάτων, ὧν ἀναξηρανθεισῶν οἱ ἐλέφαντες ταῖς προβοσκίσι καὶ τοῖς ὀδοῦσι φρεωρυχοῦσι καὶ ἀνευρίσκουσιν ὕδωρ. ἐν δὲ τῇ παραλίᾳ ταύτῃ μέχρι τοῦ Πυθολάου ἀκρωτηρίου δύο λίμναι εἰσὶν εὐμεγέθεις· ἡ μὲν ἁλμυροῦ ὕδατος, ἣν καλοῦσι θάλατταν, ἡ δὲ γλυκέος, ἣ τρέφει καὶ ἵππους ποταμίους καὶ κροκοδείλους, περὶ τὰ χείλη δὲ πάπυρον· ὁρῶνται δὲ καὶ ἴβεις περὶ τὸν τόπον. ἤδη δὲ καὶ οἱ πλησίον τῆς ἄκρας τῆς Πυθολάου τὰ σώματα ὁλόκληροί εἰσι. μετὰ δὲ τούτους ἡ λιβανωτοφόρος· ἐνταῦθα ἄκρα ἐστὶ καὶ ἱερὸν αἰγειρῶνα ἔχον. ἐν δὲ τῇ μεσογαίᾳ ποταμία τις Ἴσιδος λεγομένη καὶ ἄλλη τις Νεῖλος, ἄμφω καὶ σμύρναν καὶ λίβανον παραπεφυκότα ἔχουσαι. ἔστι δὲ καὶ δεξαμενή τις τοῖς ἐκ τῶν ὀρῶν ὕδασι πληρουμένη καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα Λέοντος σκοπὴ καὶ Πυθαγγέλου λιμήν· ἡ δʼ ἑξῆς ἔχει καὶ ψευδοκασίαν. συνεχῶς δʼ εἰσὶ ποτάμιαι τε πλείους ἔχουσαι λίβανον παραπεφυκότα καὶ ποταμοὶ μέχρι τῆς κινναμωμοφόρου· ὁ δʼ ὁρίζων ταύτην ποταμὸς φέρει καὶ φλοῦν πάμπολυν· εἶτʼ ἄλλος ποταμὸς καὶ Δαφνοῦς λιμὴν καὶ ποταμία Ἀπόλλωνος καλουμένη, ἔχουσα πρὸς τῷ λιβάνῳ καὶ σμύρναν καὶ κιννάμωμον· τοῦτο δὲ πλεονάζει μᾶλλον περὶ τοὺς ἐν βάθει τόπους· εἶθʼ ὁ Ἐλέφας τὸ ὄρος ἐκκείμενον εἰς θάλατταν, καὶ διῶρυξ καὶ ἐφεξῆς Ψυγμοῦ λιμὴν μέγας καὶ ὕδρευμα τὸ κυνοκεφάλων καλούμενον, καὶ τελευταῖον ἀκρωτήριον τῆς παραλίας ταύτης, τὸ Νότου κέρας. κάμψαντι δὲ τοῦτο ὡς ἐπὶ μεσημβρίαν οὐκέτι, φησίν, ἔχομεν λιμένων ἀναγραφὰς οὐδὲ τόπων διὰ τὸ μηκέτι εἶναι γνώριμον * ἐν δὲ τῇ ἑξῆς παραλίᾳ.

[15] εἰσὶ καὶ στῆλαι καὶ βωμοὶ Πυθολάου καὶ Λίχα καὶ Πυθαγγέλου καὶ Λέοντος καὶ Χαριμόρτου κατὰ τὴν γνώριμον παραλίαν τὴν ἀπὸ Δειρῆς μέχρι Νότου κέρως, τὸ δὲ διάστημα οὐ γνώριμον. πληθύει δʼ ἐλέφασιν ἡ χώρα καὶ λέουσι τοῖς καλουμένοις μύρμηξιν· ἀπεστραμμένα δʼ ἔχουσι τὰ αἰδοῖα * καὶ χρυσοειδεῖς τὴν χρόαν, ψιλότεροι δὲ τῶν κατὰ τὴν Ἀραβίαν· φέρει δὲ καὶ παρδάλεις ἀλκίμους καὶ ῥινοκέρωτας· οὗτοι δὲ μικρὸν ἀπολείπονται τῶν ἐλεφάντων οἱ ῥινοκέρωτες, οὐχ ὥσπερ Ἀρτεμίδωρός φησιν, ἐπὶ σειρὰν τῷ μήκει, καίπερ ἑωρακέναι φήσας ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ, ἀλλὰ σχεδόν τι ὅσον τῷ ὕψει, ἀπό γε τοῦ ὑφʼ ἡμῶν ὁραθέντος· οὐδὲ πύξῳ τὸ χρῶμα ἐμφερές, ἀλλʼ ἐλέφαντι μᾶλλον· μέγεθος δʼ ἐστὶ ταύρου· μορφὴ δʼ ἐγγυτάτω συάγρου καὶ μάλιστα κατὰ τὴν προτομὴν πλὴν τῆς ῥινός, ὅτι ἔστι κέρας σιμὸν στερεώτερον ὀστέου παντός· χρῆται δʼ ὅπλῳ, καθάπερ καὶ τοῖς ὀδοῦσιν ὁ σύαγρος· ἔχει δὲ καὶ τύλους δύο ὡς ἂν σπείρας δρακόντων ἀπὸ τῆς ῥάχεως μέχρι τῆς γαστρὸς περικειμένας, τὴν μὲν πρὸς τῷ λόφῳ τὴν δὲ πρὸς τῇ ὀσφύι. ἐκ μὲν δὴ τοῦ ὑφʼ ἡμῶν ὁραθέντος ταῦτά φαμεν ἡμεῖς, ἐκεῖνος δὲ προσδιασαφεῖ διότι καὶ ἐλεφαντομάχον ἰδίως ἐστὶ τὸ ζῷον περὶ τῆς νομῆς, ὑποδῦνον τῇ προτομῇ καὶ ἀνακεῖρον τὴν γαστέρα, ἐὰν μὴ προληφθῇ τῇ προβοσκίδι καὶ τοῖς ὀδοῦσι.

[16] γίνονται δʼ ἐν τούτοις τοῖς τόποις καὶ αἱ καμηλοπαρδάλεις, οὐδὲν ὅμοιον ἔχουσαι παρδάλει· τὸ γὰρ ποικίλον τῆς χρόας νεβρίσι μᾶλλον ἔοικε ῥαβδωτοῖς σπίλοις κατεστιγμέναις· τελέως δὲ τὰ ὀπίσθια ταπεινότερα τῶν ἐμπροσθίων ἐστίν, ὥστε δοκεῖν συγκαθῆσθαι τῷ οὐραίῳ μέρει τὸ ὕψος βοὸς ἔχοντι, τὰ δὲ ἐμπρόσθια σκέλη τῶν καμηλείων οὐ λείπεται· τράχηλος δʼ εἰς ὕψος ἐξηρμένος ὀρθός, τὴν κορυφὴν δὲ πολὺ ὑπερπετεστέραν ἔχει τῆς καμήλου· διὰ δὲ τὴν ἀσυμμετρίαν ταύτην οὐδὲ τάχος οἶμαι τοσοῦτον εἶναι περὶ τὸ ζῷον, ὅσον εἴρηκεν Ἀρτεμίδωρος ἀνυπέρβλητον φήσας· ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ θηρίον ἐστίν, ἀλλὰ βόσκημα μᾶλλον· οὐδεμίαν γὰρ ἀγριότητα ἐμφαίνει· γίνονται δέ, φησί, καὶ σφίγγες καὶ κυνοκέφαλοι καὶ κῆβοι λέοντος μὲν πρόσωπον ἔχοντες τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν σῶμα πάνθηρος, μέγεθος δὲ δορκάδος· καὶ ταῦροι δʼ εἰσὶν ἄγριοι καὶ σαρκοφάγοι, μεγέθει πολὺ τοὺς παρʼ ἡμῖν ὑπερβεβλημένοι καὶ τάχει, πυρροὶ τὴν χρόαν· κροκούττας δʼ ἐστὶ μῖγμα λύκου καὶ κυνός, ὥς φησιν οὗτος. ἃ δʼ ὁ Σκήψιος λέγει Μητρόδωρος ἐν τῷ περὶ συνηθείας βιβλίῳ μύθοις ἔοικε καὶ οὐ φροντιστέον αὐτῶν. καὶ δρακόντων δʼ εἴρηκε μεγέθη τριάκοντα πηχῶν ὁ Ἀρτεμίδωρος ἐλέφαντας καὶ ταύρους χειρουμένων, μετριάσας ταύτῃ γε· οἱ γὰρ Ἰνδικοὶ μυθωδέστεροι καὶ οἱ Λιβυκοί, οἷς γε καὶ πόα ἐπιπεφυκέναι λέγεται.

[17] νομαδικὸς μὲν οὖν ὁ βίος τῶν Τρωγλοδυτῶν, τυραννοῦνται δὲ καθʼ ἕκαστα, κοιναὶ δὲ καὶ γυναῖκες καὶ τέκνα πλὴν τοῖς τυράννοις, τῷ δὲ τὴν τυράννου φθείραντι πρόβατον ἡ ζημία ἐστί· στιβίζονται δʼ ἐπιμελῶς ὡς αἱ γυναῖκες, περίκεινται δὲ τοῖς τραχήλοις κογχία ἀντὶ βασκανίων. πολεμοῦσι δὲ περὶ τῆς νομῆς, κατʼ ἀρχὰς μὲν διωθούμενοι ταῖς χερσίν, εἶτα λίθοις, ὅταν δὲ τραῦμα γένηται, καὶ τοξεύμασι καὶ μαχαιρίσι· διαλύουσι δʼ αἱ γυναῖκες εἰς μέσους προϊοῦσαι καὶ δεήσεις προσενέγκασαι· τροφὴ δʼ ἔκ τε σαρκῶν καὶ τῶν ὀστέων κοπτομένων ἀναμὶξ καὶ εἰς τὰς δορὰς ἐνειλουμένων, εἶτʼ ὀπτωμένων καὶ ἄλλως πολλαχῶς σκευαζομένων ὑπὸ τῶν μαγείρων, οὓς καλοῦσιν ἀκαθάρτους· ὥστε μὴ κρεοφαγεῖν μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ὀστοφαγεῖν καὶ δερματοφαγεῖν· χρῶνται δὲ καὶ τῷ αἵματι καὶ τῷ γάλακτι καταμίξαντες. ποτὸν δὲ τοῖς μὲν πολλοῖς ἀπόβρεγμα παλιούρου, τοῖς δὲ τυράννοις μελίκρατον, ἀπʼ ἄνθους τινὸς ἐκπιεζομένου τοῦ μέλιτος. ἔστι δʼ αὐτοῖς χειμὼν μὲν ἡνίκα οἱ ἐτησίαι πνέουσι (κατομβροῦνται γάρ), θέρος δʼ ὁ λοιπὸς χρόνος. γυμνῆται δὲ καὶ δερματοφόροι καὶ σκυταληφόροι διατελοῦσιν· εἰσὶ δʼ οὐ κολοβοὶ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ περιτετμημένοι τινὲς καθάπερ Αἰγύπτιοι. οἱ δὲ Μεγαβάροι Αἰθίοπες τοῖς ῥοπάλοις καὶ τύλους προστιθέασι σιδηροῦς, χρῶνται δὲ καὶ λόγχαις καὶ ἀσπίσιν ὠμοβυρσίνοις, οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ Αἰθίοπες τόξοις καὶ λόγχαις. θάπτουσι δέ τινες τῶν Τρωγλοδυτῶν ῥάβδοις παλιουρίναις δήσαντες τὸν αὐχένα τῶν νεκρῶν πρὸς τὰ σκέλη, ἔπειτα εὐθὺς καταλεύουσιν ἱλαροί, γελῶντες ἅμα, ἕως ἂν τοῦ τὴν ὄψιν σώματος ἀποκρύψωσιν· εἶτʼ ἐπιθέντες κέρας αἴγειον ἀπίασιν. ὁδοιποροῦσι δὲ νύκτωρ ἐκ τῶν ἀρρένων θρεμμάτων κώδωνας ἐξάψαντες, ὥστʼ ἐξίστασθαι τὰ θηρία τῷ ψόφῳ· καὶ λαμπάσι δὲ καὶ τόξοις ἐπὶ τὰ θηρία χρῶνται, καὶ διαγρυπνοῦσι τῶν ποιμνίων χάριν ᾠδῇ τινι χρώμενοι πρὸς τῷ πυρί.

[18] ταῦτʼ εἰπὼν περὶ τῶν Τρωγλοδυτῶν καὶ τῶν προσχώρων Αἰθιόπων ἐπάνεισιν ἐπὶ τοὺς Ἄραβας· καὶ πρώτους ἔπεισι τοὺς τὸν Ἀράβιον κόλπον ἀφορίζοντας καὶ ἀντικειμένους τοῖς Τρωγλοδύταις, ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ τοῦ Ποσειδίου. φησὶ δὲ ἐνδοτέρω κεῖσθαι τοῦτο τοῦ¹ μυχοῦ· συνεχῆ δὲ τοῦ Ποσειδίου φοινικῶνα εἶναι εὔυδρον, τιμᾶσθαί τε κομιδῆ διὰ τὸ πᾶσαν τὴν κύκλῳ καυματηράν τε καὶ ἄνυδρον καὶ ἄσκιον ὑπάρχειν, ἐνταῦθα δὲ καὶ τὴν εὐκαρπίαν τῶν φοινίκων εἶναι θαυμαστήν· προεστήκασι δὲ τοῦ ἄλσους ἀνὴρ καὶ γυνὴ διὰ γένους ἀποδεδειγμένοι δερματοφόροι, τροφὴν ἀπὸ τῶν φοινίκων ἔχοντες· κοιτάζονται δʼ ἐπὶ δένδρων καλυβοποιησάμενοι διὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν θηρίων. εἶθʼ ἑξῆς ἔστι νῆσος φωκῶν, ἀπὸ τοῦ πλήθους τῶν θηρίων τούτων ὠνομασμένη. πλησίον δʼ αὐτῆς ἀκρωτήριον, ὃ διατείνει πρὸς τὴν Πέτραν τὴν τῶν Ναβαταίων καλουμένων Ἀράβων καὶ τὴν Παλαιστίνην χώραν, εἰς ἣν Μιναῖοί τε καὶ Γερραῖοι καὶ πάντες οἱ πλησιόχωροι τὰ τῶν ἀρωμάτων φορτία κομίζουσιν. εἶτʼ ἄλλη παραλία πρότερον μὲν Μαρανιτῶν καλουμένη, ὧν οἳ μὲν ἦσαν γεωργοὶ τινὲς δὲ σκηνῖται, νῦν δὲ Γαρινδαίων ἀνελόντων ἐκείνους δόλῳ· ἐπέθεντο γὰρ αὐτοῖς πενταετηρικήν τινα πανήγυριν ἐπιτελοῦσι, καὶ τούτους τε διέφθειραν καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἐπελθόντες ἄρδην διελυμήναντο. εἶθʼ ὁ Αἰλανίτης κόλπος καὶ ἡ Ναβαταίων, πολύανδρος οὖσα χώρα καὶ εὔβοτος· οἰκοῦσι δὲ καὶ νήσους προκειμένας πλησίον· οἳ πρότερον μὲν καθʼ ἡσυχίαν ἦσαν, ὕστερον δὲ σχεδίαις ἐλῄζοντο τοὺς ἐκ τῆς Αἰγύπτου πλέοντας· δίκας δʼ ἔτισαν ἐπελθόντος στόλου καὶ ἐκπορθήσαντος αὐτούς. ἑξῆς δʼ ἐστὶ πεδίον εὔδενδρόν τε καὶ εὔυδρον καὶ βοσκημάτων παντοίων μεστὸν ἄλλων τε καὶ ἡμιόνων· καὶ καμήλων ἀγρίων καὶ ἐλάφων καὶ δορκάδων πλῆθος ἐν αὐτῷ, λέοντές τε καὶ παρδάλεις καὶ λύκοι συχνοί. πρόκειται δὲ νῆσος καλουμένη Δία· εἶτα κόλπος ὅσον πεντακοσίων σταδίων ὄρεσι περικλειόμενος καὶ δυσεισβόλῳ στόματι· περιοικοῦσι δὲ θηρευτικοὶ ἄνδρες τῶν χερσαίων ἀγρευμάτων. εἶτʼ ἔρημοι τρεῖς νῆσοι πλήρεις ἐλαιῶν, οὐ τῶν παρʼ ἡμῖν ἀλλὰ τῶν ἐντοπίων, ἃς καλοῦμεν Αἰθιοπικάς, ὧν τὸ δάκρυον καὶ ἰατρικῆς δυνάμεώς ἐστιν. ἐφεξῆς δʼ ἐστὶν αἰγιαλὸς λιθώδης, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτον τραχεῖα καὶ δυσπαράπλευστος ὅσον χιλίων σταδίων παραλία σπάνει λιμένων καὶ ἀγκυροβολίων· ὄρος γὰρ παρατείνει τραχὺ καὶ ὑψηλόν· εἶθʼ ὑπώρειαι σπιλαδώδεις μέχρι τῆς θαλάττης, τοῖς ἐτησίαις μάλιστα καὶ ταῖς τότε ἐπομβρίαις ἀβοήθητον παρέχουσαι τὸν κίνδυνον. ἑξῆς δʼ ἐστὶ κόλπος νήσους ἔχων σποράδας, καὶ συνεχῶς θῖνες ψάμμου μελαίνης τρεῖς ἄγαν ὑψηλοί, καὶ μετὰ τούτους Χαρμοθᾶς λιμὴν ὅσον σταδίων τὸν κύκλον ἑκατόν, στενὸν καὶ ἐπικίνδυνον ἔχων τὸν εἴσπλουν παντὶ σκάφει, ῥεῖ δὲ καὶ ποταμὸς εἰς αὐτόν· ἐν μέσῳ δὲ νῆσος εὔδενδρος καὶ γεωργήσιμος. εἶτʼ ἐστὶ παραλία τραχεῖα καὶ μετὰ ταύτην κόλποι τινὲς καὶ χώρα νομάδων ἀπὸ καμήλων ἐχόντων τὸν βίον· καὶ γὰρ πολεμοῦσιν ἀπʼ αὐτῶν καὶ ὁδεύουσι καὶ τρέφονται τῷ τε γάλακτι χρώμενοι καὶ ταῖς σαρξί. ῥεῖ δὲ ποταμὸς διʼ αὐτῶν ψῆγμα χρυσοῦ καταφέρων, οὐκ ἴσασι δʼ αὐτὸ κατεργάζεσθαι· καλοῦνται δὲ Δέβαι, οἱ μὲν νομάδες οἱ δὲ καὶ γεωργοί. οὐ λέγω δὲ τῶν ἐθνῶν τὰ ὀνόματα τὰ πολλὰ διὰ τὴν ἀδοξίαν καὶ ἅμα ἀτοπίαν τῆς ἐκφορᾶς αὐτῶν. ἐχόμενοι δʼ εἰσὶν ἡμερώτεροι τούτων ἄνδρες εὐκρατοτέραν οἰκοῦντες γῆν· καὶ γὰρ εὔυδρός ἐστι καὶ εὔομβρος· χρυσός τε ὀρυκτὸς γίνεται παρʼ αὐτοῖς οὐ ψήγματος ἀλλὰ βωλαρίων χρυσοῦ καθάρσεως οὐ πολλῆς δεομένων, μέγεθος δʼ ἐχόντων ἐλάχιστον μὲν πυρῆνος μέσον δὲ μεσπίλου μέγιστον δὲ καρύου· τηρήσαντες δὲ ταῦτα ἐναλλὰξ λίθοις διαφανέσιν ὅρμους ποιοῦνται διείροντες λίνον, περιτίθενται δὲ περὶ τοὺς τραχήλους καὶ καρπούς· πωλοῦσι δὲ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἀστυγείτονας εὔωνον τὸν χρυσόν, τριπλάσιον ἀντιδιδόντες τοῦ χαλκοῦ, διπλάσιον δὲ τοῦ * ἀργύρου, διά τε τὴν ἀπειρίαν τῆς ἐργασίας καὶ τὴν σπάνιν τῶν ἀντιλαμβανομένων, ὧν ἡ χρεία πρὸς τοὺς βίους ἀναγκαιοτέρα.

[19] συνάπτει δʼ ἡ τῶν Σαβαίων εὐδαιμονεστάτη, μεγίστου ἔθνους, παρʼ οἷς καὶ σμύρνα καὶ λίβανος καὶ κιννάμωμον· ἐν δὲ τῇ παραλίᾳ καὶ βάλσαμον καὶ ἄλλη τις πόα σφόδρα εὐώδης, ταχὺ δʼ ἐξίτηλον τὴν ὀδμὴν ἔχουσα· εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ φοίνικες εὐώδεις καὶ κάλαμος, ὄφεις δὲ σπιθαμιαῖοι φοινικοῖ τὴν χρόαν, προσαλλόμενοι καὶ μέχρι λαγόνος, τὸ δῆγμα ἔχοντες ἀνήκεστον. διὰ δὲ τὴν ἀφθονίαν τῶν καρπῶν ἀργοὶ καὶ ῥᾴθυμοι τοῖς βίοις εἰσὶν οἱ ἄνθρωποι· κοιτάζονται δὲ ἐπὶ * τῶν ῥιζῶν τῶν δένδρων ἐκτέμνοντες οἱ πολλοὶ καὶ δημοτικοί· διαδεχόμενοι δʼ οἱ σύνεγγυς ἀεὶ τὰ φορτία, τοῖς μετʼ αὐτοὺς παραδιδόασι μέχρι Συρίας καὶ Μεσοποταμίας· καρούμενοι δʼ ὑπὸ τῶν εὐωδιῶν αἴρουσι τὸν κάρον ἀσφάλτου θυμιάματι καὶ τράγου πώγωνος. ἡ δὲ πόλις τῶν Σαβαίων, ἡ Μαρίαβα, κεῖται μὲν ἐπʼ ὄρους εὐδένδρου. βασιλέα δʼ ἔχει κύριον τῶν κρίσεων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων, ἐκ δὲ τῶν² βασιλείων οὐ θέμις ἐξιέναι, ἢ καταλεύουσιν αὐτὸν παραχρῆμα οἱ ὄχλοι κατά τι λόγιον· ἐν χλιδῇ δʼ ἐστὶ γυναικείᾳ καὶ αὐτὸς καὶ οἱ περὶ αὐτόν· τὰ δὲ πλήθη τὰ μὲν γεωργεῖ τὰ δʼ ἐμπορεύεται τὰ ἀρώματα τά τε ἐπιχώρια καὶ τὰ ἀπὸ τῆς Αἰθιοπίας, πλέοντες ἐπʼ αὐτὰ διὰ τῶν στενῶν δερματίνοις πλοίοις· τοσαῦτα δʼ ἐστὶ τὸ πλῆθος ὥστʼ ἀντὶ φρυγάνων καὶ τῆς καυσίμου ὕλης χρῆσθαι κινναμώμῳ καὶ κασίᾳ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις. γίνεται δʼ ἐν τοῖς Σαβαίοις καὶ τὸ λάριμνον, εὐωδέστατον θυμίαμα. ἐκ δὲ τῆς ἐμπορίας οὗτοί τε καὶ Γερραῖοι πλουσιώτατοι πάντων εἰσίν, ἔχουσί τε παμπληθῆ κατασκευὴν χρυσωμάτων τε καὶ ἀργυρωμάτων, κλινῶν τε καὶ τριπόδων καὶ κρατήρων σὺν ἐκπώμασι καὶ τῇ τῶν οἴκων πολυτελείᾳ· καὶ γὰρ θυρώματα καὶ τοῖχοι καὶ ὀροφαὶ διʼ ἐλέφαντος καὶ χρυσοῦ καὶ ἀργύρου λιθοκολλήτου τυγχάνει διαπεποικιλμένα. ταῦτα μὲν περὶ τούτων εἴρηκε, τἆλλα δὲ τὰ μὲν παραπλησίως τῷ Ἐρατοσθένει λέγει, τὰ δὲ παρὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἱστορικῶν παρατίθησιν.

[20] Ἐρυθρὰν γὰρ λέγειν τινὰς τὴν θάλατταν ἀπὸ τῆς χροιᾶς τῆς ἐμφαινομένης κατʼ ἀνάκλασιν, εἴτε ἀπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου κατὰ κορυφὴν ὄντος εἴτε ἀπὸ τῶν ὀρῶν ἐρυθραινομένων ἐκ τῆς ἀποκαύσεως· ἀμφοτέρως γὰρ εἰκάζειν· Κτησίαν δὲ τὸν Κνίδιον πηγὴν ἱστορεῖν ἐκδιδοῦσαν εἰς τὴν θάλατταν ἐρευθὲς καὶ μιλτῶδες ὕδωρ· Ἀγαθαρχίδην δὲ τὸν ἐκείνου πολίτην παρά τινος Βόξου, Πέρσου τὸ γένος, ἱστορῆσαι διότι Πέρσης τις Ἐρύθρας, ἱπποφορβίου τινὸς ὑπὸ λεαίνης οἴστρῳ κατασχομένης ἐξελαθέντος μέχρι θαλάττης κἀκεῖθεν εἰς νῆσόν τινα διάραντος, σχεδίαν πηξάμενος πρῶτος περαιωθείη πρὸς τὴν νῆσον· ἰδὼν δὲ καλῶς οἰκήσιμον τὴν μὲν ἀγέλην εἰς τὴν Περσίδα ἀπαγάγοι πάλιν, ἀποίκους δʼ ἐκεῖ στείλαι τε καὶ τὰς ἄλλας νήσους καὶ τὴν παραλίαν, ἐπώνυμον δὲ ποιήσειεν ἑαυτοῦ τὸ πέλαγος. τοὺς δὲ Περσέως υἱὸν ἀποφαίνεσθαι τὸν Ἐρύθραν, ἡγήσασθαί τε τῶν τόπων. λέγεται δʼ ὑπό τινων τὰ ἀπὸ τῶν στενῶν τοῦ Ἀραβίου κόλπου μέχρι τῆς κινναμωμοφόρου τῆς ἐσχάτης πεντακισχιλίων σταδίων, οὐκ εὐκρινῶς, εἴτʼ ἐπὶ νότον εἴτʼ ἐπὶ τὰς ἀνατολάς. λέγεται δὲ καὶ διότι ὁ σμάραγδος καὶ ὁ βήρυλλος ἐν τοῖς τοῦ χρυσίου μετάλλοις ἐγγίνεται. εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ ἅλες εὐώδεις ἐν Ἄραψιν, ὥς φησι Ποσειδώνιος.

[21] πρῶτοι δʼ ὑπὲρ τῆς Συρίας Ναβαταῖοι καὶ Σαβαῖοι τὴν εὐδαίμονα Ἀραβίαν νέμονται, καὶ πολλάκις κατέτρεχον αὐτῆς πρὶν ἢ Ῥωμαίων γενέσθαι· νῦν δὲ κἀκεῖνοι Ῥωμαίοις εἰσὶν ὑπήκοοι καὶ Σύροι. μητρόπολις δὲ τῶν Ναβαταίων ἐστὶν ἡ Πέτρα καλουμένη· κεῖται γὰρ ἐπὶ χωρίου τἆλλα ὁμαλοῦ καὶ ἐπιπέδου, κύκλῳ δὲ πέτρᾳ φρουρουμένου τὰ μὲν ἐκτὸς ἀποκρήμνου καὶ ἀποτόμου τὰ δʼ ἐντὸς πηγὰς ἀφθόνους ἔχοντος εἴς τε ὑδρείαν καὶ κηπείαν. ἔξω δὲ τοῦ περιβόλου χώρα ἔρημος ἡ πλείστη καὶ μάλιστα ἡ πρὸς Ἰουδαίᾳ· ταύτῃ δὲ καὶ ἐγγυτάτω ἐστὶ τριῶν ἢ τεττάρων ὁδὸς ἡμερῶν εἰς Ἱερικοῦντα, εἰς δὲ τὸν φοινικῶνα πέντε. βασιλεύεται μὲν οὖν ὑπό τινος ἀεὶ τῶν ἐκ τοῦ βασιλικοῦ γένους, ἔχει δʼ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐπίτροπον τῶν ἑταίρων τινὰ καλούμενον ἀδελφόν· σφόδρα δʼ εὐνομεῖται· γενόμενος γοῦν παρὰ τοῖς Πετραίοις Ἀθηνόδωρος, ἀνὴρ φιλόσοφος καὶ ἡμῖν ἑταῖρος, διηγεῖτο θαυμάζων· εὑρεῖν γὰρ ἐπιδημοῦντας ἔφη πολλοὺς μὲν Ῥωμαίων πολλοὺς δὲ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ξένων· τοὺς μὲν οὖν ξένους ὁρᾶν κρινομένους πολλάκις καὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἐπιχωρίους, τῶν δʼ ἐπιχωρίων οὐδένας ἀλλήλοις ἐγκαλοῦντας, ἀλλὰ τὴν πᾶσαν εἰρήνην ἄγοντας πρὸς ἑαυτούς.

[22] πολλὰ δὲ καὶ ἡ τῶν Ῥωμαίων ἐπὶ τοὺς Ἄραβας στρατεία νεωστὶ γενηθεῖσα ἐφʼ ἡμῶν, ὧν ἡγεμὼν ἦν Αἴλιος Γάλλος, διδάσκει τῶν τῆς χώρας ἰδιωμάτων. τοῦτον δʼ ἔπεμψεν ὁ Σεβαστὸς Καῖσαρ διαπειρασόμενον τῶν ἐθνῶν καὶ τῶν τόπων τούτων τε καὶ τῶν Αἰθιοπικῶν, ὁρῶν τήν τε Τρωγλοδυτικὴν τὴν προσεχῆ τῇ Αἰγύπτῳ γειτονεύουσαν τούτοις, καὶ τὸν Ἀράβιον κόλπον στενὸν ὄντα τελέως τὸν διείργοντα ἀπὸ τῶν Τρωγλοδυτῶν τοὺς Ἄραβας· προσοικειοῦσθαι δὴ διενοήθη τούτους ἢ καταστρέφεσθαι· ἦν δέ τι καὶ τὸ πολυχρημάτους ἀκούειν ἐκ παντὸς χρόνου, πρὸς ἄργυρον καὶ χρυσὸν τὰ ἀρώματα διατιθεμένους καὶ τὴν πολυτελεστάτην λιθείαν, ἀναλίσκοντας τῶν λαμβανομένων τοῖς ἔξω μηδέν· ἢ γὰρ φίλοις ἤλπιζε πλουσίοις χρήσεσθαι ἢ ἐχθρῶν κρατήσειν πλουσίων· ἐπῇρε δʼ αὐτὸν καὶ ἡ παρὰ τῶν Ναβαταίων ἐλπὶς φίλων ὄντων καὶ συμπράξειν ἅπανθʼ ὑπισχνουμένων.

[23] ἐπὶ τούτοις μὲν οὖν ἔστειλε τὴν στρατείαν ὁ Γάλλος. ἐξηπάτησε δʼ αὐτὸν ὁ τῶν Ναβαταίων ἐπίτροπος Συλλαῖος, ὑποσχόμενος μὲν ἡγήσεσθαι τὴν ὁδὸν καὶ χορηγήσειν ἅπαντα καὶ συμπράξειν, ἅπαντα δʼ ἐξ ἐπιβουλῆς πράξας, καὶ οὔτε παράπλουν ἀσφαλῆ μηνύων οὔθʼ ὁδόν, ἀλλὰ ἀνοδίαις καὶ κυκλοπορίαις καὶ πάντων ἀπόροις χωρίοις ἢ ῥαχίαις ἀλιμένοις παραβάλλων ἢ χοιράδων ὑφάλων μεσταῖς ἢ τεναγώδεσι· πλεῖστον δὲ αἱ πλημμυρίδες ἐλύπουν ἐν τοιούτοις καὶ ταῦτα χωρίοις καὶ αἱ ἀμπώτεις. πρῶτον μὲν δὴ τοῦθʼ ἁμάρτημα συνέβη τὸ μακρὰ κατασκευάσασθαι πλοῖα, μηδενὸς ὄντος μηδʼ ἐσομένου κατὰ θάλατταν πολέμου. οὐδὲ γὰρ κατὰ γῆν σφόδρα πολεμισταί εἰσιν ἀλλὰ κάπηλοι μᾶλλον οἱ Ἄραβες καὶ ἐμπορικοί, μήτι γε κατὰ θάλατταν· ὁ δʼ οὐκ ἔλαττον ὀγδοήκοντα ἐναυπηγήσατο δίκροτα καὶ τριήρεις καὶ φασήλους κατὰ Κλεοπατρίδα τὴν πρὸς τῇ παλαιᾷ διώρυγι τῇ ἀπὸ τοῦ Νείλου. γνοὺς δὲ διεψευσμένος ἐναυπηγήσατο σκευαγωγὰ ἑκατὸν καὶ τριάκοντα, οἷς ἔπλευσεν ἔχων περὶ μυρίους πεζοὺς τῶν ἐκ τῆς Αἰγύπτου Ῥωμαίων καὶ τῶν συμμάχων, ὧν ἦσαν Ἰουδαῖοι μὲν πεντακόσιοι Ναβαταῖοι δὲ χίλιοι μετὰ τοῦ Συλλαίου. πολλὰ δὲ παθὼν καὶ ταλαιπωρηθεὶς πεντεκαιδεκαταῖος ἧκεν εἰς Λευκὴν κώμην τῆς Ναβαταίων γῆς, ἐμπόριον μέγα, πολλὰ τῶν πλοίων ἀποβαλὼν (ὧν ἔνια καὶ αὔτανδρα) ὑπὸ δυσπλοίας, πολεμίου δʼ οὐδενός· τοῦτο δʼ ἀπειργάσατο ἡ τοῦ Συλλαίου κακία τοῦ πεζῇ φήσαντος ἀνόδευτα εἶναι στρατοπέδοις εἰς τὴν Λευκὴν κώμην, εἰς ἣν καὶ ἐξ ἧς οἱ καμηλέμποροι τοσούτῳ πλήθει ἀνδρῶν καὶ καμήλων ὁδεύουσιν ἀσφαλῶς καὶ εὐπόρως εἰς Πέτραν καὶ ἐκ Πέτρας, ὥστε μὴ διαφέρειν μηδὲν στρατοπέδου.

[24] συνέβαινε δὲ τοῦτο τοῦ μὲν βασιλέως τοῦ Ὀβόδα μὴ πολὺ φροντίζοντος τῶν κοινῶν καὶ μάλιστα τῶν κατὰ πόλεμον (κοινὸν δὲ τοῦτο πᾶσι τοῖς Ἀράβων βασιλεῦσιν), ἅπαντα δὲ ἐπὶ τῇ τοῦ ἐπιτρόπου ποιουμένου ἐξουσίᾳ τοῦ Συλλαίου· τούτου δʼ ἅπαντα δόλῳ στρατηγοῦντος καὶ ζητοῦντος, ὡς οἶμαι, κατοπτεῦσαι μὲν τὴν χώραν καὶ συνεξελεῖν τινας αὐτῶν πόλεις καὶ ἔθνη μετὰ τῶν Ῥωμαίων, αὐτὸν δὲ καταστῆναι κύριον ἁπάντων, ἀφανισθέντων ἐκείνων ὑπὸ λιμοῦ καὶ κόπου καὶ νόσων καὶ ἄλλων ὅσων δόλῳ παρεσκεύασεν ἐκεῖνος· εἰς γοῦν τὴν Λευκὴν κώμην κατῆρεν, ἤδη στομακάκκῃ τε καὶ σκελοτύρβῃ πειραζομένης τῆς στρατιᾶς, ἐπιχωρίοις πάθεσι, τῶν μὲν περὶ τὸ στόμα τῶν δὲ περὶ τὰ σκέλη παράλυσίν τινα δηλούντων ἔκ τε τῶν ὑδρείων καὶ βοτανῶν. ἠναγκάσθη γοῦν τό τε θέρος καὶ τὸν χειμῶνα διατελέσαι αὐτόθι τοὺς ἀσθενοῦντας ἀνακτώμενος. ἐκ μὲν οὖν τῆς Λευκῆς κώμης εἰς Πέτραν, ἐντεῦθεν δʼ εἰς Ῥινοκόλουρα τῆς πρὸς Αἰγύπτῳ Φοινίκης τὰ φορτία κομίζεται κἀντεῦθεν εἰς τοὺς ἄλλους, νυνὶ δὲ τὸ πλέον εἰς τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρειαν τῷ Νείλῳ· κατάγεται δʼ ἐκ τῆς Ἀραβίας καὶ τῆς Ἰνδικῆς εἰς Μυὸς ὅρμον· εἶθʼ ὑπέρθεσις εἰς Κοπτὸν τῆς Θηβαΐδος καμήλοις ἐν διώρυγι τοῦ Νείλου κειμένην· εἶτʼ εἰς Ἀλεξάνδρειαν. πάλιν ἐκ τῆς Λευκῆς κώμης ὁ Γάλλος ἀναζεύξας τὴν στρατιὰν διὰ τοιούτων ᾔει χωρίων ὥστε καὶ ὕδωρ καμήλοις κομίζειν μοχθηρίᾳ τῶν ἡγεμόνων τῆς ὁδοῦ· διόπερ πολλαῖς ἡμέραις ἧκεν εἰς τὴν Ἀρέτα γῆν συγγενοῦς τῷ Ὀβόδᾳ· ἐδέξατο μὲν οὖν αὐτὸν Ἀρέτας φιλικῶς καὶ δῶρα προσήνεγκεν, ἡ δὲ τοῦ Συλλαίου προδοσία κἀκείνην ἐποίησε τὴν χώραν δυσπόρευτον· τριάκοντα γοῦν ἡμέραις διῆλθεν αὐτήν, ζειὰς καὶ φοίνικας ὀλίγους παρέχουσαν καὶ βούτυρον ἀντʼ ἐλαίου, διὰ τὰς ἀνοδίας· ἡ δʼ ἑξῆς ἣν ἐπῄει νομάδων ἦν καὶ ἔρημος τὰ πολλὰ ὡς ἀληθῶς, ἐκαλεῖτο δὲ Ἀραρηνή· βασιλεὺς δʼ ἦν Σάβως· καὶ ταύτην ἀνοδίαις διῆλθε κατατρίψας ἡμέρας πεντήκοντα μέχρι πόλεως Νεγράνων καὶ χώρας εἰρηνικῆς τε καὶ ἀγαθῆς· ὁ μὲν οὖν βασιλεὺς ἔφυγεν, ἡ δὲ πόλις ἐξ ἐφόδου κατελήφθη· ἐκεῖθεν ἡμέραις ἓξ ἧκεν ἐπὶ τὸν ποταμόν συναψάντων δʼ αὐτόθι τῶν βαρβάρων εἰς μάχην, περὶ μυρίους αὐτῶν ἔπεσον τῶν δὲ Ῥωμαίων δύο· ἐχρῶντο γὰρ ἀπείρως τοῖς ὅπλοις ἀπόλεμοι τελέως ὄντες, τόξοις τε καὶ λόγχαις καὶ ξίφεσι καὶ σφενδόναις, οἱ πλεῖστοι δʼ αὐτῶν ἀμφιστόμοις πελέκεσιν· εὐθὺς δὲ καὶ τὴν πόλιν εἷλε καλουμένην Ἀσκᾶ * συλληφθεῖσαν ὑπὸ τοῦ βασιλέως. ἐντεῦθεν εἰς Ἄθρουλα πόλιν ἧκε, καὶ κρατήσας αὐτῆς ἀκονιτὶ φρουρὰν ἐμβαλὼν καὶ παρασκευάσας σίτου καὶ φοινίκων εἰς πόλιν Μαρίαβα προῆλθεν ἔθνους τοῦ Ῥαμμανιτῶν, οἳ ἦσαν ὑπὸ Ἰλασάρῳ. ἓξ μὲν οὖν ἡμέρας προσβαλὼν ἐπολιόρκει, λειψυδρίας δʼ οὔσης ἀπέστη· δύο μὲν οὖν ἡμερῶν ὁδὸν ἀπέσχε τῆς ἀρωματοφόρου, καθάπερ τῶν αἰχμαλώτων ἀκούειν ἦν. ἓξ δὲ μηνῶν χρόνον ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς κατέτριψε φαύλως ἀγόμενος· ἔγνω δʼ ἀναστρέφων, ὀψὲ τὴν ἐπιβουλὴν καταμαθὼν καὶ καθʼ ἑτέρας ὁδοὺς ἐπανελθών· ἐναταῖος μὲν γὰρ εἰς Νέγρανα ἧκεν ὅπου ἡ μάχη συμβεβήκει, ἑνδεκαταῖος δʼ ἐκεῖθεν εἰς Ἑπτὰ φρέατα καλούμενα ἀπὸ τοῦ συμβεβηκότος· ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη διʼ εἰρηνικῆς εἰς Χάαλλα κώμην καὶ πάλιν ἄλλην Μαλόθαν πρὸς ποταμῷ κειμένην ἀφικνεῖται· εἶτα διʼ ἐρήμης ὀλίγα ὑδρεῖα ἐχούσης ὁδὸς μέχρι Ἐγρᾶς κώμης· ἔστι δὲ τῆς Ὀβόδα· κεῖται δʼ ἐπὶ θαλάττης· τὴν δὲ πᾶσαν ὁδὸν ἑξηκοσταῖος ἐξήνυσε κατὰ τὴν ἐπάνοδον, ἀναλώσας ἓξ μῆνας ἐν τῇ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὁδῷ· ἐντεῦθεν δʼ ἐπεραίωσε τὴν στρατιὰν ἑνδεκαταῖος εἰς Μυὸς ὅρμον, εἶθʼ ὑπερθεὶς εἰς Κοπτὸν μετὰ τῶν σωθῆναι δυναμένων κατῆρεν εἰς Ἀλεξάνδρειαν· τοὺς δʼ ἄλλους ἀπέβαλεν, οὐχ ὑπὸ πολεμίων ἀλλὰ νόσων καὶ κόπων καὶ λιμοῦ καὶ μοχθηρίας τῶν ὁδῶν· ἐπεὶ κατὰ πόλεμον ἑπτά γε μόνους διαφθαρῆναι συνέβη, διʼ ἃς αἰτίας οὐδʼ ἐπὶ πολὺ πρὸς τὴν γνῶσιν τῶν τόπων ὤνησεν ἡ στρατεία αὕτη· μικρὰ δʼ ὅμως συνήργησεν. ὁ δʼ αἴτιος τούτων ὁ Συλλαῖος ἔτισε δίκας ἐν Ῥώμῃ, προσποιούμενος μὲν φιλίαν ἐλεγχθεὶς δὲ πρὸς ταύτῃ τῇ πονηρίᾳ καὶ ἄλλα κακουργῶν καὶ ἀποτμηθεὶς τὴν κεφαλήν.

[25] τὴν μὲν οὖν ἀρωματοφόρον διαιροῦσιν εἰς τέτταρας μερίδας, ὥσπερ εἰρήκαμεν· τῶν ἀρωμάτων δὲ λίβανον μὲν καὶ σμύρναν ἐκ δένδρων γίνεσθαί φασι, κασίαν δὲ καὶ ἐκ θάμνων· τινὲς δὲ τὴν πλείω ἐξ Ἰνδῶν εἶναι, τοῦ δὲ λιβάνου βέλτιστον τὸν πρὸς τῇ Περσίδι. κατʼ ἄλλην δὲ διαίρεσιν σύμπασαν τὴν εὐδαίμονα πενταχῆ σχίζουσιν εἰς βασιλείας, ὧν ἡ μὲν τοὺς μαχίμους ἔχει καὶ προαγωνιστὰς ἁπάντων, ἡ δὲ τοὺς γεωργοὺς παρʼ ὧν ὁ σῖτος εἰς τοὺς ἄλλους εἰσάγεται, ἡ δὲ τοὺς βαναυσοτεχνοῦντας, καὶ ἡ μὲν σμυρνοφόρος, ἡ δὲ λιβανωτοφόρος· αἱ δʼ αὐταὶ καὶ τὴν κασίαν καὶ τὸ κιννάμωμον καὶ τὴν νάρδον φέρουσι· παρʼ ἀλλήλων δʼ οὐ μεταφοιτᾷ τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα, ἀλλʼ ἐν τοῖς πατρίοις διαμένουσιν ἕκαστοι. οἶνος δʼ ἐκ φοινίκων ὁ πλείων. ἀδελφοὶ τιμιώτεροι τῶν τέκνων· κατὰ πρεσβυγένειαν καὶ βασιλεύουσιν οἱ ἐκ τοῦ γένους καὶ ἄλλας ἀρχὰς ἄρχουσι· κοινὴ κτῆσις ἅπασι τοῖς συγγενέσι, κύριος δὲ ὁ πρεσβύτατος· μία δὲ καὶ γυνὴ πᾶσιν, ὁ δὲ φθάσας εἰσιὼν μίγνυται προθεὶς τῆς θύρας τὴν ῥάβδον· ἑκάστῳ γὰρ δεῖν ῥαβδοφορεῖν ἔθος· νυκτερεύει δὲ παρὰ τῷ πρεσβυτάτῳ· διὸ καὶ πάντες ἀδελφοὶ πάντων εἰσί· μίγνυνται δὲ καὶ μητράσι· μοιχῷ δὲ ζημία θάνατος· μοιχὸς δʼ ἐστὶν ὁ ἐξ ἄλλου γένους. θυγάτηρ δὲ τῶν βασιλέων τινὸς θαυμαστὴ τὸ κάλλος, ἔχουσα ἀδελφοὺς πεντεκαίδεκα ἐρῶντας αὐτῆς πάντας, καὶ διὰ τοῦτʼ ἀδιαλείπτως ἄλλον ἐπʼ ἄλλῳ παριόντα ὡς αὐτήν, κάμνουσα ἤδη παραδέδοται νοήματι χρήσασθαι τοιούτῳ· ποιησαμένη ῥάβδους ὁμοίας ταῖς ἐκείνων, ὅτʼ ἐξίοι παρʼ αὐτῆς τις, ἀεί τινα προὐτίθει τῆς θύρας τὴν ὁμοίαν ἐκείνῃ, καὶ μικρὸν ὕστερον ἄλλην, εἶτʼ ἄλλην, στοχαζομένη ὅπως μὴ ἐκείνῃ τὴν παραπλησίαν ἔχοι ὁ μέλλων προσιέναι· καὶ δὴ πάντων ποτὲ κατʼ ἀγορὰν ὄντων, ἕνα προσιόντα τῇ θύρᾳ καὶ ἰδόντα τὴν ῥάβδον, ἐκ μὲν ταύτης εἰκάσαι διότι παρʼ αὐτήν τις εἴη· ἐκ δὲ τοῦ τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς πάντας ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ καταλιπεῖν ὑπονοῆσαι μοιχόν· δραμόντα δὲ πρὸς τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἐπαγαγόντα ἐκεῖνον ἐλεγχθῆναι καταψευσάμενον τῆς ἀδελφῆς.

[26] σώφρονες δʼ εἰσὶν οἱ Ναβαταῖοι καὶ κτητικοί, ὥστε καὶ δημοσίᾳ τῷ μὲν μειώσαντι τὴν οὐσίαν ζημία κεῖται, τῷ δʼ αὐξήσαντι τιμαί. ὀλιγόδουλοι δʼ ὄντες ὑπὸ τῶν συγγενῶν διακονοῦνται τὸ πλέον ἢ ὑπʼ ἀλλήλων ἢ αὐτοδιάκονοι, ὥστε καὶ μέχρι τῶν βασιλέων διατείνειν τὸ ἔθος. συσσίτια δὲ ποιοῦνται κατὰ τρισκαίδεκα ἀνθρώπους, μουσουργοὶ δὲ δύο τῷ συμποσίῳ ἑκάστῳ. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ἐν οἴκῳ μεγάλῳ πολλὰ συνέχει συμπόσια· πίνει δʼ οὐδεὶς πλέον τῶν ἕνδεκα ποτηρίων ἄλλῳ καὶ ἄλλῳ χρυσῷ ἐκπώματι. οὕτω δʼ ὁ βασιλεύς ἐστι δημοτικὸς ὥστε πρὸς τῷ αὐτοδιακόνῳ καί ποτʼ ἀντιδιάκονον τοῖς ἄλλοις καὶ αὐτὸν γίνεσθαι· πολλάκις δὲ καὶ ἐν τῷ δήμῳ δίδωσιν εὐθύνας, ἔσθʼ ὅτε καὶ ἐξετάζεται τὰ περὶ τὸν βίον· οἰκήσεις δὲ διὰ λίθου πολυτελεῖς, αἱ δὲ πόλεις ἀτείχιστοι διʼ εἰρήνην· εὔκαρπος ἡ πολλὴ πλὴν ἐλαίου, χρῶνται δὲ σησαμίνῳ. πρόβατα λευκότριχα, βόες μεγάλοι, ἵππων ἄφορος ἡ χώρα· κάμηλοι δὲ τὴν ὑπουργίαν ἀντʼ ἐκείνων παρέχονται· ἀχίτωνες δʼ ἐν περιζώμασι καὶ βλαυτίοις προΐασι καὶ οἱ βασιλεῖς, ἐν πορφύρᾳ δʼ οὗτοι· εἰσαγώγιμα δʼ ἐστὶ τὰ μὲν τελέως τὰ δʼ οὐ παντελῶς, ἄλλως τε καὶ ἐπιχωριάζει, καθάπερ χρυσὸς καὶ ἄργυρος καὶ τὰ πολλὰ τῶν ἀρωμάτων· χαλκὸς δὲ καὶ σίδηρος καὶ ἔτι πορφυρᾶ ἐσθὴς στύραξ κρόκος κοστάρια τόρευμα γραφὴ πλάσμα οὐκ ἐπιχώρια· ἴσα κοπρίαις ἡγοῦνται τὰ νεκρὰ σώματα, καθάπερ Ἡράκλειτός φησι νέκυες κοπρίων ἐκβλητότεροι. διὸ καὶ παρὰ τοὺς κοπρῶνας κατορύττουσι καὶ τοὺς βασιλεῖς. ἥλιον τιμῶσιν ἐπὶ τοῦ δώματος ἱδρυσάμενοι βωμόν, σπένδοντες ἐν αὐτῷ καθʼ ἡμέραν καὶ λιβανωτίζοντες.

[27] τοῦ δὲ ποιητοῦ λέγοντος Αἰθίοπάς θʼ ἱκόμην καὶ Σιδονίους καὶ Ἐρεμβούς, διαποροῦσι· καὶ περὶ τῶν Σιδονίων μέν, εἴτε τινὰς χρὴ λέγειν τῶν ἐν τῷ Περσικῷ κόλπῳ κατοικούντων, ὧν ἄποικοι οἱ παρʼ ἡμῖν Σιδώνιοι, καθάπερ καὶ Τυρίους τινὰς ἐκεῖ νησιώτας ἱστοροῦσι καὶ Ἀραδίους, ὧν ἀποίκους τοὺς παρʼ ἡμῖν φασιν, εἴτʼ αὐτοὺς τοὺς Σιδωνίους· ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον περὶ τῶν Ἐρεμβῶν ἡ ζήτησις, εἴτε τοὺς Τρωγλοδύτας ὑπονοητέον λέγεσθαι, καθάπερ οἱ τὴν ἐτυμολογίαν βιαζόμενοι ἀπὸ τοῦ εἰς τὴν ἔραν ἐμβαίνειν, ὅπερ ἐστὶν εἰς τὴν γῆν, εἴτε τοὺς Ἄραβας. ὁ μὲν οὖν Ζήνων ὁ ἡμέτερος μεταγράφει οὕτως καὶ Σιδονίους Ἄραβάς τε. πιθανώτερον δὲ Ποσειδώνιος γράφει τῷ παρὰ μικρὸν ἀλλάξαι καὶ Σιδονίους καὶ Ἀραμβούς, ὡς τοῦ ποιητοῦ τοὺς νῦν Ἄραβας οὕτω καλέσαντος, καθάπερ καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἄλλων ὠνομάζοντο κατʼ αὐτόν. φησὶ δὲ ταῦτα τρία ἔθνη συνεχῆ ἀλλήλοις ἱδρυμένα ὁμογένειάν τινα ἐμφαίνειν πρὸς ἄλληλα, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο παρακειμένοις ὀνόμασι κεκλῆσθαι, τοὺς μὲν Ἀρμενίους τοὺς δὲ Ἀραμαίους τοὺς δὲ Ἀραμβούς· ὥσπερ δὲ ἀπὸ ἔθνους ἑνὸς ὑπολαμβάνειν ἐστὶν εἰς τρία διῃρῆσθαι κατὰ τὰς τῶν κλιμάτων διαφορὰς ἀεὶ καὶ μᾶλλον ἐξαλλαττομένων, οὕτω καὶ τοῖς ὀνόμασι χρήσασθαι πλείοσιν ἀνθʼ ἑνός. οὐδʼ οἱ Ἐρεμνοὺς γράφοντες πιθανοί· τῶν γὰρ Αἰθιόπων μᾶλλον ἴδιον. λέγει δὲ καὶ τοὺς Ἀρίμους ὁ ποιητής, οὕς φησι Ποσειδώνιος δέχεσθαι δεῖν μὴ τόπον τινὰ τῆς Συρίας ἢ τῆς Κιλικίας ἢ ἄλλης τινὸς γῆς, ἀλλὰ τὴν Συρίαν αὐτήν· Ἀραμαῖοι γὰρ οἱ ἐν αὐτῇ· τάχα δʼ οἱ Ἕλληνες Ἀριμαίους ἐκάλουν ἢ Ἀρίμους. αἱ δὲ τῶν ὀνομάτων μεταπτώσεις καὶ μάλιστα τῶν βαρβαρικῶν πολλαί· καθάπερ τὸν Δαριήκην Δαρεῖον ἐκάλεσαν, τὴν δὲ Φάρζιριν Παρύσατιν, Ἀταργάτιν δὲ τὴν Ἀθάραν· Δερκετὼ δʼ αὐτὴν Κτησίας καλεῖ. τῆς δὲ τῶν Ἀράβων εὐδαιμονίας καὶ Ἀλέξανδρον ἄν τις ποιήσαιτο μάρτυρα τὸν διανοηθέντα, ὥς φασι, καὶ βασίλειον αὐτὴν ποιήσασθαι μετὰ τὴν ἐξ Ἰνδῶν ἐπάνοδον. πᾶσαι μὲν οὖν αἱ ἐπιχειρήσεις αὐτοῦ κατελύθησαν τελευτήσαντος παραχρῆμα τὸν βίον· μία δʼ οὖν καὶ αὕτη τῶν ἐπιχειρήσεων ἦν, εἰ μὲν ἑκόντες παραδέχοιντο αὐτόν, εἰ δὲ μή, ὡς πολεμήσοντος· καὶ δὴ ὁρῶν μήτε πρότερον μήθʼ ὕστερον πέμψαντας ὡς αὐτὸν πρέσβεις, παρεσκευάζετο πρὸς τὸν πόλεμον, ὥσπερ εἰρήκαμεν ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν.

Notes on the current edition

Geography

1. Pliny, v. 21, mentions a place which he calls Massica, situated on the Euphrates, near the mouth of a canal which communicated with the Tigris near Seleucia. It is now called Masseib-khan, and is at a short distance above Babylon, on the borders of the desert. I do not know whether this is the Maecene of Strabo. Gossellin.

2. Strabo here refers to the marsh lakes now called Mesdjed Hosaïn, Rahémah, Hour, etc. The Chaldaeans whom he mentions occupied the country along the banks of the Euphrates to the coast of the Persian Gulf.

3. In Cashmir melons are now grown in the same manner. Humboldt remarks that the same contrivance is adopted in Mexico for the cultivation of vegetables.

4. Letronne here proposes to read Erythraean or Ethiopian Sea.

5. Mimosa Nilotica.

6. This is remarkable.

7. Cam Almanazil.

8. Mariaba was not the name of a city, but the title of a city acquired by the residence of their sovereigns. Mariana oppidum, says Pliny, vi. 32, significat dominos omnium. The capital was called Saba, now Sabbea; and the country in which it is situated is called Sabieh.

9. Yemen.

10. The people of Hadramaüt.

11. The extent was six times as large as the Delta.

12. Ailah, or Hoele, or Acaba-Ila.

13. C. ii. § 30.

14. The ruins are still visible at Abu-Keyschid.

15. Deire, or the neck, so called from its position on a headland of the same name, was a town situated on the African shore of the straits of Babel-Mandeb, at their narrowest part.

16. The Troglodytica extended along the western side of the Arabian Gulf, from about the 19th degree of latitude to beyond the strait. According to Pliny, vi. c. 34, Sesostris conducted his army as far as the promontory Mossylicus, which I think is Cape Mete of the modern kingdom of Adel. Gossellin.

17. The 60 and 200 stadia assigned to the straits refer to the two passages there to be found. The 60 stadia agree with the distance of the eastern cape of Babelmandeb, the ancient Palindromos, to the island Mehun; and the 200 stadia to the distance of this island from the coast of Africa. In this last interval are the six islands of which Strabo speaks.

18. This passage has sometimes been mistaken to mean, that the region producing myrrh and cinnamon refers to the southern coast of Arabia. Our author here speaks of the coast of Africa, which extends from the Strait of Babelmandeb to Cape Guardafui. This space in following the coast is 160 or 165 leagues, which are equivalent to 5000 olympic stadia. Gossellin.

19. The long and interesting passage from § 5 to the end of § 20 is taken from Artemidorus, with the exception of a very few facts, which our author has taken from other sources, accompanied by observations of his own. On comparing this fragment of Artemidorus with the extracts of Agatharchides preserved by Photius, and the description of Arabia and Troglodytica which Diodorus Siculus (b. iii. 31) says he derived from Agatharchides, we find an identity, not only in almost all the details, but also in a great number of the expressions. It is, therefore, evident that Artemidorus, for this part of his work, scarcely did anything more than copy Agatharchides. Agatharchides, in his youth, held the situation of secretary or reader to Heraclides Lembus, who (according to Suidas) lived in the reign of Ptolemy Philometor. This king died B. C. 146. He wrote a work on Asia in 10 books, and one on Europe in 49 books; a geographical work on the Erythraean Sea in 5 books; a treatise on the Troglodyae in 5 books; and other works. He wrote in the Attic dialect. His style, according to Photius, was dignified and perspicuous, and abounded in sententious passages, which inspired a favourable opinion of his judgment. In the composition of his speeches he was an imitator of Thucydides, whom he equalled in dignity, and excelled in clearness. His rhetorical talents also are highly praised by Photius. He was acquainted with the language of the Ethiopians, and appears to have been the first who discovered the true cause of the inundations of the Nile. See Smith, art. Agatharchides.

20. Ghela.

21. Kosseir.

22. Mouse Harbour, or Harbour of Venus.

23. Meleagrides.

24. Bender-el-Kebir.

25. Zemorget or Zamargat. The “Agathonis Insula” of Ptolemy.

26. Potlemy Philadelphus.

27. About 12 feet.

28. The whole of this description is so vague that it would be difficult to recognise the position of the places mentioned by Strabo without the assistance of scattered notices by other authors. The result of many comparisons leads me to fix upon 16° 58′ as about the latitude of Ptolemaïs Epitheras. Mount Taurus was 22 leagues higher up, and the harbour of the goddess Soteira 12 leagues beyond. Gossellin.

29. Letronne translates πτολεμαὶ͂ς πρὸς τῇ θήρᾳ as Ptolemaïs Epitheras; see c. iv. § 4.

30. Tacazze, which however does not appear to have such a branch.

31. These islands are to the north of Arkiko.

32. Gulf of Matzua.

33. From the position here assigned to the fortress of Suchus, it is impossible to place it at Suachem, as is commonly done. Gossellin.

34. An island Stratioton is mentioned in Pliny vi. 29, as though he had read in our author the word στρατιωτῶν, the island of soldiers. As the island of Strato is named only in this extract from Artemidorus, we might be tempted to correct the text of Strabo by the text of Pliny. But as it is not certain that the two authors speak of one and the same island, it is more prudent to make no change. Du Theil.

35. I am not acquainted with this place. The ancients speak only of one town of the name of Saba (c. iv. § 19). Was there a town Saba which gave its name to the Sabaïtic Gulf? but the one in question does not appear to have been situated there. Gossellin.

36. B. C. 658.

37. The modern Senaar corresponds with the territory of the Sembritae. See also b. xvii. c. i. § 2. Herodotus, b. ii. 30.

38. Tacazze.

39. The Blue Nile.

40. ἀκροδρύων is expressed in the Periplus of Agatharchides by the words τὸν καρπὸν πίπτοντα ἀπὸ τῶν δένδρων, the fruit falling from the trees. The Periplus adds another tribe, the Hylophagi, wood-eaters, who subsisted on the tender branches of certain trees. Strabo refers to them, b. xvii. c. ii. § 2, but without giving their name. The pods of the Lotus Zizyphus are eatable, and may here be meant.

41. Gymnetae. Between the Spermophagi and the Creophagi, Agatharchides places another people called Cynegetae. Strabo and Pliny do not mention them; but the sort of life the Gymnetae, of which they both speak, lead resembles that of the Cynegetae or Cynegi of Agatharchides and Diodorus Siculus (iii. 25). It seems therefore that these two authors, as well as Strabo and Pliny, meant here to speak of one and the same tribe of Ethiopian Gymnetae, which might have been distinguished by the particular name of Cynegetae, or Cynegi. Du Theil.

42. Above, c. ii. § 37.

43. Milkers of bitches.

44. This Berenice was also surnamed Epi Dire, because it was nearer the promontory Dire than the other cities of the same name. It is probably Bailul, about 12 leagues to the north-west of Assab.

45. Assab or As-Sab.

46. Below, Artemidorus calls it the harbour of Eumenes, § 13.

47. Agatharchides, as quoted by Diodorus Sic. iii. 27, says expressly that this bird is the ostrich. May it be the cassowary?

48. Groskurd supposes the name of this nation has been omitted in the text, and proposes Acridophagi, or Locust-eaters.

49. According to Agatharchides and Diodorus Sic. iii. 28, the habit of living on locusts produced a kind of winged louse in the interior of the body; but this is denied by Niebuhr.

50. Above, § 4.

51. Pliny, xiii. 17; xv. 13.

52. Perhaps Zeila. Strabo is here describing the coast of the modem kingdom of Adel.

53. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea indicates on this coast a place called Niloptolemaeum, which appears to correspond with the mouth of the river Pedra. Gossellin.

54. Phleus schaeoris. Linn.

55. Daphnus Parvus of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.

56. Now Fellis or Fel, which signifies Elephant in Arabic.

57. I think that there is something here omitted and wanting in the text of Strabo, as he seems to make Artemidorus say, that a little after Mount Elephas we find the Horn, or the Cape of the South; for this last appellation appears to have been applied to Cape Guardafui. But this cape, from the time of Philadelphus, and consequently before the period in which Artemidorus wrote, was known by the name of the Promontory of the Aromatics; this author therefore could not have confounded it with the Southern Horn. I have already come to the conclusion that the Southern Horn corresponds with the Southern Cape of Bandel-caus, where commences the desert coast of Ajan, the ancient Azania, respecting which Artemidorus confesses that he was unable to procure any information. It therefore appears to me, that the description which this author must have given of the coast of Africa, from Mount Elephas to the Southern Horn, and which Strabo should have copied, is now wanting in the text. This omission seems to have been noticed by some copyist, who thought to supply it by naming again, to the south of Mount Elephas, the altars of Pytholaus, Lichas, Pythangelus, and Leon, which Artemidorus had already spoken of, and which navigators meet with on the west, and before arriving at Mount Elephas. Gossellin.

58. The text of this paragraph is corrupt; but the reading followed is that suggested in a note by Kramer.

59. λέων μ́ρμηξ. Agatharchides calls them μυρμηκολέων, and Aelian simply μύρμηξ. What animal is intended by the name is uncertain. In b. xv. c. i. § 44, the marmot seems to be described.

60. What the words ἐπὶ σειρὰν mean is doubtful. Casaubon supposes that some words are wanting in the text; Groskurd proposes to read ἀπὸ κεφαλῆς ἐπὶ οὐρὰν, from the head to the tail.

61. The passage is corrupt, and some words are wanting to complete the sense. Groskurd proposes, a span less.

62. Pliny, viii. 29.

63. Ancient authors, under the name of Sphinx, generally describe the ape, Simia troglodyte of Gmelin. Du Theil.

64. Simia innuus.

65. Simia cepus.

66. The spotted hyaena.

67. See b. xv. c. 1, § 45.

68. The juice of the berries is a strong purge.

69. Above, § 5.

70. The bay of Heroopolis is the modern bay of Suez. In the text Aelanitic bay, which is an error of the author or of the copyist.

71. An altar to Poseidon (Neptune), which was erected by Aristo, whom one of the Ptolemies had sent to explore the Arabian Gulf.

72. φοινικων, a grove of palm trees, is taken as a proper name by Diodorus Siculus, b. iii. 41.

73. Sheduan. The Saspirene insula of Ptolemy.

74. Ras Mahomet, which terminates the south of the peninsula formed by the two bays, the Aelanitic running up to Petra, and that of Heroopolis running up to Suez. The meaning of Strabo seems to be, that this cape is in a direction due south of Petra and Palestine.

75. There is a wide difference of opinion among geographers with regard to the position of this important tribe in the modern map of Arabia. See Smith, art. Minaei.

76. The Maraneitae appear to me to be the same people whom other geographers call Pharanitae, and who received their name from their proximity to Cape Pharan, now Ras Mahomet. Gossellin.

77. Diodorus Siculus, iii. § 41, following Agatharchides, narrates the fact with greater precision. The Garindaei took advantage of the absence of the greater part of the Maraneitae, and put to death those that remained. They then laid in wait for and massacred all those who were returning from the festival.

78. Gulf of Akaba.

79. Light vessels. Diodorus Sic.

80. Thamud, formerly occupied by the ancient Thamudeni.

81. Shaur and Iobab?

82. Gibel Seik, Gibel el Hawene, and Gibel Hester.

83. The harbour of Charmothas seems to be the ancient Iambo, the Iambia of Ptolemy, which now, from the accumulation of soil, is more than a day’s journey into the interior of the country. It is in a fertile territory. The Arabs call it Iambo el Nakel, or Iambo of Palm Trees, to distinguish it from the new Iambo situated on an arid soil on the seacoast. Al Charm, in Arabic, signifies a fissure or opening in the mountains. It seems as if the Greeks had formed the name Charmothas from this word, mistaking the epithet given to the narrow entrance of the harbour of Iambo for the name of the town itself. Gossellin.

84. The Debae occupied Sockia. The river which flows through the country is called Betius by Ptolemy.

85. ρὰ πλείω is Kramer’s correction for παλαιὰ.

86. Some are called by Diodorus Siculus, iii. 44, and Agatharchides, Asilaei and Casandres or Gasandres.

87. Instead of εὔομβρος, Groskurd reads πάμφορος, produces everything, following the fragments of Agatharchides and Diodorus Sic. b. iii. 44.

88. Groskurd’s correction, σιδήρου for ἀργύρον, in the text, is adopted. But the passage is probably corrupt, and after σιδήρου we may read κὰ δεκαπλάσιον τοῦ ἀργύρου, for ten times the quantity of silver, according to Bochart, and approved by Kramer.

89. The precise boundaries of Sabaea it is impossible to ascertain. The area we have presumed is comprised within the Arabian Sea W., the Persian Gulf E., the Indian Ocean S., and an irregular line skirting the desert, and running up in a narrow point to Idumaea N. See Smith, Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography, art. Saba.

Milton appears to have been acquainted with the following passage from Diodorus Siculus, b. iii. 46, descriptive of Sabaea : It is impossible to enumerate the peculiarities and nature of all these trees and plants, on account of the surpassing variety and body of perfume which fall upon and excite the senses, in a manner divine and beyond description. The mariner, as he sails even at a distance along the coast, has his share of enjoyment; for when the breezes of spring blow from off the land, the fragrance of the trees and shrubs is carried down to the shore; nor is it of the kind with which we are acquainted, proceeding from old and stored aromatics, but fresh and in full perfection from new-blown flowers, striking the inmost sense.

90. The same as Saba; see c. iv. § 2.

91. The above details derived from Artemidorus, and by him from Agatharchides, would not be found in Eratosthenes, who lived before the time of Agatharchides.

92. We must not confound this measure with the 5000 stadia mentioned in c. iv. § 4. The distance here in question is that taken along the southern coast of Arabia from the straits to Kesem, the ancient Cane, through which passes now, as in former times, the greater part of the perfumes collected in Hadramaut and Seger. But this harbour is about the middle, and not at the extremity of the cinnamon-bearing country. Gossellin.

93. Cardinal Noris places these facts in the year of Rome 730, and quotes, besides Strabo, the historian Josephus. In following the last author, the Cardinal places the death of Obodas in the prefecture of C. Sentius Saturninus, about the year of Rome 740. After the death of Obodas, Aeneas, afterwards called Aretas, took possession of the kingdom of the Nabataeans. Upon this Syllaeus, the late king’s minister, went to Rome, and declared before Augustus that Aeneas, or Aretas, had no right to the kingdom. How this corrupt minister was punished by Augustus may be seen in Nicolas of Damascus and in Josephus. This Aretas must have reigned for a long time, to at least the last years of Tiberius. Du Theil. The interest attaching to this expedition, which promises so much for the elucidation of the classical geography of Arabia, has hitherto served only still further to perplex it. The author of the article Marsyabae in Smith’s Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography, where the subject is discussed at some length.

94. Called also Arsinoë, b. xvii. c. i. § 25. It was near Heroopolis, or Suez.

95. Koft.

96. This name is variously written in manuscripts. If Negra be adopted, as by Letronne, it’s not the same town as the city of the Negrani above mentioned, which was in the interior; but, as Kramer observes, Mire corrupta est haec ultima libri pars.

97. B. xvi. c. iv. § 2.

98. See above, § 2.

99. This reminds us of the prophet Elijah and John the Baptist.

100. Od. iv. 84.

101. This subject was discussed in b. i. c. ii. § 34.

Strabo Geography 16.4

Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator)

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