Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/883

 SABA. pelled by tLe traveller Niebulir. {Description de I'Arahie, p. 125.) He asserts, and lie has not been contradicted, that Yemen neither produces now, nor ever could have pi-oduced, gold; but that, in the district of Sande, it has iron- mines, — a fact unnoticed by earlier describers, — which were worked when he vi.-ited the country. He states, moreover, that the native frankincense is of a very ordinary quality, Sabaea yielding only the species called Li- ban, while the Ijetter sorts of that gum are imported from Sumatra, Siam, and Java. The distance from which the superior kinds of myrrh, frankincense, nard, and cassia were fetched, probably gave rise to the strange talcs related about the danger of gathering them from the trees, with which the. Sa- bacans regaled the Aegyptian and Greek merchants, and through them the Greek geographers also. One cause of danger alone is likely to have been truly re- ported: the spice-woods were the abode of venomous reptiles; one of which, apparently a jiurple cobra, was aggressive, and, springing on intruders, inflicted an ■ incurable wound. The ancients, however, said and be- lieved that cinnamon was brought to Yemen by large birds, which build their nests of its chips, and that the ledonmn was combed from the beards of he-goats. The Sabaeans were governed by a king. (Dion Cass. liii. 29.) One inexorable condition of the royal oiBce was, that he should never quit his palace: found beyond its precincts, it was allowable to stone him to death. The rule which governed the succes- sion to the throne was singular. A certain number of noble families, possessed equal claims to the crown: and the first child (females were eligible) born after an accession was presumptive heir to the reigning monarch. This seclusion of the king, and the strange mode of electing liim, seem to indicate a sacerdotal influence, similar to that which regulates the choice of the Grand Lama and the homage paid to him by the Thibetians. The precise boundaries of Sabaea it is impossible to ascertain. The area we have presumed is com- prised within the Arabian Sea W., the Persian Gulf E., the Indian Ocean S., and an irregular line skirt- ing the Desert, and running up in a narrow point to Idumea N. For the principal divisions oftlie Sabaeans see the articles on Arabia ; AdiIiVMITAE ; Minaei. The decline of the Sabaeans seems to have pro- ceeded from two causes : (1) the more direct inter- course of the Aegypto-Greeks with India, and (2) the rivalry of the powerful tribe of the Homeritae, who sulijugated them. In the account of their eastern traffic, and of the characteristics of their land, we have traced the features of the race. Com- pared with the Arabs of the Desert, the Sabaeans were a highly civilised nation, under a regular go- vernment, and, as a mercantile community, jealous of the rights of property. The author of the Periplus remarks upon similar security among the Adramitae; the interests of the merchant had curbed and softened the natural ferocity of the Arab. This also, according to Niebuhr {Desaript. de I'Arahie, p. 315), is still observable in Yemen, in comparison with the inland provinces of Hcjdz, and Neged. [W. B. D.] SA15.. Three cities of this name are distinguished by ancient geographers: the name indeed was a CDimnon appellation of towns, and signilied head of the province, or of its lesser divisions. (Comp. Plin. vi. 28. s. 32.) 1. (2agai, Steph. B. s. v. 2a§aj, Agatharch. ap. Phot. p. 63), was the chief city of the Sabaean.s. It SABADIBAE. SGO is described by Diodorus (iii. 4G) as situated upon a lofty wooded hill, and within two days' joamcy of the frankincense country. The position of Sal)a is, however, quite uncertain: Mannert {Georjr. der Griech. u. Rum. vol. vi. pt. i. p. 66) places it at the modern Saade: other geographers identify it with Mnreh [JLvriaba] ; and again Sabbatha, both from its site in the interior and its commercial importance, seems to have a good title to be considered as Saba (Saorj of Agatharchides) or Sheba, the capital of the Sabaeans. 2. (2aft).rtol. vi. 7. §§ 38,42 ;Plin.vi. 23. s.34), was also seated in the interior of tbe Sabaean territory, 26 miles NE. oi Aden. Niebuhr (Descript. de F Ara- ble, vol. ii. p. 60) identifies it with the modern Saaba. 3. {'S,d§ai, Strab. xvii. p. 771 ; XaSdr, Ptol. iv. 7. § 8), on the western shoi'e of the Red Sea, was tiie capital city of the Sabaeans, and its har- bour was the Sabaiticum Os {^aSdiriKov arofxa, Strab. xvii. p. 770). The position of Sabae, like that of so many Aethiopian races and cities, is very uncertain. Some writers place it at the entrance of the Arabian gulf (Heeren, Histor. Researches, vol. i. p. 333); others carry it up as high as the bay of Adule, lat. 1 5° N. Bnice {Travels, vol. iii. p. 144) identifies the modern Azab with the Sabae, and places it between the tropics and the Abyssinian highlands. Combos and Tamisier ( Voyages, vol. i. p. 89) consider the island Massowa to have a better claim: while Lord Valentia {Travels, vol. ii. p. 47) finds Sabae at Port Mornington. But although neither ancient geographers nor modern travellers are agreed concerning the site of the Aethiopian Sabae, they accord in placing it on the sea-coast of the kingdom or island of Meroe, and between the Sinus Avalites and the bay of Adule, i. c. between the 12th and 15th degrees of N. latitude. On the opposite shore were seated the Sabaeans of Ai'abia, and as there was much intercourse between the populations of the opposite sides of the Eed Sea, the Aethiopian Sabaeans may havo. been a colony from Arabia. Both races are de- scribed as lofty in stature and opulent {Psalm Ixsii. ; 1 Kings, x. 1; Isaiah, xlv. 14), and this description will apply equally to the Sabaeans who dwelt in the spice country of Arabia, and to those who enjoyed almost a monopoly of the Libyan spice- trade, and were not far removed from the gold- mines and the emerald and topaz-quarries of the Ae- gyptian and Aethiopian mountains. The remarkable personal beauty of the Sabaeans is confirmed by the monuments ofUpper Nubia, and was probably reported to the Greek geographers by the slave-dealers, to whom height and noble features would be a recom- mendation. The Sabaeans, at least in earlier pe- riods, may be regarded as one of the princijj.d tribes of the Aethiopian kingdom of Jlcroe. [JIkhoi5.] Josephus {Antiq. ii. .5) aflirms that the Queen of Sheba or Saba came from this region, and that it bore the name of Saba before it was known by that of Meroe. There seems also some affinity between the word Saba and the name or title of the kings of tho Aethiopians, Saba-co. [W. B. D.] SABADI'BAE {laSaMSai vriaoi, Ptol. vii. 2. § 28), three islands, mentioned by Ptolemy, in tho neighbourhood of the Aurea Chersonesus in India extra Gangeni. From the great resemblance of the name, it is not unlikely that he litis confoun<led it with that of the island of labadius (or Sabadius), now ./(xyrt, w'hicli he mentions in his next section. [I.v- BAUIUS.] [v.]