Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/196

180 ARABIA. and ladanum (see above, §III.): and respecting the methods of obtiuning these treasures, he tells ns some marvellous stories; concluding with the state- ment that, through the abundance of its spices, gums, and incense, the country sends fwth a won- derfully sweet odour (iii. 107 — 113). As to the situation of Arabia, in relation to the surrounding countries, he says that, on the W. of Asia, two pen- insulas (&irral) run out into the sea: the one on the N. is Ada Minor: the other, on the S., beginning at Persia, extends into the Red Sea (*E^p^ ddtuT<ra, i.e. Indian Ocean), — comprising, first, Persia, then Assyria, and lastly Arabia; and ending at the Ara- bian gulf, into which Darius dug a canal from the Nile; not, however, ending, except in a customary sense (oh K-fiyowra c2 fi^i y6fjuf); a qualification which means that, though the peninsula is broken by the Arabian Gulf, it really continues on its western side and includes the continent of Libya. On the land side, he makes this peninsula extend from the Persians to Phoenicia, after which it touches the Mediterranean at the part adjacent to Palestine and Egypt: he adds that it includes only three peoples, that is, the three he named at first, Persians, Assyrians, and Arabians (iv. 38, 39). It must be observed that Assyria is here used in the wide sense, not uncommon in the early writers, to include the £. part of Syria. Of the people of Arabia, he takes occasion to speak, in connection with the expe- dition of Cambyscs into Egypt through the part already mentioned (iii. 5) as subject to an Arabian king, namely, the later Idumaea; but his description is applicable to the Arabs of the desert {Becbtins) in general. They keep faith above all other men, and they have a remarkable ceremony of making a covenant, in ratification of which they invoke Diony- sus and Urania, whom they call Orotal and Alilat (i. e. the Sun and Moon); and these are the only deities they have (iii. 8, comp. i. 131). He mentions their mode of carrying water across the desert in camel's skins (iii. 9); and elsewhere he describes all the Arabs in the army of Xerxes as mounted on camels, which are, he says, as swift as horses, but to which the horse has such an antipathy that the Arabs were placed in the rear of the whole army (vii. 86, 87). These Arabs were Independent allies of Persia: he expressly says that the Arabians were never subjected to the Persian empire (iii. 88), but they showed their friendship for the Great King by an annual present (Btipov, expressly opposed to <p6pos) of 1000 talents of frankincense (iii. 97), the regularity of which may have depended on how far the king took care to humour tliem. With reference to the army of Xerxes, Herodotus distinguishes the Arabs who dwelt above Egypt from the rest: they were joined with the Aetliiopians (vii. 69). As they were indeppjident of the Persians, so had they been of the earlier empires. The alleged conquests of some of the Assyrian kings could only have affected small portions of the country on the N. and NW. (Died. i. 53. § 3.) Xenophon gives us some of the information which he had gatliered from his Persian friends respecting the Arabs. (Cyr. i. 1. § 4, 5. § 2, vi. 2. § 10.) The independence of Arabia was supposed to be threatened by the schemes entertained by Alexander after his return from India. From anger, as some thought, because the Arabs had neglected to court him by an embassy, or, as others supposed, impelled only by insatiable ambition, he prepared a fleet on the Euphrates, whose destination was undoubtedly ABABIA. Arabia, but whether with the rash design of sab* jugating the peninsula, or with the more modest intention of opening a highway of oommercial enter- prise between Alexandria and the East, modern cri- ticism has taken leave to doubt (Anian. Anab. rii. 19, foil.; Thirlwall, EisL of Greece, vol. viL c.55.) He sent out expeditions to explore tiie coast; but they efiected next to nothing; and the project, whaU ever it may have been, expired with its author. The successors of Alexander in Syria experienced the difficulties which even their leader would have fiuled to surmount. Diodorus relates the nnsucocss- ful campaigns made against the Nabathaean Arabs, by order of Antigonus, in which his lieutenant, Athenaeus, was signally defeated, and his son De- metrius was compelled to make a treaty with the enemy (xix. 94 — 100). Under the Selenddae, the Arabs of Arabia Pebraea cultivated friendly rela- tions with Syria, and made constant aggressions m the S. frontier of Palestine, which were repelled bj the more vigorous of the Maocabaean princes, till at last an Idumean dynasty was ..established on the throne of Jerusalem. [Idumaea: Diet. ofBiog, art Herodes.'] Meanwhile, the commercial enterprise of the Ptolemies, to which Alexander had given the great impulse by the foundation of Alexandria, cau:>ed a vast accession to the knowledge already possessed of Arabia, some important results of which are pre- served in the work of Agatharcides on the Eiythxaean Sea (Phot. Cod. 2.50, pp.441— 460, ed.Bekker). A great step in advance was gained by the expedition sent into Arabia Felix by Augustus in b.c 24, under Aehus Gallus, who was assisted by Obodas, kii^ of Petra, with a force of 1 ,000 Nabathaean Arabs. Start- ing from Egypt, across the Arabian G ulf, and landing at Leuoe Come, the Romans penetrated as far as the SW. comer of the peninsula to Marsyabae, the capi- tal of the Sabaeans; but were compelled to retreat, after dreadful sufferings from heat and thirst, scarcely escaping from the country with the loss of all tlra booty The allusions of the poets prove the cag:er- ness with which Augustus engaged in this unfortu- nate expedition (Ilor. Carm. i. 29. ], 35. 38, iL 12. 24, iii. 24. 1, EpisL i. 7. 35; Propcrt. iL 8. 19); and, though it failed as a scheme of conquest, it ac- complished more than he had aet his heart n and of the important additions made by it to what was already known of the Arabian penin- sula (Strab. xvi. pp. 767, foil.). A very full ac- count of the people and products of the country is also given by his contemporary Diodorus (ii. 48 — 54, xix. 94 — 100). Of subsequent writers, those who have collected the most important notices respecting Arabia are, Mela (i. 2, 10, iii 8); Pliny (vi. 28. s. 32. et alib.); Arrian (Anab. iL 20, iiL 1, 5, v. 25, viL 1, 19, 20, 21,/nd32, 41,43); Ptolemy (v.l7, 19, vL 7, et alib.); Agalhemerus (ii. 11, e< al&.); and the author of the Periplus If oris Erythraei, ascribed to Arrian. It is needless to enter into the details of these several descriptions, which all cor« respond, more or less accurately, to the accounts which modern writers give of the still unchanged and unconqnered people. The following summary com- pletes the histoiy of Arabia, so far as it belongs to this work. In A.D. 105, the part of Arabia extending E. of Damascus down to the Red Sea was taken posses- > i ■I