Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/197

 ^ ABABIA. noa d hwA. Corndiiis Pftlma, and farmed into a Koman pnmnce under the name uf Arabia. (Dion. Cass. IxriiL 14; Amm. Marc. xiv. 8.) Its prin- ctpl towns were Petra and Bostra, die fonner in the S. and the latter in the N. of the proTinoe. [Pxiba; B08T&A.3 The province was enlarged hi AJX 195 bj Septimins Serems. (Dion. Cass. bxT. 1, 2 ; EutTop. TiiL 18.) Eutropius speaks of thb e m peror forming a new pioTinoe, and his ao- eooQt appears to be confinned hj the name of Akabia ilAjOB, which we find in a Latin inscrip- tioo, to which A. W. Znmpt assigns the date of 21 1 (Inaer. LaL SeL No. 5366). The province was sotgcct to a Legatns, subsequently called Consniaris, vho had a kgion under him. After Gonstaiitine Arabia was divided into two provinces; the part S. of Palestine with the capital Petra, forming the province of Palaestina Tertia, or Salutaris, under a fkaeses; and the part E. of Palestine with the coital Bostra being under a Praeses, subsequentlj WMkr a Dux. (Marquardt| Becker*8 Bom. Altera rtwi. ToL iiL pt. L pi 201.) Some partial temporary footing was gained, at a ouch later peiiod, on the SW. coast by the Aethio- pianSf who displaced a tyrant of Jewish race; and both m this direction and from the N., Christianity «as introduced into the oonntiy, where it spread to a great extent, and continued to exist side by side with the old religion (which was Sabaeism, or the wonhip of heavenly bodies), and with some admiz- toie of Judaism, until the total revolution produced by the rise of Mohammedanism in a.d. 622. While Baiotuning their independence, the Arabs of the docrt have also preserved to this day their ancient §onn of government, which is strictly patriarchal, mder heads of iiib&i and fiimilies {Emira and ^fteiUs). In the more settled districts, the pa- triardial anthority passed into the hands of kings; and the pei^le were divided into the several castes «f sdwlars, warriors, agriculturists, merchants, and Bieehanics. The Mohfonmedan revolution lies be- jond our limits. VL Gwgrt^^hkal DeUttU. — 1. Arabia Petraea. [Pktka; Idumaka; Nabatuaiei]. 2. Arabia Duerta {yt tfnipMs 'Apaela the great Syrian Desert, N. of the peninsuU of Arabia Proper, between the Eu^brates on the £., Syria on the N., and Coeksyria uid Palestine on the W., was entirely T»>*nV'tf^ by nomad tribes (the Bedmnsj or more ffqierly Bedatoee), who were known to the ancients the appellation of Scenitae (Sin^cirai, xW. p. 767 ; Plin. vi. 28. s. 32 ; Plol.) from dwelling in tents, and Komadae (No/i.c(8ai) fiam tbor occupation as wandering herdsmen, and afterwards by that of Saraceni (:SapafC9)>'oQ, a name the origin of which is still disputed, while its RDown has been spread over the world by its mis- taken application to the great body of the Arabs, who bur^ forth to subdue the world to El Islam (P&i. L c; PtoL; Ammian. xir. 4, 8, zxiL 15, yrin^ 5y 5, zxIt. 2, xxxi. 16; Procop. Pert. ii. 19, 20). Some of them served the Romans as mer- eesaiy light cavalry in the Persian expedition of Jafiao. Ptolemy (r. 19) mentions, as separate ttftesy the Caochabenl, on the Euphrates ; the Ba- taiHMS, CD the confines of Syria [Batakaea], the Agidwci axid Rhaabeni, on the borders of Arabia Felix ; the Oreheni, on the Persian Gulf; and, be- tween the above, the Aesdtae, Masani, Agraei, and Ifa rt^i. He gives a long list of towns along the of the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, from AKABIAE MONS. 181 ThapsacQS downwards ; besides many in the inland parts ; most of which are merely wells and halting places on the three great caravan-routes which cross the Desert, the one from Egypt and Petra, eastward to the Persian Gulf, the second from Palmyra south- ward into Arabia Felix, and the third from Pabnyra S£. to the mouth of the Tigris. 3. Arabia Fdix (jApaSia ^ Ev8af/£»v), mcluded the peninsula proper, to which the name was ex- tended from the SW. parts (see above). The op* posite case has happened to the modem name EU Yemen, which was at first applied to the whole penin- sula, but is now used in a restricted sense, for the SW. part, along the S. part of the Red Sea coast. Ptolemy makes a range of mountains, extending across the isthmus, the North boundaxy of Arabia Felix, on the side of Arabia Deserta; but no such mountains aro now known to exist. The tribes and cities of this portion, mentioned by Ptolemy and Pliny, aro far too numerous to repeat ; the chief uf them are treated of in separate articles, or under the following titles of the most important tribes ; beginning S. of the Nabathaei, on the W. coast: the Thamt- DENi and Mi^'YAE (in the south part of Hejaz) in the neighbourhood of Macobaba (Mecca); the Sabaei and Homebttae in the SW. part of the peninsula (Y&nen) on the SE. coast, the Chatra- HonTAB and Adramitae (in El-Hadramaut, a countiy very little known, even to the present day) ; on the E. and N£. coast the Oimakitae and Da> racheki and Gerraei (m Oman^ and EUAhga or EUHtjeh). [P. S.] ARABIA FELIX {'ApaSia tif^aifiuv, PeripL p. 14 ; 'ApaSlas 4fiir6ptoy, Ptol. vi. 7. § 9 ; ^ 'Apa- €ia rh ifiir6piov, viii. 22. § 8), or Attanae (Plin. vi. 28. s. 32, SiUig, 'ASdanj, Philostorg. ff. E. iii. 4; Aden)f the most flourishing sea-port of Arabia Felix, whence its name ; the native name being that given by Pliny and PhUostoigius. It was on the coast of the Homeritae, in the extreme S. of the peninsula, about If^ E. of the Straits of Bab-ei-Mandeb, in 45° 10' E. long., and 12° 46' N. lat. Ptolemy places it in 80° long, and 11 4° N. hit It was one of his points of recorded astronomical observation ; its longest day being 12 hrs. 40 min., its distance E. from Alexandreia 1 hr. 20 min. The author of the Peripltu ascribed to Arrian states that it was destroyed by Caesar, which can only refer to the expedition of Aelius Callus, under Augtistus. The blow, however, was soon recovered, for the port con- tinued to flourish till eclipsed by Afokha, Its recent occupation, in 1839, as our packet station between Suez and Bombay, is raising it to new consequence; its population, which, in 1839, was 1,000, was nearly 20,000 in 1842. The ancient emporium of Arabian spices and Indian wealth, restored to importance, after the lapse of centiiries, as a station and coal depdt for the overland mail, exhibits a curious link between the ancient and modem civilization of the East, and a strange example of the cycles in which history moves. Aden is undoubtedly the Arabia of Mela (iii. 8. § 7), though he places it within the Arabian Gulf. Michaelis supposed it to be the Eden of Ezekiel (xxvii. 23), but his opinion is op- posed by Winer (BtbL Realworterbuchf s. v. Eden), Some also suppose it to be the Ophir of Scripture. [Ophir]. [P. S.] ARABIAE and ARABICUS MONS Qrris 'Apa- €triSf T^ ^ApdiStoy oZpos : Jebel MokaUem^ ^.), tho name given by Herodotus (iL 8) to the range of mountains wMch form the eastern border of the N 3