The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Natural History of Pliny, Volume II., by Pliny the Elder.

611 Omana or Omanum was their chief place, a port on the north-east coast of Arabia Felix, a little above the promontory of Syagros, now Ras el Had, on a large gulf of the same name. The name is still preserved in the modern name Oman.

612 In Sitacene, mentioned in the preceding Chapter.

613 Or rather, as Hardouin says, the shore opposite to Charax, and on the western bank of the river.

614 Called Core Boobian, a narrow salt-water channel, laid down for the first time in the East India Company’s chart, and separating a large low island, off the mouth of the old bed of the Euphrates, from the mainland.

615 The great headland on the coast of Arabia, at the entrance of the bay of Doat-al-Kusma from the south, opposite to Pheleche Island.

616 This is the line of coast extending from the great headland last mentioned to the river Khadema, the ancient Achenus.

617 So called from the city of Arabia Felix, built on its shores. Strabo says of this city, “The city of Gerra lies in a deep gulf, where Chaldæan exiles from Babylon inhabit a salt country, having houses built of salt, the walls of which, when they are wasted by the heat of the sun, are repaired by copious applications of sea-water.” D’Anville first identified this place with the modern El Khatiff. Niebuhr finds its site on the modern Koneit of the Arabs, called “Gran” by the Persians; but Foster is of opinion that he discovered its ruins in the East India Company’s Chart, situate where all the ancient authorities had placed it, at the end of the deep and narrow bay at the mouth of which are situated the islands of Bahrein. The gulf mentioned by Pliny is identified by Foster with that of Bahrein.

618 The modern island of Bahrein, according to Brotier, still famous for its pearl-fishery.

619 Now Samaki, according to Ansart. Its ancient name was Aradus.

620 Hardouin takes this to be that which by the Arabians is called by the name of Falg.

621 On the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf.

622 Considered by modern geographers to be identical in situation with the Black Mountains and the Cape of Asabi, and still marked by a town and district named Sabee, close to Cape Mussendom.

623 In the modern district still called Oman.

624 On the opposite coast.

625 He calls it Canis, evidently thinking that “Cynos” was its Greek appellation only: as meaning the “Dogs’” river.

626 Or the mountain “with the Three Peaks.”

627 Stephanus mentions this as an island of the Erythræan Sea. Hardly any of these places appear to have been identified; and there is great uncertainty as to the orthography of the names.

628 From which came the myrrh mentioned by Pliny in B. xii. c. 36.

629 Or the Tent-Dwellers, the modern Bedouins.

630 By some geographers identified with the Ocelis or Ocila, mentioned in c. 26, the present Zee Hill or Ghela, a short distance to the south of Mocha, and to the north of the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. Hardouin says, however, that it was a different place, Acila being in the vicinity of the Persian Gulf, in which he appears to be correct.

631 Nothing relative to Numenius beyond this fact has been recorded.

632 Hardouin and Ansart think that under this name is meant the island called in modern times Mazira or Maceira.

633 There seem to have been three mythical personages of this name; but it appears impossible to distinguish the one from the other.

634 Or “Dioscoridis Insula,” an island of the Indian Ocean, of considerable importance as an emporium or mart, in ancient times. It lay between the Syagrus Promontorium, in Arabia, and Aromata Promontorium, now Cape Guardafui, on the opposite coast of Africa, somewhat nearer to the former, according to Arrian, which cannot be the case if it is rightly identified with Socotorra, 200 miles distant from the Arabian coast, and 110 from the north-east promontory of Africa.

635 So called from Azania, or Barbaria, now Ajan, south of Somauli, on the mainland of Africa.

636 Now Cape Fartash, in Arabia.

637 Their country is supposed to have been the Sheba of Scripture, the queen of which visited king Solomon. It was situate in the south-western corner of Arabia Felix, the north and centre of the province of Yemen, though the geographers before Ptolemy seem to give it a still wider extent, quite to the south of Yemen. The Sabæi most probably spread originally on both sides of the southern part of the Red Sea, the shores of Arabia and Africa. Their capital was Saba, in which, according to their usage, their king was confined a close prisoner.

638 The Persian Gulf to the Red Sea.

639 The modern district of Hadramaut derives its name from this people, who were situate on the coast of the Red Sea to the east of Aden. Sabota, their capital, was a great emporium for their drugs and spices.

640 Still known as Mareb, according to Ansart.

641 Hardouin is doubtful as to this name, and thinks that it ought to be Elaïtæ, or else Læanitæ, the people again mentioned below.

642 A name which looks very much like “fraud,” or “cheating,” as Hardouin observes, from the Greek ἀπάτη.

643 Off the Promontory of Ras-el-Had.

644 Probably in the district now known as Akra. It was situate on the eastern coast of the Red Sea, at the foot of Mount Hippus.

645 See B. v. c. 12, where this town is mentioned.

646 Whose chief city was Petra, previously mentioned.

647 Supposed by some writers to have been the ancestors of the Saracens, so famous in the earlier part of the middle ages. Some of the MSS., indeed, read “Sarraceni.”

648 Their town is called Arra by Ptolemy.

649 Their district is still called Thamud, according to Ansart.

650 Still called Cariatain, according to Ansart.

651 A ridiculous fancy, probably founded solely on the similarity of the name.

652 A story as probable, Hardouin observes, as that about the descendants of Minos.

653 The Arabs of Yemen, known in Oriental history by the name of Himyari, were called by the Greeks Homeritæ.

654 An inland city, called Masthala by Ptolemy.

655 Agatharchides speaks of a town on the sea coast, which was so called from the multitude of ducks found there. The one here spoken of was in the interior, and cannot be the same.

656 Hardouin observes, that neither this word, nor the name Riphearma, above mentioned, has either a Hebrew or an Arabian origin.

657 Probably the same place as we find spoken of by Herodotus as Ampe, and at which Darius settled a colony of Miletians after the capture of Miletus, B.C. 494.

658 Hardouin remarks that Mariaba, the name found in former editions, has no such meaning in the modern Arabic.

659 Mentioned by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, B. v. l. 165, et seq. Sillig, however, reads “Ciani.”

660 An intimate friend of the geographer Strabo. He was prefect of Egypt during part of the reign of Augustus, and in the years B.C. 24 and 25. Many particulars have been given by Strabo of his expedition against Arabia, in which he completely failed. The heat of the sun, the badness of the water, and the want of the necessaries of life, destroyed the greater part of his army.

661 By adoption, as previously stated.

662 The town of the Calingii, mentioned above.

663 Or wandering tribes.

664 Its uses in medicine are stated at length in the last Chapter of B. xxi.

665 Another form of the name of Atramitæ previously mentioned, the ancient inhabitants of the part of Arabia known as Hadramant, and settled, as is supposed, by the descendants of the Joctanite patriarch Hazarmaveth.

666 Arabia at the present day yields no gold, and very little silver. The queen of Sheba is mentioned as bringing gold to Solomon, 1 Kings, x. 2, 2 Chron. ix. i. Artemidorus and Diodorus Siculus make mention, on the Arabian Gulf, of the Debæ, the Alilæi, and the Gasandi, in whose territories native gold was found. These last people, who did not know its value, were in the habit of bringing it to their neighbours, the Sabæi, and exchanging it for articles of iron and copper.

668 The “mitra,” which was a head-dress especially used by the Phrygians, was probably of varied shape, and may have been the early form of the eastern turban.

669 The Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.

670 Or Heroöpolis, a city east of the Delta, in Egypt, and situate near the mouth of the royal canal which connected the Nile with the Red Sea. It was of considerable consequence as a trading station upon the arm of the Red Sea, which runs up as far as Arsinoë, the modern Suez, and was called the “Gulf” or “Bay of the Heroes.” The ruins of Heroöpolis are still visible at Abu-Keyscheid.

671 This place, as here implied, took its name from Cambyses, the son of Cyrus.

672 In c. 9 of the preceding Book. “Dictum,” however, may only mean, “called” the Delta.

673 Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and Tzetzes, mention this, not with reference to Sesostris, but Necho, the grandson of Sesostris.

674 Ptolemy Philadelphus, son of Ptolemy Soter, or Lagides.

675 Now known by the name of Scheib. They derived their name from the saline flavour and deposition of their waters. These springs were strongly impregnated with alkaline salts, and with muriate of lime washed from the rocks which separated the Delta from the Red Sea. The salt which they produced being greatly valued, they were on that account regarded as the private property of the kings.

676 The “not thirsty” route, so called by way of antiphrasis.

678 In c. 26 of the present Book.

679 Or “narrow necks,” apparently, from the Greek στηναὶ δειραὶ. If this be the correct reading, they were probably so called from the narrow strait which ran between them.

680 An island called Halonnesus has been already mentioned in B. iv. c. 23. None of these islands appear to have been identified.

681 See B. xxxvii. c. 32.

682 This seems to be the meaning, though, literally translated, it would be, “These were the prefects of kings.”

683 It obtained this title of πάγχρυσος, or “all golden,” from its vicinity to the gold mines of Jebel Allaki, or Ollaki, from which the ancient Egyptians drew their principal supply of that metal, and in the working of which they employed criminals and prisoners of war.

684 Or ἐπὶ δειρῆς, “upon the neck.” It was situate on the western side of the Red Sea, near the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.

685 Ansart suggests that the modern island of Mehun is here meant. Gosselin is of opinion that Pliny is in error in mentioning two islands in the Red Sea as producing the topaz.

686 Called Theron, as well as Epitheras. It was an emporium on the coast of the Red Sea for the trade with India and Arabia. It was chiefly remarkable for its position in mathematical geography, as, the sun having been observed to be directly over it forty-five days before and after the summer solstice, the place was taken as one of the points for determining the length of a degree of a great circle on the earth’s surface.

687 From the Greek ἐπὶ θήρας, “for hunting.”

688 In B. ii. c. 75.

689 In the same Chapter.

690 So called from Azania, the adjoining coast of Africa, now known as that of Ajan. It was inhabited by a race of Æthiopians, who were engaged in catching and taming elephants, and supplying the markets of the Red Sea coast with hides and ivory.

691 Now called Seyrman, according to Gosselin.

692 Its name was Adule, being the chief haven of the Adulitæ, of mixed origin, in the Troglodytic region, situate on a bay of the Red Sea, called Aduliticus Sinus. It is generally supposed that the modern Thulla or Zulla, still pronounced Azoole, occupies its site, being situate in lat. 15° 35′ N. Ruins are said to exist there. D’Anville, however, in his map of the Red Sea, places Adule at Arkeeko, on the same coast, and considerably to the north of Thulla. According to Cosmas, Adule was about two miles in the interior.

693 Pliny gives a further description of this ape in B. viii. c. 21., and B. x. c. 72. They were much valued by the Roman ladies for pets, and very high prices were given for them.

694 Now called Dahal-Alley, according to Gosselin.

695 Hardouin, from Strabo, suggests that the reading ought to be Coracios.

696 The “False Gates.”

697 The “Gates.”

698 D’Anville and Gosselin think that this is the island known as the French Island.

699 Ansart thinks that this promontory is that known as Cape de Meta, and that the port is at the mouth of the little river called Soul or Soal.

700 In his Æthiopian expedition. According to Strabo, he had altars and pillars erected there to record it.

701 Under the impression entertained by the ancients, that the southern progress of the coast of Africa stopped short here, and that it began at this point to trend away gradually to the north-west.

702 Coro. Salmasius seems with justice, notwithstanding the censures of Hardouin, to have found considerable difficulty in this passage. If it is Pliny’s meaning that by sea round the south of the Promontory of Mossylum there is a passage to the extreme north-western point of Africa, it is pretty clear that it is not by the aid of a north-west wind that it could be reached. “Euro,” “with a south-east wind,” has been very properly suggested.

703 By this name he means the Æthiopian Troglodytæ. Of course it would be absurd to attempt any identification of the places here named, as they must clearly have existed only in the imagination of the African geographer.

704 The supposed commencement of the Atlantic, to the west of the Promontory of Mossylum.

705 From the Greek ἀσκὸς, a “bladder,” or “inflated skin.” It is not improbable that the story as to their mode of navigation is derived only from the fancied origin of their name.

706 Apparently meaning in the Greek the “jackal-hunters,” θηροθῶες. For an account of this animal, see B. viii. c. 52, and B. xv. c. 95.

707 Heliopolis, described in B. v. c. 4.

708 Considering it as part of Asia.

709 Conformably with the usage of modern geographers, and, one would almost think, with that of common sense.

710 Of the river Nile.

711 As to Syene and the Catadupi, see B. v. c. 10.

712 This place was also called in later times Contrapselcis. It was situate in the Dodecaschœnus, the part of Æthiopia immediately above Egypt, on an island near the eastern bank of the river, a little above Pselcis, which stood on the opposite bank. It has been suggested that this may have been the modern island of Derar. The other places do not appear to have been identified, and, in fact, in no two of the MSS. do the names appear to agree.

713 Or the “Great Wall.”

714 Meaning, “the people who live in seventy villages.”

715 Or western side of the Nile, between Syene and Meroë.

716 Ὕπατον, the “supreme,” or perhaps the “last.”

717 Dion Cassius also mentions this expedition. From Seneca we learn that Nero dispatched two centurions to make inquiry into the sources of the Nile.

718 Dion Cassius calls him Caius Petronius. He carried on the war in B.C. 22 against the Æthiopians, who had invaded Egypt under their queen Candace. He took many of their towns.

719 Du Bocage is of opinion that this place stood not far from the present Ibrim.

720 Supposed by Du Bocage to have stood in the vicinity of the modern Dongola.

721 He was clearly a mythical personage, and nothing certain is known with respect to him. Tombs of Memnon were shown in several places, as at Ptolemais in Syria, on the Hellespont, on a hill near the mouth of the river Æsepus, near Palton in Syria, in Æthiopia, and elsewhere.

722 Her story has been alluded to in the account of Joppa, B. v. c. 34. Cepheus, the father of Andromeda, though possessing the coasts of Syria, was fabled to have been king of Æthiopia.

723 See B. v. c. 10, where Meroë is also mentioned.

724 Or the sacred “sycamore tree.”

725 Situate beyond the Great Cataract, and on the western bank.

726 See the Notes to the preceding Chapter, in p. 95.

727 Or dog’s-headed ape, described in B. viii. c. 80. It is supposed to be the baboon.

728 Hesychius says that it was also called Aëria, probably from the time of its king Ægyptus, who was called Aërius.

729 “Ubi desiimus.” This appears to be a preferable reading to “ubi desinit,” adopted by Sillig, and apparently referring to the river Nile. It is not improbable that our author here alludes, as Hardouin says, to his words in the preceding Chapter, “Hinc in ora Æthiopiæ,” &c. See p. 96.

730 Ansart thinks that the country of this people was the modern Kordofan. This, however, could not be the case, if the Macrobii, opposite to them, dwelt on the African side of the river.

731 Or “long-livers.”

732 Mentioned again in c. 2 of the next Book.

733 Who is mentioned again in B. xxxvi. c. 19.

734 Ptolemy, however, speaks of Esar and Daron as the names of towns situate on the island of Meroë.

735 On the eastern side of the Nile, and bearing no reference, as Hardouin remarks, to the people of modern Nubia.

736 There is considerable doubt as to the correctness of these names, as they are differently spelt in the MSS.

737 Marcus thinks that these mountains are those which lie to the west of the Nile, in Darfour, and Dar-Sale, or Dizzela, mentioned by Salt, in his Travels in Abyssinia.

738 From this it would appear that Pliny, with Dalion, supposed that the Nile ran down to the southern ocean, and then took a turn along the coast in a westerly direction; the shore being skirted by Syrtes, or quicksands, similar to those in the north of Africa.