Note: It is this city of Merab that the Arabs say was the residence of Belkis, queen of Saba, who desired to see Solomon. A dam, by which the waters collected in its neighborhood were kept back, having been swept away, the sudden inundation destroyed this city, of which, nevertheless, vestiges remain. It bordered on a country called Adramout, where a particular aromatic plant grows: it is for this reason that we real in the history of the Roman expedition, that they were arrived within three days’ journey of the spice country.—G. Compare _Malte-Brun, Geogr_. Eng. trans. vol. ii. p. 215. The period of this flood has been copiously discussed by Reiske, (_Program. de vetustâ Epochâ Arabum, rupturâ cataractæ Merabensis_.) Add. Johannsen, _Hist. Yemanæ_, p. 282. Bonn, 1828; and see Gibbon, note 16. to Chap. L.—M. Note: Two, according to Strabo. The detailed account of Strabo makes the invaders fail before Marsuabæ this cannot be the same place as Mariaba. Ukert observes, that Ælius Gallus would not have failed for want of water before Mariaba. (See M. Guizot’s note above.) “Either, therefore, they were different places, or Strabo is mistaken.” (Ukert, _Geographie der Griechen und Römer_, vol. i. p. 181.) Strabo, indeed, mentions Mariaba distinct from Marsuabæ. Gibbon has followed Pliny in reckoning Mariaba among the conquests of Gallus. There can be little doubt that he is wrong, as Gallus did not approach the capital of Sabæa. Compare the note of the Oxford editor of Strabo.—M.] 3a (return) [ By the slaughter of Varus and his three legions. See the first book of the Annals of Tacitus. Sueton. in August. c. 23, and Velleius Paterculus, l. ii. c. 117, &c. Augustus did not receive the melancholy news with all the temper and firmness that might have been expected from his character.] 4a (return) [ Tacit. Annal. l. ii. Dion Cassius, l. lvi. p. 833, and the speech of Augustus himself, in Julian’s Cæsars. It receives great light from the learned notes of his French translator, M. Spanheim.]