The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythræan Sea: Being a Translation of the Periplus Maris Erythræi, by an Anonymous Writer, and of Arrian's Account of the Voyage of Nearkhos, from the Mouth of the Indus to the Head of the Persian Gulf
History
The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythræan Sea: Being a Translation of the Periplus Maris Erythræi, by an Anonymous Writer, and of Arrian's Account of the Voyage of Nearkhos, from the Mouth of the Indus to the Head of the Persian Gulf
Classical geography; Geography, Ancient; India -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Indian Ocean Region -- Commerce -- History
(2) Adjoining +Berenikê+ was +Barbaria+ (ἡ Βαρβαρικὴ χώρα)—the
land about Ras Abû Fatima [lat. 22° 26´ N.—Ptol. IV. vii. 28]. The
reading of the MS. is ἡ Τισηβαρικὴ which Müller rejects because the
name nowhere occurs in any work, and because if +Barbaria+ is not
mentioned here, our author could not afterwards (Section 5) say ἡ ἄλλη
Βαρβαρία. The +Agriophagoi+ who lived in the interior are mentioned
by Pliny (vi. 35), who says that they lived principally on the flesh
of panthers and lions. Vincent writes as if instead of Αγριοφάγων the
reading should be Ακριδοφάγων locust-eaters, who are mentioned by
Agatharkhidês in his _De Mari Erythraeo_, Section 58. Another inland
tribe is mentioned in connection with them—the +Moskhophagoi+, who may
be identified with the +Rizophagoi+ or +Spermatophagoi+ of the same
writer, who were so named because they lived on roots of the tender
suckers and buds of trees, called in Greek μόσχοι. This being a term
applied also to the young of animals, Vincent was led to think that
this tribe fed on the brinde or flesh cut out of the living animal as
described by Bruce.
3. Below the +Moskhophagoi+, near the sea, lies a little trading
town distant from Berenîkê about 4000 stadia, called +Ptolemaïs
Thêrôn+, from which, in the days of the Ptolemies, the hunters
employed by them used to go up into the interior to catch elephants. In
this mart is procured the true (or marine) tortoise-shell, and the land
kind also, which, however, is scarce, of a white colour, and smaller
size. A little ivory is also sometimes obtainable, resembling that of
+Adouli+. This place has no port, and is approachable only by
boats.
(3) To the south of the Moskhophagoi lies +Ptolemaïs Thêrôn+,
or, as it is called by Pliny, +Ptolemaïs Epitheras+. [On
Er-rih island, lat. 18° 9´ N., long 38° 27´ E., are the ruins of an
ancient town—probably Ptolemaïs Therôn—Müller however places Suche
here.—Ptol. I. viii. 1.; IV. vii. 7; VIII. xvi. 10]. It was originally
an Ethiopian village, but was extended and fortified by Ptolemy
Philadelphos, who made it the depôt of the elephant trade, for which
its situation on the skirts of the great Nubian forest, where these
animals abounded, rendered it peculiarly suitable. The Egyptians
before this had imported their elephants from Asia, but as the supply
was precarious, and the cost of importation very great, Philadelphos
made the most tempting offers to the Ethiopian elephant-hunters
(Elephantophagoi) to induce them to abstain from eating the animal,
or to reserve at least a portion of them for the royal stables. They
rejected however all his solicitations, declaring that even for all
Egypt they would not forego the luxury of their repast. The king
resolved thereupon to procure his supplies by employing hunters of his
own.
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