The name of the author is unknown. In the Heidelberg MS., which alone has preserved the little work, and contains it after the _Periplûs_ of Arrian, the title given is Αρῥιανου περιπλους της' Ερυθρας θαλασσης. Trusting to the correctness of this title, Stuckius attributed the work to +Arrian+ of Nikomedia, and Fabricius to another Arrian who belonged to Alexandria. No one, however, who knows how ancient books are usually treated can fail to see what the real fact here is, viz. that since not only the _Periplûs Maris Erythræi_, but also the _Anonymi Periplûs Ponti Euxini_ (whereof the latter part occurs in the Heidelberg MS. before Arrian’s _Ponti Periplûs_) are attributed to Arrian, and the different Arrians are not distinguished by any indications afforded by the titles, there can be no doubt that the well-known name of the Nikomedian writer was transferred to the books placed in juxtaposition to his proper works, by the arbitrary judgment of the librarians. In fact it very often happens that short works written by different authors are all referred to one and the same author, especially if they treat of the same subject and are published conjointly in the same volume. But in the case of the work before us, any one would have all the more readily ascribed it to Arrian who had heard by report anything of the _Paraplûs_ of the Erythræan Sea described in that author’s _Indika_. On this point there is the utmost unanimity of opinion among writers. That the author, whatever may have been his name, lived in Egypt, is manifest. Thus he says in § 29: “Several of the trees _with us_ in Egypt weep gum,” and he joins the names of the Egyptian months with the Roman, as may be seen by referring to §§ 6, 39, 49, and 56. The place in which he was settled was probably Berenîkê, since it was from that port he embarked on his voyages to Africa and Arabia, and since he speaks of the one coast as on the right from Berenîkê, and the other on the left. The whole tenor of the work proclaims that he must have been a merchant. That the entire work is not a mere compilation from the narratives or journals of other merchants and navigators, but that the author had himself visited some of the seats of trade which he describes, is in itself probable, and is indicated in § 20, where, contrary to the custom of the ancient writers, he speaks in his own person:—“In sailing south, therefore, _we_ stand off from the shore and keep _our_ course down the middle of the gulf.” Compare with this what is said in § 48: προς την εμποριαν την ἑμετεραν.