Kitap 16
4.18
Having given this account of the Troglodytae and of the neighbouring Ethiopians, Artemidorus returns to the Arabians. Beginning from Poseidium, he first describes those who border upon the Arabian Gulf, and are opposite to the Troglodytae. He says that Poseidium is situated within the bay of [Heroopolis],The bay of Heroopolis is the modern bay of Suez. In the text Aelanitic bay, which is an error of the author or of the copyist. and that contiguous to PoseidiumAn altar to Poseidon (Neptune), which was erected by Aristo, whom one of the Ptolemies had sent to explore the Arabian Gulf. is a grove of palm trees,φοινικων, a grove of palm trees, is taken as a proper name by Diodorus Siculus, b. iii. 41. well supplied with water, which is highly valued, because all the district around is burnt up and is without water or shade. But there the fertility of the palm is prodigious. A man and a woman are appointed by hereditary right to the guardianship of the grove. They wear skins, and live on dates. They sleep in huts built on trees, the place being infested with multitudes of wild beasts.
4.18
Next is the island of Phocae (Seals),Sheduan. The Saspirene insula of Ptolemy. which has its name from those animals, which abound there. Near it is a promontory,Ras Mahomet, which terminates the south of the peninsula formed by the two bays, the Aelanitic running up to Petra, and that of Heroopolis running up to Suez. The meaning of Strabo seems to be, that this cape is in a direction due south of Petra and Palestine. which extends towards Petra, of the Arabians called Nabataei, and to the country of Palestine, to this [island] the Minaei,There is a wide difference of opinion among geographers with regard to the position of this important tribe in the modern map of Arabia. See Smith, art. Minaei. Gerrhaei, and all the neighbouring nations repair with loads of aromatics.
