88 plint's natural history. [Book VI. 



capital, Sabotti, has sixty temples within its walls. But the 

 royal city of all these nations is Mariaba ;^^ it lies upon a bay, 

 ninety-four miles in extent, and filled with islands that produce 

 perfumes. Lying in the interior, and joining up to the Atra- 

 mitas, are the Minaei ; the Elamitae"*^ dwell on the sea-shore, in a 

 city from which they take their name. Next to these are the 

 Chaculatse ; then the town of Sibi, by the Greeks called Apate ;"*^ 

 the Arsi, the Codani, the Yadei, who dwell in a large town, 

 the Barasassei, the Lechieni, and the island of Sygaros,*' into 

 the interior of which no dogs are admitted, and so being ex- 

 posed on the sea- shore, they wander about there and are left to 

 die. We then come to a gulf which runs far into the in- 

 terior, upon which are situate the Lseenitae, who have given 

 to it their name ; also their royal city of Agra,*® and upon 

 the gulf that of Lseana, or as some call it -^lana ;*^ indeed, 

 by some of our writers this has been called the JElanitic Gulf, 

 and by others again, the JElenitic ; Artemidorus calls it the 

 Alenitic, and Juba the Lsenitic. The circumference of Arabia, 

 measured from Charax to Laeana, is said to be four thousand 

 six hundred and sixty-six miles, but Juba thinks that it is 

 somewhat less than four thousaud. Its widest part is at the 

 north, between the cities of Heroopolis and Charax. We will 

 now mention the remaining places and peoples of the interior 

 of Arabia. 



Up to the JSTabatsei^" the ancients joined the Thimanei; at 

 present they have next to them the Taveni, and then the Suel- 

 leni, the Arraceni,^^ and the Areni,^''^ whose town is the centre of 



who were situate on the coast of the Red Sea to the east of Aden. Sa- 

 bota, their capital, was a great emporium for their drugs and spices. 



■'^ Still known as Mareh, according to Ansart. 



*5 Hardouin is doubtful as to this name, and thinks that it ought to be 

 Elaitse, or else La^anitae, the people again mentioned below. 



*^ A name which looks very much like " fraud," or " cheating," as 

 Hardouin observes, from the Greek dTrdrTj. 



^7 Off the Promontory of Ras-el-Had. 



*** 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. 



*3 See B. V. c. 12, where this town is mentioned. 



50 Whose chief city was Petra, previously mentioned. 



^^ Supposed by some writers to have been the ancestors of the Saracens, 

 Bo famous in the earlier part of the middle ages. Some of the MSS., in- 

 deed, read " Sarraceni." 



*^ Their town is called Arra by Ptolemy. 



