202 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



In describing the littoral of the Red Sea from Eratosthenes, 

 after making mention of the Elanitic Gulf (the Gulf of Akaba) 

 and Nabataea, "a country well peopled and abounding in cattle," 

 he thus proceeds 1 : "next comes a plain well wooded and well 

 watered ; it abounds with cattle of all kinds, and among other 

 animals, wild asses (hemionoi), wild camels, deer and gazelles; 

 lions also, leopards and wolves are frequently to be found." 

 South of the harbour of Charmothas (apparently the ancient 

 lambo, and called by the Arabs, lambo el Nakel, "lambo 

 of Palm-trees") "follows a rugged coast, and after that are 

 some bays, and a country occupied by nomads, who live by 

 their camels. They fight from their backs; they travel upon 

 them, and subsist on their milk and flesh. These are known 

 as Debae." This people occupied the modern Sockia. "The 

 country of the Sabaeans, a very populous nation, is contiguous, 

 and is the most fertile of all, producing myrrh, frankincense, 

 and cinnamon." 



Strabo 2 states that the land of the Nabataeans was fruitful 

 save in olive oil, that it produced sheep with white wool, and 

 oxen of a large size, but adds emphatically that " the land does 

 not produce horses, whose place is served by camels." The 

 Nabataeans were the Arabs who occupied the ancient Edom, 

 or Idumea, the region lying between Syria and South Arabia, 

 and which was made in 105 A.D. by Trajan into the Roman 

 province of Arabia, commonly termed Arabia Petraea from its 

 capital, Petra. The documentary evidence is thoroughly con- 

 firmed by the monumental, for when Aemilius 

 Scaurus in B.C. 62 or 60 received the sub- 

 mission of the Nabataean king Aretas, he 

 issued coins bearing on the reverse an Arab 

 leading his one-humped camel (Fig. 65) and 

 holding out an olive branch as a suppliant, 

 accompanied by the legend REX ARETAS 3 . 

 FIG 65 Coin of ^ e Arabian king himself is thus pourtrayed 

 Aemilius Scaurus. not as a cavalier, but as a camel-rider. 



1 776. 2 784. 



3 Mommsen, Histoire de la Monnaie romaine, Vol. n. p. 489 ; Josephus, Ant. 

 Jud. xiv. 5, 1 ; Bell. Jud. i. 8, 1. 



