82 
Pliny's katiieal histoet. 
[Book VL 
the world have alluvial deposits been formed more rapidly by 
the rivers, and to a greater extent than here ; and it is only 
a matter of surprise that the tides, which run to a considerable 
distance beyond this city, do not carry them back again. 
At this place was born Dionysius,* the most recent author of 
a description of the world ; he was sent by the -late emperor 
Augustus to gather all necessary information in the East, when 
his eldest^ son was about to set out for Armenia to take the 
command against the Parthians and Arabians. 
The fact has not escaped me, nor indeed have I forgotten, 
that at the beginning of this work^* I have remarked that each 
author appeared to be most accurate in the description of his own 
country ; still, while I am speaking of these parts of the world, 
I prefer to follow the discoveries made by the Eoman arms, and 
the description given by king Juba, in his work dedicated to 
Caius Caesar above-mentioned, on the subject of the same ex- 
pedition against Arabia. 
CHAP. 32. (28.) — AEABIA. 
Arabia, inferior to no country throughout the whole world, 
is of immense extent, running downwards, as we have pre- 
viously stated,^ from Mount Amanus, over against Cilicia and 
Commagene ; many of the Arabian nations having been re- 
moved to those countries by Tigranes the Great, while others 
again have migrated of their own accord to the shores of our 
sea^ and the coast of Egypt, as we have already mentioned.®* 
The Nubei ^ have even penetrated as far as Mount Libanus in 
the middle of Syria ; in their turn they are bounded by the 
Eamisi, these by the Taranei, and these again by the Patami. 
As for Arabia itself, it is a peninsula, running out between 
the Eed and the Persian Seas ; and it is by a kind of design, 
* Dionysius of Charax. No particulars of him are known beyond those 
mentioned by PUny. 
^ Caius, the son of Marcus Agrippa and Julia, the daughter of Au- 
gustus. He was the adopted son of Augustus. 
^* See B. iii. c. 1, p. 151, in vol. 1. « In B. v. c. 21 and 22. 
' Who called himself the King of kings, and was finally conquered by 
Pompey. 
^ The Mediterranean. See B. v. c. 12. 
^ Salmasius thinks that this should be written Nombei but Har- 
douin remarks that the Nombsei were not of Arabian but Jewish extrac- 
tion, and far distant from Mount Libanus. 
