COAST OF RED SEA. 
18^ 
it for the protection of travellers.* This relation, 
which is given by Strabo, accords with the Ada- 
litic inscription preserved in Cosmas, which re- 
cords the Ethiopian conquests of Ptolemy Ever- 
getes, who seems to have adopted the commercial 
plans of his father, and to have endeavoured to 
extend them. The Romans, when they conquer- 
ed Egypt, immediately perceived the importance 
of these arrangements ; Berenice became the em- 
porium of their eastern trade, and Myos Hormus 
sunk to a subordinate station. The only Greek 
author who gives an account of this emporium is 
Strabo. All the details concerning the inland 
route from Coptos to Berenice are Roman. This 
route occupied twelve days, and is estimated at 
two hundred and fifty-eight miles by Pliny and 
the compiler of the Peutingerian Tables. The 
Antonine Itinerary gives two hundred and sixty- 
one miles. The Port of Habesh, the name which 
the harbour corresponding to Berenice now ob- 
tains, is derived from the appellation of Habesh, 
which the African shore, in the parallel of Syene, 
often receives. Though the Egyptian power has 
frequently extended beyond this position on the 
coast of Africa, the site of the ancient Berenice 
may still be regarded as its proper boundary. 
Suakem, a small government similar to Cosseir, 
* Strabo a Casaub. p. 1169. 
