It Is To Be Supposed, That Every Thing Relating To The Geography,
Navigation, And Commerce Of The Red Sea, From
Myos Hormos to Aduli, on the
western side, and Moosa, on the eastern side of it, was well known to
The
merchants of Egypt, as the author of the Periplus gives no circumstantial
account of any port, till he arrives at these places. It appears, also,
that till the ships arrived at these places, they kept the mid-channel of
the Red Sea, and, consequently, there was no occasion, or indeed,
opportunity of describing the intermediate ports. We have already
mentioned, that Myos Hormos was fixed on by Ptolemy Philadelphus, in
preference to Arsinoe, because the navigation of the western part of the
Red Sea, on which the latter was placed, was intricate and tedious.
Berenice was afterwards selected, as being still lower down: but it is
worthy of remark, that neither Berenice, nor Ptolemais Theron, another port
of the Ptolemies, were harbours, but merely roadsteads, though from our
author's description, there were an almost infinite number of safe
harbours, creeks, bays, &c. in every part of the Red Sea.
Aduli, the first port on the west side of the Red Sea, and the port of
communication with Axuma, was, in the age of the Periplus, subject to the
same prince, who possessed the whole coast, from Berenice. The exports from
this place were confined to ivory, brought from the interior on both sides
of the Nile; the horns of the rhinoceros, and tortoise-shell. The imports
were very numerous, forming an assortment, as Dr. Vincent justly observes,
as specific as a modern invoice: the principal articles were, cloth,
manufactured in Egypt, unmilled, for the Barbarian market. The term,
Barbarii, was applied to the Egyptians, to the whole western coast of the
Red Sea, and was derived from Barbar, the native name of the country
inhabited by the Troglodytes, Icthyophagi, and shepherds: as these were
much hated and dreaded by the Egyptians, Barbarii became a term of reproach
and dread, and in this sense it was adopted by the Greeks and Romans, and
has passed into the modern European languages. But to return from this
digression, - the other imports were robes, manufactured at Arsinoe; cloths
dyed, so as to imitate the Tyrian purple; linens, fringed mantles, glass or
crystal, murrhine cups, orichalchum, or mixed metal for trinkets and coin;
brass vessels for cooking, the pieces of which, when they happened to be
broken, were worn by the women as ornaments; iron, for weapons and other
purposes; knives, daggers, hatchets, &c.; brass bowls, wine, oil, gold and
silver plate, camp cloaks, and cover-lids: these formed the principal
articles of import from Myos Hormos, and as they are very numerous,
compared with the exports, it seems surprising that coin should also have
been imported, but that this was the case, we are expressly told by the
author of the Periplus, who particularizes Roman currency, under the name
of Denarii. The following articles imported into Aduli, must have come
through Arabia, from India:
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