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ROMANS AND ARABS IN THE RED SEA
Exploitation of the Red Sea for communication and commerce has taken place since the predynastic period of Egyptian history (prior to ca 3100 B.C.)1 We know more about activities here from later Egyptian and classical (Greco- Roman) records and from archaeological evidence, especially at the northern end of the Red Sea than from any other contemporary sources.2 Therefore, our views of Romans and Arabs in the Red Sea will, to a large extent, be colored by this bias in the surviving or more easily accessible « classical » literary and
* I wish to thank Prof. D.F. Graf for reading a draft of this paper, commenting on it and providing useful bibliography which would otherwise have been missed.
1. Cf. J. ZARINS, « Ancient Egypt and the Red Sea Trade : The Case for Obsidian in the Predynastic and Archaic Periods », in B. Williams and A. Leonard, eds., Essays in Ancient Civilization Presented to Helene J. Kantor (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, vol. 47), Chicago, Oriental Institute (1989), 339-368 ; J.A. MONTGOMERY, Arabia and the Bible, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press (1934), 176 ; G.w. Van Beek, «The Land of Sheba », in J.B. pritchard, ed., Solomon & Sheba, London, Phaidon (1974), 47 ; M.G. RASCHKE, « New Studies in Roman Commerce with the East», ANRW 2.9.2 (1978), 911, n. 1055 on the pharaonic period ; 929-930, nn. 1130, 1132 on the Achaemenid Persian period in Egypt ; C.A. Nallino, « L'Egypte avait-elle des relations directes avec l'Arabie méridionale avant l'âge des Ptolémées ? », BIFAO 30/2 (1930), 465-475.
2. For trade in the Red Sea-Indian Ocean in the Roman-Byzantine period see Raschke (supra η. 1) : 604-1378 ; S.E. SIDEBOTHAM, Roman Economie Policy in the Erythra Thalassa 30 B.C. -A.D. 217 {Mnemosyne supplement no. 91), Leiden, E.J. Brill (1986), passim ; D.G. LETSIOS, Byzantium and the Red Sea Relations with Nubia, Ethiopia and South Arabia Until the Arab Conquest, Historical Monographs 5, Athens, S.D. Basilopoulos, (1988), passim ; L. CASSON, The Periplus Maris Erythraei Text with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary, Princeton, Princeton University Press (1989), passim ; V. BEGLEY and R.D. DE PUMA, Rome and India : The Ancient Sea Trade, Madison, University of Wisconsin Press (Ì99Ì), passim.
Topoi 6 (1996) p. 785-797
