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.
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