To Their Reigns, Then, We Shall Principally Direct Our Enquiries.
That Ptolemy Philadelphus was extremely desirous to improve the navigation
of the Red Sea, is evident from his having built Myos Hormos, or rather
improved it, because it was more convenient than Arsinoe, on account of the
difficulty of navigating the western extremity of that sea:
He afterwards
fixed on Berenice in preference to Myos Hormos, when the navigation and
commerce on this sea was extended and improved, since Berenice being lower
down, the navigation towards the straits was shorter, as well as attended
with fewer difficulties and dangers. But there is no evidence that his
fleets, which sailed from Berenice, were destined for India, or even passed
the Straits of Babelmandeb. It is, however, not meant to be asserted that
no vessels passed these straits in the time of this Ptolemy. On the
contrary, we know that his admiral, Timosthenes, passed the straits as low
as Cerne, which is generally supposed to be Madagascar; but commerce, which
in our times, directed by much superior skill and knowledge, as well as
stimulated by a stronger spirit of enterprize and rivalship, and a more
absorbing love of gain, immediately follows in the track of discovery, was
then comparatively slow, languid, and timid as well as ignorant; so that it
is not surprizing that it did not follow the track of Timosthenes. Ptolemy
Philadelphus also pushed his discoveries by land as far as Meroc: he opened
the route between Coptus and Berenice, establishing ports and opening
wells; and from these and other circumstances he seems to have been
actuated by a stronger wish to extend commerce, and to have formed more
plans for this purpose, than any of his successors.
Ptolemy Euergetes directed his thoughts more to conquest than to commerce,
though he rendered the former, in some degree, useful and subservient to
the latter. After having passed the Nile, and subdued the nations which lay
on the confines of Egypt, he compelled them to open a road of communication
between their country and Egypt. The frankincense country was the next
object of his ambition: this he subdued; and having sent a fleet and army
across the Red Sea into Arabia, he compelled the inhabitants of the
district to maintain the roads free from robbers, and the sea from
pirates - a proof that these people had made some advances in seafaring
matters, and also of the attention paid by Euergetes to the navigation of
the Red Sea, as well as to the protection of land commerce. Indeed the
whole of his progress to Aduli, which we have more particularly mentioned
in another place, was marked as much by attention to commerce as by the
love of conquest; but though by this enterprize he rendered both the coasts
of the Red Sea tributary, and thus better adapted to commerce, there is no
proof that he passed the Straits of Babelmandeb. It is true, indeed, that
he visited Mosullon, which lies beyond the straits, but not by sea, having
marched by land to that place, through the interior of Abyssinia and Adel.
From the whole of this enterprize of Euergetes we may justly infer, that
though he facilitated the intercourse by land between Egypt and those parts
of Africa which lay immediately beyond the straits, yet his ships did not
pass the straits, and that in his reign the discoveries of Timosthenes had
not been followed up or improved for the purpose of trading by sea with the
coast of Africa. The navigation of the whole of the Red Sea, at least on
the Arabian side, from Leuake Kome to Sabaea, was undoubtedly known and
frequently used at this period; but this was its utmost limit.
In the reign of Ptolemy Philometor, when Agatharcides lived, the commercial
enterprizes of the Egyptians had begun rather to languish; on the Arabian
side of the Red Sea, they did indeed extend to Sabaea, as in the time of
Euergetes; but there is evidence that on the opposite coast they did not go
so low, as in the reign of the latter sovereign. Agatharcides makes no
mention of Berenice; according to his account, Myos Hormos had again become
the emporium, and the only trade from that part seems to have been for
elephants to Ptolemais Theron. It may, indeed, be urged that Berenice was
not, properly speaking, a harbour, but only an open bay, to which the ships
did not come from Myos Hormos, till their cargoes were completely ready.
But that Myos Hormos was the great point of communication with Coptus is
evident from the account which Agatharcides gives of the caravan road
between these two places. Even so late as the time of Strabo, this road was
much more frequented than the road between Coptus and Berenice: of the
latter he merely observes, that Philadelphus opened it with his army,
established ports, and sunk Wells; whereas he particularly describes the
former road, as being seven or eight days' journey, formerly performed on
camels in the night, by observation of the stars, and carrying water with
them. Latterly, he adds, deep wells had been sunk, and cisterns formed for
holding water. Every detail of the road to Berenice is Roman, and relates
to periods considerably posterior to the conquest of Egypt by the Romans - a
proof that the plan of Philadelphus, of substituting Berenice for Myos
Hormos, had not been regularly adopted by his successors, nor till the
Romans had firmly and permanently fixed themselves in Egypt.
In the extract we have already given from Agatharcides respecting Arabia,
he expressly mentions that the Gerrheans and Sabeans are the centre of all
the commerce that passes between Asia and Europe, and that these are the
nations which have enriched the Ptolemais: this statement, taken in
conjunction with the fact that his description of the coast of the Red Sea
reaches no farther than Sabaea on the one side, and Ptolemais Theron on the
other, seems decisive of the truth of the opinion, that in the time of
Philometor the Egyptians did not trade directly to India.
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