The Exact Site Of The Country Of The Mineans Cannot Be Certainly Fixed; But
It Is Probable That It Was To The South Of Hedjaz, To The North Of
Hadraumaut, And To The Eastward Of Sabaea.
According to Strabo, their
caravans passed in seventy days from Hadraumaut to Aisla, which was within
ten miles of Petra.
They were laden with aloes, gold, myrrh, frankincense,
and other aromatics.
We can but faintly and obscurely trace the fluctuations in the trade of
Petra, in the remote periods of history. We know that Solomon was in
possession of Idumea, but whether it was subdued by Nebuchadnezzar is
doubtful. This sovereign, however, seems to have formed some plan of
depriving the Gherrheans of the commerce of the Gulf of Persia. He raised a
mound to confine the waters of the Tigris: he built a city to stop the
incursions of the Arabs, and opened a communication between the rivers
Tigris and Euphrates. After this there is no account of Idumea till some
years subsequent to the death of Alexander the Great: at this period two
expeditions were sent into it against its capital, Petra, by Antigonus,
both of which were unsuccessful. These expeditions were undertaken about
the years 308 and 309 before Christ. The history of Idumea, from this
period, is better ascertained: harassed by the powerful kingdoms of Syria
and Egypt, - contiguous to both of which it lay, - it seems to have been
governed by princes of its own, who were partly independent, and partly
under the influence of the monarchs of Syria and Egypt. About sixty-three
years before Christ, Pompey took Petra; and, from that period, the
sovereigns of Idumea were tributary to the Romans. This city, however,
still retained its commerce, and was in a flourishing condition, as we are
informed by Strabo, on the authority of his friend Athenedorus, who visited
it about thirty-six years after it. He describes it as built on a rock,
distinguished, however, from all the rocks in that part of Arabia, from
being supplied with an abundant spring of water. Its natural position, as
well as art, rendered it a fortress of importance in the desert. He
represents the people as rich, civilized, and peaceable; the government as
regal, but the chief power as lodged in a minister selected by the king,
who had the title of the king's brother. Syllaeus, who betrayed Elius
Gallus, appears to have been a minister of this description.
The next mention that occurs of the trade of Petra is in the Periplus of
the Erythrean Sea, the date of which, though uncertain, there is good
reason to fix in Nero's reign. According to this work, Leuke Kome, at the
mouth of the Elanitic Gulf, was the point of communication with Petra, the
capital of the country, the residence of Malachus, the king of the
Nabathians. "Leuke Kome, itself, had the rank of a mart in respect to the
small vessels which obtained their cargoes in Arabia, for which reason
there was a garrison placed in it, under the command of a centurion, both
for the purpose of protection, and in order to collect a duty of
twenty-five in the hundred." In the reign of Trajan, Idumea was reduced
into the form of a Roman province, by one of his generals; after this time
it not does fall within our plan to notice it, except merely to state, that
its subjection does not seem to have been complete or permanent, for during
the latter empire, there were certainly sovereigns of this part of Arabia,
in some degree independent, whose influence and alliance were courted by
the Romans and Persians, whenever a war was about to commence between these
two powers.
From this sketch of the trade of the Arabians from the earliest period, we
may conclude, in the first place, that when navigation was in its infancy,
it was confined, or almost entirely so, to a land trade carried on by
caravans; and that Petra was the centre to which these caravans tended from
the east and the south, bringing with them from the former the commodities
of India, and from the latter the commodities of the more fertile part of
Arabia. From Petra, all these goods were again transported by land to the
shores of the Mediterranean and to Egypt. In the second place, when
navigation became more commonly known and practised, (and there is good
reason to believe that it was known and practised among the Arabians,
especially those near the Persian Gulf, at a very early period,) a portion
of the Indian commodities, which before had been carried by land to Petra
were brought by sea to Sabaea. It appears that in the age of Agatharcides,
the monopoly of the trade between India and Europe by this route was wholly
possessed by the Sabeans; that, in order to evade the effects of this
monopoly, the Greeks of Egypt found their way to Aden and Hadraumaut, in
Arabia, and to Mosullon on the coast of Africa. Here they met with other
Arabians, who at this time also traded to India, and sold them Indian goods
at a cheaper rate. And, lastly, we have seen that these ports on the
southern coast of Arabia, and on the coast of Africa, were frequented by
the merchants of Egypt, till, by the discovery of the monsoon, their ships
were enabled to sail directly to India. It is undoubtedly true that before
this discovery, single ships occasionally reached India by adhering to the
coast all the way, but the direct communication was very rare. After the
nature of the monsoon was thoroughly understood, and it was ascertained
that complete dependence could be placed on its steadiness and regularity,
and that by its change, the ships could be brought as safely and quickly
back from India, as they had reached it, the ancients, who at first only
ventured to the mouth of the Indus, gradually made their way down the
western coast of the Indian peninsula.
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