CHAP. 12. (11.)—THE COASTS OF ARABIA, SITUATE ON THE EGYPTIAN SEA.
Beyond the Pelusiac Mouth is Arabia[3597], which extends to the Red Sea, and joins the Arabia known by the surname of Happy[3598], so famous for its perfumes and its wealth. This[3599] is called Arabia of the Catabanes[3600], the Esbonitæ[3601], and the Scenitæ[3602]; it is remarkable for its sterility, except in the parts where it joins up to Syria, and it has nothing remarkable in it except Mount Casius[3603]. The Arabian nations of the Canchlæi[3604] join these on the east, and, on the south the Cedrei[3605], both of which peoples are adjoining to the Nabatæi[3606]. The two gulfs of the Red Sea, where it borders upon Egypt, are called the Heroöpolitic[3607] and the Ælanitic[3608]. Between the two towns of Ælana[3609] and Gaza[3610] upon our sea[3611], there is a distance of 150 miles. Agrippa says that Arsinoë[3612], a town on the Red Sea, is, by way of the desert, 125 miles from Pelusium. How different the characteristics impressed by nature upon two places separated by so small a distance!