A definite date is conveyed by the following: “Blessed be Wailu, son of Sad Allahi, this is the 85th year of the eparchy” (no. 463). And again, “Think of Aallahi, son of Iali, in the year 106, which is that of the three emperors” (no. 451). In the year a.d. 105 Trajan attacked the Nabateans in Petra, which he conquered, and he established the Roman headquarters at Bosra, from which the so-called era of Bosra was dated. The first of the inscriptions which mentioned the 85th year, therefore indicated a.d. 189; the second inscription, which mentioned the 106th year, indicated a.d. 211, the year in which the three emperors Septimus Severus, Caracalla and Geta succeeded one another.
Some authorities also make the Nabateans responsible for the circular huts built of stone, the so-called Nawamis, groups of which are found in the Wadi Wutah, the Wadi Sigilliyeh, and elsewhere. About the year 450 Etheria saw some on her way to the Mount of the Law, and looked upon them as houses built by the Israelites. The huts served at different times as store-houses, places of burial, and hermitages; their origin is quite uncertain. Besides these huts, rectangular huts were noticed in the Wadi Aleyat, the Wadi Nasb, and elsewhere. These also cannot, at present, be claimed for any age.
The introduction of the camel to the wadis of Sinai dealt one more blow at the vegetation of the peninsula. For the camel is to all purposes a huge goat, and, like the goat, is a most destructive animal. His introduction was necessarily followed by the loss of verdure which resulted in loosening of the soil and spread of the desert. In Egypt the introduction of the camel during Roman times depleted the flora and altered the fauna. Gazelles and antelopes sought pasture elsewhere, and the crocodile that lay in wait for them when they came to water, altogether disappeared. In Sinai the effects were equally marked. Gazelles, still numerous in early Christian times, are found now in the remoter wadis only, and the depletion of the soil which began with the destruction of trees for purposes of smelting and charcoal-burning, was carried one stage further by the havoc wrought among the lower growth by the camel.
The conquest of Petra by Trajan in the year 105 set a term to the existence of the kings of Nabat. The greater part of their domain was now incorporated in the Roman province of Arabia, which was firmly and wisely administered by the prefect Aulus Cornelius Palma, who left Nabatean religious cults untouched. The annexation of Damascus followed, through which the control of the trade of the East altogether passed under the Romans.
The frontier line between Egypt and Asia during the period of Roman rule began at Raphia, modern Rafa, and ran in a westerly direction, then turning sharply south towards Arsinoë near the present Suez. The coastal province was called Augustamnica Prima according to Ammianus Marcellinus. It included a number of cities which, by virtue of being situated in a province belonging to Egypt, were later included in the patriarchate of Alexandria.
The first of these cities on the road from Syria was El Arish, situated near the Wadi el Arish, the river or “stream of Egypt” of the Bible (Isa. xxvii. 12). El Arish was accounted a very ancient city by the Arabs. Its land was cultivated soon after the Deluge and was called the Gate to Paradise. Abraham passed here. Makrizi († 1441) relates a tradition regarding the building of reed huts there, which recalls an incident preserved by Diodorus Siculus (c. b.c. 20), the origin of which may be sought in the wish to explain the later name of the city which was Rhinocorura or Rhinocolura. According to Diodorus, King Actisanes of Egypt, possibly Hor-em-heb (XVIII 14), having conquered Egypt, collected all who were suspected of thieving, and after their judicial conviction, caused their noses to be cut off, and sent them to colonise a city built for them at the extremity of the desert. Here, being destitute of means of subsistence, they resorted to the device of splitting reeds, which they wove into nets and stretched out along the sea shore to catch quails. The incident of the noses (quasi ῥῖνος κόλουροι = curti, al. ρ. κείρασθαι), determined the name of the place.[134] Its Egyptian name was probably Zaru ([Fig. 18]).
The city gained in importance during Roman times. Strabo called it a city of Phœnicia, close to Egypt, and an emporium of Indian and Arabic merchandise, which was discharged at Leukokome and conveyed via Petra to Rhinocorura, where it was dispersed.[135] The city is now partly enclosed by walls of considerable thickness, and lies half a mile from the coast on the edge of the desert. According to the travellers, Irby and Mangles, it contains some notable Roman remains. From this period probably date the marble columns, later appropriated to the churches which were eventually transported to Cairo.
West of Rhinocorura lay Ostracine, the site of which is nowadays surrounded by marshland which is flooded at certain times of the year. The city was formerly fed by a canal that brought water from the Tanitic branch of the Nile. The strategic importance of Ostracine attracted the attention of the emperor Vespasian. For the road coming from Syria divided at Ostracine. One branch led north of the Serbonian bog, via Casium, Gerra and Pelusium to Alexandria; another passing south of the bog, was the old military road to Memphis with stations at Katia and Kantara. A third road led from Ostracine to Arsinoë (near the present Suez), which Pliny described as “mountainous and destitute of water” (asperum montibus et inops aquarum).[136]
Ostracine has recently been excavated by Clédat. It consisted of two parts, an inland part with a fortress and a church which have been excavated, and a maritime port, Ostracine Majumas, where Roman remains were found, including mosaics and sculpture, now transferred to the museum at Ishmailia. The buildings were not constructed of brick, but of stone, which points to a certain wealth. Here also there were the remains of a church. The name Ostracine signifies shell, a meaning reproduced in the Arabic El Flousiyeh the name of the village that now occupies the site of the inland part of the town.
West of Ostracine lay the Serbonian bog which stood out in men’s minds as the scene of the disaster which befell the invading Persian forces in the year b.c. 350. On the northern side of the bog, beyond the break in the narrow strip of land confining it, lay Casium, which had a hill with a temple dedicated to Zeus Casius or Jupiter Ammon. On the flank of this hill a tumulus marked the place where the beheaded body of Pompey the Great was buried. Pompey was murdered when he landed on the coast after his defeat at Pharsalia; and Hadrian, at a later date, erected a monument to his memory of which remains were found near Pelusium.