Sailing Around Erythraean Sea: Two

Updated on 15/11/2024

The previous point was Berenice Troglodytica, on Egyptian coast of Red Sea.

On the right-hand coast next below Berenice is the country of Berbers. Along the shore are the Fish-Eaters, living in scattered caves in the narrow valleys. Further inland are the Berbers, and beyond them the Wild Flesh-Eaters and the Calf-Eaters, each tribe governed by its chief; and behind them, further inland, in the country toward the west there lies a city called Meroe.

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1. Berbers: Here means the natives of Northeastern Africa, between Red Sea and the River Nile upto Somalia.They are also known as Imazighen, meaning free man. They speak Berber languages, which belongs to Afroasiatic language family. The language has 300 dialects. Mainly nomadic, and move about with their herds, but some of them have taken to farming. Greeks referred to them as Barbaroi, which is derived from Arabic word "Barbara" meaning to babble noisily or to babble or jabber. Arabs did not understand the language and they used "Barbara" to qualify the native language. The Aryan tribes who came to Indian subcontinent could not understand the language of native tribes and used to call it "Mlechcha" is parallel to this.

2. Fish-Eaters: They were unrelated cave-dwelling tribes in different parts of the world. Ichthyophagoi (Greek) was the name given to them by ancient geographers. Herodotus mentions three types of Babylonians who were only fish-eaters. Strabo referred to them all along the African coast of Red Sea. Ptolemy refers to them along the coast of Persian Gulf. They were also there along the coasts of Makran and Baluchistan. Take note that it was the dawn of civilization; transformation from hunter-gathererers to cattle-rearers and shifting cultivation to permanent settlers was gradual and not uniform. Different societies were at different stages of development.

3. Wild-flesh Eaters: Agriophagoi is the Greek term, the hunter gathers' tribes

4. Calf-Eaters: Moschophagoi is the Greek term. It means shoot eters. Cattle rearers' tribes, and nomadic.

5. Meroe: Ancient Nubian city on the east bank of Nile River in  modern day Sudan. It is near Kabushiya, Shendi.  Now it is away from the coast. (See Google Maps) It was the capital of the kingdom of Kush. At the time of Periplus Maris Erythraea Nubia was under the control of Egypt. Kush kingdom was known for its extensive trade routes known for ivory.

The End of the Section 

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