Classics Retold

Updated 01/11/2024 Below Ptolemais of Hunts , at a distance of about three thousand stadia from Berenice there is Adulis , a port established by law, lying at the inner end of a bay that runs in toward the south. Before the harbour lies the so called Mountain island, about two hundred stadia sea-ward from the very head of the bay, with the shores of the mainland close to it on both sides. Ships bound for this port now anchor here because of attacks from land. They used formerly to anchor at the very head of the bay, by an island called Diodorus , close to the shore, which could be reached on foot from the land; by which means the barbarous natives attacked the island. Opposite Mountain island, on the mainland twenty stadia from shore, lies Adulis, a fair sized village from which there is a three days'journey to Coloe , an inland town and the first market for ivory. From that place to the city of the people called Auxumites , there is a five days' journey more; to that place a...

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. My Search:- 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 und...

The unknown navigator, still in Opone ( modern day Hafun)is moving forward. Beyond Opone , the shore trending more toward the south, first there are the small and great bluffs of Azania, this coast is destitute of harbours, but there are places where ships can lie at anchor, and the shore being abrupt; and this course is of six days; the direction being south west. Then come small and great beach for another six days' course and after that in order, the Courses of Azania, the first being called Sarapion and the next Nicon ; and after that several rivers and other anchorages, one after the other, separately a rest and a run for each day, seven in all, until Pyralae  islands and what is called the Channel ; after which a little to the south of the southwest, after two courses of a day and night along the Ausanitic coast, is the island Menuthias, about three hundred stadia from the mainland, low and wooded, in which there are rivers and many kinds of birds and the mountain tortoise...