AQUILEIA.

foundation (Julian. Or. II. de gest. Const.; Eustath. | ad Dion. Per. 378), quickly rose to great wealth and prosperity, and became an important commercial emporium; for which it was mainly indebted to its favourable position, as it were, at the entrance of Italy, and at the foot of the pass of Mount Ocra, which must always have been the easiest passage from the NE. The accidental discovery into the Italian plains. of valuable gold mines in the neighbouring Alps, in the time of Polybius, doubtless contributed to its prosperity (Pol. ap. Strab. iv. p. 208); but a more permanent source of wealth was the trade carried on there with the barbarian tribes of the mountains, and especially with the Illyrians and Pannonians on These brought the Danube and its tributaries. slaves, cattle and hides, which they exchanged for the wine and oil of Italy. All these productions were transported by land carriage as far as Nauportus, and thence by the Save into the Danube. (Strab.iv. p. 207, v. p. 214.) After the provinces of Illyria and Pannonia had been permanently united to the Roman Empire, the increased intercourse between the east and west necessarily added to the commercial prosperity of Aquileia. Nor was it less important in a military point of view. Caesar made it the head-quarters of his legions in Cisalpine Gaul, probably with a view to operations against the Illyrians (Caes. B. G. i. 10), and we afterwards find it repeatedly mentioned as the post to which the emperors, or their generals, repaired for the defence of the NE. frontier of Italy, or the first place which was occupied by the armies that entered it from that quarter. (Suet. Aug. 20, Tib. 7, Vesp. 6; Tac. Hist. ii. 46, 85, iii. 6, 8.) The same circumstance exposed it to repeated dangers. Under the reign of Augustus it was attacked, though without success, by the Iapodes (Appian. Illyr. 18); and at a later period, having had the courage to shut its gates against the tyrant Maximin, it was exposed to the first brunt of his fury, but was able to defy all his efforts during a protracted siege, which was at length terminated by the assassination of the emperor by his own soldiers, A. D. 238. (Herodian. viii, 2-5; Capitol. Maximin. 21-23.) At this time Aquileia was certainly one of the most important and flourishing cities of Italy, and during the next two centuries it continued to enjoy the same prosperity. It not only retained its colonial rank, but became the acknowledged capital of the province of Venetia; and was the only city of Italy, besides Rome itself, that had the privilege of a mint. (Not. Dign. ii. p. 48.) Ausonius, about the middle of the fourth century, ranks Aquileia as the ninth of the great cities of the Roman empire, and inferior among those of Italy only to Milan and Capua. (Ordo Nob. Urb. 6.) Though situated in a plain, it was strongly fortified with walls and towers, and seems to have enjoyed the reputation of an impregnable fortress. (Amm. Marc. xxi. 12.) During the later years of the empire it was the scene of Thus, in A. D. 340, the several decisive events. younger Constantine was defeated and slain on the banks of the river Alsa, almost beneath its walls. (Victor. Epit. 41. § 21; Eutrop. x. 9; Hieron. Chron. ad ann. 2356.) In 388 it witnessed the defeat and death of the usurper Maximus by Theodosius the Great (Zosim. iv. 46; Victor. Epit. 48; Idat. Chron. p. 11; Auson. l. c.); and in 425, that of Joannes by the generals of Theodosius II. (Procop. B. V. i. 2; Philostorg. xii. 14.) At length in A. D. 452 it was besieged by Attila, king of the

AQUILONIA.

an obstinate defence for above three months, was
Huns, with a formidable host, and after maintaining
finally taken by assault, plundered, and burnt to
the ground. (Cassiod. Chron. p. 230; Jornand.
Get. 42; Procop. B. V. i. 4. p.330; Marcellin. Chron.
was its destruction, that it never rose again from its
p. 290; Hist. Miscell. xv. p. 549.) So complete
ashes; and later writers speak of it as having left
scarcely any ruins as vestiges of its existence.
(Jornand. l. c.; Liutprand. iii. 2.) But these ex-
pressions must not be construed too strictly; it
never became again a place of any importance, but
century was still the residence of a bishop, who, on
was at least partially inhabited; and in the sixth
the invasion of the Lombards, took refuge with all
the other inhabitants of Aquileia in the neighbour-
ing island of Gradus, at the entrance of the lagunes.
(Cassiodor. Var. xii. 26; P. Diac. ii. 10.) The
bishops of Aquileia, who assumed the Oriental title
of Patriarch, continued, notwithstanding the decay
of the city, to maintain their pretensions to the
highest ecclesiastical rank, and the city itself cer-
tainly maintained a sickly existence throughout
the middle ages. Its final decay is probably to be
attributed to the increasing unhealthiness of the
situation. At the present day Aquileia is a mere
straggling village, with about 1400 inhabitants,
and no public buildings except the cathedral. No
ruins of any ancient edifice are visible, but the
site abounds with remains of antiquity, coins, en-
as shafts and capitals of columns, fragments of
graved stones, and other minor objects, as well
friezes, &c., the splendour and beauty of which suf-
ficiently attest the magnificence of the ancient city.
Of the numerous inscriptions discovered there, the
most interesting are those which relate to the wor-
ship of Belenus, a local deity whom the Romans
identified with Apollo, and who was believed to have
co-operated in the defence of the city against Maxi-
min. (Orell. Inscr.1967, 1968, &c.; Herodian. viii. 3;
Capitol. Maximin. 22; Bertoli, Antichità di Aqui-
leia, Venice, 1739, p. 86-96.)

Besides its commercial and military importance,
Aquileia had the advantage of possessing a territory
of the greatest fertility; it was especially noted for
was the situation, in ancient times, considered un-
the abundance of its wine. (Herodian. viii. 2.) Nor
healthy, the neighbouring lagunes, like those of
(Vitruv. i. 4. §11;
Altinum and Ravenna, being open to the flux and
reflux of the tides, which are distinctly sensible in
this part of the Adriatic.
Strab. v. p. 212; Procop. B. G. i. 1. p. 9.) Strabo
speaks of the river Natiso as navigable up to the
very walls of Aquileia (v. p. 214); but this could
never have been adapted for large vessels, and it is
probable that there existed from an early period a
port or emporium on the little island of Gradus, at
the mouth of the river, and entrance of the lagunes.
We even learn that this island was, at one time,
joined to the mainland by a paved causeway, which
must certainly have been a Roman work. But the
name of Gradus does not occur till after the fall of
the Western Empire (P. Diac. ii. 10, iii. 25, v. 17),
is still called
when it became, for a time, a considerable city, but
[E. H. B.]
afterwards fell into decay, and is now a poor place,
with about 2000 inhabitants;
AQUILO'NIA ('Akoviλwvía, Ptol.). The exist
Grado.
ence of two cities of this name, both situated in
Samnium, appears to be clearly established; though
they have been regarded by many writers as iden-

tical. 1. A city of the Hirpini, situated near the Second Punic War on occasion of the march of Hanfrontiers of Apulia, is mentioned by Pliny and Pto- nibal upon Rome by the Via Latina. (Liv. xxvi. lemy, both of whom distinctly assign it to the Hir-9; Sil. Ital. xii.) But all writers agree in describpini, and not to Samnium proper; while the Tabula places it on the Via Appia, 37 M. P. from Aeculanum and 6 from the Pons Aufidi (Ponte Sta Venere) on the road to Venusia. These distances coincide well with the situation of the modern city of Lacedogna, the name of which closely resembles the Oscan form of Aquilonia, which, as we learn from coins, was "Akudunniu." The combination of these circumstances leaves little doubt that Lacedogna, which is certainly an ancient city, represents the Aquilonia of Pliny and Ptolemy, as well as that of the Tabula. (Plin. iii. 11. s. 16; Ptol. iii. 1. s. 71; Tab. Peut.; Holsten. Not. ad Cluv. p. 274; Romanelli, vol. ii. p. 345.) But it seems impossible to reconcile this position of Aquilonia with the details given by Livy (x. 38-43) concerning a city of the same name in Samnium, which bore an important part in the campaign of the consuls Carvilius and Papirius in B. C. 293.

AQUITANIA.

ARA UBIORUM. AQUITA'NIA, AQUITA'NI ('Akvïтavía, 'Akv- | invaded this country, the Aquitani sent for and got Tavol, Strab.). Caesar (B. G. i. 1) makes Aqui- assistance from their nearest neighbours in Spain, tania one of the three divisions of the country which which, in some degree, confirms the opinion of their he calls Gallia. The Garumna (Garonne) divided being of Iberian stock. When they opposed Crassus, the Aquitani from the Celtae or the Galli, as the they had for their king, or commander-in-chief, Romans called them. Aquitania extended from the Adcantuannus, who had about him a body of 600 one another not to survive if any ill luck befel their Garumna to the Pyrenees: its western boundary devoted men, called Soldurii, who were bound to Its boundaries are not more accufriends. The Aquitani were skilled in counterminwas the ocean. rately defined by Caesar, who did not visit the country until B. C. 50. (B. G. viii. 46.) In B. c. 56 ing, for which operation they were qualified by he sent P. Crassus into Aquitania with a force to working the minerals of their country. The comprevent the Aquitani assisting the Galli (B. G. iii.plete reduction of the Aquitani was effected B. C. 28, 11, 20, &c.); and he informs us incidentally that the towns of Tolosa (Toulouse), Carcaso (Cercas sone), and Narbo (Narbonne) were included within the Roman Gallia Provincia, and thus enables us to fix the eastern boundary of Aquitania at this time within certain limits. A large part of the Aquitani submitted to Crassus. Finally all the cities of Aquitania gave Caesar hostages. (B. G. viii. 46.) Augustus, B. C. 27, made a new division of Gallia into four parts (Strab. p. 177); but this division did not affect the eastern boundary of the Aquitani, who were still divided as before from the Celtae (who were included in Narbonensis) on the east by the heights on the Cevenna (Cévennes); which range is stated by Strabo not quite correctly to extend from the Pyrenees to near Lyon. But Augustus extended the boundaries of Aquitania north of the Garumna, by adding to Aquitania fourteen tribes north of the Garonne. Under the Lower Empire Aquitania was further subdivided. [GALLIA.]

As the
by the proconsul M. Valerius Messalla, who had a
triumph for his success. (Sueton. Aug. 21; Ap-
pian. B. C. iv. 38; Tibullus, ii. 1. 33.)
Aquitani had a marked nationality, it was Roman
policy to confound them with the Celtae, which
was effected by the new division of Augustus. It
has been conjectured that the name Aquitani is
derived from the numerous mineral springs (aquae)
which exist on the northern slope of the Pyrenees;
which supposition implies that Aq is a native name
for "water." Pliny (iv. 19), when he enumerates
the tribes of Aquitanica, speaks of a people called
Aquitani, who gave their name to the whole coun-
try. In another passage (iv. 17), he says, that
Aquitanica was first called Armorica; which as-
sertion may perhaps be reckoned among the blun-
ders of this writer. [ARMORICA.]

Hautes Pyrénées.

[G. L.]

AR. [AREOPOLIS.]
ARA LUGDUNENSIS. [LUGDUNUM.]

The Aquitania of Caesar comprised the flat, of the Atlantic, called Les Landes, and the nudreary region south of the Garonne, along the coast The chief tribes included within the Aquitania merous valleys on the north face of the Pyrenees, of Augustus were these: Tarbelli, Cocosates, Bi- which are drained by the Adour, and by some of gerriones, Sibuzates, Preciani, Convenae, Ausci, the branches of the Garonne. The best part of it Garites, Garumni, Datii, Sotiates, Osquidates Cam-contained the modern departments of Basses and pestres, Sucasses, Tarusates, Vocates, Vasates, Elusates, Atures, Bituriges Vivisci, Meduli; north of the Garumna, the Petrocorii, Nitiobriges, Cadurci, Ruteni, Gabali, Vellavi, Arverni, Lemovices, SanThe Aquitania of tones, Pictones, Bituriges Cubi. Augustus comprehended all that country north of the Garonne which is bounded on the east by the Allier, and on the north by the Loire, below the influx of the Allier, and a large part of the Celtae were thus included in the division of Aquitania. Strabo indeed observes, that this new arrangement extended Aquitania in one part even to the banks of the Rhone, for it took in the Helvii. The name Aquitania was retained in the middle ages; and after the dismemberment of the empire of Charlemagne, Aquitania formed one of the three grand divisions of France, the other two being the France of that period in its proper restricted sense, and Bretagne; and a king of Aquitaine, whose power or whose pretensions extended from the Loire to the Pyrenees, was crowned at Poitiers. (Thierry, Lettres sur l'Histoire de France, No. xi.) But the geographical extent of the term Aquitania was limited by the invasions of the Basques or Vascones, who settled between the Py-logne, which some writers would make the site of renees and the Garonne, and gave their name Gascogne to a part of the SW. of France. The name Aquitania became corrupted into Guienne, a division of France up to 1789, and the last trace of the ancient name of Aquitania.

The Aquitani had neither the same language, nor the same physical characters as the Celtae. (Caes. B. G. i. 1; Strab. pp. 177, 189; Amm. Marc. xv. 11, who here merely copies Caesar.) In both these respects, Strabo says, that they resembled the When P. Crassus Iberi, more than the Celtae.

ARA UBIO'RUM, an altar and sacred place in the territory of the Ubii, on the west side of the In A. D. 14, Germanicus Rhine. The priest of the place was a German. (Tacit. Ann. i. 57.) This altar is first mentioned was at the Ara Ubiorum, then the winter-quarters in the time of Tiberius. In the time of of the first and twentieth legions, and of some Veterani. (Tacit. Ann. i. 39.) Vespasian (Tacit. Hist. iv. 19, 25), Bonna (Bonn), is possible that the on the Rhine, is spoken of as the winter-quarters of the first legion. As the winter-quarters seem to have been permanent stations, Ara Ubiorum and Bonna may be the same place. The Ara Ubiorum is placed, by Tacitus, sixty miles (sexagesimum apud lapidem, Ann. i. 45), from Vetera, the quarters of the fifth and twenty-first legions; and Vetera is fixed by D'Anville at Xanten, near the Rhine, in the former duchy of Cleves. This disus about Bonn. The distance from Vetera to Cotance measured along the road by the Rhine brings

the measure which D'Anville assumes that we must the Ara Ubiorum, is only about 42 Gallic leagues, adopt. If we go a few miles north of Bonn, to a God's Hill, or Mons Sacer, we find that the distance small eminence named Godesberg, which may mean very well the 60 of Tacitus, who may have used from Vetera is 57 Gallic leagues, and this will suit round numbers. If we compare the passages of Tacitus (Ann. i. 37, 39), it appears that he means "Ara Ubiorum." By combining these passages the same place by the "Civitas Ubiorum," and the

|

deduces it from Yarab, the son of Joktan, the ancestor of the race. The late Professor Rosen derived it from the verbal root yaraba (Heb. arab.), to set or go down (as the sun), with reference to the position of Arabia to the W. of the Euphrates and the earliest abodes of the Semitic race. Others seek its origin in arabah, a desert, the name actually employed, in several passages of the Old Testament, to denote the region E. of the Jordan and Dead Sea, as far S. as the Aelanitic or E. head of the Red Sea; in fact the original Arabia, an important part of which district, namely the valley extending from the Dead Sea to the Aelanitic Gulf, bears to this day the name of Wady-el-Arabah.

with one in the Histories (Agrippinenses, iv. 28), some have concluded that the Ara Ubiorum is Cologne. But Cologne was not a Roman foundation, at least under the name of Colonia Agrippinensis, until the time of Caudius, A. . 51; and the identity, or proximity, of the Civitas Ubiorum, and of the Ara Ubiorum, in the time of Tiberius, seems to be established by the expressions in the Annals (i. 37, 39); and the Ara Ubiorum is near Bonn. [G.L.] ARABIA ('Apabía: Eth. "Apay; 'Apábios, Her.; "Apabos, Aesch. Pers. 318, fem. 'Apábioσa, Tzetz.; Arabs; pl. "Apa¤es, 'Apá¤ioi, "Apa6oi, Arăbes, Arăbi, Arabii: Adj. 'Apábios, 'Apabikós, Arabus, Arabius, Arabicus: the A is short, but forms with the A long and the r doubled are also found: native names, Belád-el-Arab, i. e. Land of the Arabs, Jezi-nations; and invented, according to their practice rát-el-Arab, i. e. Peninsula of the Arabs; Persian of personifying in such cases, an Arabia, wife of and Turkish, Arabistân: Arabia), the westernmost Aegyptus. (Apollod. ii. 1. § 5.) of the three great peninsulas of Southern Asia, is one of the most imperfectly known regions of the civilized world; but yet among the most interesting, as one of the earliest seats of the great Semitic race, who have preserved in it their national characteristics and independence from the days of the patriarchs to the present hour; and as the source and centre of the most tremendous revolution that ever altered the condition of the nations.

I. Names. The name by which the country was known to the Greeks and Romans, and by which we still denote it, is that in use among the natives. But it is important to observe that the Hebrews, from which we derive our first information, did not use the name Arabia till after the time of Solomon: the reason may have been that it was only then that they became acquainted with the country properly so called, namely the peninsula itself, S. of a line drawn between the heads of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The notion that the whole country was assigned to Ishmael and peopled by his descendants is a mere misunderstanding of the language of Scripture. (See below, § IV.) It was only in the N. part of Arabia that the Ishmaelites settled; and it is to that portion of the country, almost exclusively, that we must apply those passages of the Old Testament in which it is spoken of as Eretz-Kedem or Kedemah, i. e. Land of the East, and its people as the Beni-Kedem, i. e. Sons of the East; the region, namely, immediately East of Palestine (Gen. xxv. 6; Judges, vi. 3; Job, i. 3; 1 Kings iv. 30; Isaiah, xi. 14: comp. dvaτoλh, Matt. ii. 1). When the term Kedem seems to refer to parts of the peninsula more to the S., the natural explanation is that its use was extended indefinitely to regions adjoining those to which it was at first applied.

The Greeks received the name from the Eastern

II. Situation, Boundaries, Extent, and Divisions. The peninsula of Arabia, in the stricter sense of the word, lies between 12° and 30° N. lat., and between 32° and 59° E. long. It is partly within and partly without the tropics; being divided into two almost equal parts by the Tropic of Cancer, which passes through the city of Muscat, about 1° N. of the E. promontory, and on the W. nearly half way between Mecca and Medina. It projects into the sea between Africa and the rest of Asia, in a sort of hatchet shape, being bounded on the W. by the Arabicus Sinus (Red Sea), as far as its southernmost point, where the narrow strait of Bab-el-Mandeb scarcely cuts it off from Africa; on the S. and SE. by the Sinus Paragon (Gulf of Oman), and Erythraeum Mare (Indian Ocean); and on the NE. by the Persicus Sinus (Persian Gulf). On the N. it is connected with the continent of Asia by the Isthmus, extending for about 800 miles across from the mouth of the Tigris at the head of the Persian Gulf to the NW. extremity of the Red Sea, at the head of the Sinus Aelaniticus (G. of Akabah). A line drawn across this Isthmus, and coinciding almost exactly with the parallel of 30° N. lat., would represent very nearly the northern boundary, as at present defined, and as often understood in ancient times; but, if used to represent the view of the ancient writers in general, it would be a limit altogether arbitrary, and often entirely false. From the very nature of the country, the wandering tribes of N. Arabia, the children of the Desert, always did, as they do to this day, roam over that triangular extension of their deserts which runs up northwards between Syria and the Euphrates, as a region which no other people has ever disputed with them, though it has often been assigned to Syria by geographers, both ancient and modern, including the Arabs themselves. Generally, the ancient geographers followed nature and fact in assigning the greater part of this desert to Arabia; the N. limits of which were roughly determined by the presence of Palmyra, which, with the surrounding country, from Antilibanus to the Euphrates, as far S. on the river as Thapsacus at least, was always reckoned a part of Syria. The peninsula between the two heads of the Red Sea was also reckoned a part of Arabia. Hence the boundary of Arabia, on the land side, may be drawn pretty much as follows: from the head of the Gulf of Heroöpolis (G. of Suez), an imaginary and somewhat indeterminate line, running NE. across the desert Isthmus of Suez to near As to the origin of the word Arab, various opinions the mouth of the "river of Egypt" (the brook Elhave been broached. The common native tradition | Arish), divided Arabia from Egypt: thence, turning

The word Arab, which first occurs after the time of Solomon, is also applied to only a small portion of the country. Like such names as Moab, Edom, and others, it is used both as the name of the country and as the collective name of the people, who were called individually Arabi, and in later Hebrew Arbi, pl. Arbim and Arbiim. Those denoted by it are the wandering tribes of the N. deserts and the commercial people along the N. part of the E. shore of the Red Sea (2 Chron. ix. 14, xvii. 11, xxi. 16, xxii. 1, xxvi.7; Isaiah, xiii. 20, xxi. 13; Jer. iii. 2, xxv. 24; Ezek. xxvii. 21; Neh. ii. 19, iv. 7). At what time the name was extended to the whole peninsula is uncertain.

ARABIA.

eastward, the boundary towards Palestine varied with the varying fortunes of the Jews and Idumeans [IDUMAEA]: then, passing_round the SE. part of the Dead Sea, and keeping E. of the valley of the Jordan, so as to leave to Palestine the district of Perea; then running along the E. foot of Antilibanus, or retiring further to the E., according to the varying extent assigned to COELE SYRIA; and turning eastward at about 34° N. lat., so as to pass S. of the territory of Palmyra; it reached the right bank of the Euphrates somewhere S. of Thapsacus; and followed the course of that river to the Persian Gulf, except where portions of land on the right bank, in the actual possession of the people of Babylonia, were reckoned as belonging to that country. (Comp. Strab. xvi. p. 765; Plin. vi. 28. s. 32; Ptol. v. 17.)

often given to Arabia But even a wider extent On the former both on the NE. and on the W. side, Xenophon gives the name of Arabia to the sandy tract on the E. bank of the Euphrates, in Mesopotamia S. of the Chaboras, or, as he calls it, Araxes (Khabour); and certainly, according to his minute and lively description, this region was thoroughly Arabian in its physical characteristics, animals, and products (Anab. i. 5. § 1). The S. part of Mesopotamia is at present called Irak-Arabí. Pliny also applies the name of Arabia to the part of Mesopotamia adjoining the Euphrates, so far N. as to include Edessa and the country opposite to Commagene; almost, therefore, or quite to the confines of Armenia; and he makes Singara the capital of a tribe of Arabs, called Praetavi (v. 24. s. 20, 21); and when he comes expressly to describe Arabia, he repeats his statement more distinctly, and says that Arabia descends from M. Amanus over against Cilicia and Commagene (vi. 28. s. 32; comp. Plut. Pomp. 39; Diod. xix. 94; Tac. Ann. xii. 12). On the west, Herodotus (ii. 12) regards Syria as forming the seaboard of Arabia. Damascus and its territory belonged to Arabia in the time of St. Paul (Gal. i. 17); and the whole of Palestine E. of the Jordan was frequently included under the name. Nay, even on the W. side of the Red Sea, the part of Egypt between the margin of the Nile Valley and the coast was called Arabiae Nomos, and was considered by Herodotus as part of Arabia. The propriety of the designation will be seen under the next head.

The surface of Arabia is calculated to be about
four times that of France: its greatest length from
N. to S. about 1,500 miles; its average breadth about
800 miles, and its area about 1,200,000 sq. miles.

The Greek and Roman writers in general divided
Arabia into two parts, ARABIA DESERTA ( epnuos
'Apabia), namely, the northern desert between Syria
and the Euphrates, and ARABIA FELIX ( evdalμwv
'Apabia), comprising the whole of the actual penin-
sula (Diod. Sic. ii. 48. foll.; Strab. xvi. p. 767;
Mela, iii.8; Plin. vi. 28. s.32). Respecting the origin
of the appellation Felix, see below (§ III). The third
division, ARABIA PETRAEA († Пeтрaía 'Apabía) is
first distinctly mentioned by Ptolemy (v. 17. § 1).
It included the peninsula of Sinai, between the two
gulfs of the Red Sea, and the mountain range of
Idumea (Mt. Seir), which runs from the Dead Sea
to the Aelanitic Gulf (Gulf of Akabah); and de-
rived its name, primarily, from the city of PETRA
('Apabía név Пéтрa, Dioscor. de Mat. Med. i. 91;
ʼn καтà тην Пérpav 'Apasía, Agathem. Geogr. ii. 6),
not, as is often supposed, from its physical character,

ARABIA.

as if the Stony or Rocky Arabia, however well the
This division is altogether unknown to the Ara-
name, in this sense, would apply to a portion of it.
bians themselves, who confine the name of Arab-
land to the peninsula itself, and assign the greater
part of Petraea to Egypt, and the rest to Syria, and
call the desert N. of the peninsula the Syrian
Desert, notwithstanding that they themselves are
the masters of it.

III. Physical and Descriptive Geography.-
Though assigned to Asia, in the division of the world
which has always prevailed, Arabia has been often
said to belong more properly to Africa, both in its
physical characteristics and in its position. The
remark rests on a somewhat hasty analogy; what
illustration of the entire want of scientific classifica-
there is in it of soundness merely amounts to an
tion in our division of the world. Ethnographically,
Arabia belongs decidedly to Western Asia, but so do
the countries round the Mediterranean, both in S.
Europe and N. Africa: they all belong, in fact, to a
great zone, extending NW. and SE. from India to
the Atlantic N. of M. Atlas. Physically, Arabia
belongs neither to Africa nor to Asia, but to another
great zone, which extends from the Atlantic S. of
the Atlas through Central Africa and Central Asia;
consisting of a high table-land, for the most part
desert, supported on its N. and S. margins by lofty
mountains; and broken by deep transverse vallies,
of which the basins of the Nile, the Red Sea, and
the Persian Gulf, are the most remarkable. Thus
Arabia stands in the closest physical connection, on
the one hand, with the great African Desert (Sa-
hara), in which Egypt Proper is a mere chasm, and
on the other hand, with the great Desert of Iran;
the continuity being broken, on the former side, by
the valley of the Red Sea, and on the latter, by that
of the Tigris and Euphrates and the Persian Gulf;
which determine the limits of the country without
separating it physically from the great central desert
General Outline. The outline of the country is
plateau which intersects our tripartite continent.
defined by the strongly marked promontories of Po-
seidonium (Ras Mohammed) between the two heads
of the Red Sea; Palindromus (C. Bab-el-Mandeb) on
the SW., at the entrance of the Red Sea; Syagrus
or Corodamum (Ras-el-Had) on the extreme E., at
and Macela (Ras Musendom), NW. of the former,
the mouth of the Paragon Sinus (Gulf of Oman);
the long tongue of land which extends northwards
from Oman, dividing the Gulf of Oman from the
into four parts, the first of which, along the Red Sea,
Persian Gulf. These headlands mark out the coast
forms a slightly concave waving line (neglecting of
course minor irregularities) facing somewhat W. of
SW.; the second, along the Erythraeum Mare (Gulf
of Bab-el-Mandeb, and Arabian Sea) forms an ir-
regular convex line facing the SE. generally (this
side might be divided into two parts at Ras Fartak,
at the mouth of the Gulf of Bab-el-Mandeb, W. of
which the aspect is somewhat S. of SE.): the third,
along the Gulf of Oman, forms a waving concave
line facing the NE.; and the fourth, along the Per-
sian Gulf, sweeps round in a deep curve convex to
the N., as far as El-Katif, broken however by the
The last
great tongue of land which ends in Ras Anfir; and
from El-Katif it passes to the head of the Gulf in
a line nearly straight, facing the NE.
two portions might be included in one, as the NE.
side of the peninsula. The SW. and SE. sides are
very nearly of equal length, namely, in round num-