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The ancient geographers did not usually extend ‘Arabia’ to the Mediterranean, nor does H. himself in iv. 39. He means here that the ends of the trade routes from Arabia to the Mediterranean were under Arabian control (cf. iii. 107 seq. for this spice trade); he writes τοῦ Ἀραβίου, ‘in possession of the Arabian,’ not τῆς Ἁραβίης, For the Arabs of South Palestine as dependent allies (not subjects) of the Persians cf. 88. 1 n.

Jenysus must have been a little further from Egypt than the once important port of Rhinocolura (Strabo 781), as Titus marched from Pelusium (a day west of Mount Casius) to Rhinocolura in three days (Joseph. B.J. iv. 11. 5), and H. allows ‘three days’ from Mount Casius to Jenysus. Its name has been traced in ‘Khan Jûnes’, the traditional site of the casting-up of Jonah; but this is too far from Egypt, and its name ‘resting place of Jonah’ obviously dates from Mahometan times.

For Mount Casius and the Serbonian Lake cf. ii. 6. 1 n.

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