settled all the other uninhabited islands with a numerous population; and such was the glory ascribed to him by the popular voice because of these his deeds, that even down to our own time they have called that sea, infinite in extent, Erythraean. And so, for the reason here set forth, it is to be well distinguished (for to say Erýthra thálatta, Sea of Erythras, is a very different thing from Thálatta erythrá, Red Sea); for the one commemorates the most illustrious man of that sea, while the other refers to the color of the water. Now the one explanation of the name, as due to the color, is false (for the sea is not red), but the other, ascribing it to the man who ruled there, is the true one, as the Persian story testifies."
Here is manifestly a kernel of truth, referring, however, to a much earlier time than the Empire of the Medes and their capital Pasargadae. It suggest the theory of a Cushite-Elamite migration around Arabia, as set forth by Glaser and Hommel: the story of a people from Elam, who settled in the Bahrein Islands and then spread along South Arabia, leaving their epithet of "Red" or "ruddy" in many places, including the sea that washed their vessels: "Sea of the Red People," or, according to Agatharchides, "of the Red King." See under §§ 4, 23, and 27.
1. Designated ports.—Trade was limited to ports of entry established, or, as the text has it, "designated" by law, and supervised by government officials who levied duties. There were many such ports on the Red Sea under the Ptolemies. There were also ports of entry maintained by the Nabataean Kingdom, by the Homerite Kingdom in Yemen, and by the newly-established Kingdom of the Axumites; the later, possibly, farmed to Egyptian Greeks, now Roman subjects.
Fabricius objects to "designated," and translates "frequented," thereby straining the meaning of the word and losing its obvious description of historical facts.
Under the early Ptolemies, who succeeded Alexander the Great, Egypt went far toward recovering her former wealth and glory. Under Ptolemy II, called Philadelphus (B. C. 285–246) the canal between the Nile and the Red Sea (originally dug by one of the Sesostrises, about the 20th century B. C., reopened under the Empire in the 15th century, and partly reopened by the Persians under Darius in the 5th century), was once more open to commerce; various caravan-routes, carefully provided with wells and stopping-places, were opened between the river and the sea, and where they terminated ports of entry were established and colonized. Egyptian shipping on the Red Sea was encouraged, and regular trade was opened with the Sabaeans of
