Book 16
4.18
Having given this account of the Troglodytae and of the neighbouring Ethiopians, Artemidorus returns to the Arabians. Beginning from Poseidium, he first describes those who border upon the Arabian Gulf, and are opposite to the Troglodytae. He says that Poseidium is situated within the bay of [Heroopolis],The bay of Heroopolis is the modern bay of Suez. In the text Aelanitic bay, which is an error of the author or of the copyist. and that contiguous to PoseidiumAn altar to Poseidon (Neptune), which was erected by Aristo, whom one of the Ptolemies had sent to explore the Arabian Gulf. is a grove of palm trees,φοινικων, a grove of palm trees, is taken as a proper name by Diodorus Siculus, b. iii. 41. well supplied with water, which is highly valued, because all the district around is burnt up and is without water or shade. But there the fertility of the palm is prodigious. A man and a woman are appointed by hereditary right to the guardianship of the grove. They wear skins, and live on dates. They sleep in huts built on trees, the place being infested with multitudes of wild beasts.
