Arabia

Arabia);

but we know that the soil of Libya is redder and somewhat sandy, and Arabia and Syria are lands of clay and stones.

Now in Arabia, not far from Egypt, there is a gulf extending inland from the sea called Red, whose length and width are such as I shall show:

At that time the king of Assyria had subjugated all Syria, a very large nation, and had made the king of Arabia his vassal;

for in previous times people in Media and in Syria and in Arabia, and all the people in Asia used the chariot just as the Cyrenaeans now do.

The Cilicians were all present already, they said, as were also the contingents from both Phrygias, Lycaonia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, Arabia, and Phoenicia;

or whether they be not rather slaves to their own body, and to others, confining within a very small circle the natural effects and hopes of industry, like those little fruitful spots scattered here and there in the sandy deserts of Arabia;

and Damascus was formerly reckoned to Arabia, before it was transcribed into Syrophoenicia by the distinction of the Syrias — whose strength then Christ received, by receiving its insignia, namely gold and perfume.

For in the fifth book of his Histories, beginning the Jewish war from the origin of the nation, after arguing what he pleased both about that origin and about the name and religion of the nation, he relates that the Jews, when delivered out of Egypt — or, as he thought, driven out — in the vast and waterless wilds of Arabia, perishing with thirst, used as guides to a spring some wild asses which, …

Thence he marched through Arabia, keeping the Euphrates on the right, five stages through desert country, thirty-five parasangs.

trees there were none, but wild animals of all sorts, vast numbers of wild asses and many ostriches, besides bustards and gazelles.

But no ostrich was captured by anyone, and any horseman who chased one speedily desisted; for it would distance him at once in its flight, not merely plying its feet, but hoisting its wings and using them like a sail. The bustards, on the other hand, can be caught if one is quick in starting them up, for they fly only a short distance, like partridges, and soon tire; and their flesh was delicious.