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part a needy and nomad race. True, [you say,] but adjoining them is Arabia, and the whole country as far as India. One of these is distinguished above all other lands by the title of Felix, note and the other, though not dignified by that name, is both generally believed and also said to be preeminently Blessed.
But [we reply], Homer was not acquainted with India, or
he would have described it. And though he knew of the
Arabia which is now named Felix, at that time it was by no
means wealthy, but a wild country, the inhabitants of which
dwelt for the most part in tents. It is only a small district
which produces the aromatics from which the whole territory
afterwards received its name, note owing to the rarity of the commodity amongst us, and the value set upon it. That the
Arabians are now flourishing and wealthy is due to their vast
and extended traffic, but formerly it does not appear to have
been considerable. A merchant or camel-driver might attain
to opulence by the sale of these aromatics and similar commodities; but Menelaus could only become so either by plunder, or presents conferred on him by kings and nobles, who
had the means at their disposal, and wished to gratify one so
distinguished by glory and renown. The Egyptians, it is
true, and the neighbouring Ethiopians and Arabians, were
not so entirely destitute of the luxuries of civilization, nor so
unacquainted with the fame of Agamemnon, especially after the
termination of the Trojan war, but that Menelaus might have
expected some benefits from their generosity, even as the
breastplate of Agamemnon is said to be
The gift
Iliad xi. 20.
Of Cinyras long since; for rumour loud
Had Cyprus reached. note
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Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Str.].