Caravan Cities coast (a significant point, as we will see below), and less than that to Da-
mascus (which raises the question of whether Damascus was in any sense a
caravan city). In fact, however, even in this context, Pliny makes no reference
to trade.
The question of how ancient writers speak about long-distance trade re-
mains, however inadequate their accounts are, of central importance. To re-
view what we know, I would like to begin in the South, with routes through
Arabia, then go to the North, to the Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia; and
finally come to the only area which presents a mass of local, documentary
evidence, namely Palmyra and the Euphrates.
There is a good reason for beginning in the extreme South, for it is here
that Pliny gives the most concrete and detailed available account of any long-
distance trade route by land. What Pliny is describing is a route running
north along the east side of the Red Sea, starting from Thomna (or Thumna)
in the territory of the Gebbanitae (present-day Yemen) and going all the way
to Gaza on the Mediterranean coast. This is what he says:
It (i.e. Frankincense) can only be exported through the country of the
Gebbanitae, and accordingly a tax is paid on it to the king of that people
as well. Their capital is Thomna, which is ½ miles distant from
the town of Gaza in Judaea on the Mediterranean coast; the journey
is divided into stages with halts for camels. Fixed portions of the
frankincense are also given to the priests and the king’s secretaries, but
beside these the guards and their attendants and the gate-keepers and
servants also have their pickings: indeed all along the route they keep
on paying, at one place for water, at another for fodder, or the charges
for lodging at the halts, and the various tolls; so that expenses mount up
to denariiper camel before the Mediterranean coast is reached; and
then again payment is made to the customs officers of our Empire.^10Pliny is being quite up to date, for Gaza had probably become a part of the
province of Judaea only after the Jewish War, which had ended in .^11 What
he says about the total distances is in truth unreliable, for the manuscripts
vary. But we know the distance, as the crow flies, anyway: it is approximately
, miles. If Pliny has indicated the number of stages correctly, each of the
stages will have covered on average miles, not allowing for deviations.
What is crucial is the indication that the goods were carried on camels,
.NH./–, Loeb trans.
. F. Millar,The Roman Near East, ..–..(), –.