312 JOhN K. DAVIES
notes 1–2 to his Commentary on the Argive local historian Anaxicrates, FGrH 307. The
fourth-century Heracleides of Cyme is also possible, since a fragment of his Persika describes
the luxurious life-style of the king of the incense-producing area and also reports him as
‘independent and subject to no-one’ (FGrH 689 F 4 apud Ath. 12.517bc).
20 Hist. Pl. 9. 4. 5–6, tr. Hort (LCL) with emendations: not cited in Hackl et al. 2003. Exegesis
in Müller 1978: 709–10.
21 I do not enter into the debate whether they are to be identified with the Aramaean Nabatu,
Nabajat, or Nab’āt named in eighth- and seventh-century Assyrian annals as defeated oppo-
nents of Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal (references in Hackl et al. 2003 : 15–19) or with the
nbjt known from a sixth-century inscription from near Taymā‘ (Broome 1973 ).
22 For the sceptical case, see Negev 1977 : 527.
23 Will 1979 : 61 underestimated its importance by dismissing it as ‘sans lendemain’ and seeing
its motive as politico-strategic rather than economic: within this zone of perpetual compe-
tition between power based in Syria and power based in Egypt, it was as much in Ptolemy’s
interest to tap the caravan trade and the production of bitumen as it was in Antigonus’, so
that a pre-emptive attack made sense. Moreover, as Billows 1990 : 288 notes in a much more
perceptive discussion, Theophrastus records Antigonus as inspecting the logs of frankincense
‘which the Arabs brought down’ (Hist. Pl. 9.4.8). Another valuable primary product of the
region, copper, might also come into question if the Timna deposits (for which see now
Bimson and Tebes 2009 ) were still workable. Moreover, whoever excogitated Alexander’s
‘last plans’ was well aware of the gains to be made from the aromatics of Arabia (Arr. Anab.
7.19.6 and especially 20.2).
24 A comparable distrust of the agricultural life has been detected in the L-strand of the
Pentateuch (Eissfeldt 1965 : 198) in contrast to ‘the enthusiastic acceptance of agricul-
tural life’ detectable in the J-strand (ib.: 200). Ibn Wahshiyya’s treatise Filahât al-Nabâtiyyah
(Nabataean agriculture) stems from a much later epoch.
25 Tentatively identified as the gum of Tamarix gallica by Geer ad loc. (LCL, p. 90 n.).
26 Autopsy will have reduced the risk, since Hieronymus was in the region shortly afterwards
himself, having been given the task of collecting the slabs of bitumen which surfaced from
the Dead Sea some 80 km to the north (Diod. Sic. 19.100.1-2), although he also adds that
that enterprise failed when ‘the local Arabs’ massacred his work-force. By Diodorus’ time,
and probably long before, the Nabataeans had gained control of that area, from which ‘they
gain no small revenues’ (2.48.6). He goes on to mention also the so-called balsam that
grows in a nearby valley and nowhere else (2.48.9), used extensively by physicians in their
pharmaka.
27 By that term he denotes the inhabitants of the coast of Palestine and Sinai (Hdt. 3.8.1, with
Asheri and Medaglia ad loc.).
28 Hdt. 3.88.1 and 97.5, with Hackl et al. 2003 : 14. Müller 1978 : 747 suspects that the figure is
overstated, but notes further evidence (including Hdt. 6.97.2) for the use of frankincense by
the Achaemenids.
29 Plut. Demetr. 7.1, with further references by L. Santi Amantini ad loc.
30 Plut. Alex. 7.6-7 and Mor. 179e-f (not cited in Hackl et al. 2003). The story was already
known to Pliny (HN 12. 62).
31 Sketches of its vicissitudes in Groom 1981 : 204–7; Glucker 1987 : 1–3; and Hackl et al.
2003: 391–3. It is pertinent that the mint of Gaza predominates in the conspectus of
‘Athenian-styled’ fourth-century Philistian coinage assembled by Fischer-Bossert 2010
(briefly also Huth 2010 : 231–2).
32 Plin. HN 12.64; but Strabo 16.4.4 cites (from Eratosthenes?) a figure of seventy days.
33 Geertz 1979 : 129–38, reporting (from his fieldwork at Moroccan Sefrou in the 1960s) local
recollections of the pre-motorised 460-km transit along ‘the Royal Way’ from Fez over the
Atlas range to Tafilalt.
34 But other documentation cites Minaioi as the predominant carriers (von Wissmann
1970 : 947–69; Renfrew 1975 ; Müller 1978 : 725; Hoyland 2002 : 69–70, citing inter alia RES
3022 = M I 247).