Berenice Epideires (, Steph. B. ''s. v.'';

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

xvi. pp. 769, 773; Mela, iii. 8; Plin. vi. 34; Ptol. viii. 16. § 12), or "Berenice upon the Neck of Land", was a town on the western shore of the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

. It was located near the

Bab-el-Mandeb The Bab-el-Mandeb (), the Gate of Grief or the Gate of Tears, is a strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and by extension the Indian Ocean. ...

strait, in modern-day

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

. The settlement's position on a sandy spit or

promontory A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the s ...

was the cause of its distinctive appellation. Some authorities, however, attribute the name to the neighborhood of a more considerable town named Deirê on the

Ras Siyyan Ras Siyyan or Ras Siyan () is a peninsula in the Obock Region of Djibouti, on the Bab-el-Mandeb strait (between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden), about 20 km southwest of Perim Island. The peninsula consists of a reddish volcanic hill about ...

peninsula.

mentions the mangroves that were found there on the

coast A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

Ptolemy II Philadelphus Ptolemy II Philadelphus (, ''Ptolemaîos Philádelphos'', "Ptolemy, sibling-lover"; 309 – 28 January 246 BC) was the pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 284 to 246 BC. He was the son of Ptolemy I, the Macedonian Greek general of Alexander the G ...

favored the settlement thus naming after his sister Berenice. The inhabitants of the nation were known as the

Ichthyophagi Ichthyophagoi (, "fish-eaters") and Latin Ichthyophagi is the name given by ancient geographers to several ethnically unrelated coast-dwelling peoples in different parts of the world. *Herodotus (book i. c. 200) mentions three tribes of the Babyl ...

who inhabited the country and were recorded to have practiced male circumcision. It is said there is a pillar of

Sesostris Sesostris () is the name of a king of ancient Egypt who, according to Herodotus, led a military expedition into parts of Europe. Tales of Sesostris are probably based on the life of Senusret I, Senusret III and perhaps other Pharaohs such as Sho ...

, on which is inscribed, in hieroglyphics, an account of his passage (across the Arabian Gulf). For he appears to have subdued first Ethiopia and Troglodytica, and afterwards to have passed over into Arabia. The straits at Deirê are contracted to the width of 60 stadia; not indeed that these are now called the Straits, for ships proceed to a further distance, and find a passage of about 200 stadia between the two continents; six islands contiguous to one another leave a very narrow passage through them for vessels, by filling up the interval between the continents. Through these goods are transported from one continent to the other on rafts; it is this passage which is called the Straits. After these islands, the subsequent navigation is among bays along the Myrrh country, in the direction of south and east, as far as the Cinnamon country, a distance of about 5000 stadia; beyond this district no one to this time, it is said, has penetrated.

Literature

Lionel Casson Lionel Casson (July 22, 1914 – July 18, 2009) was a classical archaeologist, professor emeritus at New York University, and a specialist in maritime history. He earned his B.A. in 1934 at New York University, and in 1936 became an assistant pr ...

: ''The Periplus Maris Erythraei: text, translation, and commentary.'' Princeton University Press, Princeton N.J. 1989, . * Getzel M. Cohen: ''The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa.'' University of California Press, Berkeley Calif. 2006, . * George Fadlo Hourani: ''Arab seafaring in the Indian Ocean.'' Princeton University Press, Princeton N.J. 1951. * G. W. B. Huntingford (Hrsg.): ''The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, by an unknown author: with some extracts from Agatharkhides ‘On the Erythraean Sea’'' (= ''Works issued by the Hakluyt Society.'' 2nd series, Nr. 151). Hakluyt Society, London 1980. * Katja Mueller: ''Settlements of the Ptolemies: City foundations and new settlement in the Hellenistic World'' (= ''Studia Hellenistica.'' Band 43). Peeters, Leuven 2006, . * D. Schlingloff: ''Indische Seefahrer in römischer Zeit.'' In: Hermann Müller-Karpe (Hrsg.) ''Zur geschichtlichen Bedeutung der frühen Seefahrt.'' Beck, München 1982, , S. 51–82.

References

* Port cities in Africa Roman towns and cities in Djibouti Ptolemaic colonies in the Red Sea Former populated places in Djibouti Ancient Greek geography of East Africa {{Ancient-Rome-stub