Geography

​Indeed, they divide the spice-bearing country into four parts, as we have said; and of the spices, they say that frankincense and myrrh come from trees, but cassia also from shrubs; some say that the greater part comes from India, and that the best frankincense is that near Persia. According to another division, they split the whole of Arabia Felix into five kingdoms, of which one contains the warriors and the champions of all, another the husbandmen from whom grain is imported to the others, another the artisans; and one is myrrh-bearing, and another is frankincense-bearing; though these same countries also bear cassia, cinnamon, and nard; occupations do not pass from one to another, but each remains in those of their ancestors. Their wine is mostly made from palms. Brothers are held in higher honor than children. And those of the royal family reign and hold other offices according to seniority of birth. Property is common to all relatives, but the eldest is the master. They also have one wife for all, and whoever arrives first goes in and cohabits with her, having first placed his staff before the door; for it is the custom for each man to carry a staff. But she spends the night with the eldest; and therefore all are brothers of all. They also cohabit with their mothers. The penalty for an adulterer is death; and an adulterer is one from another family. A daughter of one of their kings, who was of wonderful beauty, had fifteen brothers, who were all in love with her, and on this account visited her incessantly, one after another; at last, being exhausted, she is said to have devised the following artifice. She made staves similar to theirs, and whenever anyone went out from her, she always placed before the door a staff similar to his, and a little later another, and then another, aiming to prevent the next who was about to approach from having one like that which was displayed. And indeed, on one occasion when they were all in the market-place, one of them approached the door and, seeing the staff, conjectured from this that someone was with her; and since he had left all his brothers in the market-place, he suspected that it was an adulterer. So he ran to his father and brought him there, only to be convicted of having made a false accusation against his sister.

​The Nabataeans are temperate and acquisitive, so that even publicly a penalty is appointed for one who has diminished his property, but honors for one who has increased it. Having few slaves, they are served for the most part by their relatives, or by one another, or they serve themselves; and this custom extends even to the kings. They hold common meals in groups of thirteen persons, and there are two musicians for each banquet. The king holds many banquets in a large house; but no one drinks more than eleven cups, using a different golden goblet each time. The king is so democratic that, in addition to serving himself, he sometimes even serves others in turn. He also frequently renders an account of his administration in the popular assembly, and sometimes even his private life is scrutinized. Their dwellings are costly, built of stone, but their cities are unwalled because of peace. Most of the country is fertile, except for the olive; they use sesame oil instead. Their sheep are white-wooled, their oxen large; the country produces no horses, but camels afford service in their stead. They go abroad without tunics, wearing only girdles and sandals, and even the kings do so, though the latter wear purple. Some things are imported altogether, and others not entirely, especially those which are produced in the country, such as gold, silver, and most of the spices; whereas brass, iron, purple garments, styrax, crocus, costum, embossed works, paintings, and molded images are not produced in the country. They consider dead bodies as no better than dung, as Heraclitus says, ‘corpses are more fit to be cast out than dung’; and therefore they bury even their kings beside dung-heaps. They worship the sun, building an altar on the house-top, pouring libations upon it daily, and burning frankincense.