It is true, indeed, that
he visited Mosullon, which lies beyond the straits, but not by sea, having
marched by land to that place, through the interior of Abyssinia and Adel.
From the whole of this enterprize of Euergetes we may justly infer, that
though he facilitated the intercourse by land between Egypt and those parts
of Africa which lay immediately beyond the straits, yet his ships did not
pass the straits, and that in his reign the discoveries of Timosthenes had
not been followed up or improved for the purpose of trading by sea with the
coast of Africa. The navigation of the whole of the Red Sea, at least on
the Arabian side, from Leuake Kome to Sabaea, was undoubtedly known and
frequently used at this period; but this was its utmost limit.
In the reign of Ptolemy Philometor, when Agatharcides lived, the commercial
enterprizes of the Egyptians had begun rather to languish; on the Arabian
side of the Red Sea, they did indeed extend to Sabaea, as in the time of
Euergetes; but there is evidence that on the opposite coast they did not go
so low, as in the reign of the latter sovereign. Agatharcides makes no
mention of Berenice; according to his account, Myos Hormos had again become
the emporium, and the only trade from that part seems to have been for
elephants to Ptolemais Theron. It may, indeed, be urged that Berenice was
not, properly speaking, a harbour, but only an open bay, to which the ships
did not come from Myos Hormos, till their cargoes were completely ready.
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