The exact site of the country of the Mineans cannot be certainly fixed; but
it is probable that it was to the south of Hedjaz, to the north of
Hadraumaut, and to the eastward of Sabaea. According to Strabo, their
caravans passed in seventy days from Hadraumaut to Aisla, which was within
ten miles of Petra. They were laden with aloes, gold, myrrh, frankincense,
and other aromatics.
We can but faintly and obscurely trace the fluctuations in the trade of
Petra, in the remote periods of history. We know that Solomon was in
possession of Idumea, but whether it was subdued by Nebuchadnezzar is
doubtful. This sovereign, however, seems to have formed some plan of
depriving the Gherrheans of the commerce of the Gulf of Persia. He raised a
mound to confine the waters of the Tigris: he built a city to stop the
incursions of the Arabs, and opened a communication between the rivers
Tigris and Euphrates. After this there is no account of Idumea till some
years subsequent to the death of Alexander the Great: at this period two
expeditions were sent into it against its capital, Petra, by Antigonus,
both of which were unsuccessful. These expeditions were undertaken about
the years 308 and 309 before Christ. The history of Idumea, from this
period, is better ascertained: harassed by the powerful kingdoms of Syria
and Egypt,--contiguous to both of which it lay,--it seems to have been
governed by princes of its own, who were partly independent, and partly
under the influence of the monarchs of Syria and Egypt.
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