Arabia Felix


Arabia Felix was the Latin name previously used by geographers to describe South Arabia, or what is now Yemen.

Name

The term "Fertile Arabia" is a translation of the Latin "Arabia felix". Felix has the simultaneous meaning of "fecund, fertile" and "happy, fortunate, blessed." Arabia Felix was one of three regions into which the Romans divided the Arabian peninsula: Arabia Deserta, Arabia Felix, and Arabia Petraea. The Greeks and the Romans called Yemen Arabia Felix.

Explanation

The south-western corner of the peninsula, enjoying more rainfall at that time, was much greener than the rest of the peninsula and has long enjoyed more productive fields. The high peaks and slopes are capable of supporting significant vegetation and river beds called wadis help make other soil fertile.
In 26 BC Aelius Gallus under Augustus's order led a military expedition to Arabia Felix, but after some beginning successes he was obliged by the unhealthy climate and epidemic to desist in the conquest of the area.
Part of what led to Arabia Felix's wealth and importance to the ancient world was its near monopoly of the trade in cinnamon and spices, both its native products and imports from India and the Horn of Africa.
Strabo says that Arabia Felix was composed of five kingdoms, one each of warriers, farmers, "those who engage in the mechanical arts; another, the myrrh-bearing country, and another the frankincense-bearing country, although the same countries produce cassia, cinnamon, and nard."

Eudaemon

In the 1st century BC, the Arabian city of Eudaemon, in Arabia Felix, was a transshipping port in the Red Sea trade. It was described in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as if it had fallen on hard times. Of the auspiciously named port we read in the periplus that
New developments in trade during the 1st century AD avoided the middlemen at Eudaemon and made the dangerous direct crossing of the Arabian Sea to the coast of India.

Book

Arabia Felix is also the title of the 1962 book by Danish novelist Thorkild Hansen, detailing a disastrous scientific expedition to the area lasting from 1761-1767. The veracity of certain aspects of the account have been called into question.