New evidence for diplomacy between the Mediterranean and South Arabia

Abstract

Two inscriptions that shed more light on the history of contacts between Hellenistic Egypt, the Roman Empire and the South Arabian kingdoms between the second century BCE and the mid-second century CE are in the focus of this research. One inscription mentions foreign gifts for King Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II Tryphon; the other ‒ a Greek inscription from Ẓafār ‒ seems to be the gift for either the king of Ḥimyar or the Roman colony in Ẓafār. The first inscription points to the existence of direct diplomatic contacts between these regions in the second century BCE. The second inscription is linked with the Latin text from the Farasān archipelago by viewing the reference in the first line to legio II Traiana.