and l. liv.
p. 734,) have left us very curious details concerning these wars. The
Romans made themselves masters of Mariaba, or Merab, a city of Arabia
Felix, well known to the Orientals. (See Abulfeda and the Nubian
geography, p. 52) They were arrived within three days' journey of the
spice country, the rich object of their invasion.

Note: It is the city of Merab that the Arabs say was the residence of
Belkis, queen of Saba, who desired to see Solomon. A dam, by which the
waters collected in its neighborhood were kept back, having been swept
away, the sudden inundation destroyed this city, of which, nevertheless,
vestiges remain. It bordered on a country called Adramout, where a
particular aromatic plant grows: it is for this reason that we real in
the history of the Roman expedition, that they were arrived within three
days' journey of the spice country.--G. Compare Malte-Brun, Geogr. Eng.
trans. vol. ii. p. 215. The period of this flood has been copiously
discussed by Reiske, (Program. de vetusta Epocha Arabum, ruptura
cataractae Merabensis.) Add. Johannsen, Hist. Yemanae, p. 282. Bonn,
1828; and see Gibbon, note 16. to Chap. L.--M.

Note: Two, according to Strabo. The detailed account of Strabo makes
the invaders fail before Marsuabae: this cannot be the same place as
Mariaba. Ukert observes, that Aelius Gallus would not have failed for
want of water before Mariaba. (See M. Guizot's note above.) "Either,
therefore, they were different places, or Strabo is mistaken." (Ukert,
Geographic der Griechen und Romer, vol. i. p. 181.) Strabo, indeed,
mentions Mariaba distinct from Marsuabae. Gibbon has followed Pliny in
reckoning Mariaba among the conquests of Gallus. There can be little
doubt that he is wrong, as Gallus did not approach the capital of
Sabaea. Compare the note of the Oxford editor of Strabo.--M.]

[Footnote 3: By the slaughter of Varus and his three legions. See the first
book of the Annals of Tacitus. Sueton. in August. c. 23, and Velleius
Paterculus, l. ii. c. 117, &c. Augustus did not receive the melancholy
news with all the temper and firmness that might have been expected from
his character.]

[Footnote 4: Tacit. Annal. l. ii. Dion Cassius, l. lvi. p. 833, and the
speech of Augustus himself, in Julian's Caesars. It receives great light
from the learned notes of his French translator, M. Spanheim.]

Happily for the repose of mankind, the moderate system recommended
by the wisdom of Augustus, was ado