Autei
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Autei was an Arabian tribe mentioned by Pliny.[1][2]
Variants
Jat Gotras Namesake
- Autal = Autei (Pliny.vi.32, Pliny.vi.33).
Mention by Pliny
Pliny [3] mentions Arabia.........the Ilisanitæ, the Bachilitæ, the Samnæi, the Amitei, with the towns of Nessa55 and Cennesseris, the Zamareni, with the towns of Sagiatta and Canthace, the Bacascami, the town of Riphearma, the name by which they call barley, the Autei, the Ethravi, the Cyrei and the Mathatræi, the Helmodenes, with the town of Ebode, the Agacturi, dwelling in the mountains, with a town twenty miles distant, in which is a fountain called Ænuscabales56, which signifies "the town of the camels."
55 Agatharchides speaks of a town on the sea coast, which was so called from the multitude of ducks found there. The one here spoken of was in the interior, and cannot be the same.
56 Hardouin observes, that neither this word, nor the name Riphearma, above mentioned, has either a Hebrew or an Arabian origin.
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[4] mentions 'The Gulfs Of The Red Sea'....The localities of this region are as follow: Either from Pelusium across the sands, in doing which the only method of finding the way is by means of reeds fixed in the earth, the wind immediately effacing all traces of footsteps: by the route which begins two miles beyond Mount Casius, and at a distance of sixty miles enters the road from Pelusium, adjoining to which road the Arabian tribe of the Autei dwell; or else by a third route, which leads from Gerrum, and which they call Adipsos8, passing through the same Arabians, and shorter by nearly sixty miles, but running over rugged mountains and through a district destitute of water. All these roads lead to Arsinoë9, a city founded in honour of his sister's name, upon the Gulf of Carandra, by Ptolemy Philadelphus, who was the first to explore Troglodytice, and called the river which flows before Arsinoë by the name of Ptolemæus.
8 The "not thirsty" route, so called by way of antiphrasis.
9 See B. v. c. 9.
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[5] mentions 'The Gulfs Of The Red Sea'....The localities of this region are as follow: Berenice also, is here situate, so called after the name of the mother of Philadelphus, and to which there is a road from Coptos, as we have previously stated;10 then the Arabian Autei, and the Zebadei.
10 In c. 26 of the present Book.