Romans in Arabia

The Roman presence in Arabia had its foundations in the expansion of the empire under Augustus, and continued until the Arab conquests of Byzantine territory from the 7th century onward. The Romans never managed to conquer Arabia proper.

The volume of commerce between Rome and India was huge since the conquest of Egypt by the Romans, according to the historian Strabo: 120 Roman vessels sailed every year from Berenice Troglodytica and many times touched Aden in southern Arabia Felix on their travel to India, while doing the Spice Route. Mostly in order to secure the maritime route from piracy, the Romans organized an expedition under Aelius Gallus in which the port of Aden (then called Eudaemon) in southern Arabia was occupied temporarily.

The Romans furthermore maintained a small legionary garrison in the Nabataean port of Leuke Kome (just north of the Arabian port of Jeddah) in the 1st century in order to control the commerce of spices, according to the academic Mommsen. Indeed, frankincense and myrrh, two spices highly prized in antiquity as fragrances, could only be obtained from trees growing in southern Arabia, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Arab merchants brought these goods to Roman markets by means of camel caravans along the Incense Route. This Incense Route originally commenced at Shabwah in Hadhramaut, the easternmost kingdom of South Arabia, and ended at Petra. Strabo compared the immense traffic along the desert routes to that of an army. The Incense Route ran along the western edge of Arabia’s central desert about 100 miles inland from the Red Sea coast. The Roman Pliny the Elder stated that the journey consisted of sixty-five stages divided by halts for the camels. Both the Nabataeans and the South Arabians grew tremendously wealthy through the transport of these goods destined for the Roman Empire.

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Wikipedia