Sabaeans

Sources

External information about the Sabaeans comes first from Akkadian cuneiform texts starting in the 8th century BCE. Less important are brief reports from the Bible about correspondence between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The story is considered legendary as early first-millennium BC epigraphic sources show no evidence of diplomatic missions or women rulers. Knowledge of the Sabaeans as merchant peoples indicates that some level of trade between the regions was underway in this time. After the campaigns of Alexander the Great, South Arabia became a hub of trade routes linking the broader geopolitical realm with India. As such, information about the region begins to appear among Greco-Roman observers and information becomes more concrete. The most important accounts about South Arabia are from Eratosthenes, Strabo, Theophrastus, Pliny the Elder, an anonymous first-century seafarming manual called the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea concerning the politics and topography of South Arabian coasts, the Ecclesiastical History by Philostorgius, and Procopius.