Arabia Felix

Arabia Felix, (Latin: “Happy, or Flourishing, Arabia”) in ancient geography, the comparatively fertile region in southwestern and southern Arabia (in present-day Asir and Yemen), a region that contrasted with Arabia Deserta in barren central and northern Arabia and with Arabia Petraea (“Stony Arabia”) in northwestern Arabia, which came under the suzerainty of imperial Rome. The Greeks and Romans chose the name because of the area’s pleasant climate and reputed riches in agricultural products and in spices. The emperor Augustus (reigned 27 bc–ad 14) sent an expedition under Gaius Aelius Gallus to Arabia Felix, with disastrous results. Partly because of a native guide’s treachery, the troops traveled by a circuitous way through waterless regions, so that they reached southern Arabia weakened by disease, heat, and want of water, unable to accomplish much commercially or politically. But the expedition did bring back a considerable knowledge of the country and its products. See also Sabaʾ.