Sabata
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Sabatha[1] or Sabdata[2] or Sabach (Abulfeda, p. 253) was an ancient town of Sittacene, Assyria.
Variants
- Sabatha (Σαβαθά)
- Sabdata (Pliny.vi.31)
- Sabatha (Pliny.vi.32)
- Sabach (Abulfeda, p. 253)
Jat Gotras Namesake
- Sibati = Sabdata (Pliny.vi.31)
- Sibati = Sabatha (Pliny.vi.32)
- Siwach = Sabatha (Pliny.vi.32)
History
Sabata is probably the same place as the Σαβαθά (Sabatha) of Zosimus (iii. 23), which that writer describes as 30 stadia from the ancient Seleuceia. It is also mentioned by Abulfeda (p. 253) under the name of Sabach.
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[3] mentions The Tigris....Between these peoples and Mesene is Sittacene, which is also called Arbelitis24 and Palæstine. Its city of Sittace25 is of Greek origin; this and Sabdata26 lie to the east, and on the west is Antiochia27, between the two rivers Tigris and Tornadotus28, as also Apamea29, to which Antiochus30 gave this name, being that of his mother. The Tigris surrounds this city, which is also traversed by the waters of the Archoüs.
24 From Arbela, in Assyria, which bordered on it.
25 A great and populous city of Babylonia, near the Tigris, but not on it, and eight parasangs within the Median wall. The site is that probably now called Eski Baghdad, and marked by a ruin called the Tower of Nimrod. Parisot cautions against confounding it with a place of a similar name, mentioned by Pliny in B. xii. c. 17, a mistake into which, he says, Hardouin has fallen.
26 Now called Felongia, according to Parisot. Hardouin considers it the same as the Sambana of Diodorus Siculus, which Parisot looks upon as the same as Ambar, to the north of Felongia.
27 Of this Antiochia nothing appears to be known. By some it has been supposed to be the same with Apollonia, the chief town of the district of Apolloniatis, to the south of the district of Arbela.
28 Also called the Physcus, the modern Ordoneh, an eastern tributary of the Tigris in Lower Assyria. The town of Opis stood at its junction with the Tigris.
29 D'Anville supposes that this Apamea was at the point where the Dijeil, now dry, branched off from the Tigris, which bifurcation he places near Samurrah. Lynch, however, has shown that the Dijeil branched off near Jibbarah, a little north of 34° North lat., and thinks that the Dijeil once swept the end of the Median wall, and flowed between it and Jebbarah. Possibly this is the Apamea mentioned by Pliny in c. 27.
30 The son of Seleucus Nicator.
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[4] while describing Arabia mentions...We then come to a promontory, from which to the mainland of the Troglodytæ it is fifty miles, and then the Thoani, the Actæi, the Chatramotitæ, the Tonabei, the Antidalei, the Lexianæ, the Agræi, the Cerbani, and the Sabæi37, the best known of all the tribes of Arabia, on account of their frankincense; these nations extend from sea to sea.38 The towns which belong to them on the Red Sea are Marane, Marma, Corolia, and Sabatha; and in the interior, Nascus, Cardava, Carnus, and Thomala, from which they bring down their spices for exportation. One portion of this nation is the Atramitæ39, whose capital, Sabota, has sixty temples within its walls. But the royal city of all these nations is Mariaba40; it lies upon a bay, ninety-four miles in extent, and filled with islands that produce perfumes.
37 Their country is supposed to have been the Sheba of Scripture, the queen of which visited king Solomon. It was situate in the south-western corner of Arabia Felix, the north and centre of the province of Yemen, though the geographers before Ptolemy seem to give it a still wider extent, quite to the south of Yemen. The Sabæi most probably spread originally on both sides of the southern part of the Red Sea, the shores of Arabia and Africa. Their capital was Saba, in which, according to their usage, their king was confined a close prisoner.
38 The Persian Gulf to the Red Sea.
39 The modern district of Hadramaut derives its name from this people, who were situate on the coast of the Red Sea to the east of Aden. Sabota, their capital, was a great emporium for their drugs and spices.
40 Still known as Mareb, according to Ansart.
References
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