Duane W. Roller

in Trogodytika or Ethiopia aft er Actium 22 —and for her to know their
languages was an important point in her favor.
Across the Red Sea was the Arabian peninsula. Although only small
parts of it were ever under Ptolemaic control, this region was a vital part of
the Ptolemaic kingdom’s economy. 23 Th e great Nabataean trading center
of Petra began to fl ourish in the late fourth century b.c., and a certain
Anaxikrates explored the Red Sea for Alexander, reaching the wealthy
aromatics-producing regions at its southern end. By the third century
b.c. the trade route from Petra to these districts was well known, and
frankincense and myrrh, the two most famous aromatics, were exported
to processing factories in Alexandria. Knowing the Arabian language
may have assisted Cleopatra in diplomatic and mercantile negotiations,
and she may have acquired some Arabian territory in the 30s b.c.
Plutarch’s next language, that of the Hebraioi, probably refers not to
Hebrew but Aramaic. Th e Hebrew language was still spoken in isolated
pockets in Cleopatra’s day, but Aramaic was far more common, although
the relative use of the two languages remains disputed. 24 Her constant
involvement in the fortunes of the southern Levant again would have
made knowledge of the local languages useful, although her lengthy
relationship with Herod the Great would have been carried on in Greek.
But it is possible that not all his agents spoke that language.
North of Judaea was Syria. Th e core of Syria had been a Roman
province since the dissolution of the Seleukid kingdom in 64 b.c., but
the Ptolemies long had had claim to various parts of the region, especially
the interior district known as Koile (“Hollow”) Syria, technically
the deep upper Orontes valley but a term eventually applied to much of
Syria except the district around Antioch. Koile Syria had been lost to the
Ptolemies in the early second century b.c., and despite various attempts
to regain it had remained Seleukid (and then Roman) until Antonius
gave parts of it to Cleopatra in the 30s b.c. Th e geographical limits of
Koile Syria were fl uid and tended to expand, eventually even to include
the Phoenician cities. Exactly what was the “language of the Syrians” to
which Plutarch referred is uncertain, but it is clear that Cleopatra was
deeply interested in this historically Ptolemaic region.
Plutarch’s last two languages, those of the Medes and Parthians,
were presumably of concern to Cleopatra because of Antonius’s Parthian
expeditions of 36–34 b.c. Th e two languages were closely related, and
Plutarch’s phrase may be the familiar tautology. Although the Ptolemies
never controlled territory on the Iranian plateau, the region had been
Cleopatra’s Youth 47