The Greeks in Bactria and India c24.12

c24.12

Before going on I must notice Naumachaeorum promunturium in Pliny VI, 152, the projecting land which forms the northern horn of the Gulf of Ormuz as C. Jask does the southern; Pliny calls it ‘over against Carmania’, a good instance of the use of ‘Carmania’ for the Amanis river country. Naumachaeorum is another of these mistaken transliterations (n. 3, below); it is ναυμάχων⁴ or ναυμαχούντων or something of the sort turned into a tribe, the reference being to Numenius’ sea-fight in the next sentence. This took place while Mesene (Chaldaea) was still Seleucid, and belongs to the reign of Antiochus III, probably to some movement in Persis after Magnesia; Numenius was his eparch of Mesene¹ and also commanded his squadron on the Persian Gulf whose fleet station was in Mesene, probably Antioch-Charax. But how he had a sea-fight with Persians of Persis, unless some Greek cities were helping them, is utterly obscure.