The “Periplus of the Erythrean Sea” and South Arabia

Abstract

All our knowledge of the Periplus depends on two Byzantine manuscripts, Codex Palatinus Gr.398, which is now at Heidelberg and which was brought north from 15th century Constantinople by Q Cardinal John of Ragusa and Add.MS 19391, which is now in the British Museum and which was abstracted from the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos shortly before 1853. Each has a cluster of textual problems.