Syllaeus, the minister of the king of the Nabathians, undertook to conduct the expedition; but as it was not for the interest either of his king or country that it should succeed, he betrayed his trust, and, according to Strabo, was executed at Rome for his treachery on this occasion.  His object was to delay the expedition as much as possible:  this he effected by persuading Gallus to prepare a fleet, which was unnecessary, as the army might have followed the route of the caravans, through a friendly country, from Cleopatris, where the expedition commenced, to the head of the Elanitic Gulf.  The troops, however, were embarked, and, as the navigation of the Sea of Suez was intricate, the fleet was fifteen days in arriving at Leuke Kome:  here, in consequence of the soldiers having become, during their voyage, afflicted with various disorders, and the year being far advanced, Gallus was obliged to remain till the spring.  Another delay was contrived by Syllaeus on their leaving Leuke Kome.  After this, they seem to have proceeded with more celerity, and with very little opposition from the natives, till they came to a city of some strength:  this they were obliged to besiege in regular form; but, after lying before it for six days, Gallus was forced, for want of water, to raise the siege, and to terminate the expedition.  He was told that at this time he was within two days’ journey of the land of aromatics and frankincense, the great object which Augustus had in view.  On his retreat, he no longer trusted to Syllaeus, but changed the route of the army, directing it from the interior to the coast.  At Nera, in Petraea, the army embarked, and was eleven days in crossing the gulf to Myos Hormos:  from this place it traversed the country of the Troglodytes to Coptus, on the Nile.  Two years were spent in this unfortunate expedition.  It is extremely difficult to fix on the limit of this expedition, but it is probable that the town which Gallus besieged, and beyond which he did not penetrate, was the capital of the Mineans.  From the time of this expedition, the Romans always maintained a footing on the coast of the Red Sea; and either during the residence of Gallus at Leuke Kome, or soon afterwards, they placed a garrison in this place, where they collected the customs, gradually extending their conquests and their geographical knowledge down the Gulf, till they reached the ocean.  This seems to have been the only beneficial consequence resulting from the expedition of Gallus.

We must now attend to the expedition of Petronius against the Ethiopians.  This was completely successful, and Candake, their queen, was obliged, as a token of her submission, to send ambassadors to Augustus, who was at that time in the island of Samos.  About this period the commerce of the Egyptians,—­which, in fact, was the commerce of the Romans,—­was extended to the Troglodytes,—­with whom previously they had carried on little or no trade.