Quote Originally Posted by Greek_fire19
The Only direct historical evidence I can find of the various cultures of southern arabia comes from the greek historian Strabo: (born 62BC)

"the land is inhabited by four great peoples: first the Mineans, with their capital Karna. The Sabeans with capital Mariba. They are followed third By the Qattabanians, whose capital seat is Tamna. Towards the west the Hadhramis have settled in the town of Sabota".

These were not 'tribes' but city states with secular kings and codified laws.

These cities were situated on the main sea-borne trading routes between india and persia and egypt, and as such they were wealthy and powerful, and were not conquored until the 6th century AD, when they fell under persian and later islamic control.
We wanted to show Karna, Mariba, Tamna, and Sabata, but when you look at a map, they are entirely too close to each other to merit full provinces with those as the capitals. So we basically still have the three areas, but then instead of Tamane/Tamna, we are using the important coastal city of Aden/Adane as the seat of the Qattabanians. It was a tough call, but otherwise we would have four capitals in the area of a small province anywhere else -- all the more striking given that there would be no other capitals anywhere near them in such a big and vast area as Arabia. So we are very close to Strabo, but have had to change one thing (though the Qattabanians themselves are still represented, just with another important city instead of the place Strabo calls their capital).