What Factions In Eb Do we know the least about?

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There is more info on the Getai than Sweboz, for example

[QwertyMIDX]

The Sabaeans also weren't arabs. They were a non-arab semitic people.

[Calypze]

The Sabaeans also weren't arabs. They were a non-arab semitic people.

Is that really correct? Didn't they speak a South Arabian language?

As for the OP, I would say it is the Sauromatae or the Saka Rauka. We don't even know what the Sauromatae called themselves.

[QwertyMIDX]

Is that really correct? Didn't they speak a South Arabian language?

Yes that is really correct. They spoke a semitic language that was closer to Hebrew than Arabic but is really more like another branch of the linguistic family. The term for the branch is Old South Arabian which is part of the Western branch of South Semitic languages. Its called Old South Arabian because of the geographical area Arabia, not because of a direct connection to classical Arabic.

Their script is pretty well deciphered at this point, there are only a handful of people who know it but one could learn if they had the time and dedication.

[The Errant]

Little in the way of facts are known about the Sabaeans. I remember Illustrated Science magazine having one good article regarding it. It depicted a map that showed the maximum extent of their holdings/culture. Most of Southern Arabia, Ethiopia and parts of Nubia.

How accurate that map is though is anybodys best guess. I don't think the local script has even been translated fully.

What is for certain known about them was that they were traders, much like the Phoenicians. They were extremely skilled farmers and engineers (The Marib dam) and as a consequence of having efficient irrigation methods, they evolved into a highly urbanized society.

They had holdings on both sides of the Red Sea. It's not certain to what extent they controlled Ethiopia inland but the coast had several colonies. They traded in spice and incense with Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Judea, Persia and later the Hellenic and Roman worlds.

The best account of what the region was like, is the records of a failed Roman expedition to conquer them.

Some excavations on Marib or Maryab have been made. Unfortunately the beduin tribes like to use the ancient ruins for target practice with their assault rifles, and for running them over with jeeps. The region is very unstable which dosen't help the archeologists who want to dig around.

What is known for certain is that when the old dam broke, the region became a desert and most of the population emigrated. This happened maybe a century at most before the rise of Mohammed and Islam.

Sadly the Arabs native to region today have very little respect for the time predating the rise of Islam. Much the same way the current Iranian regime has next to no respect for the achievements of ancient Persia.

When the new dam was built in the late seventies/early eighties the wells that had stood dry for close to two millenia suddenly flooded. In the tales of a Thousand and One Night both the Sabaeans and their dam is described as a virtual paradise rising from the otherwise dead desert. The dam broke because the Sabaeans turned away from God. Divine vengeance and all that.

That sums up most of what I know or think I know about them. The EB team has many historians that know a lot more than I do. I once asked why the Sabaeans in EB had such a limited unit roster. The answer was, that do to lack of reference material they simply don't know what sort of troops they employed. Hopefully some new units will find their way in.

Apart from that I think the team has made a tremendous effort in depicting a civilization that isn't all that well known *Bows to the EB team*. For all their limitations they are a great faction and the mod would be poorer without them.

Thank you! For having them in the game.

[sass]

Little in the way of facts are known about the Sabaeans. I remember Illustrated Science magazine having one good article regarding it. It depicted a map that showed the maximum extent of their holdings/culture. Most of Southern Arabia, Ethiopia and parts of Nubia.

How accurate that map is though is anybodys best guess. I don't think the local script has even been translated fully.

What is for certain known about them was that they were traders, much like the Phoenicians. They were extremely skilled farmers and engineers (The Marib dam) and as a consequence of having efficient irrigation methods, they evolved into a highly urbanized society.

They had holdings on both sides of the Red Sea. It's not certain to what extent they controlled Ethiopia inland but the coast had several colonies. They traded in spice and incense with Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Judea, Persia and later the Hellenic and Roman worlds.

The best account of what the region was like, is the records of a failed Roman expedition to conquer them.

Some excavations on Marib or Maryab have been made. Unfortunately the beduin tribes like to use the ancient ruins for target practice with their assault rifles, and for running them over with jeeps. The region is very unstable which dosen't help the archeologists who want to dig around.

What is known for certain is that when the old dam broke, the region became a desert and most of the population emigrated. This happened maybe a century at most before the rise of Mohammed and Islam.

Sadly the Arabs native to region today have very little respect for the time predating the rise of Islam. Much the same way the current Iranian regime has next to no respect for the achievements of ancient Persia.

When the new dam was built in the late seventies/early eighties the wells that had stood dry for close to two millenia suddenly flooded. In the tales of a Thousand and One Night both the Sabaeans and their dam is described as a virtual paradise rising from the otherwise dead desert. The dam broke because the Sabaeans turned away from God. Divine vengeance and all that.

That sums up most of what I know or think I know about them. The EB team has many historians that know a lot more than I do. I once asked why the Sabaeans in EB had such a limited unit roster. The answer was, that do to lack of reference material they simply don't know what sort of troops they employed. Hopefully some new units will find their way in.

Apart from that I think the team has made a tremendous effort in depicting a civilization that isn't all that well known *Bows to the EB team*. For all their limitations they are a great faction and the mod would be poorer without them.

Thank you! For having them in the game.

Ah Yes! I Rember the thousend and one nights story now i dug out my copy haha... the desert hides its secerts well..and presurves them better then most sites in the world..I'm Pretty hopeful from experince that modren nomadic peoples will not completly distroy and will ignertly brang in items of intrest thy think worth money..

P.s. I asked the doc in our group where the sabains simetic he said no, but alot of territory owned by them could have had large populatians of them.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

P.s. I asked the doc in our group where the sabains simetic he said no, but alot of territory owned by them could have had large populatians of them.

Uh, what groups of Arabic peoples are *not* Semitic? Linguistically, ethnically, and culturally, Semites include south arabians and northern arabs both. What is he a doctor of?

[sass]

Uh, what groups of Arabic peoples are *not* Semitic? Linguistically, ethnically, and culturally, Semites include south arabians and northern arabs both. What is he a doctor of?

Note the smiley i was makeing, My vain attempt at being sarcastic

[Geoffrey S]

I'd suppose a big problem with Saba is the extreme unwillingness of many modern Arabs (and particularly the more powerful ones, whose authority depends on religion) to accurately find out what Arabia was like prior to the rise of Islam, or even in its early years. So much hinges on how the Koran and early biographers of Mohammed depict the chaotic, 'godless' years before the rise of the Islam I guess quite a few are scared witless that what archeological evidence shows will contradict what they have been led to believe. To the detriment of real knowledge, and unfortunately also to the evolution of Islam as a whole.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Note the smiley i was makeing, My vain attempt at being sarcastic

Gotcha - sorry mate.

[Intranetusa]

^ btw, why do you keep mentioning that Cleopatra wasn't black? We know she wasn't black. She was Greek. And the vast majority of Egyptians aren't black either.

[sass]

Gotcha - sorry mate.

No worries, Ive been slightly drunk in here the last few days, reading back at my spelling and tone my humor must be drying up or i'm being worked to hard