as used, at the time when the Greeks possessed little accurate information respecting India, to designate the whole ocean to the south of Asia, which washed the coasts of Arabia, Persia, and Western India. The boundary of the Erythrean Sea was determined by a line drawn from the outlet of the Red Sea or Arabian Gulf, to the southern extremity of India. Its name was probably derived from that of some prince; for we can scarcely ascribe it to any supposed redness of colour, which the word in the Greek language means. In course of time, however, it was restricted to the sea south of Arabia; and in this signification it was understood by Strabo (xvi. 765, 766). Herodotus (i. 180), indeed, seems to have known nothing of the Persian Gulf, but to have considered the river Euphrates as falling at once into the Mare Erythreum.