Editing Thamud (section)

===Greek and Roman===
Thamud is also mentioned in several accounts of [[Hellenic historiography|Greek historiography]]. Portions of [[Agatharchides]]'s (fl. 2nd century BCE) ''On the Erythrean Sea'' that survive in later quotations mention that the Thamud Arabs then inhabited a "stony and large shore" of the Arabian coastline, south of the [[Gulf of Aqaba]].{{sfn|Retsö|2003|pp=297–299}}{{sfn|Macdonald|2015|p=46}} In ''[[Bibliotheca historica]]'', [[Diodorus Siculus|Diodorus]], a 1st-century BCE Greek historian, mentions Thamūd in his description of the "Arabian Gulf" (the Red Sea): "This coast, then, is inhabited by Arabs who are called Thamudeni; but the coast next to it is bounded by a very large gulf, off which lie scattered islands which are in appearance very much like the islands called the [[Echinades]]". The coast being referred to lies just prior to Yemen.<ref>{{Cite web |title=LacusCurtius • Diodorus Siculus — Book III Chapters 35–48 |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3C*.html |access-date=2 May 2024 |website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=E. H. Warmington |first=M. A. |url=http://archive.org/details/greekgeography0000ehwa |title=Greek Geography |date=1934 |publisher=London & Toronto |others=Internet Archive}}</ref>

In a somewhat muddled passage, [[Pliny the Elder]], a Roman historian of the first century CE, appears to locate the Thamūd at the unidentified inland town of "Baclanaza". [[Ptolemy]], who lived in the second century, wrote that the "Thamuditai" tribe inhabited the Red Sea coastline, and that the "Thamoudenoi" tribe lived in inland northwestern Arabia—either or both may be references to the Thamūd—while his contemporary [[Uranius (geographer)|Uranius]] believed that the Thamūd neighbored the [[Nabateans]].{{sfn|Macdonald|2015|pp=46–47}} The Thamūd also joined the Byzantine armies as [[auxilia]]ries, and the ''[[Notitia Dignitatum]]'' mentions two units of Thamūd warriors serving the Byzantine Empire, one in Egypt and the other in Palestine.{{sfn|Hoyland|2001|p=69}}