Azania
ἡ Ἀζανία
Azania (ἡ Ἀζανία, Ptol. 4.7.28; Peripl. Mar. Eryth. pp. 10, 11, seq.), the modern coast of Ajan, was another name for the maritime region of eastern Africa called Barbaria, which extended from the promontory of Aromata, lat. 11° N., to that of Rhaptum, lat. 2° S. Ptolemy distinguishes between Azania and Barbaria, defining the former as the interior, and the latter as the coast of the region which bore these names. Azania was inhabited by a race of Aethiopians, who were engaged principally in catching and taming wild elephants, or in supplying the markets of the Red Sea coast with hides and ivory. At the southern limit of this undefined and scarcely known region was the river Rhaptus, and the haven Rhaptmn (Ptol. 4.9), which derived their name from the Aethiopes Rhapsii. The Mare Azanium, another name for the Sinus Barbaricus (Βαρβαρικός κόλπος, Ptol. 4.7.28), skirted this whole region.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.