Listed 9 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "ETHIOPIA Country EAST AFRICA" .
Aethiopia (he Aithiophia, Herod. iii. 114; Dion Cass. liv. 5; Strab.
pp. 2, 31, 38, &c.; Plin. H. N. v. 8. § 8, vi. 30. § 35; Seneca, Q. N. iv. 2,
&c.; Steph. B.: Eth. Aithhiops, Aithiopeus, Aethiops, fem. AiQlophis: Adj. Aithiopikhos,
Aethiopicus: the Kush of the Hebrews, Ezech. xxxix. 10; Job. xxviii.
19; Amos ix. 7), corresponds, in its more extended acceptation, to the modern
regions of Nubia, Sennaar, Kordofan and northern Abyssinia. In describing Aethiopia
however, we must distinguish between the employment of the name as an ethnic or
generic designation on the one hand, and, on the other, as restricted to the province
or kingdom of Meroe, or the civilised Aethiopia (he Aithiophia huper Aiguptou,
or hupo Aigpton, Herod. ii. 146; Ptol. iv. 7.)
Aethiopia, as a generic or ethnic designation, comprises the inhabitants
of Africa who dwelt between the equator, the Red Sea, and the Atlantic, for Strabo
speaks of Hesperian Aethiopians S. of the Pharusii and Mauri, and Herodotus (iv.
197) describes them as occupying the whole of South Libya. The name Aethiopians
is probably Semitic, and if indigenous, certainly so, since the Aethiopic language
is pure Semitic. Mr. Salt says that to this day the Abyssinians call themselves
Itiopjawan. The Greek geographers however, derived the name from aitho-o+ps, and
applied it to all the sun-burnt dark-com-plexioned races above Egypt. Herodotus
(iii. 94, vii. 70) indeed speaks of Aethiopians of Asia, whom he probably so designated
from their being of a darker hue than their immediate neighbours. Like the Aethiopians
of the Nile, they were tributary to Persia in the reign of Darius. They were a
straight-haired race, while their Libyan namesakes were, according to the historian,
woolly-haired. But the expression (oulhotaton trhichoma) must not be construed
too literally, as neither the ancient Aethiopians, as depictured on the monuments,
nor their modern representatives, the Bisharies and Shangallas, have, strictly
speaking, the negro-hair. The Asiatic Aethiopians were an equestrian people, wearing
crests and head armour made of the hide and manes of horses. From Herodotus (l.
c.) we infer that they were a Mongolic race, isolated in the steppes of Kurdistan.
The boundaries of the African Aethiopians are necessarily indefinite.
If they were, as seems probable, the ancestors of the Shangallas, Bisharies, and
Nubians, their frontiers may be loosely stated as to the S. the Abyssinian Highlands,
to the W. the Libyan desert, to the N. Egypt and Marmarica, and to the E. the
Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. The boundaries of Aethiopia Proper, or Meroe, will
admit of more particular definition.
Their Eastern frontier however being a coast line may be described.
It extended from lat. 9 to lat. 24 N. Beginning at the headland of Prasum (Cape
del Gardo), where Africa Barbaria commences, we come successively upon the promontory
of Rhaptum (Hpapthon oros), Noti Cornu (Nhoton kheras), Point Zingis (Zinghis),
Aromata (aromhaton a+kron: Cape Guardafui), the easternmost point of Africa; the
headland of Elephas (_Elethas: Djebel Feeh or Cape Felix); Mnemium (Mnemeion:
Cape Calmez), the extreme spur of Mt. Isium (Idion oros), and, finally, the headland
of Bazium, a little to the south of the Sinus Immundus, or Foul Bay, nearly in
the parallel of Syene. The coast line was much indented, and contained some good
harbours, Avaliticus Sinus, Aduliticus Sinus, &c., which in the Macedonian era,
if not earlier, were the emporia of an active commerce both with Arabia and Libya..
(Ptol.; Strabo; Plin.)
From the headland of Bazium to Mount Zingis, a barrier of primitive
rocks intermingled with basalt and limestone extends and rises to a height of
8000 feet in some parts. In the north of this range were the gold mines, from
which the Aethiopians derived an abundance of that metal. Aethiopia was thus separated
from its coast and harbours, which were accessible from the interior only by certain
gorges, the caravan roads. The western slope of this range was also steep, and
the streams were rapid and often dried up in summer. A tract, called the eastern
desert, accordingly intervened between the Arabian hills and the Nile and its
tributary the Astaboras. The river system of Aethiopia differed indeed considerably
from that of Egypt. The Nile from its junction with the Astaboras or Tacazze presented,
during a course of nearly 700 miles, alternate rapids and cataracts, so that it
was scarcely available for inland navigation. Its fertilising overflow was also
much restricted by high escarped banks of limestone, and its alluvial deposit
rarely extended two miles on either side of the stream, and more frequently covered
only a narrow strip. Near the river dhourra or millet was rudely cultivated, and
canals now choked up with sand, show that the Aethiopians practised the art of
irrigation. Further from the Nile were pastures and thick jungle-forests, where,
in the rainy seasons, the gadfly prevailed, and drove the herdsmen and their cattle
into the Arabian hills. The jungle and swamps abounded with wild beasts, and elephants
were both caught for sale and used as food by the natives. As rain falls scantily
in the north, Aethiopia must have contained a considerable portion of waste land
beside its eastern and western deserts. In the south the Abyssinian highlands
are the cause of greater humidity, and consequently of more general fertility.
The whole of this region has at present been very imperfectly explored. The natives
who have been for centuries carried off by their northern neighbours to the slave-markets
are hostile to strangers. Bruce and Burckhardt skirted only the northern and southern
borders of Aethiopia above Meroe: jungle fever and wild beasts exclude the traveller
from the valleys of the Astapus and Astaboras: and the sands have buried most
of the cultivable soil of ancient Aethiopia. Yet it is probable that two thousand
years have made few changes in the general aspect of its inhabitants.
The population of this vague region was a mixture of Arabian and Libyan
races in combination with the genuine A ethiopians. The latter were distinguished
by well formed and supple limbs, and by a facial outline resembling the Caucasian
in all but its inclination to prominent lips and a somewhat sloping forehead.
The elongated Nubian eye, depictured on the monuments, is still seen in the Shangallas.
As neither Greeks nor Romans penetrated beyond Napata, the ancient capital of
Meroe, our accounts of the various Aethiopian tribes are extremely scanty and
perplexing. Their principal divisions were the Colobi, the Blemmyes, the Icthyophagi,
the Macrobii, and the Troglodytae. But besides these were various tribes, probably
however of the same stock, which were designated according to their peculiar diet
and employments. The Rhizophagi or Root-eaters, who fed upon dhourra kneaded with
the bark of trees; the Creophagi, who lived on boiled flesh, and were a pastoral
tribe; the Chelenophagi, whose food was shell-fish caught in the saline estuaries;
the Acridophagi or locust-eaters; the Struthophagi and Elephantophagi, who hunted
the ostrich and elephant, and some others who, like the inhabitants of the island
Gagauda, took their name from a particular locality. The following, however, had
a fixed habitation, although we find them occasionally mentioned at some distance
from the probable site of the main tribe.
(1.) The Blemmyes, and Megabari who dwelt between the Arabian hills and the Tacazze
were according to Quatremere de Quincy (Memoires sur l'Egypte, ii. p. 127), the
ancestors of the modern Bischaries, whom earlier writers denominate Bejas or Bedjas.
They practised a rude kind of agriculture; but the greater part were herdsmen,
hunters, and caravan guides. (2) Icthyophagi or fisheaters, dwelt on the sea coast
between the Sinus Adulicus and the Regio Troglodytica, and of all these savage
races were probably the least civilised. According to Diodorus, the Icthyophagi
were a degraded branch of the Troglodytae. Their dwellings were clefts and holes
in the rocks, and they did not even possess any fishing implements, but fed on
the fish which the ebb left behind. Yet Herodotus informs us (iii. 20) that Cambyses
employed Icthyophagi from Elephantine in Upper Egypt, as spies previous to his
expedition into the interior- an additional proof of the uncertain site and wide
dispersion of the Aethiopian tribes. (3) The Macrobii or long-lived Aethiopians.
-Of this nation, if it were not the people of Meroe, it is impossible to discover
the site. From the account of Herodotus (iii. 17) it appears that they were advanced
in civilisation, since they possessed a king, laws, a prison, and a market; understood
the working of metals, had gold in abundance, and had made some progress in the
arts. Yet of agriculture they knew nothing, for they were unacquainted with bread.
Herodotus places them on the shore of the Indian Ocean at the furthest corner
of the earth. But the Persians did not approach their abode, and the Greeks spoke
of the Macrobii only from report. Bruce (ii. p. 554) places them to the north
of Fazukla, in the lower part of the gold countries, Cuba and Nuba, on both sides
of the Nile, and regards them as Shangallas. (4) The Troglodytae or cave-dwellers
were seated between the Blemmyes and Megabari, and according to Agatharcides (ap.
Diod. i. 30. § 3, iii. 32, 33) they were herdsmen with their separate chiefs or
princes of tribes. Their habitations were not merely clefts in the rocks, but
carefully wrought vaults, laid out in cloisters and squares, like the catacombs
at Naples, whither in the rainy season they retired with their herds. Their food
was milk and clotted blood. In the dry months they occupied the pastures which
slope westward to the Astaboras and Nile.
The boundaries of Aethiopia Proper (he Aithiopia nper Aieuptou) are
more easy to determine. To the south indeed they are uncertain, but probably commenced
a little above the modern village of Khartoum, where the Bahr el Azrek, Blue or
Dark River, unites with the Bahr el Abiad, or White Nile. (Lat. 15° 37' N.,
long. 33° E.) The desert of Bahiouda on the left bank of the Nile formed its
western limit: its eastern frontier was the river Astaboras and the northern upland
of Abyssinia - the kremnoi tes Araxhias of Diodorus (i. 33). To the N. Aethiopia
was bounded by a province called Dodecaschoenus or Aethiopia Aegypti - a debateable
land subject some-times to the Thebaid and sometimes to the kings of Meroe. The
high civilisation of Aethiopia, as attested by historians and confirmed by its
monuments, was confined to the insular area of Meroe and to Aethiopia Aegypti,
and is more particularly described under the head of Meroe.
The connection between Egypt and Aethiopia was at all periods very
intimate. The inhabitants of the Nile valley and of Aethiopia were indeed branches
of the same Hamite stream, and differed only in degree of civilisation. Whether
religion and the arts descended or ascended the Nile has long been a subject of
discussion. From Herodotus (ii. 29) it would appear that the worship of Ammon
and Osiris (Zeus and Dionysus) was imparted by Meroe to Egypt. The annual procession
of the Holy Ship, with the shrine of the Ram-headed god, from Thebes to the Libyan
side of the Nile, as depicted on the temple of Karnak and on several Nubian monuments,
probably commemorates the migration of Ammon-worship from Meroe to Upper Egypt.
Diodorus also says (iii. 3) that the people above Meroe worship Isis, Pan, Heracles,
and Zeus: and his assertion would be confirmed by monuments in Upper Nubia bearing
the head of Isis, &c., could we be certain of the date of their erection. The
Aethiopian monarchy was even more strictly sacerdotal than that of Egypt, at least
the power of the priesthood was longer undisputed. In Aethiopia, says Diodorus
(iii. 6), the priests send a sentence of death to the king, when they think he
has lived long enough. The order to die is a mandate of the gods. In the age of
Ptolemy Philadelphus (B.C. 284-246) however an important revolution took place.
Ergamenes,a monarch who had some tincture of Greek arts and philosophy, put all
the priests to death (Diod.iii.6. § 3), and plundered their golden temple at Napata
(Barkcal?). If Herodotus (ii. 100) were not misinformed by the priests of Memphis,
18 Aethiopian kings were among the predecessors of Sesortasen. The monuments however
do not record this earlier dynasty. Sesortasen is said by the same historian to
have conquered Aethiopia (Herod. ii. 106); but his occupation must have been merely
transient, since he also affirms that the country above Egypt had never been conquered
(iii. 21). But in the latter part of the 8th century B.C. an Aethiopian dynasty,
the 25th of Egypt, reigned in Lower Egypt, and contained three kings--Sabaco,
Sebichus, and Taracus or Tirhakah. At this epoch the annals of Aethiopia become
connected with universal history. Sabaco and his successors reigned at Napata,
probably seated at that bend of the Nile where the rocky island of Mogreb divides
its stream. The invasion of Egypt by the Aethiopian king was little more than
a change of dynasty, as the royal families of the two kingdoms had previously
been united by intermarriages. Bocchoris, the last Egyptian monarch of the 24th
dynasty, was put to a cruel death by Sabaco, yet Diodorus (i. 60) commends the
latter as exemplarily pious and merciful. Herodotus (ii. 137) represents Sabaco
as substituting for criminals compulsory labour in the mines for the punishment
of death. Diodorus also celebrates the mildness and justice of another Aethiopian
king, .whom he calls Actisanes, and rumours of such virtues may have procured
for the Aethiopian race the epithet of the blameless. (Hom. Il. i. 423.)
Sebichus, the So or Seva of the Scriptures, was the son and successor
of Sabaco. He was an ally of Hoshea, king of Israel; but he was unable, or too
tardy in his movements, to prevent the capture of Samaria by Shalmaneser, king
of Assyria, in B.C. 722. One result of the captivity of Israel was an influx of
Hebrew exiles, into Egypt and Aethiopia, and eventually the dissemination of the
Mosaic religion in the country north of Elephantine. Before this catastrophe,
the Psalmist and the Prophets (Psalm, lxxxvii. 4; Isaiah, xx. 5; Nahum, iii. 9;
Ezek. xxx. 4) had celebrated the military power of the Aethiopians, and the historical
writings of the Jews record their invasions of Palestine. Isaiah (xix. 18) predicts
the return of Israel from the land of Cush; and the story of Queen Candace's treasurer,
in the Acts of the Apostles (ch. viii.), shows that the Hebrew Scriptures were
current in the more civilised parts of that region. Sebichus was succeeded by
Tirhakah-the Tarcus or Taracus of Manetho. The commentators on the Book of Kings
(iii. 19) usually describe this monarch as an Arabian chieftain; but his name
is recorded on the propylon of a temple at Medinet-Aboo, and at Gebel-el-Birkel,
or Barkal, in Nubia. He was, therefore, of Aethiopian lineage. Strabo (i. p. 61,
xv. p. 687) says, that Tirhakah rivalled Sesortasen, or Rameses III., in his conquests,
which extended to the Pillars of Hercules, meaning, probably, the Phoenician settlements
on the northern coast of Africa. From Hebrew records (2 Kings, xviii, xix.; Isaiah,
xxxvi, xxxvii.), we know that Tirhakah was on his march to relieve Judaea from
the invasion of Sennacherib (B.C. 588); but his advance was rendered unnecessary
by the pestilence which swept off the Assyrian army near Pelusium (Herod. ii.
141; Horapoll. Hierogl. i. 50). Tirhakah, however, was sovereign only in the Thebaid:
one, if not two, native Egyptian kings, reigned contemporaneously with him at
Memphis and Sais. According to the inscription at Gebel-el-Birkel, Tirhakah reigned
at least twenty years in Upper Egypt. Herodotus, indeed, regards the 25th or Aethiopian
dynasty in Egypt as comprised in the reign and person of Sabaco alone, to whom
he assigns a period of fifty years. But there were certainly three monarchs of
this line, and a fourth, Ammeris, is mentioned in the list of Eusebius. The historian
(ii. 139) ascribes the retirement of the last Aethiopian monarch to a dream, which
may perhaps be interpreted as a mandate from the hierarchy at Napata to forego
his conquests below Philae.
In the reign of Psammetichus (B.C. 630), the entire war-caste of Egypt
migrated into Aethiopia. Herodotus (ii. 30) says that the deserters (Automoli)
settled in a district as remote from the Aethiopian metropolis (Napata) as that
city was from Elephantine. But this statement would carry them below lat. 16°,
the extreme limit of Aethiopian civilisation. Diodorus (i. 67) describes the Automoli
as settled in the most fertile region of Aethiopia. North-west of Meroe, however,
a tribe had established themselves, whom the geographers call Enonymitae, the
Asmach of Herodotus (ii. 30; Strab. xvii. p. 786; Plin. vi. 30), and there is
reason to consider these, who from their name may have once composed the left
wing of the Egyptian army, the exiled war-caste. In that frontier position they
would have been available to their adopted country as a permanent garrison against
invasion from the north.
The Persian dynasty was scarcely established in Egypt, when Cambyses undertook
an expedition into Aethiopia. He prepared for it by sending certain Icthyophagi
from Elephantine as envoys, or rather as spies, to the king of the Macrobians.
(Herod. iii. 17-25.) But the invasion was so ill-planned, or encountered such
physical obstacles in the desert, that the Persian army returned to Memphis, enfeebled
and disheartened. Of this inroad the magazines of Cambyses (tamieia Kamheudon,
Ptol. iv. 7. § 15), probably the town of Cambysis (Plin. H. N. vi. 29), on the
left bank of the Nile, near its great curve to the west, was the only permanent
record. The Persian occupation of the Nilevalley opened the country above Philae
to Greek travellers. The philosopher Democritus, a little younger than Herodotus,
wrote an account of the hieroglyphics of Meroe (Diog. Laert. ix. 49), and from
this era we may probably date the establishment of Greek emporia upon the shore
of the Red Sea. Under the Ptolemies, the arts, as well as the enterprise of the
Greeks, entered Aethiopia, and led to the destruction of the sacerdotal government,
and to the foundation or extension of the Hellenic colonies Dire-Berenices, Arsinoe,
Adule, Ptolemais-Theron, on the coast, where, until the era of the Saracen invasion
in the 7th century A. D., an active trade was carried on between Libya, Arabia,
and Western India or Ceylon (Ophir? Taprobane).
In the reign of Augustus, the Aethiopians, under their Queen Candace,
advanced as far as the Roman garrisons at Parembole and Elephantine. They were
repulsed by C. Petronius, the legatus of the prefect of Egypt, Aelius Gallus,
who placed a Roman garrison in Premnis (Ibrim), and pursued the retreating army
to the neighbourhood of Napata. (Dion Cass. liv. 5.) In a second campaign Petronius
compelled Candace to send overtures of peace and submission to Augustus (B.C.
22-23). But the Roman tenure of Aethiopia above Egypt was always precarious; and
in Diocletian's reign (A.D. 284-305), the country south of Philae was ceded generally
by that emperor to the Nubae. Under the Romans, indeed, if not earlier, the population
of Aethiopia had become almost Arabian, and continued so after the establishment
of Christian churches and sees, until the followers of Mahomet overran the entire
region from the sources of the Astaboras to Alexandria, and confirmed the predominance
of their race.
Such were the general divisions, tribes, and history of Aethiopia
in the wider import of the term. In the interior, and again beginning from the
south near the sources of the Astaboras we find the following districts. Near
the headland Elephas were the Mosyli (Mhoduloi), the Molibae (Molhieai), and Soboridae
(Soeorhidai) (Ptol. iv. 7. § 28). Next, the Regio Axiomitarum, immediately to
the north of which was a province called Tenesis (Tenedhis) occupied by the Sembritae
of Strabo (p. 770), or Semberritae of Pliny (H. N. vi. 30. § 35). North of Tenesis
was the Lake Coloe, and between the Adulitae and Mount Taurus on the coast were
the Colobi, who according to Agatharcides (ap. Diod. iii. 32) practised the rite
of circumcision, and dwelt in a woody and mountainous district (a+ldos Koloeon,
Strab. l. c.; o+ros Koloeon, Ptol. iv. 8). Above these were the Memnones (Memnoneis),
a name celebrated by the post-Homeric poets of the Trojan war, and who are supposed
by some to have been a colony from Western India (Philological Museum, vol. ii.
p. 146); and above these, north of the Blemmyes and Megabari, are the Adiabarae,
who skirted to the east the province of Dodecaschoenus or Aethiopia above Egypt.
But of all these tribes we know the names only, and even these very imperfectly.
Modern travellers can only conjecturally connect them with the Bedjas, Bischaries,
Shangallas, and other Nubian or Arabian races; and neither Greeks nor Romans surveyed
the neighbourhood of their colonies beyond the high roads which led to their principal
havens on the Red Sea.
The western portion of Aethiopia, owing to its generally arid character,
was much more scantily peopled, and the tribes that shifted over rather than occupied
its scanty pastures were mostly of Libyan origin, a mixed Negro and Barabra race.
Parallel with the Astapus and the Nile after their confluence, stretched a limestone
range or hills, denominated by Ptolemy the Aethiopian mountains (ta Aithiopika
o+re, iv. 8). They separated Aethiopia from the Garamantes. West of the elbow
land which lay between Meroe and Napata was a district called Tergedum. North
of Tergedum the Nubae came down to the Nile-bank between the towns of Primis Parva
and Phturi; and northward of these were the above-mentioned Euonymitae, who extended
to Pselcis in lat. 23°. In the region Dodecaschoenus or Aethiopia above Egypt
were the following towns: Hiera Sycaminus (Hiera Sukhamnos: Ptol.; Plin. vi. 29.
s. 32; Itin. Anton. p. 162: Sukhaminon, Philostrat. Apoll. Tyan. iv. 2), the southernmost
town of the district (Wady Maharrakah, Burckhardt's Travels, p. 100); Corte (Kortia
prote, Agartharcides, p. 22; It. Anton. p. 162), Korti, four miles north of Hiera
Sycaminos; and on the right bank of the Nile Tachompso (Tachompsho: Herod. ii.
29; Mela, i. 9. § 2: Metakompsho Ptol. iv. 5; Tacompsos, Plin. vi. 29. s. 35)
was situated upon an island (probably Deraz) upon the eastern side of the river,
and was occupied by Aethiopians and Egyptians. Upon the opposite bank was Pselcis
(Pselkhis, Strab. p. 820; Aristid. Aegin. i. p. 512). It was built in the era
of the Ptolemies, and its erection was so injurious to Tachompso, that the latter
came to be denominated Contra Pselcis, and lost its proper appellation. Pselcis
was eight miles from Hiera Sycaminos, and the head-quarters of a cohort of German
horse (Not. Imp.) in the Roman period. On the left bank of the Nile was Tutzis
(Dschirdscheh), where some remarkable monuments still exist: and Taphis (Taphis,
Olympiad. ap. Photium, 80, p. 194; Tathhis, Ptol. iv. 5), opposite to which was
Contra-Taphis (Teffah), where ruins have been discovered, and in the neighbourhood
of which are large stone-quarries. Finally, Piarembole, the frontier-garrison
of Egypt, where even so late as the 4th century A. D. a Roman legion was stationed.
Pliny, in his account of the war with Candace (B.C. 22), has preserved
a brief record of the route of Petronius in his second invasion of Meroe, which
contains the names of some places of importance. The Roman general passed by the
valley of the Nile through Dongola and Nubia, and occupied or halted at the following
stations: Pselcis, Primis Magna, or Premnis (Ibrim) on the right bank of the river,
Phturis (Farras), and Aboccis or Abuncis (Aboosimbel, Ipsambul on the left, Cambysis
(tamieia Kamendon and Atteva or Attoba, near the third cataract. If Josephus can
be relied upon indeed, the Persians must have penetrated the Nile-valley much
higher up than the Romans, and than either Herodotus or Diodorus (i. 34) will
permit us to suppose. For the Jewish historian (Antiq. ii. 10) represents Cambyses
as conquering the capital of Aethiopia, and changing its name from Saba to Meroe.
The architectural remains of Nubia belong to Meroe and are briefly described under
that head. To Meroe also, as the centre and perhaps the creature of the inland
trade of Aethiopia, we refer for an account of the natural and artificial productions
of the land above Egypt. The principal modern travellers who have explored or
described the country above Egypt are Bruce, Burckhardt, Belzoni, Minutoli, Gau
and Rosellini. Lord Valentia and Mr. Salt's Travels, Waddington and Hanbury's
Journals, Ruppel's and Cailleaud's Travels, &c., Heeren's Historical Researches,
vol. i. pp. 285-473, and the geographical work of Ritter have been consulted for
the preceding article.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Nubia, Kordofan, Sennaar, Abyssinia. A country of Africa, south of Egypt, the boundary of the countries being at Syene and the Smaller Cataract of the Nile, and extending on the east to the Red Sea, and to the south and southwest indefinitely, as far apparently as the knowledge of the ancients extended. The people of Aethiopia seem to have been of the Caucasian race, and to have spoken a language allied to the Arabic. Monuments are found in the country closely resembling those of Egypt, but of an inferior style. It was the seat of a powerful monarchy, of which Meroe was the capital. Some traditions made Meroe the parent of Egyptian civilization, while others ascribed the civilization of Aethiopia to Egyptian colonization. So great was the power of the Aethiopians that more than once in its history Egypt was governed by Aethiopian kings. Under the Ptolemies, Graeco-Egyptian colonies established themselves in Aethiopia; but the country was never subdued. The Romans failed to extend their empire over Aethiopia, though they made expeditions into the country, in one of which C. Petronius, prefect of Egypt under Augustus, advanced as far as Napata, and defeated the warrior queen Candace (B.C. 22). Christianity very early extended to Aethiopia, probably in consequence of the conversion of the treasurer of Queen Candace.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Total results on 27/3/2001: 142 for Ethiopia, 28 for Aethiopia.
ETHIOPIA (Country) EAST AFRICA
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
