Printed by C. Hullmandel.
For the benefit of the learned, who peculiarly apply themselves to this study, I give, however, a few of those inscriptions, which, mutilated and imperfect as some of them are, the initiated in the recent discoveries in hieroglyphics will immediately perceive to be of the greatest importance, as the earliest undoubted records of Ethiopian history. The inscriptions in Plates [LII.] and [LIII.,] the hieroglyphics of the Plates [X.] [XI.] and [XII.] of sculpture of Meroe, and also many I am unable to publish, are curious, not only for the names, but for the singular titles which they contain, for the mythology, the variations in the appellations of the divinities, the names of places, and other valuable historical matter.[50] Many scientific men have urged me to publish the whole of these inscriptions; and Signor Rosellini informed me that he should add another volume to his work from these materials. I hope this able writer will not forget his promise, and will excuse my employing it as an apology for not undertaking the interpretation of any portion of them myself; as such an attempt, on my part, would only be unsatisfactory to the learned, and tiresome to the general reader.
“Non nostrum tantas componere lites.”
The monuments of Egypt afford historical evidence of the wars between that country and Ethiopia, during the 18th dynasty; that is, from about the 13th to the 16th century before Christ. In the topographical description I stated that the temples of Semneh were built by the Egyptian king Thothmes III. I have been told that scarabæi have been found, with the name of this king, opposite Gibel el Birkel.[51] Amunoph III., the Memnon of the Greeks, has also left, as a monument of his victories still farther in Ethiopia, the splendid Temple of Solib. I thought, at first, that this was the Amunoph mentioned by Josephus, who, at the second invasion of the Shepherds, took refuge in Ethiopia until he had collected an army, and his son Sethos, or Rameses, was of a sufficient age to lead it against the insurgents: but both Eusebius and Africanus agree in calling Sethos the first king of the 19th dynasty: therefore, as the Temple of Solib bears the name of Amunoph, with the prænomen of Ⲣⲏ-ⲛⲉⲃ-ⲛⲧⲙⲉ, “Sun, Lord of Truth,” it is of the eighth king of the 18th dynasty, and not the last: besides, the representations of the countries conquered by that king are still preserved, and prove, by some of them having the features of negroes, that the splendid Temple of Solib was erected as a monument of his victory and long possession of the country, and not of a mere alliance with the King of Ethiopia.[52]
The successor of Amunoph III., Amulek, or, perhaps, more correctly, Horus, as Eusebius and Africanus call him, must, I conceive, from an inscription I saw at Turin, have also carried his arms into the interior of Africa; but Herodotus[53] states, that only Rameses II. (Sesostris) made himself master of Ethiopia; and it is singular, as I have stated in the account of the ruins of Gibel el Birkel, that the only fragment of the name of an Egyptian king which I saw, either there or at Meroe, was half of the name of Rameses II., which I found, by accident, in the Arab burial-ground at the former place. This is an extraordinary corroboration of the testimony of the historian; for that conqueror must have possessed that Ethiopian city for a sufficient length of time to erect or restore a temple; otherwise I should not have found his name.
Diodorus mentions that, when Egypt was suffering under the dominion of Amasis, a violent, proud, and arrogant man, Aktisanes, king of Ethiopia, profiting by the discontent of the people, invaded Egypt, and had little difficulty in overthrowing the tyrant, and taking possession of the country, as the greater number of his subjects were weary of his oppression, and rebelled against him. Aktisanes, he adds, was a great prince, and built a city, called Rhinocolura, on the confines of Syria and Egypt, and detained there the thieves whom he had punished with the loss of their noses; from which circumstance Rhinocolura had its name. Eusebius, Africanus, and Herodotus do not mention this king. Diodorus’s account is difficult to explain; for his Amasis cannot be the Amasis of Manetho, the first of the 18th dynasty; as Diodorus places his Amasis several reigns after Sesostris or Rameses II. As there are no traces of the name of this king on the monuments either of Ethiopia or Egypt, I see no reason why we should receive the testimony of Diodorus, to the prejudice of other historians; and, doubting, as I do, whether such a king ever reigned in Egypt, I think it unnecessary to enter into any discussion about the period of his reign.
We have also, about this time, an account of another king, whose name is familiar to the classical scholar,—Memnon, the son of Aurora, who killed Antilochus[54] in the Trojan war; and again, in the same poem[55], he is called the most beautiful of warriors, the brother of Priam; and Hesiod calls him the son of Aurora, and the king of the Ethiopians. Monsieur Letronne, in his learned work on the vocal statue of Memnon, has treated the whole story as a romance; but though we may refuse our credence to the embellishments of the Greek poets, tragic writers, and historians, I must confess myself of the opinion of those who believe in the possibility that the statement of a king of Ethiopia of that name having gone to the assistance of Troy may, perhaps, not be without foundation. The distance was certainly very great; but navigation by the Nile, or the Red Sea, would obviate, in a great measure, that difficulty; and it is not much more extraordinary to read of an Ethiopian king going to the relief of Troy in the 13th century before the Christian era, than, in the tenth century, to read of a king, called Zerah, who, with a host of a thousand thousand, went unto Maresha; and, in the 8th century, we find that Tirhaka assisted the King of Israel against Sennacherib, which event I will presently relate. History, both ancient and modern, affords many instances of wars between very distant states, and of expeditions sent against remote kingdoms, often even from continent to continent. I think, therefore, that it is not very surprising that the Ethiopian king, Memnon, should go with his troops from Meroe to Troy, either to assist his relation, or, at the instigation of some neighbour, to join in the common defence against the Greek invasion.[56]
In the 11th century before the Christian era, Semiramis, the celebrated queen of Assyria, fearless of those deserts in which, according to the fable, she was exposed when an infant, invaded Ethiopia. Notwithstanding the celebrity of the Assyrian heroine for cutting through mountains, filling up valleys, and conveying water, by costly aqueducts, to unfruitful plains and vast deserts, it does not seem that her success in subduing Ethiopia was very great. Diodorus only mentions her admiration of a wonderful lake, 160 feet square, of a vermilion colour, which sent forth a delicious smell, not unlike old wine, and of such wonderful efficacy, that whoever drank of it acknowledged the sins which he had long since secretly committed and forgotten. That the kingdom of Meroe was the part of Ethiopia invaded by her is not improbable. Her mortified vanity at not having succeeded in her enterprise, the reflections caused by the dangers and solitudes of the deserts, or the influence of the religion of Ammon, may have been the monitors that awakened the guilty conscience of the Assyrian queen.
The next occasion on which we find mention made of an Ethiopian army is the expedition of Shishak against Jerusalem, in 971 A.C. That monarch is represented as bringing 1200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen; and “the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, and the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians.”[57] The Ethiopians and Lubims are called a “huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen.”[58] These Ethiopians may have come from a district of their country which was subject to Shishak, as we see, recorded on the monuments at Thebes, not only the invasion of Judea, mentioned in the Bible, but also victories achieved by that warlike king over various other nations. It is not, however, improbable that the Ethiopians were merely assisting the Egyptians. The Sukkiims are considered by many to be the ancient Troglodytes, the ancestors, perhaps, of the present Bishareen; there is certainly a curious resemblance between the name of the present capital of the latter tribe, Souakim, and their Scripture title, Sukkiim.
Sixteen years only after this event we have an account of another invasion of the Ethiopians. “So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years.” “And Asa had an army of men that bare targets and spears, out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare shields and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand: all these were mighty men of valour. And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian, with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came unto Mareshah. Then Asa went out against him, and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. And Asa cried unto the Lord his God.”[59] “So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled. And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them unto Gerar: and the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves.”[60]