Travels in Ethiopia, above the second cataract of the Nile

by G. A. Hoskins

Besides Erkamenes, we have accounts of another Ethiopian monarch, whose name Signor Rosellini found on the temple of Deboud, in Lower Nubia, and which he conceives (I think very correctly), to be also of an Ethiopian king of about the same period. ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀ (Ⲣⲏ ⲛ̀ ⲱⲧⲡ, ⲥⲱⲧⲛ̀ ⲛ̀ⲛⲓⲧⲏⲣ) ⲥⲓⲣⲏ (Ⲁⲧⲣⲣⲁⲙⲛ, ⲱⲡϩ ϫⲧⲧ) “King (Son of Perfection, approved by the gods), Son of the Sun (Atarramon, always living.)” This, therefore, is an Ethiopian king, whose conquests extended to within a few miles of Philæ.

A Greek inscription at Kalabshy mentions the victories of Silco, king of all the Ethiopians, over the Blemmyes. No other Ethiopian names are found in Lower Nubia, except some prisoners represented on the walls of the temple of Rameses at Kalabshy.

Strabo[76] gives us a highly important narrative of an event that took place in his time. It is peculiarly interesting, as it accounts for the ruin of the towns and temples which once adorned that part of the valley of the Nile. “The Ethiopians,” says he, “taking advantage of Ælius Gallus having taken away the garrison of Syene, to prosecute his expedition into Arabia, by a sudden and unforeseen attack took possession of Syene, Elephanta, and Philæ; made the inhabitants prisoners, overthrew the statues of Cæsar Augustus; but Petronius, with 10,000 foot and 800 cavalry, attacked their army, composed of 30,000 men, and forced them to fly to Pselchis, an Ethiopian city: he sent ambassadors to them there, to demand what they had taken, and to know what reason they had to complain of the governors. They required three days to consider, and as, after that time, Petronius did not obtain satisfaction, he attacked them, forced them to give battle, and had no difficulty in putting to flight men ill disciplined and ill armed, having only large shields of unmanufactured ox-hide, hatchets, spears, and sabres. Some threw themselves into the town, others fled into the desert. Some gained a neighbouring town by swimming across the river; among the number were the generals of Candace, who reigned over the Ethiopians. This queen, whose courage was beyond her sex, was deprived of one eye.

“Petronius crossed the river upon rafts and boats, and made prisoners all those who were in the island, and sent them immediately to Alexandria; afterwards they attacked Pselchis, and took it by assault. From Pselchis, Petronius, crossing the downs of sand where the army of Cambyses had been swallowed up by the winds, reached Premnis, a town in a strong situation, gained it at the first attack, and advanced afterwards on Napata, the capital of the kingdom of Candace, where her son was then residing. Candace occupied a neighbouring place, whence she sent to demand peace, offering to restore the prisoners who had been brought from Syene, and the statues which they had carried off; but Petronius, regardless of these propositions, attacked Napata, which the queen and her son had abandoned, razed the town, and led away the inhabitants captive.

“He returned with his booty, judging the road beyond to be too difficult. He took, however, the precaution to fortify Premnis better, leaving there a garrison of 400 men, with provisions for two years. Candace advanced, with a considerable force, against Premnis, but Petronius came to its relief, and succeeded in throwing himself into the town before the arrival of the queen, and provided various means of defence for the safety of the place. Candace sent ambassadors to Petronius, who ordered them to go to Cæsar (Augustus); and as they pretended not to know who Cæsar was, and which way they must go, he gave them an escort. These ambassadors arrived at Samos, where Cæsar then was. He granted all that they desired, and even freed them from the tribute which he had imposed upon them.”

We perceive from this account the superiority of the Roman arms. The discipline of those celebrated troops would have made them irresistible, whatever might have been the inferiority of their number, against such wretched soldiers as Strabo represents the Ethiopians: but Petronius, when at Napata, would scarcely have refrained from proceeding to Meroe, nor eventually would he have shut himself up in Premnis, whatever might have been the force of Candace, had it consisted of the undisciplined, ill-armed people he describes. Augustus does not seem to have despised them, since he concluded a peace on their own terms. In my [account] of the arts of Meroe, I will mention the probable effects of this destructive invasion of Petronius. Pliny also mentions this expedition[77], and states that, after Pselchis and Premnis, he took also the cities of Aboccis, Phthuris, Cambusis, Attenan, and Stadisis, and afterwards Napata; but he adds, it was not only the Roman arms which made a wilderness of this part of Ethiopia, but the wars with Egypt, alternately ruling over, and subject to, that country.

The year of the expedition of Petronius has never been exactly ascertained[78], but according to Dion Cassius (lxiv. s. 7.), Augustus went into the East in the year of Rome 734. Therefore, as the ambassadors of the Ethiopians found him at Samos, on his way into Syria, the expedition of Petronius can only have taken place a very short time before that period, that is, about twenty years before Christ.

An event of the greatest importance is recorded in the Gospel, as having taken place A.D. 33. An eunuch, a man of great authority under Candace, who had the charge of all her treasure, was converted by Philip.[79] The time at which Philip met the eunuch was subsequent to that of Ergamenes, when, as we have seen, a taste for Greek literature was spread in Ethiopia; therefore, the Greek language was, without doubt, sufficiently known to enable them to read the Old Testament, which was then translated into that language. It is not extraordinary, that a man who may be supposed to have raised himself to his high station of chief eunuch, by superior talent, should have perceived the superiority of the Jewish religion to that of Amun, nor is it unreasonable to presume that many of the Jews visited Ethiopia, and contributed to his conversion. We find him, therefore, as a believer in the Jewish religion, undertaking a journey of nearly 2000 miles to worship at the holy temple of Jerusalem, and engaged, when Philip met him, in studying the promises held out to the chosen people. We have no reason, I think, to assume that, because the sacred writings have only recorded this solitary instance, there were not other Ethiopians who had embraced the Jewish religion. It is well known that, in the East, through every age, the chief eunuch has always been one of the most powerful officers at the court; and it is not unreasonable, I think, to presume that his influence, joined to the persuasive truth of the doctrines of Christianity, may have induced many to forsake the ancient worship of the country, which had then, perhaps, degenerated, as in Egypt, into gross polytheism. Unless we assign a reign of more than fifty years to the Candace of the Gospel, she cannot be the sovereign who reigned at the time of the expedition of Petronius; but Pliny informs us that several queens who reigned in Ethiopia assumed this appellation. Philip met the eunuch, riding in his chariot, on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is a desert tract. Those deserts, which the traveller is now obliged to cross on the fatiguing camel, exposed to the hot sun and parching winds, the eunuch, it seems, rode over comfortably in his chariot. About the year 330, when Athanasius was Patriarch of Alexandria, according to Ludolf[80], Christianity was introduced into Abyssinia, by two youths, Frumentius and Ædisius, who were shipwrecked on the coast of the Red Sea; but it was not until the time of Theodosius that the Nubians were converted; and, according to the Arab writer, Sheref el Edrese, A.D. 1153, they were still Christians.

I shall not attempt the laborious, and almost useless, task, of endeavouring to trace the history of this country from the time of the Romans until the present day. My object has been to lay before the reader the most important fragments of history connected with the kingdom of Meroe. The capital of Candace was Napata, and not Meroe. The latter celebrated metropolis seems to have existed until the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus; and at the time of Nero, Pliny describes Napata as of no importance. Oppidum id parvum inter prædicta solum. After this sad decline of the glory of the Ethiopians, we find the wild tribes, whose power was formerly absorbed in the superior greatness of Meroe, now acting the principal part. The wars of the Blemmyes and the Nubians with each other, and against the Roman power, are the most important events afterwards transmitted to us; but, as these tribes have left no monuments of their civilisation, their names, victories, and defeats, have little connection with the history of Meroe. It might be interesting to trace the wasting away of that lamp of civilisation which had shone once so bright; but such an inquiry would exceed my limits, as well as the object prescribed to myself, which was, to show the once great political importance of the Ethiopians of Meroe. I have said, in my topographical description, that my examination of the existing monuments led me to adopt the opinion of those who believe the statement of Diodorus, that Meroe was the cradle of the arts. I shall, in the following chapters, bring forward additional arguments to prove that statement. The establishment of this fact will give an additional interest to that classical land, which we have seen to be the country of Memnon, Zerah, Tirhaka, Ergamenes, &c., and against which the efforts of Semiramis, Cambyses, and the Egyptian Pharaohs[81], were vainly directed.