A.D. 330.A few years afterwards two young Christians of Tyre, Edesius and Frumentius, were, on their return journey by sea from India (?), kidnapped on the coast of Abyssinia. According to their story they became advisers to the widow of the king who had captured them, and used all their influence to promote Christianity in the land. They succeeded so well that Frumentius, on his return to Alexandria, was consecrated by Bishop Athanasius and returned to Abyssinia, where he spent the rest of his life in proselytizing, with excellent results.
Little or nothing is known of the history of internal or Upper Nubia during these centuries, but the Blemmyes continued to give trouble to the Roman rulers of Egypt. They gradually succeeded in occupying the five towns of the Commilitium Romanum, making Talmis or Kalabsha their capital, and even penetrated into the Thebaïd, A.D. 451.where in A.D. 451 Maximinus, the general of Marcian, was forced to make a treaty with them for 100 years. But it was soon broken by the barbarians.
A.D. 400-500.In the fifth century the Nubians, whose religion at that time was chiefly limited to star-worship, were gradually converted by monks and others of the Alexandrian Church. The first important convert was one Bahriya (?), nephew of the king, and he built many churches and monasteries.
A.D. 545.During the sixth century the entire nation adopted Christianity. In A.D. 545 their King Silko defeated the Blemmyes and took the already well-known town of (old) Dongola for his capital.
The Egypto-Roman-Christian remains at Nagaa[151], and those of the kingdom of Alwa, or Soba, then under the King of Nubia, may belong to this or even to an earlier period, for there are legends of Christianity having penetrated to the Blue Nile in the third century, and St. Mark is reported to have preached in the Sudan, or at all events, in “Ethiopia,” in the first century, A.D. 1.
A.D. 560.In the days of Justinian there seems to be no doubt that Christianity was the established religion of the whole of Ethiopia and Nubia.
ONE OF THE ANIMALS AT NAGAA.
[142]Authorities:—Acknowledgments to the works of Dr. Budge, Prof. Rawlinson, Mrs. Butcher, etc., as mentioned in [Appendix H,] and to some notes of Mr. Crowfoot, for history up to a.d. 1493.
| A.D. | 1493 to 1837. | — | Col. Stewart, “Report on the Sudan, 1883,” and various other writers. |
| „ | 1837 to 1882. | — | From “Report on the Egyptian Provinces of the Sudan.” I.D., 1884. |
| „ | 1882 to date. | — | Compiled from various authorities, mainly Col. Wingate’s works, Intelligence Reports and Publications, &c. |