Elesbaas and the Seven Holy Monks

ON ST. ELESBAAS AND THE SEVEN HOLY MONKS: ELESBAAS, KING, AND THE SEVEN HOLY MONKS, IN ETHIOPIA,

ABOUT THE YEAR DLV.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Elesbaas, king and confessor. (S.)

Aragawi or Za-Michael, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Pantaleon, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Garima, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alef, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Tzehma, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alftze, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Liqanos, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Imeata, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Guba or Otz, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

BY E. C.

§ I. The several names of St. Elesbaas; two errors of many writers; Xenodon, king of the Nubians; three wars of the Ethiopians against the Homerites, conflated into one by John, bishop of Asia.

St. Caleb, king of Ethiopia, like the other Ethiopian kings [Ludolf, Hist. æthiop., book II, chapter 4, number 22; Dillmann, Zeitschrift d. d. morgenl. Gesell., volume VII, page 352; Tellez, Historia geral, page 80.], The saint's names among the Ethiopians and among the Greeks. had several names, and he was also called Ela-Atzbah: a name which grew together from the particle Ela (which some suppose to be the same as the Arabic article el, while others hold that it was often set before the names of princes, like the Himyaritic particle Dhu Acta SS. volume X of October, page 725, note k.,) and from the Ethiopic word Atzbah Ibid. page 724, note g., blessed. By the Greeks he was called Ἐλεσβαᾶς Nonnosus in Photius, codex 3; Theophanes the Chronographer., Ἐλεσβόας John Malalas the Chronographer., Ἐλεσβᾶς; by Cosmas Indicopleustes, who spent time in Ethiopia while the holy king was alive, Ἐλλατζοβάα Volume X of October, page 724, notes d and g.; and finally by others Ἐλεσβαάν [Metaphrastes, the Menaea, Codex B of the Acts of St. Aretha in volume X of October, page 724, etc.], which last form of the name is owed either to the Syrians or to the Ethiopians themselves. For the Syrians not infrequently finish the names of men with the letter n, for example Naaman IV Kings V, 20; compare volume X of October, page 687, number 85 and following., Dimian or Dimion Volume X of October, page 696, number 117 and following., etc. And the ancient Ethiopians, I know not for what reason, when they wished to turn Ethiopic names of things or men into Greek, sometimes added a euphonic letter n. Thus, as we show in the commentary appended to this volume, the Ethiopian king Demahe, on a most precious coin which until now has either been neglected or wrongly assigned to the Homerites, is called Διμηαν. In the same way it perhaps came about that in the Acts of St. Aretha, martyr of Negran, which were composed by Ethiopian priests first in Ethiopic or in Greek, then turned into Syriac, and finally from the Syriac into Greek again Ibid. page 720, number 260., the king of the Homerites Dhu Nawas was called Dunaan, and St. Elesbaas in most manuscript codices Elesbaan; whether this is to be derived from the Ethiopic or rather from the Syriac language I leave for philologists to consider: I note, however, that King Dhu Nowas is in the Syriac monuments called Dimion or Dimian, but nowhere Dunaan. As for the holy king whom we celebrate on this day, he will henceforth be called by us either Caleb, or for the most part Elesbaas, which is closest to his Ethiopic surname.

[2] Two chief errors of ancient and recent writers: in all the eastern histories, Before we set out the history of St. Elesbaas in its proper order, we must first correct a most serious error of writers both recent and ancient, by which many things are ascribed to this same king that manifestly belong to his grandfather Ela-Ameda [Lebeau, Hist. du Bas-Empire, Saint-Martin's edition, volume VIII, page 490; Salt etc.]. Next we must resolve a second confusion, by which two wars that St. Elesbaas waged against Dunaan or Dhu Nowas, king of the Homerites, the one because of the slain merchants and the interrupted trade, the other to avenge the martyrs of Negran, have been heaped together into one. To begin with the latter difficulty, which will be more easily disposed of and which has for the most part been mixed by writers with the former, we showed in the Commentary on St. Aretha, martyr, and his companions of Negran, that St. Elesbaas waged his first war against Dhu Nowas at the beginning of the reign of Justin the Elder, and indeed about the year 519 Volume X of October, page 694, numbers 111, 113, and page 753, note nn.; that the occasion of this war was the tributes imposed by Dhu Nowas upon the Graeco-Roman merchants who professed the Christian religion, and his other harassments of them Ibid. page 694, § X.; and finally that Dhu Nowas was routed and fled to the mountain tracts, in which he lived for about three years, until at the very end of the year 522 he again rebelled against the Ethiopians Ibid. passim.. In the years 523 and 524 he occupied the whole of Homeritis, and being a Jew and a bitter enemy of the Christians, he took the lives of many of them with dreadful tortures. In the following year, however, 525 of the common era, St. Elesbaas undertook his second expedition into Arabia, and having routed and slain Dhu Nowas and avenged the martyrs of Negran, he subjugated the whole region. Then, having set up a viceroy, whom Procopius calls Esimiphaeus, that is, of the Arab clan Ebn-zi-Kifan, as the distinguished Caussin de Perceval judges See Acta SS., place cited, page 699., he returned to Ethiopia.

[3] Two wars of St. Elesbaas are conflated into one. Procopius, moreover, in Book I of the Persian War, which he wrote at the end of Justinian's reign about the year 560, conflated these two expeditions of St. Elesbaas into one: About the time of this war with the Persians, he says Procopius, De bello Persico, book 1, chapter 20., which was being waged by Justin I against Cavades, king of the Persians, Hellestheaeus (read Hellesbeaeus, or Elesbaas) Acta SS. volume X of October, page 694, number 110., king of Ethiopia, an outstanding worshipper of the Christian religion χριστιανος τε ὠν και δοξης τηςδε ὡς μαλιστα ἐπιμελουμενος, having heard that the Homerites who live on the opposite continent, not a few of them Jews by race and many also devoted to the ancient superstition which they today call Hellenic, were imposing tributes beyond measure upon the Christians of that coast, gathered a fleet and forces and carried the war thither, and joining battle he was victorious, and deprived of life a great number of the Homerites and the king himself. (Dhu Nowas, that is, king of the Homerites, and this happened in the year of Christ 525.) Having put in his place Esimiphaeus, a Christian and a Homerite, on condition however that he should pay an annual tribute to the Ethiopians, he returned home. Thus far Procopius; in which words, as I have said, he mixed together two expeditions of the same King Elesbaas, of which the first took place in the year 519, the second after an interval of six years. This error the historians to a man have taken over, but we, in weighing the Acts of St. Aretha in the preceding volume, have detected it with certainty.

[4] The second error: the deeds of the kings We now come to the other difficulty, which, no less than the former, has never been solved by writers, and is by far the greater. The first author of the confusion seems to have been John, bishop of Asia or of Ephesus, a Monophysite writer, who composed an ecclesiastical history of the East from the birth of Christ to the year 585, of which however not a few books have been lost Volume X of October, page 695, number 115.. The king of Ethiopia who routed and slew Dhu Nowas is called by him Aidog, who was in truth called by the name Elesbaas or Caleb, as we have just shown. By John Malalas, a writer of Antioch (who composed his chronography of the East about the year 585, about which year John, bishop of Asia, ceased to write, or who perhaps even committed his work to writing before Bishop John, as Leopold George will have it [L. George, de Æthiopum imperio in Arabia felice, page 16; compare volume X of October, page 760, note l.]), the same king is called Andas, and by Theophanes, with a biblical name, Adad. For that writer was accustomed to alter foreign names rather readily: thus Dhu Nowas, otherwise Dhu Nawas, Dunaan, king of the Homerites, whom the Syrians call Dimion, he names Damianus Theophanes, Chronographia, page 346, Bonn edition..

[5] of Alameda and of Elesbaas are confused; But in the second place it must be noted that Bishop John ascribes to the same King Aidog not only the deeds of St. Elesbaas but also those of another Ethiopian king, by name Amda, whose name differs hardly, indeed hardly at all, from that which Malalas used, who in the whole narrative followed Bishop John and corrected him in the name alone. I say, therefore, that besides the similarity of the names Aidog, Andas, Amda, the aforesaid writers attribute to King Aidog, or Andas, or Adad those things which by the Ethiopians are ascribed not only to King Elesbaas or Caleb, but also to King Amda, or (with the Ethiopic particle Ela or Ala prefixed) Ala-Amda. And these two points are now to be shown in the very words of the authors. John, bishop of Asia, the most ancient of them, begins in this way:

[6] as is shown from John, bishop of Asia; Of the kingdom of the Indians (that is, of the Ethiopians or Abyssinians), and how they embraced the Christian religion by reason of a war: a title which seems to be ascribed to John himself rather than to the patriarch Dionysius, from whose Syriac Chronicle Assemani excerpted John's narrative. Then John continues: About the same time (that is, under the rule of Anastasius or Justin, as is clear from what follows; and as seems to us more likely, while Anastasius held the empire, or even a little before: but since what preceded is lacking, it cannot be said with certainty of what time he is speaking), it happened that war arose between the kings of the Indians, namely those of Africa, who are also called Ethiopians, that is, between Xenodon, king of the Indians, and Aidog, the other king of inner India, who was held by the heathen superstition.

[7] Xenodon, with whom Alameda waged war, seems to have been king of the Nubians. This Xenodon seems to have been king of the Nubians. For below, Bishop John distinguishes the seven African kingdoms that lay along the Red and Indian Seas into Indian and Ethiopian kingdoms; and the latter, four in number, he says lie farther off and within the southern parts beside the great sea (they call it the ocean), by which the whole globe of the lands is surrounded. There, therefore, apart from Egypt, he recognizes no other kingdoms than the Indian and the Ethiopian; and he clearly signifies that the Indian lie to the north of the Ethiopian, toward Egypt. We know besides that Nubia formerly went by the name of India. For Procopius writes that the Nile from

the Indians flows into Egypt [Procopius, De ædificiis, book VI, page 331, Bonn 1828; compare Ludolf, Commentary, page 69.]; and other writers have similar statements. To these it may be added that Tazena too, king of the Axumites, the father of St. Elesbaas, who reigned about the year of Christ 500, waged war against the Nubians; of which there will be discussion below. From all this it is certainly likely that Xenodon was king of Nubia. To me indeed it seems that the third kingdom of the Indians was the Meroitic, once most celebrated, or the kingdom of Aloa, a little higher up to the south, whose royal city was Soba [Compare Lepsius in the Annales des voy., place cited, pages 341–343; the same, Briefe aus Ægypten, pages 161 and 196.], and which began to be established as the former was tottering. For the inhabitants of the Meroitic kingdom were by no means black, but nearly white, like the Egyptians Ibid. page 333; compare the same, Briefe aus Æg., page 220.. And for that reason it seems they could not have been called Ethiopians by the later Greeks, and were rather to be reckoned with the Indians. The three kingdoms of the Indians, therefore, which are put forward by John, bishop of Asia, were these: Abyssinia, the island of Meroe, and Nubia. But, as I have said, these wars of King Aidog, just like the wars of Tazena, seem rather to have been waged with the Nubians Vivien de Saint-Martin, Journal asiatique, year 1863, volume II, page 374..

[8] Bishop John relates the first rebellion of Dhu Nowas, king of the Homerites Bishop John continues: And he (King Aidog or Elesbaas; for here the writer begins to relate what St. Elesbaas did in his first expedition, in the year 519, against the king of the Homerites Dhu Nawas, or Dunaan, whom he names Dimian or Dimion) Compare volume X of October, page 696, number 118., having settled matters with Xenodon, undertook war once more against Dimion, king of the Homerites, who themselves also are numbered among the Indians, for a cause of this kind: The kingdom of the Ethiopians beyond Homeritis (that is, with respect to the Syrians, who reached Ethiopia through Arabia by crossing the Red Sea) is situated over against the regions of Egypt and the Thebaid, which lie outside India. Now Roman merchants used to penetrate through the lands of the Homerites to the inner parts of the Indians, which are called Euzeliae (by this word Euzeliae, in Syriac Auzelis, is signified without any doubt the African city of Zeila [Compare Vivien de Saint-Martin, le Nord de l'Afrique dans l'antiquité, page 284, Paris 1863.], on the gulf named from Aden, among the Somalis, toward the 11th degree of latitude): and from there they used to set out into the farther regions of the Indians and Ethiopians.

[9] against St. Elesbaas; For there are seven kingdoms of the Indians and Ethiopians: namely three of the Indians and four of the Ethiopians; and these last are farther off, and lie within the southern parts, beside the great sea (they call it the ocean), by which the whole globe of the lands is surrounded. The Roman merchants mentioned above, therefore, as they were passing in their customary way through the territory of the Homerites into the regions of the Indians for the sake of trade, Dimion king of the Homerites (otherwise Dunaan, as we noted above) seized, and having plundered all their merchandise, killed them. For he said: Because the Christians harass the Jews who live with them in the parts of the Romans, and inflict death on very many of them, for this reason I adjudge that these men too are to be punished with death. And in this way he put a great many of them to death; whereupon, the rest being seized with fear, the commerce of the inner Indians (that is, of the Axumites or Abyssinians, whose king was St. Elesbaas) and the Ethiopians was broken off. After this Bishop John begins another chapter in this way:

[10] and likewise his first expedition. Of what the king of the Ethiopians (he ought to have said: of the inner Indians, as above at number 6: but he uses these names almost indiscriminately) wrote to the king of the Homerites, and of the war which arose between them. — Then Aidog, king of the Ethiopians (or Elesbaas, for as has been said, these things refer to the first expedition of St. Elesbaas) Acta SS. volume X of October, page 752, note nn., sent word to the king of the Homerites by messengers, saying: You have committed a shameful crime; for by killing the Christian merchants of the Romans you have broken off commerce, and you have taken away conveniences and advantages not from my kingdoms only, but from the others also: but my kingdom above the others has been harmed by you. For this cause, then, dissension having arisen between them, it came to arms. And when they were now about to meet in battle, Aidog, king of the Ethiopians, said: If it shall be granted me to come off superior to that robber, the king of the Homerites, I will become a Christian; for I desire to avenge the blood of the Christians shed by him.

[11] In which narrative three expeditions, These last words can pertain neither to the first expedition of St. Elesbaas, which took place in the year 519, nor to the second, of the year 525: for long before both, and indeed from his birth, St. Elesbaas was a Christian; as will be established below without any trouble. We do not in the least doubt that these words, like many others that the same writer will presently bring forward, are to be referred to a certain expedition of King Amda, or Ela-Amda, who was the father of Tazena, the father of St. Elesbaas. Then, battle being joined, the Ethiopian thoroughly defeated the king of the Homerites, and captured and killed him (Dunaan, or Dhu Nowas, was slain by St. Elesbaas in his second expedition, in the year 525) Acta SS. volume X of October, page 756., and he plundered his whole kingdom and subjected it to his own dominion, and destroyed his army in utter slaughter. All of which happened in the said year 525: for though several of these things also occurred in the year 519, in the first expedition of St. Elesbaas Ibid. page 752 and following, note nn., yet Dhu Nowas king of the Homerites was by no means killed at that time, but fled to certain mountain tracts, and, having regained his strength, at the very end of the year 522, he began a second war against the Ethiopians.

[12] one namely of Alameda and From this, and above all from the whole of the Acts of St. Aretha, which we published in volume X of October, it manifestly appears that John, bishop of Asia, conflated the expeditions of the years 519 and 525 into one: following, that is, Procopius, who had published his history of the Persian wars twenty years before, and who was the first to relate the two expeditions of St. Elesbaas confusedly, joining the causes of the former with the outcome of the latter (above, number 3). Whence it came about that this author omitted altogether the martyrdoms of the men of Negran, which were the occasion of the second war: and Michaelis judges that this was done deliberately by Procopius, who bore a mind alien from the Christian religion Ibid. page 745, note t.. Meanwhile, since Procopius stood very high in repute among writers, Bishop John faithfully followed him. Nevertheless, having copied out Procopius's narrative, he adds certain things pertaining to a certain older expedition, about which the writer of Constantinople is deeply silent, and which was made by the king of Ethiopia Amda, or Ela-Amda, the grandfather of St. Elesbaas. And he intermingles these with the former in such a way that these three expeditions, conflated into one, seem to make up a single one carried out by King Aidog.

[13] two of St. Elesbaas Presently, he says, King Aidog, having gained such a victory Above, number 11., did not delay to fulfil his vow (of embracing the Christian religion), but sending two of his nobles to the emperor Justinian (or Justin, whom eastern historians are accustomed to call Justinian the First Assemani, Bibl. Orient., volume I, page 362.), he asks that he send him a bishop and clerics. Affected by incredible joy at this, the emperor ordered that the bishop whom they themselves had chosen should be given. The envoys, having made diligent inquiry, requested that John, the paramonarius of St. John (that is, the mansionarius or sacristan of the church of St. John at Alexandria, as will presently be clear from Theophanes), a man distinguished for chastity, purity and zeal, be ordained bishop for them. Having received him therefore together with several clerics, they returned to their homeland, filled with wondrous gladness: and King Aidog welcomed them with equal joy, together with the bishop and priests who had come with them. He himself, moreover, having been instructed in the holy catechesis, received baptism and became a Christian, together with all the nobles of the kingdom. And all with equal zeal took up the care that the Christian faith should prevail in the whole kingdom, and that temples in honour of the true God of the Christians should be raised everywhere. And in this way God bestowed salvation on these wandering peoples.

[14] he conflated into one. And yet, I say, these things by no means happened in the reign of St. Elesbaas, since he was a Christian from his birth, and his father Tazena, in the Axumite inscription discovered by Rüppell and Sapeto, manifestly shows himself a Christian; and he gloriously proclaims that he did many things against the neighbouring heathen peoples. And these things will clearly appear from the following §§: in which, taking up again and, so far as may be permitted, examining chronologically the history of the kings of Ethiopia at the point where it was left off in the Acts of St. Frumentius, we shall show at length that the Christian faith in the fifth century had been almost extinguished there, but that in the reign of Alameda a bishop came from Egypt with a great many monks, and that the conversion of the whole nation to the Christian rites was made anew.

§ II. John Malalas exhibits the same confusion; the chronology of these three expeditions is established from the history of the nine saints and from other monuments.

John Malalas Before we inquire into the condition of the Christian religion in Ethiopia and its history in the fifth and sixth centuries, however, we must bring forward a passage from the chronicle of John Malalas, whom we have already mentioned above; and by which what we have just proposed is very much confirmed. This author, who flourished at the end of the sixth century, follows the narrative of Bishop John throughout, but he has called the king of Ethiopia not Aidog, but Andas or Anda. Now it cannot be doubted that by this name he wished to designate the king of Ethiopia Amda or Ela-Amda, and thus to emend Bishop John. Nevertheless he partly retained the error of his forerunner, ascribing to one king, just as he did, things which belong to two different ones: It happened, moreover, he says, at the same time (when the emperor Justinian was occupied in subduing the Huns) that the Indians waged war among themselves, namely the Auxumites and the Homerites, and for this cause. Since the king of the Homerites is nearer to Egypt than he who occupies the interior, the king of the Auxumites, the Roman traders making for Auxum and the interior of the Indians make their journey through the Homerites.

[16] likewise three expeditions of the kings of the Ethiopians For there are seven kingdoms of the Indians and Ethiopians, of which three are of the Indians, while four, which border on the ocean and face east, are of Ethiopian dominion. The Roman traders, therefore, as they were passing through the parts of the Homerites to carry on their trade, Dimnus (in Syriac Dimion, otherwise Dunaan, Dhu Nowas), king of the Homerites, attacked, and stripped them of all their goods and of life: For indeed, he said, the Jews have been ill treated by the Roman Christians, even within their own borders, very many of them being given over to slaughter every year. From then on, therefore, the traders were prohibited. But the king of the Auxumites, addressing the Homerite king by letter, said: You have done ill in killing the traders of the Christian Romans: and this will likewise turn out to the detriment of my kingdom.

[17] he has brought forward confusedly against the Homerites; From then on hatred arose between them, which at length broke out into mutual war. The king of the Auxumites, moreover, as he was setting out for the war, vowed that, if he should overcome Dimnus the Homerite king in war, he would become a Christian: For it is on behalf of the Christians, he said, that I take up arms against him. And the king of the Auxumites, at length gaining the victory, killed the king of the Homerites, whom he had captured in the war, having destroyed his entire army and having occupied also his regions and kingdoms. After the victory was won, he sent two of his nobles, attended by two hundred others, to Alexandria; through whom he petitioned the emperor Justinian that a bishop and clerics be given him, by whom he might be instructed in the rudiments and mysteries of the Christian religion and be dipped in the holy laver of baptism; asking besides that the whole region of the Indians should be under the Roman empire. The emperor, informed of this by letter from Licinius, augustalis (this is the title of the prefect of Egypt, who resided at Alexandria) at Alexandria, ordered by his rescript that they should take for themselves whatever bishop they wished. The envoys of the Indians accordingly chose John, paramonarius (or mansionarius) of (the church of) St. John at Alexandria, a pious and celibate man, about LXII years old. The envoys therefore, taking him with them as bishop together with clerics, led him away to India, to their king Andas John Malalas, page 433, Bonn edition..

[18] nor can the name of Licinius contribute anything to distinguishing them. From this it appears that nearly the same things were written, the one in Syriac and the other in Greek, by John, bishop of Asia, and John Malalas, and that what they report is not to be lightly neglected. If indeed Licinius, the augustalis of Egypt who is mentioned by Malalas, were known from the historians, the time of that Ethiopian embassy would at once be determined without any trouble. But no one mentions him except Malalas, and indeed by those most diligent writers Du Cange Latin Glossary, under Augustalis. and Boeckh Boeckh, Corpus inscriptionum Græcarum, volume III, pages 323 and 325. he has been passed over in the catalogues of the augustales of Egypt. Yet I do not doubt that he has been rightly recorded by Malalas, since very few of the many names of the prefects of Egypt have come down to us. Besides, that the family of the Licinii flourished at Alexandria and was adorned with dignities is established from a fragment of stone gathered in this city, in which the following is read: Λούκιον Λικίννιον Λουκίου Λικιννίου Ἱέρακος ἐξηγητοῦ υἱὸν, Λουκίον Ἰσι[δώ]ρου κοσμητοῦ υἱωνὸν or πατέρα… Boeckh, place cited, page 332.. Now the dignity του ἐξηγητοῦ, whom Strabo writes was adorned with purple, was numbered among the chief ones at Alexandria. But though we may have the genuine name of Licinius, augustalis of Alexandria, yet his period lies hidden, and so he can contribute nothing to fixing the time of the aforesaid Ethiopian embassy.

[19] [The chronology of the same expeditions is to be taken above all from the history of the nine saints] This, therefore, must be sought elsewhere and indeed sedulously investigated, above all since on it hangs nearly the whole chronology of the older Ethiopian history, and it alone can remove the confusion that has been made between the kings of Ethiopia Alameda and St. Elesbaas. In the most ancient chronicle of the kings of Ethiopia, then, which as we know presents hardly more than bare names, the following is read to our purpose, set under the name of King Amda, or Ela-Amda, or Ela-Ameda: In his reign the nine saints came from the lands of the Romans (that is, from the Greek empire) and from Egypt, and they effected (reformed) the right faith; who are: Abba Aleph, Abba Tzehma, Abba Aragawi or Za-Michael, Abba Aftze, Abba Garima, Abba Pantaleon, Abba Liqanos, Abba Guba, Abba Jemata. So reads an Ethiopic codex of the Bodleian Library at Oxford Dillmann in Zeitschrift d. d. morgenland. Gesell., volume VII, page 346., on the testimony of Dillmann, who compiled the learned catalogues of the Ethiopic codices both of that library and of the one in London. Other codices of the same chronicle differ in words, not in substance. The copy which Mendez, patriarch of Ethiopia, used had the following at this place: In the reign of Amiamid many monks came from Rum, who filled the whole empire. Of these, nine went to the province of Tigre, and each one erected a church called by his own name In Tellez, Historia de Ethiopia a alta, page 79..

[20] is to be taken, On these words note that Amiamid is elsewhere called Alamida and is the same as Alameda, or Ela-Ameda. Next, that the word Rum signifies the Graeco-Roman empire, but in this passage indeed above all Egypt, which was subject to the Greeks of Constantinople. At first the Portuguese missionaries, in the sixteenth century, had believed that European Rome was here meant; but, says Ludolf, their most learned patriarch Alfonso Mendez In Tellez, place cited, book I, chapter 31. easily noticed that the Ethiopic word Romja (that is, Rome), in Arabic Errum (for this is how the word Rum is pronounced with the article added, though it is written El-Rum), denotes the Greeks, and indeed those of Egypt, who at that time held the Roman empire Ludolf, Commentary, page 283.. As to the region from which the nine saints came, the same patriarch Mendez adds the following, whose words we turn from the Portuguese tongue into Latin.

[21] who came from Egypt to Ethiopia at the end of the fifth century; Noting first that one of them, namely St. Pantaleon, retained his Greek name. We judge them to have been Greeks and Egyptians, he says, from this also, that they were all of the order of St. Anthony. And this order was flourishing at that time not only throughout Egypt, in which St. Anthony was born, but throughout the whole Greek empire. And to say nothing of the rest, this is said in express words in the Life of Abbot Tecla Haimanot of Abbot Aragawi, the eldest by birth among the nine saints, in this way: that Abbot Aragawi received the monk's habit from St. Pachomius, St. Pachomius from St. Macarius, and St. Macarius from St. Anthony In Tellez, place cited, page 79.. So far Mendez, who then undertakes to show, chiefly from the Acts of St. Aretha as prepared by Simeon Metaphrastes, that the nine saints came to Ethiopia between the years of Christ 470 and 480.

[22] [and not in the sixth century, in the reign of St. Elesbaas. He is to be well distinguished from King Alameda] But Henry Salt preferred to say that the nine saints came much later, and that King Ameda is the same as Elesbaas. Up to this time, he says, writers have held, without any sufficient reason, that the coming of the saints occurred between the years 426 and 480 [Tellez, page 91 (read 81); Geddes, Church History of Ethiopia, page 14; Ludolf, Commentary, page 283.]; and that expedition into Arabia which John Malalas, cited by Salt, mentions, was ascribed to the emperor Caleb, who reigned until about the year 570. And a little lower down the same English traveller notes that John Malalas also makes mention of a certain embassy of the emperor Justinian to the king of the Axumites, who, he says, is called in that other passage by the same historian Elesboas, and thus he happily shows that the names Anda, Ameda, Elesboas belong to one single king H. Salt, Voyage en Abyssinie, volume II, pages 255 and 258, Paris 1816.. From which it is clear that Salt supposed the embassies of the Greek emperors to the Ethiopians or Homerites to have been most rare. Finally, Salt believes that the expedition of St. Elesbaas took place in the year 522, and concludes that a little after that year the nine saints were brought from Egypt to Ethiopia together with the bishop. In all of which there are not a few delusions, which we endeavour to dispel partly in the commentary on St. Aretha, in volume X of this work, and partly here. For we hold the opposite, and we say both that Ameda or Anda is altogether different from St. Elesbaas, and that the coming of the saints is not to be brought down to the times of this king, but took place in the reign of Ameda himself, or Alameda.

[23] he is to be well distinguished. As to the first point, there is no need to write much about it, since no one before Salt ever denied it, or so much as thought of denying it. For all the catalogues of the kings, and likewise the most ancient Lives of the saints, well distinguish Alameda from Caleb or Elesbaas, and report that between them reigned Tazena, the father of St. Elesbaas, and this will be clear also from what is presently to be set down on the Christian history of Ethiopia in the fifth and sixth centuries. Wherefore Saint-Martin must be said to have been incautious, who in his notes to the History of the Empire of Constantinople followed Salt without any hesitation Lebeau, Hist. du Bas-Empire, Saint-Martin's edition, volume VIII, pages 49, 51.; and he erred in this also, that he supposed the names Dimion and Dunaan to belong to different Arab princes Ibid. page 53 and following..

[24] From the Life of Tecla Haimanot and the chronicle of the kings of Ethiopia, In the second place it must be shown more closely that the nine saints came to Ethiopia long before St. Elesbaas, and indeed in the reign of Ameda or Alameda. Besides the catalogues of the kings, most of which assert this expressly in some note added to the name of Alameda, as was said above (number 19), the same is contained in two most ancient Lives of saints that have been found among the Ethiopians, namely that of St. Aragawi or Za-Michael, which we hope one day to publish in print, and to which Dillmann bears witness A. Dillmann, place cited, page 348, note 1., and next that of Abbot Tecla Haimanot. In this latter Life, the words are as follows: Tecla Haimanot came to the monastery of Damo, which was built by Abbot Aragawi, one of the nine saints who came from the Roman empire and from Egypt in the time of Alameda, son of Saladoba and predecessor of Tazena. These nine are nine stars, which have illumined the whole world etc. In Tellez, place cited, page 79.. Thus far the said Life of Tecla Haimanot, which in this passage records most accurately the succession of the Ethiopian kings. For in the same order the names are met in the most approved catalogues of the kings, in this way: Saladoba, Alameda, Tazena, and Caleb, that is, Elesbaas. Moreover, that the Life of Tecla Haimanot contains much more historical matter than the other Ethiopian Lives is attested by those who have had it in their hands, the patriarch Mendez Ibid. page 79 and following., Tellez Ibid. page 85., Dillmann Catalogus Codd. mss. Musei Britannici, part III, page 49, London 1847. and Ant. d'Abbadie [Catalogue raisonné de mss. éthiop. appartenant à Ant. d'Abbadie, page 48, Paris 1859.].

[25] from the Acts of St. Aretha, Homerite martyr, Besides the catalogues of the kings and the most ancient Lives of the saints of Ethiopia, in which it is handed down in express words that the nine saints came in the reign of Alameda, it is easy to show the same from the most approved Acts of St. Aretha, which we published in the preceding volume. And at the same time, from that source, the time may be more accurately established at which Alameda reigned and the saints were sent from Alexandria to Ethiopia. In the Acts of St. Aretha, namely, we have plainly shown

that St. Elesbaas, at the time of the year 525, led a military expedition against Dhu Nowas, king of the Homerites; who, being a Jew, was destroying innumerable Christians with dreadful tortures, and was endeavouring to overthrow and utterly abolish the dominion of the Ethiopians in Homeritis. Before the ships set sail from Ethiopia, however, St. Elesbaas went to a certain most holy monk, already advanced in age, to ask him to commend his expedition to God. This monk, say the Acts, had been standing for forty-five years in a small tower having neither door nor window, two cubits wide and, together with the structure, five cubits high. There was a small opening at the bottom of the tower, through which what he said could be heard. Thus far the Acts, which we have published in Greek and Latin in the tenth volume. They presently relate what the king offered to the holy monk, what they spoke of together, and that the venerable old man imparted his blessing to the king.

[26] and from the Ethiopian Synaxary Now in the great Synaxary of the Ethiopians, which they call the Senkessar, at the 27th day of the month Hedar, or the 23rd of November in the Julian reckoning, on which St. Aretha and his companions are venerated, their Acts also are met with, and they differ in nothing from the Greek Acts; except that, with a few things added, they greatly shorten most of the rest. Further, the king who after the slaughter of the Homerite Christians carried war into Arabia they call not Elesbaas, as the Greeks do, but Caleb, in the Ethiopian manner, as we have noted elsewhere. But where they record that Caleb or St. Elesbaas, before he crossed over into Arabia, went to a certain holy monk, they also add his name, in these words: Kaleb therefore, king of Ethiopia … having first received a blessing from Abba Pantaleon, dweller in a cave, crossed over to that region with many soldiers and many ships, and laid waste all Sabaea, the kingdom of that Jew. Thus far the Senkessar at the 27th day of the month Hedar; but it has much more on these matters at the 6th day of the month Teqemt, on which it celebrates the memory of St. Pantaleon, from which day we shall below transcribe the entire elogium. After a few words on his earlier life, the author continues in these words with what he did after his coming into Ethiopia: From there St. Pantaleon came to Ethiopia with the nine saints, in the times of King Alameda, son of King Saladoba; and they lodged in a certain small dwelling. Then, as they went off to different places, the holy Abbot Pantaleon went up to the summit of a certain small mountain, on which he made for himself a certain cave five cubits high, two cubits long, three (sic) wide, roofed with stone, and having no other window than some small opening. In it he remained forty-five years, etc.

[27] it is shown that in the reign of Alameda, about the year 479, If these things are compared with what is read concerning the holy old man to whom St. Elesbaas went in the year 525 in the most ancient Acts of St. Aretha (above, number 25), and also with what the Senkessar has in the elogium of the martyrs of Negran just cited, it will appear clearer than the noonday light that the same holy old man is designated by these three monuments. Besides, as the patriarch Mendez notes, it is constantly met with in the books of the Ethiopians and on the lips of all that the old man whom King Caleb or Elesbaas visited to hear his counsel, before he undertook the Homerite expedition, was St. Pantaleon Tellez, page 82.. Now we showed at length and irrefutably in the Acts of St. Aretha that that expedition took place in the year 525 [Acta SS. of October, volume X, page 700, number 132 and page 711, number 172 and following.]; from which it will easily be established about what time St. Pantaleon, with the other eight saints, came to Ethiopia. For the hagiographic books both Greek and Ethiopian teach us that the said saint had at that time already spent 45 years in his cave or little tower, and since after his coming into Ethiopia he is not said to have lodged elsewhere, and it may be said that those 45 years signify the whole monastic life that he had spent in Ethiopia, then by subtracting 45 from 525, by which number the year of the expedition of St. Elesbaas is signified, the time of St. Pantaleon's coming into Ethiopia will be nearly found: which for that reason we judge, not undeservedly, to fall about the year 479. And this is wonderfully confirmed from elsewhere; for we show below, from the very history of the Homerites, that Alameda gained a victory over them in the preceding year, or 478. In the said year 479, therefore, nine monks, whom the Abyssinians call the nine saints, were sent by the patriarch of Alexandria to Abyssinia or Ethiopia; and in the preceding year the king of the Ethiopians, having obtained the victory, had occupied Homeritis, or rather some province of it, and wishing to stand by his promises to embrace the Christian rites if he should conquer, he had sent an embassy and solicited from the patriarch of Alexandria a bishop and clerics (number 13).

[28] the nine saints came from Egypt to Ethiopia. From another quarter, in the very expedition of the year 525 (which Salt and the others believed took place in the year 522), and after which the same traveller supposed that the nine saints came and that the king of the Ethiopians and his people were converted (number 22), many Ethiopian monks accompanied King Elesbaas Acta SS. of October, place cited, page 95, number 36 and page 96, number 37.; who therefore, no less than the nation of the Ethiopians, had long been Christian. Moreover the city of Negran, in which the Ethiopians had held dominion for many years, in the year 523 or 524, on the arrival of Dhu Nowas, the Jewish persecutor, counted the martyrdoms of more than four thousand of its people: among whom was the phylarch himself, or petty king of the province, the renowned martyr St. Aretha; who assuredly was under the dominion of the Ethiopians. From which it becomes evident that the nine saints, to whom the conversion of Ethiopia is ascribed, came there about the year 479; that they were summoned from Alexandria by the Ethiopian king Ameda, who, having defeated the king of the Homerites, gave in his name to the Christian religion, as he had promised; and that from then on the Gospel began to be propagated through all Ethiopia, and the heathen superstitions to be renounced for ever. The three expeditions, therefore, of the kings of the Ethiopians into Homeritis, which occurred at the close of the fifth century and the beginning of the sixth, and which are narrated confusedly by the authors, we duly distinguish and separate, and we say that the first of them was made by Alameda in the year 478, the second by St. Elesbaas in the year 519, and likewise the third in the year 525. These things being settled and defined, much light will shine both upon the Acts of St. Elesbaas and upon the deeds of the preceding kings; and what until now was wrapped in darkness and confused, once each thing is fixed to its own time, will grow clear in its proper light and brightness. Wherefore, to stand by our promises, we now bring forward in their order those few things that have come to light concerning the condition of the Christian cause in Ethiopia from the age of St. Frumentius down to St. Elesbaas; and then we shall set out the history of St. Elesbaas himself. But since Theophanes the chronographer writes that King Alameda was a Jew, and since very many have believed that from the remotest age the Jews, who in a great number inhabit Ethiopia to this day, have dwelt there, some supposing that they came from Egypt, others from Palestine after the overthrow of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, we shall here treat the whole question together.

§ III. Whether King Ela-Ameda or Alameda was a Jew; from where and when the Jews came to Ethiopia; the Church of this kingdom judaizes even to this day.

King Alameda was not a Jew, whatever Theophanes may have written; Before all else it must be confessed that of the kings who flourished from the middle of the fourth century down to the close of the fifth, nothing beyond bare names can be drawn out of the ancient monuments. Wherefore, leaving their deeds aside, we may inquire for a little only into what bears more closely on our purpose; namely whether they were Christians, and whether after the death of St. Frumentius the Christian cause flourished in Ethiopia or advanced. The first reason for doubting it, and no slight one, is the very conversion of King Alameda from the worship of idols to the Christian rites; of which we have spoken at length above. But Theophanes, you will say, while recording after Malalas the victory of King Ameda (who is called by him Adad See above, number 4.) gained over the Homerites, writes that he was a Jew by religion; and if that is true, the whole history of Ethiopia is overturned, and the Ethiopians will now seem not undeservedly to boast that the line of their kings is descended from Solomon and the Queen of the South Compare volume X of October, page 725 and the writers there cited.. Here is the passage of Theophanes, which it will not be necessary to give entire, since he excerpted most of it from Malalas: In this year, he says Theophanes, volume I, page 346, Bonn edition., it befell the king of the Exumites (or Axumites) of the Indians, WHO WERE JEWS, to undertake a war for a cause of this kind. The king of the Exumites occupies inner Egypt, and follows the opinions of the Jews. Now Roman merchants penetrate to the Exumite and the inner parts of the Indians and Ethiopians through the lands of the Homerites. These merchants, travelling as was customary through the mountains of the Homerite, Damianus, king of the Homerites See above, number 4., killed, having plundered all their possessions: because the Romans, he said, harass the Jews who live with them, and do not fear to inflict death on them; whereupon the commerce of the inner Indians with the Exumite was broken off. Enraged therefore, Adad, king of the Exumites… with God's help gained a great victory… At this news Justinian rejoiced beyond measure, and ordered that the bishop whom they themselves wished should be given. The envoys, after a diligent examination, chose a certain John, paramonarius of the church of St. John at great Alexandria, a pious and celibate man, sixty-two years old. Having taken him away, therefore, they returned to King Adad and to their own region. Thus at length, professing the faith of Christ, they were all illumined with the light of baptism. From this it appears sufficiently that Theophanes, no less than his forerunners Malalas and John, bishop of Ephesus, conflated the three expeditions of the kings of the Ethiopians into Homeritis into one. But besides, copying out his narrative in great part from Malalas, he adds, as has been said, that the Axumites were devoted to the Jewish rites. And he seems to have written this from mere carelessness, attributing to the king of the Axumites what others relate of the Jewish worship of the Homerite king. For no author before him, of those who have come down to us, committed to writing anything similar concerning the Axumite king; and those who followed him either omit or deny what he writes of the judaism of that same king.

[30] [for the other historians disagree. Many Jews dwell in Ethiopia, and they came there in ancient times.] Thus George Cedrenus, treading as usual in the footsteps of Theophanes, accurately abridges his guide's narrative of the war between the Axumites and the Homerites Cedrenus, volume I, page 656, Bonn edition., but is altogether silent on the Jewish worship of the Axumite king. Nicephorus Callistus, for his part, while inserting the same events into his Ecclesiastical History, as was fitting, openly contradicts Theophanes. While he, he says, namely Justinian, as he supposes, was still governing the empire, the war of Alameda with

the Homerites not being distinguished from the wars of St. Elesbaas, about which we have written elsewhere Above, number 4 and following., the king of the Axumites of the Indians, A FOLLOWER OF THE GREEK RITES, joined battle with the Homerite Indians, who practised the Jewish religion. Then he goes on with the rest, keeping for the remainder to Theophanes, and he narrates the same things that we have recited from the older historians. The assertion of Theophanes, therefore, in which no one had led the way for him, and which has been taken up by no writer, so far as I know, and which he committed to paper with his mind on something else and writing as if half asleep, can be set aside without any trouble. We do not, however, deny that even at that time there were not a few Jews in Ethiopia, since we have shown elsewhere that this held also in Egypt and Homeritis Acta SS. of October, volume X, page 668., and since already in the preceding century James Bruce writes that at least 100,000 lived there, while a recent author asserts that today they rise to two hundred and fifty thousand H. Stern, Wanderings among the Falashas in Abyssinia, page 194, London 1862.. On this subject many have written in various ways; and since the Christian religion in Ethiopia has for many centuries been tinged with Jewish customs, it will be worth the trouble to inquire briefly in what age the Jews came into this kingdom.

[31] [Very many hold that they came after the overthrow of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar; which opinion the distinguished Ant. d'Abbadie strives to confirm at length] This question is similar to the one we took up concerning the Arabian Jews in volume X of October Page 668, number 24 and following., and the various opinions might again be reviewed here, but since one of them has until now pleased above the others and more or less embraces the rest, it will be enough to have weighed this one. Abulfeda sets it forth in these words, writing about Arabia: Others however say that the Jews came … when they were subdued by Nebuchadnezzar and Jerusalem was destroyed See volume X of October, page 668.. Zedekiah was defeated and Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar in the year 588 before the birth of Christ, and there is no doubt that it was at that time above all, before the overthrow of the city by Titus, that the Jews were dispersed. It is asked therefore whether at that time also the Ethiopian Jews migrated from their homeland; on which matter the learned traveller Antoine d'Abbadie has collected certain things not unworthy of note, such as these: 1° That these Jews, who in Ethiopia are commonly called Falasja, at the beginning of the second moon after Passover begin a fast called tornas, in memory of the fast which the people of Jerusalem kept at the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. But the Jews of today also observe several fasts because of the taking of the city by Nebuchadnezzar [Compare Petavius, de doctrina temp., volume I, book VII, chapter 18; likewise the Jewish calendar in Calmet, Dictionn. de la Bible, volume II, page 595, 1757 edition.]: namely in the tenth month, in which the siege was begun; in the fourth month, in which the city was taken; in the fifth, in which the temple was burned; and in the seventh, in which Gedaliah the Jew was killed, who had been set up by Nebuchadnezzar as governor of the Jews whom he was leaving in their homeland (Jeremiah chapter 41; Zechariah chapter 8 etc.). This fast of tornas refers to the renewed siege, in the year 589, on which see the Annals of Ussher. Nothing therefore can be deduced from it. 2° At the third moon after the feast of Passover the same people institute a fast ab tom in memory of the priests slain by King Nebuchadnezzar when Jerusalem was taken, and this is the only fast that is to be kept not only by the priests, but by all the Ethiopian Jews or Falasja [Ant. d'Abbadie, les Falacha ou Juifs éthiopiens, in Revue de l'Orient, volume VII, page 230.]. But this fast differs hardly, indeed hardly at all, from the fast of the fourth month, of which we have just spoken.

[32] The words of Philo. Further, the same people celebrate fasts and feasts in honour of the patriarch Joseph; for which reason the distinguished d'Abbadie considers that the Ethiopian Jews descended indeed from those who migrated from their homeland when Zedekiah king of the Jews was overthrown by Nebuchadnezzar, but at the same time from those who passed from Judaea into Egypt, of whom not a little is read in the prophet Jeremiah Jeremiah chapter 41 to 47.. But in truth the Jews celebrate a great many feasts, as is clear from their calendar in Calmet: and from the very few things that Ant. d'Abbadie adduces, although the feast of the patriarch Joseph is not recorded in the calendars known to us, it seems that nothing can be deduced. Assuredly there were a great many Jews in Egypt, as we also showed in the preceding volume from a notable passage of Philo: Not less than ten hundred thousand (1,000,000) Jews, says that writer, live in Alexandria and the surrounding region, from the descent toward Libya as far as the borders of Ethiopia. But note that Philo wrote before the second overthrow of Jerusalem by Titus and the new dispersion. But remember at the same time that Ptolemy son of Lagus led away about 100,000 Jews into Egypt, more than three hundred years before Christ, as Aristarchus and Josephus relate. The opinion of the distinguished Ant. d'Abbadie is followed by Joseph Sapeto, a Catholic missionary of the same kingdom [Sapeto, Viaggio e missione catholica fra i Mensa, i Bogos ecc., pages 40 and 55, Rome 1857.]. That the Falasja Jews came out of Egypt was similarly the opinion of the learned Phil. Luzzatto, who adds that they were of the Hellenistic Jews and for that reason lack the Hebrew Bible Archives israelites, 1852 and 1853.. Finally A. d'Abbadie, who has written more accurately than all others on the Jews of Ethiopia, relates that in countenance and stock they resemble not the Jews but the Ethiopian tribe of the Agaw, whose language they also use [D'Abbadie, place cited, pages 222 and 233; Rüppell, Reise in Abyssinien, volume II, page 323 and following; compare however Stern, Wanderings, page 197.]. Whence he finally conjectures that Jewish merchants came from Egypt either by the sea route or by land through the Meroitic kingdom, and converted part of the Agaw nation to their rites.

[33] The Jews of Abyssinia did not come from Meroitic Ethiopia, Others add that the Jews have dwelt in Abyssinia and farthest Ethiopia from the most ancient times, and that this is signified by the prophet Zephaniah in these words: Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, or Cusj, as the Hebrew verity has it, from thence my suppliants, the children of my dispersed, shall bring me an offering [Zephaniah III, 10; compare Isaiah XVIII, 1, and Vivien de Saint-Martin, l'Afrique dans l'Antiquite, page 200.]. But, leaving aside the examination of the passage, by the Hebrews and Egyptians [Compare Brugsch, Geographische Inschriften altägyptischer Denkmäler, volume I, pages 100–107, Leipzig 1857.] the name Cusj was used above all for northern Ethiopia, today Nubia, which for many centuries before the birth of Christ was most powerful, and whose royal city was first Napata, at about latitude 19°, then Meroe on the island of the same name, at about latitude 17°. From the cited passage of Philo, moreover, and from the very character of the Jews, who went to the more powerful kingdoms and the larger cities for the sake of trade, we readily admit that in that Ethiopia, which very many rivers flow through, there were not a few Jews, and we have noted elsewhere that the eunuch of Queen Candace lived there. But the Abyssinians were barbarians until nearly the beginning of the Christian era, and the Jews would not easily have settled among them. Moreover they do not seem to have been present in so great a number in the Meroitic kingdom and among the rivers of Cusj, since St. Luke, reviewing so many kingdoms from which Jews had come for Pentecost, has no mention of Ethiopia, whether that nearest Egypt or the farther Compare Acts of the Apostles II, 9 and following.. For Libya, which he mentions, embraced neither Abyssinia, nor the island of Meroe, nor present-day Nubia itself Vivien de S. M., place cited, page 30.. For which reason, even if a colony of Jews lived in western or Meroitic Ethiopia, as they rashly argue from Zephaniah, yet it would have been a modest one, and it would not be likely that all or most of the Jews passed from there together to a barbarous region, such as Abyssinia or eastern Ethiopia was in antiquity See the dissertation appended to this volume..

[34] nor even from Egypt; It remains therefore that we ask whether the Jews could have come to Abyssinia from Egypt, which is the opinion of many. On this matter we must again recall what we were just noting, that the eastern Ethiopians were barbarians until the first century before the birth of Christ, as is most certainly established from the geographers Agatharchides and Artemidorus (and as we show in its place), except perhaps for very few places on the sea coast. How then would Jews, who were living in Egypt under the reign of the Ptolemies, or even earlier, enjoying prosperity and every form of culture, have passed from there to a barbarous nation? When the Romans held Egypt, indeed, the Ethiopian coast began to be much more frequented, but no reason can nevertheless be found for such a passage of many Jews. Finally, they seem to have come late to Abyssinia, for there is no mention of them in the history of SS. Frumentius and Elesbaas, nor in the book of Cosmas Indicopleustes, who while working as a merchant, about the year 519, had long dwelt in Ethiopia, and took down the now well-known Adulitic inscriptions at the order of St. Elesbaas himself, and on returning to Egypt inserted them in his book. Nor has Procopius, a writer of the same sixth century, anything about these Jews; nor finally is any Jewish name recognized in the catalogue of the kings before the fifth Christian century, in which the brother kings Abreha and Atzbeha flourished; and the former's name is as much Christian as Jewish.

[35] but from neighbouring Homeritis But there is no need at all for us to bring these Jews into Abyssinia from the distant and far more cultivated land of Egypt, and I cannot wonder enough that no one has thought of neighbouring Homeritis, where we showed in the Acts of St. Aretha that a great many Jews lived, and indeed that at the beginning of the sixth century the kingdom itself was Jewish [Volume X of October, page 668, number 24 and following; page 694, number 108 and following, and page 722, number 1.]. At what time they came there from Judaea we have tried to inquire in the Acts of St. Aretha, but it is certain that after the ruin of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar many fled to Arabia Jeremiah, chapter XL, 11.. That the Homerite language too was very like the Ethiopic or Geez, all know; that there was continual commerce between Ethiopia and Homeritis, and that the one is not more than 23 kilometres distant from the other across the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb. Add that the Hebrew names of God are frequent among the Ethiopian Jews, although today they lack the Hebrew Bible, and that they for the most part end in the particle El D'Abbadie, place cited, page 232; compare Stern, Wanderings etc., page 198.; and since the Homerites too, or the inhabitants of Arabia Felix, in their inscriptions the same particle

El have frequently used [See the Addenda to the commentary on St. Aretha, at the foot of volume X of October, at the end.], it is far easier to understand how they have retained these names through many centuries than if you should say that they came from the Hellenistic Jews of Egypt. Besides, they are accustomed to call their temples meskid Stern, Wanderings etc., page 188 and passim., which is certainly very close to the Arabic mesdjid, temple, mosque, although I do not wish to pass over in silence that the Christian Ethiopians too, though rarely, have sometimes called their chapels mesghad Ludolf, Lexicon, column 184; Dillmann, column 399.. Thus too it is more easily perceived why their innumerable feasts are tied to the lunar months D'Abbadie, Nouvelles annal. des voyages, year 1845, volume III, page 95.. For in Egypt from the most ancient times, and at least from the twelfth dynasty, as those most distinguished men the Vicomte de Rougé and after him Richard Lepsius have shown, the Sothic year of 365 days and six hours, or the wandering year of a bare 365 days, was in use, and it has not been possible up to now to demonstrate that the Egyptians, in the age which they call historical, ever employed a lunar year. Then again far more likely now becomes the opinion of Kepler, the most celebrated astronomer, of Ussher, and of many others, that the ancient Hebrews used a solar year, and indeed until the Babylonian captivity, as it seems to us, or, as it seemed to Kepler and others, until the dominion of the Macedonians in Asia.

[36] they came to Abyssinia. If therefore the Ethiopian Jews had fled from Judaea before the Babylonian captivity itself and had then lived for a long time in Egypt, how would they have arranged their fasts and very many feasts so faithfully to the course of the moon? Their ecclesiastical year, says that learned man Ant. d'Abbadie Place cited, page 95 and following., was evidently lunar at the beginning, although today they have admitted the year of the Christian Ethiopians (which, apart from the names of the months, is purely Egyptian): every new or first moon, and likewise the tenth, is a feast for them, etc. Yet there will be no difficulty in these matters if we say that they came from Homeritis to Ethiopia, above all in the sixth century, when King Abraha Alasjram began to persecute the Homerite Jews, or in the following one, when Muhammad grew strong, to whom the Jews were likewise hateful Compare volume X of October, page 727, note tt, page 730, note d.. For in Arabia lunar months, as is clear from the Muhammadan year, were much in use, although Noris long ago showed that the Arabs of Syria used solar months, and we shall perhaps show this more fully in its place; but those Arabs had borrowed them from the Syrians and Phoenicians, as we now certainly know. Nor do we consider that the Jews passed over to Ethiopia only in the sixth and seventh centuries, but partly in the preceding centuries too, since these kingdoms were so close together, and perhaps by reason of trade, which on the Adulitic coast was most flourishing in the first Christian centuries.

[37] [The condition of the Jews among the Christian Ethiopians, who have been judaizing for several centuries:] The Jews of Abyssinia dwell in two tracts, in the province of Semen or Simen and the neighbouring places, and near the coastal city of Massawa. Now it is a remarkable thing that Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote in the sixth century of the province of Semen and its mountains, that those guilty of crime were customarily sent there into exile Compare Vivien de Saint-Martin, Journal asiat., October 1863, page 353.; whence one comes to believe that at the end of that century or in the following ones the immigrant Jews were banished there by the Christian kings. Afterwards they grew in number and became powerful Compare Tellez, page 38.; indeed they seem even to have held dominion in Ethiopia at some time. For it could hardly, indeed hardly at all, be denied that the Christian Ethiopians have been judaizing for many centuries and down to this very day. This matter embraces these three things above the others: circumcision, abstinence from pork, and the religious observance of the Sabbath.

[38] [circumcision among the Christian Ethiopians, their religious observance concerning pork and the Sabbath;] As far as the circumcision of the Ethiopians is concerned, it is certain that it differs from Jewish circumcision, as Ludolf has endeavoured to show at length, and this too King Claudius of the Ethiopians asserts, in the confession which he delivered in the year 1555 to the missionaries of our Society Ludolf, Hist. æth., book III, chapter I; Commentary, page 240.. Nor indeed is this to be doubted. For circumcision existed on the Ethiopian coast long before the birth of Christ, and is perhaps there not much less ancient than in Egypt itself. But it is clear from Agatharchides and Artemidorus in Strabo, and also from the notes of the editors Du Theil and Letronne, that it was for the most part similar to the modern circumcision of the Muhammadans and much less than the Jewish; yet Agatharchides records a certain nation which used another mode of circumcision, different again from both the Jewish and the Egyptian and Muhammadan Geographi minores, C. Müller's edition, volume I, page 154.. That lesser circumcision will doubtless have been abolished among the Christian Ethiopians by St. Frumentius and the succeeding bishops, but who could explain its revival otherwise than by saying that dominion at some time fell to the Jews there? The same seems to be said of abstinence from pork, whatever King Claudius and after him Ludolf have written on this matter Hist. æthiop., book III, chapter 1.. I do not deny that the keeping of the Sabbath can to some extent be understood from the primitive usage of the Church See ibid. from number 52., and indeed I remember reading somewhere in St. Athanasius the fourth of the Sabbath for the fourth feria: for which reason I am the less surprised at the Ethiopian expression echud sanbat, first Sabbath, first feria, that is, the Lord's day, a name which they lack; or that other one, sanbat krestiyan, Sabbath of the Christians: the Sabbath of the Jews, however, they call the ancient Sabbath Ludolf in the Lexicon, column 168, second edition; Dillmann, column 369..

[39] they truly judaize, as it seems, from the tenth century. But King Claudius confesses that his Ethiopians receive the holy supper and hold agapes on the ancient Sabbath, which he does not write of the first feria. Wherefore I can again hardly doubt that these things were introduced when the Jews were at some time dominant. At what time the Jews gained so great a power in Ethiopia I cannot define; I see however that nearly all openly relate that the impious woman Gudit or Essat, who is called Esther by the Falasyan, and who in the tenth century seized the kingdom of Ethiopia, was a Jewess [Journey of J. Bruce; Sapeto, page 126; Rüppell, volume II, page 350; Salt etc.; compare Dillmann, Zeitschrift d. d. morgenl. Gesell., volume VII, page 350.]; whose line reigned for more than three hundred years. Whether however the Church of the Ethiopians adhered to Jewish rites already before that age, he may perhaps be able to learn who shall at some time have the fortune to read through the very long Life of Tecla Haimanot, which is preserved in Ethiopic at London, and in Arabic at Paris.

§ IV. The Christian religion in Ethiopia nearly lost in the V century. Of the catalogue of metropolitans and of Prester John. The series of the metropolitans was interrupted in the V century.

That the Christian religion in Ethiopia was almost extinguished in the V century The first reason, as we have already said, why it seems likely that the kings of the Ethiopians became heathen again in the fifth century, and that the Christian religion was nearly extinguished among them, is shown from history, the councils and is the very conversion of King Alameda to the Catholic faith. For among these uncultured nations (as universally in antiquity), the king always professed the same rites as his subjects, and if he changed them, these too had to be changed by force applied to them. Wherefore others also before me have suspected the same concerning the condition of Ethiopia in the fifth century Th. Wright, Early christianity in Arabia, page 51.. The second reason is this: that in ecclesiastical history there is no mention of that nation from the middle of the fourth century up to the wars of St. Elesbaas against the Jewish Homerites. It may be answered, indeed, that neither does any mention occur in the annals of the Church of King Tazena, who will presently be shown from the monuments evidently to have been a Christian. But not only in ecclesiastical history, but neither in the councils of the patriarchate of Alexandria, which were frequent enough Compare Labbe, Concilia, volumes I–IV., through that whole time, is anything said of Ethiopia or is the name of any metropolitan of it read. Moreover Tazena himself, in the first inscription, as very many consider, still calls himself the son of Mars. Finally, a catalogue is brought forward of the patriarchs of Ethiopia, or metropolitans, or rather bishops: since they have no rights of patriarchate, and in all Ethiopia, ever since the age of St. Frumentius, there is but one bishop, who is ordained and sent by the patriarch of Alexandria. Of this catalogue something must be said briefly in this place, that it may be clear how little can be established from it.

[41] the catalogue of the metropolitans of Ethiopia. A catalogue of the metropolitans of Axum who succeeded Frumentius, says Michel Le Quien, is said by Job Ludolf and Michael Wansleben to be current among the Abyssinians: the former indeed, in book III of the Ethiopian History, writes that ninety-five metropolitans are numbered up to the year 1613, whose list he confesses he has not seen: while the latter, in the History of the Church of Alexandria, book I, chapter IX, says that they count one hundred and sixteen metropolitans from Frumentius down to Sennodius, whom the Alexandrian patriarch Matthew had sent in the year 1670. These statements certainly do not seem capable of being reconciled, because of the short space that lay between the year 1613 and 1670.

[42] How far this catalogue is genuine But there is no doubt that an error has been committed by Wansleben, who did not look very far into the affairs of the Ethiopians. For Sapeto, who spent many years in Ethiopia and, as I suppose, is still dwelling there, writes expressly that the same Sinoda or Sennodius whom Wansleben records was the hundredth metropolitan of Ethiopia Sapeto, Viaggio ecc., page 97.: in which he manifestly agrees with what is brought forward by Ludolf. Now that catalogue of patriarchs contains nothing beyond bare names, and perhaps somewhat dislocated ones, since it has not seemed to travellers worth bringing to Europe, and after so great an abundance of manuscript codices collected from Ethiopia, it is met with in no library: of which Ludolf already complained Historia Æthiopica, book III, chapters 7, 18..

[43] this catalogue. Since, however, from the year 350, about which St. Frumentius came to Ethiopia as bishop, up to the year 1670, in which Sinoda was created patriarch, there were not more than 99, and about as many bishops are numbered within the same time in several episcopal sees of Europe, and many more Roman Pontiffs, that catalogue ought not to be blamed on that account, and perhaps very few of the names are either spurious or those of pseudo-patriarchs. Although

I would not wish to pass over in silence that it has been observed by Renaudot Historia patriarcarum Alexandrinorum, pages 337, 381., and after him by Michel Le Quien Le Quien, Oriens christ., column 647 and following., that the Ethiopians at times lacked metropolitans for many years; and that it thence came about that several kings exercised metropolitan power, and even celebrated the liturgy. On this matter Renaudot adduces a passage of the Arab writer Abuselah Hist. patr., page 338; compare D'Herbelot, Bibl. orient., under Abu Salah., of the XIV century, and he says that for this reason the king of Ethiopia was called Prester John. This opinion was also embraced by Michel Le Quien Oriens christianus, place cited..

[44] [Prester John was originally neither the king of the Abyssinians, nor Ung-Khan, king of the Keraits,] Now on this question, about which there has been such disputing for more than two hundred years [Compare Ludolf, Commentary on the Ethiopian history, page 218 and following; Tellez, Historia geral de Ethiopia ou Preste Joam, page 3 and following.], since it has been solved at this very time, it seems that a few words must be said here. It is now found, then, that the king of Abyssinia was never called Prester John either by the Abyssinians themselves or by writers earlier than the end of the fifteenth century; and that the name was originally given either to the king of the Karaits, dwelling to the north of the Chinese empire, as very many have believed until now, which king, called Ung-Khan, was defeated in the year 1203 by the great emperor Genghis Khan [Compare G. Pauthier, le Pays de Tanduc et les descendants du pretre Jean, pages 15 and 21.], or rather to the king of the Qarakhitay nation, dwelling to the east of the Caspian Sea, from Chorasmia or the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand as far as the Gobi desert G. Oppert, der Presbyter Johannes in Sage und Geschichte, page 60, Berlin 1864.. Now the king of the latter region, who is called Yeliutasje by the Chinese writers, and Kor-Khan by the Arabs and Europeans, in the year 1141, long before the victories of Genghis Khan, routed Sandjar, sultan of the Turco-Persians G. Oppert, ibid., pages 21 and 132.. And this victory is recorded by Otto of Freising, a contemporary writer who died in the year 1158, and he called Kor-Khan Prester John [Otto of Freising, book VII, chapter 53, in Oppert, place cited, pages 13 and 134.].

[45] but Kor-Khan, king of the Qarakhitay. From this it follows that Kor-Khan himself, king of the Qarakhitay, among whom were not a few Nestorians, was distinguished by the name of Prester John; and not Ung-Khan, king of the Keraits, who in the year 1141 was perhaps not yet born. And this opinion, which had already been briefly put forward by the skilled geographer d'Avezac [D'Avezac, Notice sur les anciens voyages de Tartarie, in volume IV of the work Recueil de voyages et de mémoires publiés par la société de Géographie. Compare G. Oppert, page 58.], has in this very year 1864 been defended in a notable little book by Doctor Gustav Oppert, who confirmed it chiefly from the journeys of Benjamin of Tudela and of our countryman Ruysbroeck or Rubruck, and from the histories of Otto of Freising, Abulfaragius, Abulfeda, Mirkhond and Abulgasi. The same writer notes, however, that Marco Polo rightly said that in the region of Tanduc (whose site the distinguished Pauthier has recently indicated most aptly, as far as I can judge, from Chinese books, abandoning the opinion of Julius Klaproth and others) G. Pauthier, le pays de Tanduc, page 13 and following. princes of the family of Prester John reigned, and he shows this at length G. Oppert, book cited, page 73, note 1, and page 162 and following..

[46] [On what occasion Prester John, in the course of time, came to be called king of the Abyssinians.] How it came about, however, that at the end of the fifteenth century the name of Prester John was given no longer to an Asian king, but to the king of Ethiopia [Compare Ludolf, Commentary, from page 218 and following; Sapeto, page 86 and following; Russell, Nubia and Abyssinia, page 126; Combes and Tamisier, Voyage en Abyssinie, volume IV, page 5.], must be set out here in a few words. Some travellers and writers of the XIII and XIV centuries, while reporting that Prester John or his progeny reigned in central or farthest Asia, record at the same time that African Ethiopia, with its most powerful king, was devoted to the Christian rites See Oppert, ibid., page 6.. And when the memory of the Asian king had little by little been effaced after the victories of the Mongols and the Turks, and Europeans no longer knew where to seek his kingdom, Pedro de Covilham, who had been sent from Portugal for that purpose, on finding Ethiopia and its Christian king, no longer doubted that the progeny of Prester John reigned here [Tellez, Historia geral de Ethiopia a alta, page 4; Lafitau, Hist. des découvertes des Portugais dans le nouveau monde, volume I, page 59 and following.]. That error spread through all Europe and persisted for more than two centuries, although from the beginning of the XVII century the Portuguese missionaries of our Society contradicted it. Then they began again to seek the kingdom of Prester John in Asia, but with various errors mixed in, all of which seem finally to have been dispelled by the recent writers G. Pauthier and above all G. Oppert.

[47] From the catalogue of the metropolitans it seems to be deduced, As regards the catalogue of the metropolitans of Ethiopia (that my discourse may return to the point from which it digressed), it is clear from what has been said that this monument is not altogether safe in all that it contains, but perhaps it is in most things; since it is quite likely that the memory of those who were adorned among the Ethiopians with so great a dignity that even kings sometimes aspired to it must have been preserved for posterity. Wherefore I shall not seem to act rashly in using a certain note which Antoine d'Abbadie adds to his codex 191 Catalogue raisonne de manuscrits ethiopiens etc., page 190., and which can contribute somewhat to dispelling the darkness in which the beginnings of the Christian cause in Ethiopia are wrapped. He writes, namely, that fourteen metropolitans of Ethiopia bore the name of John, but that the first who was so called was the sixth metropolitan after St. Frumentius. And since the latter departed from life between about the years 360 and 380, and in general no more than fifteen years at most can be attributed to each metropolitan, that John would have held the see at least up to the year 450. We know from another quarter that after the war of King Anda or Alameda against the Homerites, that is, about the year 478 or 479 Above, number 27., a metropolitan by the name of John, paramonarius of the church of St. John at Alexandria, was sent to Ethiopia; of whom Michel Le Quien, without sufficient consideration, writes that he was sent among the Homerites. For he believed that this happened under the reign of Justinian, about 542 [Oriens Christ., volume II, column 663; compare volume X of October, page 698, number 123.], when the Ethiopians were most evidently Christians, and were under no obligation at all to send a petition to Alexandria to obtain a bishop, attended by many clerics, by whom the Church of their kingdom might be aroused Compare Acta SS. of October, ibid., page 701, number 137 and following.; and reading in the Acts of St. Aretha that about the same time St. Elesbaas summoned a bishop to Homeritis, he, neglecting the narrative of the ancient writers, determined that this was John the paramonarius. But in truth that man had been sent as bishop to Ethiopia itself sixty years before.

[48] [that the Ethiopian see was vacant for about 50 years, and that John the paramonarius was the sixth bishop from St. Frumentius;] If therefore the sixth metropolitan after St. Frumentius was designated by the name of John, as the catalogue reports, this must have been John the paramonarius, who in the year 479 was summoned by Alameda. For if the metropolitans had succeeded one another continuously, that sixth from St. Frumentius would have held the see up to about the year 450 (number 47). But since their series was most certainly interrupted, as we learn from the history of Alameda, from the metropolitan who came from Alexandria, and from the conversion of Alameda and of the nation itself, metropolitans cannot have been lacking for fewer than 50 years, namely from the year 430 at least. But between about the year 370 or 380, in which St. Frumentius departed from the living, and the year 430, six metropolitans could hardly, indeed hardly at all, have held the see. For which reason that John, the sixth from St. Frumentius, was John the paramonarius himself, summoned by Alameda; for if you say that that John was an earlier one, and that the paramonarius was the seventh or eighth from St. Frumentius, then there would have been no interruption in the series of the metropolitans, nor would a metropolitan have had to be called from Alexandria out of the ordinary course with clerics and monks, nor finally could the conversion of Alameda or of his nation to the Christian rites be understood. These things, then, though they are not certain, are above all likely. Nor shall we rashly say that the series of the metropolitans was interrupted for about fifty years. From which it follows that at the beginning of the V century few Christians now survived, since the patriarch of Alexandria finally omitted to send a metropolitan or priests.

[49] nor did the paramonarius, on being made bishop, change his name: But someone will perhaps say: we do not know whether John the paramonarius retained his name or not when he took up the episcopate, and that if his name was changed he must be said, in the year 479 when he came to Ethiopia, to have been not the sixth from St. Frumentius, but perhaps his first successor, or one of the first; in which way it would appear that the whole of Ethiopia, already from the death of St. Frumentius, little by little became heathen again, and what the historians report of the conversion of Alameda or Anda to the Christian religion would be understood far more easily. But against these things we set many objections. And first indeed, although it was the custom long ago with certain monks to change the name received in baptism, yet with bishops this was by no means the usual practice. Next, the name of John was common among the Ethiopians, since there were fourteen metropolitans of this name; nor was there any reason why they should change the name, as was done with St. Frumentius, who, perhaps because his name was difficult to pronounce, and likewise because of the peaceful religion he had brought in, was called Salama or Selama, but who retained also his former name, somewhat accommodated to the language of the Ethiopians, in this way: Fremenatos or Fere-Menatos Sapeto, Viaggio etc., page 395 and following; Tellez, page 73 and following.. Further, in the middle of the IV century the Christian religion had grown fairly strong among the Ethiopians, as may readily be deduced from the letter of the emperor Constantius to the tyrants of the Axumites Aizanas and Sazanas. Thirdly and finally, St. Jerome writes in Letter 7: From India, from Persia and Ethiopia we receive throngs of monks daily. And in Letter 17: Why should we mention the Armenians, why the Persians, why the peoples of India and of the Ethiopians, and Egypt itself, nearby and fertile in monks? Although here the discourse seems rather to be about Nubia.

[50] but it gradually languished, in the IV and V century, Since however no saints are venerated by the Ethiopians

who lived among them in the IV century or the beginning of the V, apart from St. Frumentius, it seems that after the death of this saint the Christian religion did not much flourish in Ethiopia any longer. The kings Abreha and Atzbeha, who flourished at the beginning of the fifth century, are indeed commemorated in the liturgy, but nothing is known of them, nor are they to be held as saints. Indeed the mention of them in the liturgy and a certain cult Sapeto, page 495. seems to me certainly to have flowed from an error of the Ethiopians. For having learned from the works of St. Athanasius and other Greek books that when St. Frumentius came to Ethiopia, sent by St. Athanasius, two brothers reigned there, Aizanas and Sazanas, and being unable to detect any pair of brothers within the fourth century in the catalogues of the kings, they chose them out of the fifth century, namely Abreha and Atzbeha, thus utterly subverting the series of the kings, the chronology and the history itself. These things we have already shown in great part in the Acts of St. Frumentius, and we shall show them more fully at the end of the dissertation to be appended to this volume. Further, not even while St. Frumentius himself was living should it be said that religion perhaps flourished so greatly outside the royal city of Axum and the province of Tigre, both for the reason just set out, and because it is said in the Life of St. Aragawi that St. Frumentius brought only a part of the Ethiopians to the faith (among the documents at the end), and because the Christian religion was extinguished or nearly extinguished in the fifth century, and the metropolitan dignity was abandoned, without the intervention of any persecution. For we are persuaded that none took place, because in the fasti of the Ethiopians no martyrdoms of these times are celebrated. For if there had been any, it could not be that in the year 479, when the Christian cause began to revive, no memory or recollection of them should have survived, and since the veneration of Christians toward the martyrs has at all times been so great, they would doubtless have been inscribed in the diptychs and calendars, and would be venerated to this very day. Wherefore the historians did not even suspect that the kings of Ethiopia in that age persecuted the Christians. But not being sufficiently versed in the most obscure history of Ethiopia, they have not even acknowledged that its Church languished at that time [Pagi on the year 541, number 5; Le Quien, Oriens christ., volume II, columns 367 and 369.]. It languished, namely, because the Ethiopian kings had withdrawn from it or opposed it; yet for a long time, and perhaps continually, there remained Christians in Ethiopia, who, as long as they had strength in number, wealth or power, perhaps sought their bishop from Alexandria in the customary manner.

§ V. The Ethiopians about the year 478 occupied the province of Negran in Arabia and at the same time made the whole of Homeritis tributary.

[John Malalas and Bishop John testify truly on the condition of Ethiopia and the victory of Alameda] It appears, therefore, that the Ethiopian Church itself in the fourth and fifth centuries was very greatly weakened, and indeed to such a degree that both the kings and nearly the whole nation burned incense to idols again. For there is no reason why we should consider that what is reported by the nearly contemporary writers Malalas and Bishop John should not be admitted Compare Leop. George, De Æthiopum imperio in Arabia felice, pages 28 and 32.. For Malalas, who seems to have committed his Annals to writing at about the same time as Bishop John, had several monuments before his eyes, and added some things omitted by Bishop John, or set forth others more correctly Volume X of October, page 697, number 122 and page 760, note l.. And since, the one being a Catholic and the other a Monophysite, they scarcely, indeed scarcely at all, differ from each other, such a narrative would assuredly be repudiated rashly. But, someone will say, of the victory which Malalas writes King Anda or Ameda gained over the Homerites, and likewise Bishop John, differing somewhat only in the name of the Ethiopian king Above, number 15., of that victory, I say, the Arab historians have preserved no memory; and therefore it must be said to have been fabricated by those Syrian writers.

[52] though the Arab writers keep this under silence. But in truth, that we may not need to retort more here, we say only that the Arabs, who for that matter began to write Annals only three centuries later, passed over their defeats in silence, as was done with the kings of Egypt and Assyria, as is manifest from their most ancient monuments and from the studies of the Egyptologists, as they say, and the Assyriologists. And if they have remembered one of the three wars of St. Elesbaas against the Homerites and the victory that followed it, this, because of the long-lasting dominion of the Ethiopians in the peninsula and the presence of the Christians, with whom their prophet Muhammad had to deal on several occasions Acta SS., place cited, page 720, number 205 and following., they could not consign to oblivion. But the victory of the same Elesbaas in the year 519, and the putting to flight of Dhu Nowas Ibid. page 753, note nn., and the tributes long customarily paid to the Ethiopians Ibid. page 745, note s., they cover in silence.

[53] [For from this victory the last and more lasting dominion of the Ethiopians in Arabia took its start;] Nor, if that victory of Alameda was not obtained, can one understand either the expedition of St. Elesbaas in the year 519, or the Christian kings customarily set up at Negran Place cited and page 701, number 137., or the aforesaid tributes. Unless it should be said that long before, and for several centuries, certain kingdoms of Arabia were tributary to the Ethiopians and received their kings from them. But certainly, neither in the expedition of Aelius Gallus, nor in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, which the distinguished Reinaud recently supposed to have been written in the year of Christ 246 or 247 [Revue archéologique, 1862, page 222; Reinaud, Mémoire sur le Périple de la mer Erythrée, page 8, Paris 1864.], on which see our dissertation on ancient Ethiopia to be published at the end of this volume, does any mention of these things occur. We do not indeed deny that they held once for a time and in one or another province only, as the Greek inscriptions, the Adulitic and the Axumite, seem to teach us [Compare below the dissertation on ancient Ethiopia and the Acts of St. Frumentius.], but in that very age the Ethiopians possessed nothing in Homeritis other than some very small part, and indeed the very inscription of Aizanas seems to signify the attempts and endeavours of the Ethiopian kings rather than the possession of certain provinces. For Theophilus the Indian in that very time, about the year 345 Acta SS. volume X of October, page 677., travelled over all Homeritis, as Philostorgius relates See ibid. from page 675., and he is not reported to have met Ethiopians anywhere. Yet since there were Christians among them, Theophilus would have had to deal with them; nor, if some province had fallen to the Ethiopians, who had already obtained their bishop Frumentius Ibid. page 677, number 55; above in the Acts of St. Frumentius., is it easily understood why Philostorgius, in what he reports of Homeritis and its king, should have no mention of the Ethiopians. Wherefore the title of king of the Homerites in the Axumite monument of Aizanas seems to have been added for the sake of honour, as several princes even now call themselves kings of Jerusalem, and to signify nothing more than some old and obsolete possession.

[54] before which they seem to have possessed hardly anything beyond the Red Sea. That the Ethiopians, in the fifth century and before the year 478, possessed hardly anything, or not even hardly anything, in Homeritis, is proved also by what is narrated of the war waged at that time between Alameda, king of the Ethiopians, and the king of the Homerites, by Procopius, Malalas and Bishop John. For in these accounts there is no mention of any possession of the Ethiopians in Homeritis, nor is any other cause of the wars reported than the killing of the Graeco-Roman merchants and the consequent interruption of trade between the Ethiopians and the Graeco-Romans; and since these were Christians, it is understood without any trouble how King Alameda, whom you will not undeservedly conjecture to have been their ally, began from then on to favour the Christian religion very much. Wherefore I hardly doubt that in this very year 478, in the fifth century (for of the earlier age there will be discussion in the dissertation to be appended to this volume, or it has been discussed in the Acts of St. Frumentius), the dominion of the Ethiopians in the province of Negran, to the north of Homeritis, took its start. This opinion is confirmed above all by the Acts of St. Aretha, which we formerly showed must be counted among the most approved; from which it must be said that events took place in this way.

[55] It is shown that the Ethiopians occupied the province of Negran At Negran the Christian religion began to be propagated in the IV century and the following one [Acta SS., place cited, page 673, number 42 and following, and page 722, number 2.]; but in the fifth century, namely in the year 445, on the conversion to the faith of St. Aretha, son of the phylarch of Negran, who afterwards succeeded his father in the phylarchy, the conversion of the nation was not a little advanced Ibid. page 693, number 105.. At that time, however, the province of Negran was still subject to the king of the Homerites; as is clear from the words with which, in the year 523, the Homerite king Dhu Nowas addresses St. Aretha. Why have you not imitated your father, he says, who ruled the city and all its neighbourhood, who also was held in honour while my predecessors reigned? But you have wished to play the tyrant and monarch over the city of Negran and its neighbourhood. Now when Dhu Nowas says in the year 523: Who also were held in honour while my predecessors reigned, he manifestly signifies that the men of Negran were never before under his own power, or that Negran was occupied by the Ethiopians before the year 490, in which he took up the kingdom Ibid. page 695, number 113.. Wherefore it must be said that the Ethiopians came there between about the years 450 and 490.

[56] [between the years of Christ 450 and 490, and that at the same time the whole of Homeritis was tributary;] That this did not happen later is confirmed also from the beginning of the Acts of St. Aretha, which we have shown were composed in the VI century, and from which it is certainly established that the martyr suffered at the very end of the year 523. The Homerites did not fear God, they say, but worshipped their idols; from which arose continual wars between the king of the Ethiopians and the king of the Homerites, who was tributary to the Ethiopian. From these last words it seems certain that in the year 523 the Homerite king had already for many years, and more probably from the end of the V century, been obliged to pay tribute to the Ethiopians. For it cannot be said that this began only from the year 519, when St. Elesbaas gained his first victory over King Dhu Nowas; since that king then had to flee to the mountains, as is narrated in the same Acts Ibid. and number 2., and the whole of Homeritis was not only made tributary, but abandoned on all sides to the Ethiopian king Ibid. page 694 and following, number 112.. The letter of Dhu Nowas himself to Almundarus of Hira also shows that the Ethiopians long before the year 519 had not only received tributes from the Homerites, but had also held the tract of Negran, and had held Negran as a royal city. He writes

for: Know, my brother King Mondir Compare ibid., number 87 and following; 93, 98., that the king whom the Ethiopians had set over our region (the whole of Homeritis) (namely in the year 519) has now departed from the living.

[57] and very many monuments teach that this happened about the year 478. When winter came on, however (he writes thus at the beginning of the month of January of the year 523), since the Ethiopians could not make their way into our region to set up a Christian king ACCORDING TO THEIR CUSTOM, I occupied the whole kingdom of the Homerites… Then at length … I moved my camp to Nagran (Negran, Nedjran) THEIR ROYAL CITY, etc. And if the Ethiopians in the year 522, in which Dhu Nowas began the war, had according to custom to set up a Christian king at Negran, then he who in the year 519, after the victory of Elesbaas, was made viceroy of the Homerites was by no means the first who was adorned by the Ethiopians with that dignity. Nor are these two facts, that in the year 522 the Ethiopians were already accustomed to set up kings of the Homerites at Negran, and that in the fifth century and before the year 490 the same city was taken by the Ethiopians, better understood than if you say that in the year 478, as we have now sufficiently shown from elsewhere, King Alameda gained a victory over the Homerites and occupied the kingdom, or rather a part of it. And thus several monuments, namely the histories of John, bishop of Ephesus, and John Malalas, the Letter of Simeon, bishop of Beth-Arsam, and the Acts of St. Aretha, all of which were committed to writing before the end of the VI century, conspire to establish the same thing.

§ VI. Who the king of the Homerites was who was killed by Alameda. The Ethiopians propagated the Christian faith in Homeritis in the V century. Whether they already then held some dominion over that whole kingdom.

[The king of the Homerites who was killed by Alameda in the year 478 or 479 is shown to have been Hassan;] But if in the year 478 the Homerites suffered a huge defeat at the hands of the Ethiopians, and the province of Negran was occupied, will what Malalas and Bishop John add, that the king of the Homerites was slain by the Ethiopians, be able to stand with the annals of the Arabs? This certainly is manifest from the historians, that the kingdom of the Homerites persisted, and that after King Hassan, son of Amr, who the distinguished Caussin de Perceval considers reigned from the year 460 to 478, there succeeded to the kingdom Laknia Tanuf Thu Sjenatir, who in the year 490 was killed by Dhu Nowas. Indeed Hassan had as the seat of his kingdom Tapharon or Dhafar, the ancient royal city, and Dhu Sjenatir also held that city [Caussin de Perceval, Essai sur l'hist. des Arabes avant Mahomet, volume I, page 119.]. From which it is clear that only the southern part of the kingdom came into the hands of the Ethiopians; and also that the king who in the year 478 or 479 was killed by the Ethiopians was more probably Hassan himself, son of Amr. Someone will perhaps say that the prince who was killed held dominion not over the whole of Homeritis, but only in some province, as we read happened with Amr Dhu Kifan and several others at that time. But the historians of the sixth century, Procopius, and above all Malalas and Bishop John, contradict these and clearly signify that the very king of Homeritis was defeated and slain by the Ethiopians.

[59] and this is very much confirmed both from the narrative of Bishop John, And it cannot be said that Bishop John and Malalas wrote wrongly that after the victory of the king of the Ethiopians Aidog, or Anda, or Alameda, the king of the Homerites was killed; and that this did not occur until after the victory of King Elesbaas, namely in the following century, in the year of Christ 525. For although Malalas has not distinguished the killing of these Above, number 17., it is clearly done by Bishop John, and indeed in several passages Assemani, Bibl. orient., volume I, pages 363, 380 and 381.; in the last of which he writes thus: When the king of the Ethiopians had heard these things (namely the martyrdoms of St. Aretha and his companions), who ON KILLING THE FIRST KING OF THE HOMERITES had embraced the Christian faith; in which words, as in his whole narrative, he does not distinguish King Alameda, who killed that first king of the Homerites, from Elesbaas, who avenged the martyrdoms of the Homerites against the second king, namely Dhu Nowas, and cut off his head; of whom he will now say: And when he had learned of the destruction of the Christian cause and of the tyranny of the Jew (namely of King Dhu Nowas), inflamed with zeal he led out his forces against the tyrant, AND CAPTURED AND KILLED HIM; he also destroyed his army, and utterly rooted out all the Jews of Homeritis (in the year 525). In these words, then, Bishop John, although he has not distinguished the Ethiopian kings Alameda and Elesbaas, yet duly distinguishes two Homerite kings, who were both killed by them.

[60] and from that of the Arab writers, He separates these even more clearly in another passage. For writing of the first killing, he says: Then, battle being joined, the Ethiopian thoroughly defeated the king of the Homerites, and captured and KILLED him, and he plundered his whole kingdom, and subjected it to his own dominion (in the year 478). We however were saying just now that after that first victory only the provinces of Homeritis lying to the north were subjected, and we have noted several times that the whole kingdom was not subjugated before the year 519: but Bishop John did not know of the victory of the year 519. After a few short passages, however, he says: Shortly afterwards, the Christian king or viceroy whom the king of the Ethiopians had set up there Volume X of October, page 699, number 127. having died, not after the victory of the year 478 and the killing of the other, as Bishop John believes, but after the second victory of the year 519, the Jewish Homerites, having regained their strength, SET OVER Homeritis A KING from their own sect: that is, one different from the two preceding, of whom the former had been killed (Hassan, in the year 478), while the second, who was a Christian, had met his death naturally (in the year 522, whose name is not known) Volume X of October, place cited., and that third one, of the Jewish sect, was Dhu Nowas, of whom much was said in the Acts of St. Aretha in volume X of October. And if it is thus manifest that the king of the Homerites who in the year 478 was defeated by Alameda was slaughtered by the same, this can be no other than King Hassan, son of Amr. This opinion the Arab historians too, inept though they are in recounting events older than the VII century, confirm on two heads. For first, they keep silence as to by what death he was carried off; and then, what we hold of far greater weight, they signify that on his death the progeny of Himyar, which had reigned in Homeritis for so many centuries, was removed from the throne, and that it was occupied by Laknia Dhu Sjenatir, a factious man, who, having got possession of Tapharum, the royal city, and having defeated his rivals, at length held dominion in all Yemen, or Homeritis.

[61] is very much confirmed. In what way will he interpret these things who says that King Hassan departed from life and from the midst of his people by a common end? Would not his children or kinsmen, most of whom it is likely were afterwards done away with by Dhu Sjenatir, or perhaps by the Ethiopians, have succeeded to the paternal kingdom? Or at the least his uterine brother, Hodjr Akil-el-Morar, who ruled over the neighbouring Maaddites and the Kinda nation, or one of his very many children Caussin, place cited, volume II, pages 266 and 269.? And indeed the tribes of Maadd and Kinda were powerful, and the former of these a little later, about the year 481, refusing to pay tribute to the Homerites, joined battle and defeated them. The tribe of Kinda dwelt in the province of Nadj, in inner Arabia, and to the east of Negran; the tribe of Maadd in Tehama of the province of Hedjaz, around Mecca. We learn from their history, however, that whenever the Homerite kings were afflicted and weakened, the Maaddites, who were farther off, refused to pay tribute. This happened also in the middle of the fourth century, when very many consider that the Ethiopians held dominion in some part of the kingdom [Caussin, place cited, page 261; above, number 53, and in the Acts of St. Frumentius and volume X of October, page 677, number 23 and following.]. The rebellion of the Maaddites in the year 480 or 481 is easily understood, if it is admitted that already at that time Negran and its phylarchy, which lay between the Homerites and the Maaddites, had been occupied by the Ethiopians, and that the Homerite king had been forced to pay tribute to them.

[62] The same is urged by the Acts of St. Aretha, the letter of the emperor Justin, And this we have shown above to be established from very many monuments. That Dhu Nowas paid tribute to the Abyssinian king even before the defeat of the year 519 Compare Acta SS., place cited, page 753, note nn. is expressly narrated in the very ancient Acts of St. Aretha See below, number 77., and we likewise have sufficiently shown it above. In the letter, moreover, of the emperor Justin to St. Elesbaas, of the year 523 or 524, which the same Acts report and which several things demonstrate to be genuine Acta SS., place cited, page 745, notes s, x and z., it is read that Dhu Nowas was set up as king of the Homerites either by the Ethiopian king, or at the least with his approval: I know, says Justin, how devoted to the Christian religion your fraternity is. It has reached us that that rebel, TO WHOM YOU ENTRUSTED THE KINGDOM OF THE HOMERITES, seizing the occasion, slew by the sword all the Christian Ethiopians whom you sent, together with the Romans and Persians of the same religion found there … Ibid. page 743, number 27.. The letter of the emperor Justin, therefore, in this matter agrees excellently with the Acts of St. Aretha, and clearly signifies that Dhu Nowas at some time (and indeed before the year 519, for in this year he was stripped of the kingdom by St. Elesbaas), and, as the words sound, from the very beginning of his reign, that is, from the year 490, was acknowledged and approved by the Ethiopian king as king of the Homerites; which incidentally about the year 540 happened again, as the Arab historians themselves acknowledge, with the Homerite king Abraha Taberita, Masud., Nuweir., in Schultens, Historia imperii Joctanidarum.. And thus John, bishop of Asia, and John Malalas, when they write that Aidog or Andas, king of the Ethiopians, routed a certain king of the Homerites, led him away captive Compare Theophanes, Chronogr., page 347; Malalas, page 434. and killed him, and that then the Christian faith was renewed in Ethiopia; the Arab historians, when they narrate that after King Hassan, from about the year 478, the kingdom of the Homerites was thrown into disorder, and that the Maaddites refused to pay them tribute; Simeon of Beth-Arsam, when he writes in the year 524 that the Ethiopians according to custom set up a Christian king or viceroy at Negran; finally the Acts of St. Aretha and the emperor Justin, when they relate that long before the year 519 Dhu Nowas, king of the Homerites, was tributary to the Ethiopian and had to be acknowledged as king by the Ethiopian, and besides that St. Aretha, phylarch of Negran, was never under the rule of Dhu Nowas; all these writers, I say, conspire to demonstrate this, that Negran and the adjacent

province, from the end of the fifth century, and indeed, as we judge, from the year 478, were subject to the Ethiopians; besides, that the kings of the Homerites, who for the most part lived at Tapharum, were accustomed to pay tribute to them and to be acknowledged by them as kings; and finally, that the Homerite prince who was defeated and slain by Alameda was King Hassan.

[63] and finally by the Christian history both of Ethiopia and of Homeritis. Besides, and this seems to me to remove all doubt, the ecclesiastical history both of Ethiopia and of Homeritis does not bear another interpretation. For that the Christian religion was then renewed in Ethiopia is attested by the history of King Alameda and of the nine saints, which is most luminous and has never been denied by anyone, and which the Acts of St. Aretha manifestly confirm Volume X of October, page 748, number 31.. And those nine saints, who it is certain came from Egypt Above, number 19 and following., who are they, if not those very men whom John, bishop of Asia Ibid. number 13. and Malalas Ibid. number 17. report to have been summoned from Alexandria by King Anda or Ameda after his victory, together with John the paramonarius? And these things are so confirmed from the history of the Homerite Church that they alone must be true. For how, in the year 523, when Dhu Nowas came to Negran, would the Christian religion have flourished so greatly there [Acta SS., place cited, page 702, number 140; 703, number 141 and following; 730, notes d and e.], if this city had been torn from the power of heathen and Jewish kings and been subjected to the Ethiopian only from the year 519? How, in the space of three years, would so many monasteries have been erected within its walls Ibid. note g.; so many priests have been made? Had not Paul, bishop of Negran, who died in the year 521, become known to Dhu Nowas before the year 519 Ibid. page 702, number 140.? On this matter what is read in the ecclesiastical history of Theodore Lector, book II, also makes very much: The Immireni (Himyarites, or Homerites) are a nation subject to the Persians, he says, dwelling at the farthest limits of the known world. And from the beginning they had been Jews, ever since the Queen of the South, who once came to Solomon. Afterwards they became heathen. But in the times of Anastasius they embraced the Christian religion and received a bishop Theodore Lector, book II, number 58.. Anastasius ruled from the year 491 to 518. From which it is again confirmed that the men of Negran became Christians, and were withdrawn from the power of the kings of the Homerites, at the end of the V century. For when the Ethiopians had held dominion at Negran for some time, the Christian religion had so grown there that, no longer content with their Ethiopian priests alone, they asked for a bishop. Which could by no means have happened if Dhu Nowas, who began to reign about the year 490, had still been master of Negran and its phylarchy. It must be borne in mind, however, that Theodore Lector lived at about the time when these things took place, although he wrongly adds that the Homerites were then subject to the Persians.

[64] [The Ethiopians seem, before the year 519, not only to have received tribute from the Homerites,] Whether besides this the Acts of St. Aretha and the Letter of Simeon of Beth-Arsam urge something further, in those passages in which they relate that in the year 522 there were already many Christians, priests and churches throughout all Homeritis, namely whether it must be deduced from them that the authority of the Ethiopians was so great in the whole of Homeritis, even before the year 519, that they wished the Christian religion to be freely professed there, though the Homerites here and there resisted, we do not dare to say; however much the said monuments seem to hint at it. For in the letter of Simeon, which was written in the year 524, a letter of Dhu Nowas to Almundarus is recited, of which this is the beginning: Know, my brother King Mondir, he says, that the king (or viceroy) whom the Ethiopians had set over our region, and who dwelt at Negran, has now departed from the living. This viceroy, from the year 519 at the least, when Dhu Nowas, beaten by King Elesbaas, had fled to the mountains, had the whole of Homeritis subject to him; but the question here is whether even before the year 519 the kings of the Homerites, who for the most part had their seat at Tapharum or at Sana, were in any matter under the power of the Ethiopian viceroys.

[65] but also to have held some dominion over their whole kingdom. When winter came on, however (of the year 552), Dhu Nowas continues thus, since the Ethiopians could not make their way into our region to set up a Christian king according to custom, I occupied the whole kingdom of the Homerites. And first indeed I seized all the Christians who believed in Christ, threatening them with death unless they became Jews like us. I killed, moreover, those I found, two hundred and eighty priests; the Ethiopians too who were guarding the church I removed together with them; and their church I turned into our synagogue. Then at length, with one hundred and twenty thousand men (so also the Acts of St. Aretha, number 3), I moved my camp to Nagran, THEIR (the Ethiopians') ROYAL CITY, etc. We learn from this that Dhu Nowas, before he reached Negran, killed two hundred and eighty priests, besides many Christians in different places; for the Arab writers record that altogether 20,000 were killed Acta SS. volume X of October, page 709, number 167.. If we remember besides that passage of the Acts of St. Aretha where it is said that on account of the difference of religion there were continual wars between the king of the Ethiopians and the king of the Homerites, who was tributary to the Ethiopian Ibid. page 722, number 1.; and the letter of the emperor Justin, who writes of that rebel, to whom St. Elesbaas had entrusted the kingdom of the Homerites Ibid. page 743, number 27.: if, I say, we remember these things, the doubt will arise whether from the victory of King Anda or Alameda, which we suppose took place in the year 478, the Ethiopians did not retain some right or authority in the whole of Homeritis. But leaving these things now undecided, until new light shines from the monuments, since we have sufficiently shown what is of the greatest importance for the Christian history of Ethiopia, namely that about the year 478 King Alameda gained a victory over the Homerites and thereafter greatly favoured Christian worship, it must now be more fully looked into in what way this came about.

§ VII. The nine saints Aragawi or Za-Michael, Pantaleon, Garima, Tzehma, Aftze, Guba or Otz, Imeata, Liqanos and Alef, who in the reign of Alameda came from Egypt to Ethiopia and restored the Christian religion.

About 480, after the victory of Alameda, the nine saints came to Ethiopia, John the Monophysite writes that the Ethiopians, after this victory, sent envoys to Alexandria to ask for a bishop and clerics, and that John, the mansionarius of the church of St. John, was sent to them together with several clerics Above, number 13.; and similarly Malalas: The envoys therefore, he says, taking him with them as bishop together with clerics, led him away to India (or Ethiopia), to their king Andas (Alameda) Above, number 17.. Among those clerics, there is no doubt that very many were presbyters, to preside over the sacred rites; but there were also a great many monks, who we know from history were at that time many in number in Egypt, and at the same time rarely adorned with the presbyterate. That nine monks came at that time from Egypt, and perhaps from other neighbouring regions, all the Ethiopian histories teach Above, number 19 and following., and they constantly distinguish them with the designation of the nine saints. From which it follows either that only nine monks came at that time, or that of the monks who came these nine were distinguished by a holier life. But that the latter must be admitted becomes manifest from the Chronicle of the city of Aksum, from which our Mendez recites the following: In the reign of Alameda many monks came from the Roman empire, who filled the whole kingdom. Of these, nine stayed in the province of Tigre, each of whom founded a church or monastery called by his own name In Tellez, page 79.. It has seemed good to throw some light here on their life, which until now, for want of monuments, has not been possible, and this will contribute not a little to that survey of the whole ecclesiastical history of the Ethiopians, from its beginnings down to the VII century, which we promised earlier.

[67] who are recorded in several monuments. It was said above that these saints are recorded in the very ancient Ethiopian monuments, namely the catalogues of the kings and the Life of Tecla Haimanot, and the most celebrated of them, whom St. Elesbaas greatly venerated, in the Acts of St. Aretha too. Leaving aside other monuments, we shall give a summary of the Life of each from the Synaxary or Senkessar, which the Ethiopians arranged for themselves by turning from Arabic into Ethiopic the Synaxary of the Alexandrian Church of the Copts, the work of Michael, bishop of Athriba and Meliga, who was renowned about the year of Christ 1425 But compare Dillmann, Codices æthiopici musei britannici, page 46., adding the saints of the Ethiopian Church who were lacking. A most accurate index of this Synaxary of the Ethiopians, which we shall frequently use, was compiled by Doctor Aug. Dillmann In the Catalog. cod. æthiop. biblioth. Bodleianæ., who with Ludolf has deserved better than all others of the literature of this nation. The book itself, however, which has not been published in print, we do not have in our hands, although, if there were need, it would be possible to obtain excerpts from the copies preserved at Paris, London and Oxford. But the principal summaries have been published in the Ethiopic and Italian languages by Sapeto, from which we shall subjoin below, turned into Latin, those that pertain to the nine saints.

[68] [The miracles met with in the books of the Ethiopians are by no means safe, and are for the most part ridiculous.] It must be recalled in this place, however, that those men who have fallen away from the Catholic faith in such a way as to retain only the sacred codex, interpreted by each one's private sense, accept no miracles of the saints, and these rebel against the Church through the vice of temerity and pride; while others, who are ignorant of nearly everything and through lack of knowledge and culture cannot recognize the true Church, suffer from excessive credulity, and devise miracles of their saints that move one to laughter. But we hold the middle, and we say that the saints can work those miracles which we read in the New Testament were worked not only by the apostles, but also by very many saints living after the death of Christ, such as Philip the deacon and those who spoke in tongues. Nor do we therefore lend credence to everything that has been prepared by simple and credulous men, but only to what comes forward attended by its own proofs. It was necessary to recall this in this place, since Job Ludolf dared to compare the miracles acknowledged by Catholics with those invented at their pleasure by Ethiopian writers ignorant of all things. Of which matter Michel Le Quien gravely complains somewhere. Certainly the Catholic missionaries long ago condemned the foolish fables that circulate among the Ethiopians, as the most learned A. Dillmann notes, recording the Life of Gabra-Manfas-Quedus,

who enjoys in Ethiopia an outstanding fame for holiness: The Fathers of the Society of Jesus, he says, inveighed against this saint with the greatest justice, as is evident from this book of ours (of which he is writing); for it is certainly stuffed with blasphemies and most stupid fables A. Dillmann, Codices æthiopici musæi Britannici, page 51, note b.. Assuredly what you may wish to find fault with in the summaries of the Lives to be subjoined to this commentary is not of so ignorant a kind, but some miracles, however, which are met with here and there have seemed too ridiculous to be committed to writing in our work; wherefore it seemed good, omitting the trifles, to reprint here only those things that were at least to some extent historical. Where anything has been omitted, this will be indicated by interposed points.

§ VII. Tazena, father of St. Elesbaas, was a Christian, as is proved from his second inscription found at Axum.

Of the catalogues of the kings and how far they are truthful: Various catalogues of the kings of Ethiopia have now been published by various persons, Andreas Schottus, J. Bruce, Salt, Combes and Tamisier, Rüppell and J. Sapeto; most of whom, supposing that they had obtained the best catalogues, charged the others with either negligence or ignorance. But at last the distinguished Dillmann went to the very sources, namely the manuscript codices which J. Bruce and others had brought from Ethiopia Zeitschrift d. deutsch. morgenl. Gesellschaft, volume 7, page 338 and following.: in which matter he has gained a worthy reward for his labour. For he saw that the catalogues which were circulating in Europe all flowed from three sources, and he made the sources themselves, so to speak, shine forth in their own brightness and flow before the readers. Whereby it has come about that it can be fairly readily discerned how far and in which catalogues trust should be placed; and also with what European letters the names of the kings are more accurately transferred from the Ethiopic: for Dillmann published everything in Ethiopic, adding however throughout a German interpretation.

[70] what they teach concerning Alameda and his successors; If you wish to deduce from these three catalogues the series of those who held the kingdom of Ethiopia after Alameda, you will at once perceive that the first catalogue is overfull at this place, that it sets down many names, and that it brings forward the successors of Alameda indiscriminately Compare Dillmann, place cited, page 332; Rüppell, volume II, page 346.; which is manifest from the two following catalogues, and above all from the most ancient Lives of Tekla Haimanot and Aragawi, from the inscriptions, and from the Senkessar. In the second and third catalogues, however, the kings who held the sceptre in Ethiopia from the end of the V century to about the middle of the VI century appear in this way:

Saladoba;

His son Al-Ameda;

His son Tazena;

His son Kaleb, who divided the land;

His son Gabra-Masqal, in whose reign Jared composed the book of chants Ibid. Catalogues B and C, page 348 and following..

[71] [The catalogues are supported by the Lives of SS. Tekla Haimanot and Aragawi, the Senkessar, and the Ethiopic inscriptions.] With this series, which the catalogues of the kings hand down, the most ancient Life of Tekla Haimanot agrees on all sides and excellently, in that passage which was adduced above Number 24.. Likewise there agrees the Life of St. Aragawi, one of the nine saints, in which these saints are said to have come to Ethiopia in the reign of Alameda; and then the deeds are related here and there of the kings Tazena, Caleb or Elesbaas, and finally Gabra Masqal, in whose reign St. Aragawi met his death Dillmann, place cited, page 348 and note 2.. Thirdly, the same series is confirmed from the Ethiopian Senkessar, which in the summary of the Life of St. Caleb calls him the son of Tazena Below at the end of the commentary and in Sapeto, Viaggio etc., page 422., while in another passage it reports that the same man, when Justin was ruling at Rome or Constantinople, gained a victory over the Homerites Volume X of October, page 717, number 191.. Fourthly and finally, the same is confirmed from two Ethiopic inscriptions of the aforesaid King Tazena, which were first found in the year 1830, and three years later were examined and copied by the traveller Eduard Rüppell [Reise in Abyssinien, volume II, pages 269, 280 and following, 426, and in the appended plates.]; the former of which was attempted in interpretation by a certain Ethiopian presbyter whom Rüppell met at Cairo Ibid. page 278., then by the most learned philologist Rödiger Hallische allgem. Literaturzeitung, June 1839., and at last with happier success by Sapeto and Dillmann, as will presently be said more fully. And in both these inscriptions King Tazena calls himself son of Alameda. We confess indeed that at the beginning of the first inscription only the syllable na has been preserved, and that at the beginning of the second only the syllables zana could be read (or zena, since the Ethiopic letters za and ze hardly differ). But Sapeto either read the whole name on the stone, or at the least did not hesitate to supply the syllable ta Sapeto, Nouvelles Annales des voy., 1845, volume II, page 309., as neither did Dillmann, when a few years later he went over the same inscriptions again, but from Rüppell's mutilated copy Zeitschrift d. d. morgenl. Ges., volume VII, page 355 and following.. From which it is manifest and beyond every hazard of doubt that these kings held the throne of Ethiopia in the aforesaid order.

[72] The beginnings of the inscriptions of Tazena from the version of A. Dillmann. When they began to reign, however, and for how many years each reigned, will have to be investigated in the dissertation to be appended to this volume. We note here only that Tazena reigned from about the year 484 to 512. What he did, however, in the course of his reign history keeps silent; nor do the most brief annals of the Ethiopians teach us anything about him. The inscriptions, however, which were read at Axum by Rüppell and Sapeto, supply somewhat for the silence of the historians. Both of them, after the Ethiopian presbyter of Cairo, the distinguished Dillmann endeavoured to interpret, who, as he surpasses all others in his knowledge of the Ethiopic language, so also easily excelled those who used the same copies of Rüppell. But those copies suffered from a twofold defect: first, since on the stones themselves very many lines are not whole Rüppell, Reise u. s. w., volume II, page 278., so neither are they read whole in the copies; and second, they were not faithfully taken down. Here, however, is the beginning of each, as it has been turned from the Ethiopic language by Dillmann, and in such a way, as will presently appear, as could hardly be far from the truth. Note, however, that what had fallen away from the stones or had been erased is enclosed in brackets.

The first inscription begins thus:

[Ta]zena, son of Ela-Amida, Bese-Halen, king of Axum and Himyar and Raidan and Saba and Salhen and Tzijamo and Buga and Kash, son of Mahrem, is conquered by no army. Of the second inscription this is the beginning:

Taze na son of Ela-Amida, Bese-Halen, king of Axum and Himyar and Raidan and Saba and Salhen and Tzijamo and Buga and Kash, king of kings, son of Ela-Amida Dillmann, place cited, page 356..

[73] [From inscription 1 it would be doubtful whether Tazena was a Christian, but from 2 it is most certain.] In the first inscription Dillmann doubts somewhat whether Tazena shows himself fully a Christian Place cited., since the word Mahrem seems to signify the god Mars, and in another line similar words appear, though partly eroded or eaten away; but he confesses that this cannot be established with certainty from either passage, and it must be added that Tazena, as happens, copied the titles of earlier kings, and that he uses nearly the same ones as Aizanas in the Greek Axumite inscription, which was first read by the English traveller Salt in the year 1805 Compare the Acts of St. Frumentius above.. Moreover Mahrem, in the said first inscription, is no longer called a god by Tazena; although he is distinguished by that name by Aizanas: υἱὸς Θεοῦ ἀνικήτου Ἄρεως. Wherefore if only the first inscription were available, and if it were read well throughout, which is doubtful, Tazena would seem to have been either a heathen or of uncertain worship Dillmann, page 356.. But in the second inscription it is so manifest that Tazena shows himself a Christian that no one could fail to agree entirely in this matter with Dillmann, who has turned no small part of it from the Ethiopic, and with Joseph Sapeto, who, dwelling in Ethiopia, had the inscription itself before his eyes, and perhaps still preserves it.

[74] Lefevre and Salt teach us not a little about these inscriptions, For the traveller Lefevre writes that he heard of four inscriptions at Axum, of which one, written in the language Gheez or ancient Ethiopic, was in the keeping of the aforesaid missionary J. Sapeto. The same traveller adds, however, that two inscriptions were cut in unknown and hieroglyphic letters Lefevre, Voyage en Abyssinie, volume III, page 435.; this latter claim is unheard of, and will doubtless be repudiated by the learned. For no other traveller has given any indication of hieroglyphic monuments in Abyssinia, and that kingdom is too recent, as we show at length in the commentary on ancient Ethiopia, for hieroglyphic characters to have been able to be in use in it. We greatly marvel, moreover, that no European state has yet bought up inscriptions of this kind, by which history is so much illumined. But the cited Joseph Sapeto says that he found the second inscription (which had been taken down by Eduard Rüppell in the year 1833, but not very happily) at Axum in the year 1839. It has 52 lines, he says (as is in any case clear from Rüppell's copy), and it is incised on a marble slab five and a half feet long and two and a half wide. The letters are six to eight Parisian lines high, and they are carved with an exquisite art, far more perfect than that seen in the Greek and Himyaritic inscription (read: ancient Ethiopic, from which designation, however, frequently met with in Sapeto, it follows that at least two kinds of letters were in use among the ancient Ethiopians) Compare Dillmann, Zeitschrift der d. m. Gesell., volume VII, 367., and in the other Ethiopic inscription, likewise contemporary with Tazena, which, says Sapeto, I also brought to light in my book. But in the Itinerary, which was published twelve years later Viaggio e Missione cattolica etc., Rome 1857., that inscription is by no means read, nor have any other books been published up to now by Sapeto, although in prefacing his Itinerary he promises very many. These two inscriptions had been found in his field by a certain Dabtara or scribe of the church of Axum, who is called Ghebzakalemsis by Sapeto, that is, Akalemsis the Copt, and is called by the traveller Lefevre by the latter name alone: who, this traveller wrote in the year 1845, was carefully preserving these inscriptions. Sapeto rightly adds that if the ground of Axum were dug, as has been done by Europeans in many places, not a few monuments would be found most useful for illumining the history of Abyssinia and the neighbouring regions. Sapeto spent eight days before he began to understand this second inscription. He also made a copy of it, and he does not doubt that the eroded places of the rock, by the diligent application of his

investigation, he has happily filled in Annales des voyages, 1845, volume II, pages 299, 303 and following..

[75] [the second of which demonstrates that Tazena was a Christian, no less than his father.] Further, in the year 1845 he published the said greater inscription of Tazena in the French language, omitting however the text in Ethiopic letters, which is greatly to be regretted. Nevertheless, since he is thoroughly skilled in the Ethiopic language, has turned much from it into the vernacular, and has examined the monument itself at close hand; and finally since Dillmann has rendered in German only the beginning and the end, or lines 13 and 52, we shall present below in Latin Sapeto's version, which clings word for word to the traces of the Ethiopic text Ibid., page 30.. We shall add a very few notes, partly from the geographical Commentaries of the distinguished Vivien de Saint-Martin, partly from other writers. Let it suffice to have noted this one thing, that from the first words of this inscription Tazena already shows himself a Christian. For who not adhering to Christ, and not instructed in the teachings of Sacred Scripture, would begin thus: By the power of God who stretched out heaven and earth, the Lord in eternity. Further, what follows on the irruption and defeat of the unbelieving Nubians is clearer than light; we therefore here dispense with commentary. There collapse therefore those things that the traveller Salt devised, that Aidog or Anda, in whose reign the Catholic religion was propagated anew in Ethiopia (and whom we have demonstrated to be the same as Alameda, Tazena's father), is not different from Elesbaas himself, Tazena's son: by which assertion the conversion of the kings of Ethiopia and its religious renewal was brought down by nearly fifty years, namely from the year 479 to 525. We have likewise shown this to be most false from the history of the nine saints and the Acts of St. Aretha.

§ VIII. The first expedition of St. Elesbaas against Dhu Nowas, the Jewish king of the Homerites, in the year 519; in the year 522 he rebels again, enters the city of Negran by treachery, and kills several thousands of Christians.

[St. Elesbaas begins his reign; his first expedition against Dhu Nowas, king of the Homerites,] What has come to be known of the reign of Tazena has now been surveyed and explored. Of the beginning of the reign of St. Elesbaas we know nothing; but a few years after, Dhu Nowas, king of the Homerites, who was tributary to the Ethiopians, rebelled against them, and perhaps occupied certain provinces subject to the Ethiopians, of which enough has already been said above. Then King Elesbaas prepared an army, and led it on an expedition against the king of the Homerites. At Adulis, the port of Ethiopia from which one was to set sail for Homeritis, Cosmas Indicopleustes was then dwelling, whose book on Topography was first published in the preceding century by B. Montfaucon. For this reason Cosmas somewhere records that expedition of St. Elesbaas in these words: When, more or less twenty-five years ago, at about the beginning of the reign of Justin, emperor of the Romans, who ruled from the month of July of the year 518 until the month of August of the year 527, I was present in those places, namely at Adulis, Ellatzobaa (or Elesbaas) Compare volume X of October, page 724, note g., then king of the Axumites, being about to undertake a military expedition against the Homerites, who are placed on the opposite shore of the gulf, commanded the prefect at Adulis by letter to send him a copy of the Ptolemaic inscription of the seat and of the stone, or of both inscriptions, since it is now certain that there were two See the dissertation on Ancient Ethiopia at the end of this volume.. Then that prefect, by name Asbas, calling me and another trader, by name Menas … ordered us to go to the places and to take down the inscription Cosmas Indicopleustes, book II, page 140 and following, Montfaucon's edition..

[77] [took place in the year 519, and, as is reported, because of the persecution of the Christians.] From this passage of Cosmas we have shown elsewhere that the expedition of St. Elesbaas about which he here writes took place about the year 519, and that these words cannot be referred to the other expedition of the same king, which occurred in the year 525 Volume X of October, place cited, page 752, note nn.: and these points may be seen in their place. Moreover, that first expedition is recorded also in the Acts of St. Aretha, and they not only record it but briefly set down what was done in it. This passage, although it has already been partly recited above, since it bears above all on the history of St. Elesbaas, must here be borrowed entire from those most ancient Acts. It happened at about the same time, says the writer of the Acts, that the king of the Homerites was a certain Dunaan, a Jew, cruel and bloody above all the men of that nation… The land of the Homerites alone, which is also called Saba, was given up to idols, and at the same time to the tenets of the Jewish religion. They did not fear God, but worshipped their idols: from which arose continual wars between the king of the Ethiopians and the king of the Homerites, who was tributary to the Ethiopian. And Elesbaas, most Christian king, moved exceedingly by divine zeal, came with an army and routed the wicked king.

[78] St. Elesbaas, having put Dhu Nowas to flight, obtains the whole of Homeritis. What happened after that first victory of St. Elesbaas, which we have said was gained in the year 519, the writer of the Acts sums up in a few words in what follows. For after inserting some things about the city of Nagran, whose martyrs he is about to celebrate, he continues in these words: It happened therefore at that time that the king of the Jewish Homerites (Dunaan or Dhu Nowas), defeated in war, gave himself to flight, and preserved himself in certain inaccessible mountains Acta SS., place cited, page 694, number 112.; and Elesbaas, king of the Ethiopians, returned to his kingdom, leaving a commander with an army to guard the region. That commander or viceroy, who was set up in the year 519 and whose name is not known, from the said year held dominion in the name of the Ethiopians not in the province of Negran alone, but in the whole of Homeritis: which manifestly had never been done up to that time. For in whatever manner at length Arab kings reigned in the greater part of Homeritis from the year 479, whether as tributaries only of the Ethiopians, which cannot be denied, or even, as the letter of Justin urges, acknowledged in some way as in the place of viceroys, yet this is sufficiently evident from the monuments, that those native kings, who dwelt at Tapharum or Sana, enjoyed full royal power until the year 519. Although we know that Abraham Alasjram used it in the same way, whom the Arab historians, above all Nuweiri, confess had to be acknowledged by the king of the Ethiopians See above, number 62..

[79] [In the year 522 Dhu Nowas rebels, begins a most grievous persecution and attacks Negran.] The writer of the Acts of St. Aretha next relates that Dhu Nowas came down from the inaccessible mountains: The demon, he says, hater of what is honourable and adversary of those who wish to live piously, armed the king of the Homerites again against those left behind by Elesbaas king of the Ethiopians. For he slew them and began an inhuman persecution against all who revered the name of Christ, whether they were Greeks, or Persians, or Romans, or Ethiopians, and like a demon clothed in flesh he took arms against the Christians then living in his dominion. After this he ordered all those Christians to be gathered and killed. Finally he moves his army against the aforesaid Christ-loving city of the Negranites, to destroy it… As winter was at hand, therefore (namely at the end of the year 522, after Dhu Nowas had lain hidden for three years in the mountains), the king of the Ethiopians and his army could not go out in battle line against the Jew, who was attacking the venerable and renowned city of Negran of these holy and triumphant martyrs… The Jewish king approaches, therefore, and fixes the venerable sign of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ on a wooden post. Then he sends out heralds, and having girded the city with a rampart by means of his army, he orders them to cry out: If anyone does not blaspheme the crucified one, and does not despise this wood, which is the sign of a curse, he shall perish by fire and the sword. For behold, those who were left by the king of the Ethiopians in my lands, and the Christians of my kingdom, and those who are called monks, I have all delivered to the sword and to fire; and the churches of the Christians, as they call them, in all my surrounding provinces I have burned and overturned to the ground and reduced to dust. And behold, I am coming to you, O Negranites, with many forces and an uplifted arm, and with chosen men to attack you, a hundred and twenty thousand.

[80] [He asserts on oath that he will keep Negran safe; the tribute of one holcas: hence the number of the inhabitants] So great a slaughter, then, had King Dunaan or Dhu Nowas already wrought before he reached Negran! In what follows the same Acts narrate how he began to swear and to call to witness the God of heaven and of the Law, and the holy powers: That I will harm no citizen, nor compel anyone to blaspheme the religion that you revere, but that I wish only to receive you in surrender, and that you open the city etc. He says that he will ask only that which is customarily given, distributed by the head, by every soul dwelling in the cities of Homeritis, namely one holcas. From which the tribute of the Homerite kingdom becomes known, as will presently be seen. Now this holcas, as it is called, says the writer, is a royal Homerite coin, cast of gold, having the weight of twelve ceratia: so that the tribute from the aforesaid city of Negran amounts in the year to one hundred and thirty talents of gold. The talent, moreover, in the kingdoms of the Ethiopians and the Homerites is of thirteen pounds. These weights, pound and ceratium, are either Graeco-Roman or Alexandrian, since these Acts were first written in the patriarchate of Alexandria. If they are Graeco-Roman, since the Constantinopolitan pound, equally with the Roman, was worth 1728 ceratia [Hultsch, Griechische und Römische Metrologie, pages 114, 119 note 14, and 249; Vasquez Queipo, Essai sur les systèmes metriques, volume II, page 65 and following, Paris 1859.], and 144 Homerite holcades, since each of these weighs 12 ceratia (1728/12 = 144), one hundred and thirty Homerite talents, each of thirteen pounds, will be worth 243,360 holcades (144 × 13 × 130 = 243,360). And since each Homerite paid one holcas to the Ethiopians, with which Dhu Nowas also promised that he would be content, it follows that in the province of Negran which the Ethiopians possessed there were more than two hundred and forty-three thousand citizens.

[81] of the province of Negran. Their market and riches. If however the aforesaid weights are Egypto-Roman, since it is not sufficiently established what either the pound or the ceratium is worth in this system [Vasquez Queipo, volume I, page 209 and following; Saigey, Metrologie ancienne et moderne, pages 54 and 85.], or how many times the ceratium is contained in the pound, we shall be able to establish nothing certain by this way. We attempted it, however, in the preceding volume Volume X of October, page 727, note pp., but by a less safe method. But we note, above all for the sake of the metrologists, that the word ὁλκας is the same as the better known words ὁλκη, δραχμη, which in the preceding volume we ourselves, following Boissonade,

did not notice Ibid. note oo.; and since the Arabs also use the drachma, which they call dirhem, it seems certain that the writer of the Acts of St. Aretha wished by the word ὁλκας to signify some Arabian gold coin weighing one drachma; and this perhaps was distinguished by this its Homerite name. If therefore it is admitted, after the recent metrologist Vasquez Queipo Place cited, volume I, page 209 and volume II, pages 202 and 446., that the dirhem of the Arabs before Muhammad was worth 2,832 grams, and the Egypto-Roman pound 339,840 grams, since this pound contains 120 such drachmas, it would follow from this that 130 Homerite talents, each of 13 pounds, were worth 202,800 Arabian drachmas or holcades, and that the province of Negran held so many inhabitants; which nevertheless does not differ greatly from the other number that we indicated in the preceding volume, following a method not sufficiently accurate. If however this holcas, or gold drachma of the Homerites, weighed 2,832 grams, it would be worth today nearly ten francs. And it is read in the Acts of St. Aretha (above, number 80) that this was the annual tribute which the kings required from every soul; which, when one considers the value or power of gold thirteen hundred years ago, seems to confirm those two things that we have elsewhere declared from the very testimony of the ancient writers Place cited, page 664, number 12, to 17., namely that the Homerites abounded in gold, and that after the power of the Phoenicians was overthrown by the Persians and the Greeks, they were devoted to trade more than any other nation of Asia.

[82] [The gates of the city being opened, Dhu Nowas forswears himself, despoils the nobles and burns the bones of the dead bishop.] The citizens of Negran, taken in by the promises of Dhu Nowas, the Jewish king, opened the city, and the treacherous serpent entered, the king of the Homerites, who had affirmed on oath, I keep you unharmed and untouched, if you willingly hand over this city to me. On the following day, the gates being opened, all the nobles went out, together with Aretha, to the king, and prostrating themselves on the ground they venerated him. He ordered all to be assembled (three hundred and forty came together), and first to bring their possessions outside the city, and then to show him Paul, bishop of the city. All the nobles answered that he had died two years before; and he did not believe them, but sending to the place where his venerable body lay, he had the bones poured out and ordered them to be given to the fire, and the ashes to be thrown into the air with shovels Acta SS., place cited, page 724.. These things took place in the year 523, in the month of October; whence it follows that Paul, bishop of Negran, about whom Dhu Nowas was inquiring, departed this life in the year 521. We have said elsewhere that this Paul seems to be the bishop who was sent to the Homerites under the reign of Anastasius, and indeed at the beginning of his reign, about the year 491 or not much later Above, number 63 and volume X of October, page 694, number 111 and following..

[83] [Then 4252 citizens were made martyrs, and very many were thrown into a pit of fire.] What was done afterwards at Negran by Dhu Nowas, above all the slaughter of innumerable Christians, does not pertain here, but is to be sought in the Acts of St. Aretha, in the preceding volume. It will be enough to repeat here that at that time four thousand two hundred and fifty-two Christians of Negran carried their constancy of faith as far as martyrdom and a most cruel death. Of these, priests, monks and virgins consecrated to God, 427 in number, were burned with fire; 227 other women, most of them wives of the nobles, and then the nobles themselves, 340 in number (of whom the head and leader was St. Aretha, phylarch of the men of Negran), were beheaded. The remaining three thousand seem likewise to have had their heads cut off. Very nearly all were thrown into a certain pit, that very one, as it seems, in which the 427 martyrs, the first in order, had been consumed by the burning. The memory of this pit was preserved a hundred years later, while Muhammad was flourishing, and he mentions it in the Koran, sura 85; whence it became most celebrated among the Arabs, and because of the horrifying tortures of these Christians (whom Muhammad calls faithful), the name of lord of the pit, in Arabic Ssaheb-el-Okhdud, stuck to Dhu Nowas the Jew. Dhu Nowas moreover delivered into slavery Christian children of both sexes, from earliest childhood to the age of fifteen years, one thousand two hundred and ninety-seven in number. Finally he sent a letter to Cavades king of the Persians and to Almundarus, king of Hira, reporting what had been done and exhorting them to imitate him. On all these matters the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Aretha will give more Acta SS. volume X of October, page 703, number 141 and page 708, § XV..

[84] The embassy of the emperor Justin to Almundarus of Hira. These things happened, as we have said, in the month of October of the year 523. The following January, to the same Almundarus or Mundhir III, king of Hira, who was then staying in the province of Hedjaz, not far from present-day Mecca, there had been sent as envoys by the emperor Justin and by Cavades, king of the Persians, Abramius, a presbyter of Constantinople Ibid. page 700, number 134 and following., Simeon of Beth-Arsam, a Catholic Persian presbyter, Angaeus son of Zed, leader of a military colony of Arabs of Hira who had settled in Palestine, and others; namely to treat with the king of Hira concerning the ransom of the Graeco-Roman captives, the bringing about of peace, and the affairs of the Christians. When they reached King Almundarus on the 30th day of January of the year 524, there was staying with him a messenger sent by Dhu Nowas with his letter, of which we spoke above; which was read out before the envoys, and gave Simeon of Beth-Arsam the occasion of writing a letter to the abbot of the monastery of Gabula in Euphratesia, twenty kilometres from Chalcis.

[85] [The truthfulness of Simeon of Beth Arsam; for what cause he wrote he teaches us at the end of his letter.] Now this letter of Simeon, which was written at the very time of the persecution by a grave and learned man, as we have shown elsewhere Ibid. page 699, number 129 and following., is highly commended by Assemani and J. D. Michaelis, and together with the Greek Acts of St. Aretha, which we have published and with which it wonderfully agrees, it is to be held as a most truthful history of the persecution. Simeon finishes the letter in these words: As to what remains, we beseech your charity again and again that these things be made known as soon as possible to the superiors of the monasteries and to the bishops, and above all to the bishop of Alexandria (Timothy, who at that time did not show himself a Monophysite) Ibid. page 710, numbers 169 and 171., that by his letters he may urge the king of the Ethiopians (St. Elesbaas) to bring help to the Homerites; and at the same time that you take care that the high priests of the Jews, staying at Tiberias (near the lake of the same name in Palestine), be compelled to write to that Jewish king who has just appeared, that he abstain from now on from war and persecution of the Homerites Ibid. page 708, number 161..

§ IX. The emperor Justin exhorts St. Elesbaas to avenge the martyrs of Negran; he prepares a fleet in the port of Adulis; of the cities of Adulis and Axum; he sets out for the war.

[The envoy Abramius reports the deeds of Dhu Nowas to the emperor Justin; his letter] Abramius, presbyter of Constantinople and envoy of the emperor Justin to Almundarus, who no less than Simeon had learned most of these things from the narrative of the Homerite envoy, returning to Constantinople, reported the whole affair to the emperor. Of which the Acts of St. Aretha narrate as follows: Then the servants of God, the emperor's envoys, having made a peaceful treaty with Alamundarus, returned; and they reported the contents of the letter of the Homerite king, and also what had been done, to the servant of God Justin, emperor of the Romans. He without delay wrote to Timothy, bishop of Alexandria (from which it is again clear that this man at that time was not a Monophysite, since Justin, most tenacious of orthodoxy, removed Monophysite bishops from their sees), that his beatitude should send a letter to the king of the Ethiopians, by name Elesbaas (whose kingdom belonged to the patriarchate of Alexandria), exhorting him to equip an army and to destroy all the impious together with their king. And the emperor himself also wrote to the pious King Elesbaas in these words. This letter of Justin, which we have shown elsewhere to be genuine Ibid. page 720, number 207; page 726, note z and page 745, note x., is by no means to be omitted here: I know, he says, addressing the king of the Ethiopians, how devoted to the Christian religion your fraternity is. It has reached us that that rebel, to whom you entrusted the kingdom of the Homerites (on which see what was said above at number 62), seizing the occasion, slew by the sword all the Christian Ethiopians whom you sent, together with the Romans and Persians of the same religion found there, when they would not deny Jesus Christ the Son of God. And the city of Nagran as well (where I wonder that Nagran is written, in the Syriac form Compare Acta SS., page 720, number 203 and following, page 724, note d., in place of Negran, the Arabic name, which seems to be met with only in the Acts) he has made deserted and uninhabitable.

[87] to St. Elesbaas, of the year 524. Then he wrote to the king of the Persians and to Alamundarus who is called Sacchicas, asking them also to act likewise toward the Christians dwelling there: We therefore exhort your fraternity and beseech you, by the holy and consubstantial Trinity, to attack the accursed and impious Jew, whether by sea or by land, having with you for help the power of the holy Angels. For if your piety does not do this, on the one hand God will be angry from heaven with him and his kingdom; and on the other we shall send through Coptos and Berenice many forces of the Blemmyes and Nobades (of which cities and peoples we have spoken elsewhere Ibid. page 745, note w and following.), and these will pass through your lands, will crush everything, and will bring the Homerite and his whole kingdom to utter ruin and curse. Farewell. This letter of Justin will have been written in the first months of the year 524, after Abramius and the other envoys had returned to Constantinople, as appears sufficiently from the narrative that we recited above (number 84) from the Acts of St. Aretha.

[88] St. Elesbaas, having gathered an army, equips a fleet of sixty ships. But St. Elesbaas by no means needed exhortations of this kind or the threats added to them, who already in the year 519 had defeated the same Dhu Nowas, and had already at that time subjected the whole of Homeritis. He himself therefore at the end of the year 523, or the beginning of 524, began to prepare an army and a fleet, which however, above all the latter, could not be done within a short time. Of which we read as follows in the Acts of St. Aretha: But the servant of God Elesbaas had promptly gathered an army of one hundred and twenty thousand soldiers both from his own kingdom and from the neighbouring nations Ibid. page 711, number 172.. Moreover, by the providence of the Saviour, there were collected the ships of merchants Ibid. page 749, note c., Roman or Byzantine, and also of Persians and Ethiopians, and finally from the islands of Pharsan, today Farsan, in the Red Sea,

about latitude 16° 50, Ibid. note d., sixty in all: namely from the city of Aela, fifteen ships; the ruins of this emporium are seen even today, at the head of the Aelanitic gulf not far from Akaba. On these and the other cities and islands of which mention here arises, see what we have set out elsewhere Ibid. page 749 and following.; from Clysma, not far from Suez, twenty; from the island of Iotabe , seven; from Berenice two; from the island of Pharsan, seven; and from India nine.

[89] [Under the name of India in the V and VI centuries there went part of Persia and Baluchistan, present-day India and Arabia Felix, very rarely Ethiopia.] Thus far the Acts of St. Aretha, in which it is manifest from the Acts themselves that India signifies ancient Carmania and Gedrosia, or the parts of present-day Persia and the kingdom of Baluchistan that adjoin the Persian Gulf [Ibid. page 706, number 154, 722, number 2 and 726, note aa; compare ibid. page 673, number 39.]. And further, that the most intricate passage of Rufinus, in which he writes that Metrodorus and Meropius went to farther India, is to be understood of the same India and of present-day India itself, against Pagi, Letronne and others, we have shown at length above in the Acts of St. Frumentius. Finally, although Virgil, and after him Servius, then Procopius, using the very words of Virgil Ibid. page 672, number 34., and John Malalas Above, number 15. and his followers have given Ethiopia the name of India, we hardly doubt that in the V and VI centuries this was done more rarely by writers [Compare Acta SS., place cited, page 672, number 34 and page 694, number 111; Ludolf, Commentary, page 75 and following.], which is proved partly from the Acts of St. Aretha and from Rufinus Compare Acta SS., place cited, page 673, number 39 and following., partly from the negative argument, as they call it; for in this matter, since the Byzantine historians mention Ethiopia many times, that argument has very great force. Nevertheless, under the name of India there still went fairly frequently in those times Arabia Felix or Homeritis; but since this is not met with in the Acts of St. Aretha, and only that vast region which stretches eastward from the Persian Gulf is called India, we rightly deduce from this that St. Elesbaas obtained those nine ships from the aforesaid gulf. By this rule it seems that what we formerly indicated by conjecture concerning the India from which the king of Ethiopia had ships should be corrected Ibid. page 749, note k..

[90] Adulis and its site, its churches All these ships, sixty in number, the Acts continue, Elesbaas gathered in a certain naval station called Gabaza, which is within the borders of the city of Adulis, situated by the sea, and he ordered them to be drawn up on the sand. Adulis was an emporium of Ethiopia, once celebrated for its trade. Already in the age of Procopius it was very far distant from the sea, at least twenty stadia Ibid. page 750., a fact which Eduard Rüppell does not mention, not understanding how the sea could have receded so far within thirteen centuries. For already Procopius wrote: The city of Adulis is XX stadia distant from the port; withdrawn, that is, by so great a space from the sea! The ruins of Adulis were found by Henry Salt Voyage en Abyssinie, volume II, page 237., but the aforesaid German traveller examined them much more diligently. They lie between the hamlets of Zula and Afte, more than half a German mile (mehr als einer Stunde, that is, more than five kilometres; Cosmas Indicopleustes [Cosmas Indicopleustes, page 140; compare Hultsch, Griechische und Röm. Metrologie, page 281 and following.] has it two Ptolemaic miles distant from the sea, or 3, 193 metres), from the bay of Axesley, and at geographical latitude 15° 15′44″ Rüppell, Reise in Abyssinien, volume I, page 267.. There, however, the same man saw nothing except ruins, extending five hundred paces from east to west; among which he supposes the more notable to have fallen from an ancient church. But in truth the companions of the French traveller Lefevre saw the walls of three churches Lefevre, Voyage en Abyssinie (1839–43), volume III, page 437 and following..

[91] [and its port. St. Elesbaas himself constructs ten Indian ships, besides the 60 others.] That port, however, or station of ships (ὅρμος), which was very far distant from the city, is in various passages of the Acts of St. Aretha called Gabaza or Gabazan Volume X of October, page 750, note n., which word is purely Ethiopic and signifies shore. In this port, therefore, which was called Gabaza by the citizens of Adulis, at the end of the year 524, in the third indiction, St. Elesbaas had gathered sixty ships. Besides, in the winter of the same third indiction, that is, from about the month of November (of the year 524 to March of the year 525: for that indiction ran from September of the year 524 to September of the following year), he himself also constructed ten Indian ships; and he fitted out in this way seventy altogether. Indian ships, which are to be seen in these African seas alone, are built without any iron; on which Procopius De Bello Persico, book I, chapter 19., Edrisi Geographie, volume I, page 46, Joubert's edition. and Ritter Erdkunde, volumes XI and XII. have more. Since St. Elesbaas seems to have had only these Indian ships as his own, although this is not certain, it thence becomes likely that he had no great strength at sea. Nevertheless the Acts of St. Aretha manifestly err in this, as we have clearly shown, that they relate that all the forces of St. Elesbaas could be carried in these ships. And since those Acts are far less safe in this latter part than in the former, what they relate of the ships of St. Elesbaas we cannot accept as certain Compare volume X of October, page 753, note oo and 757, note x..

[92] [The patriarch Timothy entreats God for the happy outcome of the expedition and sends the Eucharist to St. Elesbaas.] While these things were being done at Adulis, Timothy, patriarch of Alexandria, who at that time did not show himself a heretic, instituted a public supplication and held vigils for the happy outcome of the expedition. At Alexandria in Egypt, therefore, say the Acts, in the month of April, in the third indiction, that is, in the year 525, the most blessed bishop Timothy, having gathered in the church of the holy apostle Mark, whose body was carried off by the Venetians in the IX century, all the orthodox and a multitude of the monks of Nitria and Scetis Compare Acta SS. volume VIII of October, page 39 and following., proclaimed a public procession and held vigils, and on the following day, the synaxis being finished, he places the divine oblation, or the Most Holy Eucharist Compare ibid. volume X, page 746, note ll., in a silver vessel and sends it by presbyters to the king of the Ethiopians. He exhorted him moreover by words of discipline, as Samuel moved King Saul against Amalek I Kings XV, to equip an army and to deliver all things to ruin by sword and fire.

[93] [15,000 soldiers are sent against the Homerites through Barbaria and the Somalis, but they perish miserably.] Not long afterwards St. Elesbaas sends fifteen thousand barbarian Ethiopians by the land route to the south of Ethiopia, to cross the sea there and go up to the east, and to be drawn up in certain parts of Homeritis. It will be to the purpose to set down here these words of Cosmas Indicopleustes: For the Homerite is not very far from Barbaria, with a sea crossing of two days between See ibid. volume X, page 751, note p.. For in this way, the Acts continue, when the ships with the forces were to arrive from the west, those men would have been present unexpected from the east. But after these fifteen thousand barbarians had accomplished a journey of thirty days (or about 287 hour-leagues of five kilometres Compare Cosmas Indicopleustes, page 138.; from which they seem to have advanced toward the promontory of Guardafui, among the Somalis Ritter, Erdkunde, volume I, page 164 and following., from which there was an easy passage to the island of Socotra and thence to Homeritis), and then (a journey) of seven days through inaccessible and arid mountains, they could neither advance to Homeritis nor return to Ethiopia; and they perished miserably, scattered, as is likely, and consumed by hunger and thirst.

[94] The procession of St. Elesbaas to the church of Axum; what this church was. The feast of Pentecost being over, which in this year 525, in the third indiction, fell on the 18th day of May, the king of the Ethiopians, having now prepared everything, with his departure imminent, instituted a procession to the most holy great church of God, in which the kings and priests of the region are buried. There is signified here the principal church of the royal city of Axum; for a little lower down the following is read: Having said these things he goes out from the royal city to his army, etc. The fate of this magnificent building, which had once been a temple of the heathen, I will briefly sum up, since this has never been done before. That it was splendid is clear both from the words of the writer of the Acts of St. Aretha and from the ruins of which we shall speak presently. It was built in the first Christian century, since the city of Axum itself and its obelisks were built at that time; and not in the age of Ptolemy Euergetes I or others of the first Ptolemies, as James Bruce wrote Bruce, Voyage en Nubie et Abyssinie, volume III, page 146. and the rest after him, down to this day [Ritter, Erdkunde, volume I, page 192; Russell, Nubia and Abyssinia, pages 242 and 244; Lefèvre, Voyage en Abyssinie, volume III, page 427.]. For we show in the dissertation on ancient Ethiopia that neither is Meroe, on the island of the same name, once adorned with many buildings, older than the first century before the birth of Christ Below, at the end of this volume., nor Axum older than the first Christian century; and at the same time we set out in what way its buildings were conceived in the Greek or Graeco-Egyptian style Ibid.. From the beginning, however, and for several centuries, this principal church of Axum, as has been said, was a temple of idols; but in the IV century, when the Axumite kings took up the Christian faith, the idols were doubtless thrown out of the temple, and it was turned into a Christian church. But that in the V century it again received idols, until King Alameda embraced the Christian rites and a bishop and clerics came from Egypt, there is hardly any doubt, as also that from then on it remained continually assigned to the Christians.

[95] is handed down. A judgment on the traveller James Bruce. About the year 925, however [Sapeto, Viaggio ecc., page 73; Dillmann, Zeitschrift d. d. morgenl. G., volume VII, page 350.], a certain woman called in Amharic Godit, that is, prodigious Sapeto, place cited., and by some Judith Bruce, volume I, page 606; Russell, page 150., overthrew the Axumite empire and to the province of Lasta it

transferred, and utterly overthrew the royal city of Axum itself. There can hardly be any doubt that the principal church of the city then suffered much, which otherwise, being built of cut stones, could have endured for a very long time; the matter, however, is not certain. For the annals of the Ethiopians, which are preserved to this day in the church at Axum, relate that it was overthrown by the warlike king of Adel, Muhammad Gragne, about the year 1526 Salt, Voyage (premier) en Abyssinie, volume I, page 246., or in the year 1530, as James Bruce relates Bruce, volume II, page 176 and volume III, page 147.. This traveller's books we use without reluctance, although he has calumniated the Catholic missionaries in very many places. For he is a man of no mean talent, he has searched out many things, and he speaks wittily and pleasantly, but just as he despised others who had written before him, so he himself has been blamed by several [Valentia and Salt, passim; Ritter, Erdkunde, volume I, page 178 and following; C. T. Beke, Mémoire justificatif en réhabilitation des pères Paëz et Lobo; missionnaires en Abyssinie, en ce qui concerne l'Abaï (Nil Bleu) et la cataracte d'Alata (translated from the English) etc.]. Certainly it is ridiculous, if someone has written, for example, on history or geography, to censure most of what in him by no means pertains to sacred things solely because he is devoted to another cult. Only obstinate impious men, to whom nothing is sacred, deserve to be despised.

[96] The same church is described from Tellez and others; Of the former church of Axum, however, which was overthrown either by Godit or, as is more likely, by the king of Adel in the XVI century, magnificent ruins survived when the Portuguese came, of which Tellez writes as follows in his history of Ethiopia [Tellez, Historia geral de Ethiopia a alta, page 56; Lobo, Voyage historique d'Abyssinie, Legrand's edition, page 201.]: At Axum there are seen many ancient ruins, chiefly of a certain great church, which appears to have been of five naves, two hundred and twenty palms long and one hundred wide. If we remember that the Portuguese palm is worth 219 thousandths of the French metre, it will be clear that this church was 48, 18 metres long and 21, 9 wide. Moreover an ample peristyle surrounded the temple, with many huge seats, on one of which James Bruce says he read a Greek inscription, from which it would have been clear that the temple and the other buildings and obelisks were erected by the Ptolemies; but this inscription could be found by none of the subsequent travellers, and it is now admitted that it never existed; which report of the Scottish traveller the Rev. Michael Russell has not ineptly endeavoured to explain Russell, page 246; Lefevre, volume III, page 431..

[97] and above all from the books of the recent traveller Lefevre. On the whole building Théophile Lefevre writes diligently: The foundations of this ancient building, he says, which alone have remained, and among which rises the present-day church of Axum (built by Portuguese builders in the year 1657 Salt, first voyage, page 240., and which some praise [Ibid. page 238; Lefèvre, volume III, page 427 and following; Parkyns, Life in Abyssinia, volume I, page 207.] and others despise [Bruce, volume III, page 146; Combes and Tamisier, Voyage en Abyssinie, volume I, page 267; compare Rüppell, volume II, page 272 and following.]), plainly show its former size and splendour. The greater steps which led to the peristyle and which have remained whole were ten in number, of a breadth of sixty hundredths of a metre (0 m 60), of a length of seventy metres in all. There followed a level space, four metres wide and fifty-eight long, on which rested both the acroterium and the other steps that led to the temple. This whole building was square, sixty-three metres long and wide. These ruins, moreover, or immense masses of the syenite stone which they call amphibolic, show that much work was done here long ago, and that the art of mechanics and of balistics was very well known to the builders; of these stones the smallest are three or four metres long, seventy or eighty hundredths of a metre wide, and thirty-five or forty of these parts high Lefevre, volume III, page 432..

[98] [In it the kings and priests were buried. The prayer of St. Elesbaas before the Homerite expedition.] It is of this august temple, then, whose ruins alone the Portuguese and the other travellers saw, that there is discussion in the Acts of St. Aretha, where St. Elesbaas is said to have instituted a procession to the most holy great church of God, in which the kings and priests of the region are buried. Whose tombs, however, do not seem to have been uncovered by travellers down to this day See however Ed. Rüppell, Reise, volume II, page 273.. St. Elesbaas therefore, reaching the narthex or vestibule of the church, laid aside the garment and adornment which kings are accustomed to wear, and putting on common dress he entered and stood between the horns of the altar. Then with hands outstretched he said: O Lord God almighty … (this prayer was written so long after the death of St. Elesbaas, as will be clear from what is to be said below; from which we bring over here only what pertains to the war with the Homerites). And behold the very day I Cor. IV, 3., and impious earth and ash has struck the mother in her children, and has utterly destroyed your priests and the sheep of your pasture, and has armed itself against your Son and the horn of his altar. And now, sovereign God of things visible and invisible, behold, trusting in the sign of your Christ, on which that impious man (Dhu Nowas) has heaped insult, I draw up my battle line against him. Do not therefore disappoint me in this my expectation Ps. CXVIII, 116., lest at any time those who do not know your name should say: Where is their God? And if the multitude of my sins opposes my prayers, strike me down, O Lord, and do not deliver your inheritance into the hands of the impious who blaspheme your holy Trinity. For we are your people and the sheep of your pasture Ps. XCIX, 3., and we give you glory for ever. Amen.

[99] [He visits St. Pantaleon, one of the nine saints, and from there goes to Adulis, a city on the sea, with his army, and boards the ships.] After this the writer relates that King Elesbaas visited St. Pantaleon, one of the nine saints, of whom much has been said above Above, number 66 and following, and the Synaxary below.; then he continues in these words: And having received a blessing from him, the king went down to the city of Adulis, namely from the mountains on which Axum was built, to the coastal city of Adulis, and thence to Gabaza, or to the Adulitic port, which was not a little distant from the emporium itself and was called in Ethiopic Gabaza. And he orders the whole army to carry food with them for twenty days only: this will perhaps have been done because in so few ships much could not be carried, and Arabia was very near. And so they were set down in seventy ships, and not in seven hundred, as others have said. Now we showed earlier Volume X of October, page 711, number 172; 753, note qq. that the crossing took place through the strait of Bab-el-mandeb, which will presently appear also from the context of the narrative; and that thus there were enough ships for the whole army to cross. We added that the individual ships prepared by St. Elesbaas held at most a hundred soldiers Ibid. note oo., and so that no more than 7,000 soldiers could be carried across at one time.

* Golfe d'Akaba

* Tyran

§ X. The war in Homeritis. St. Elesbaas gains Tapharum, whose ruins several recent travellers have seen. Dhu Nowas being defeated and slain, he builds a church at Tapharum and summons a bishop from Alexandria.

He enters Homeritis and gains Tapharum or Dhafar, the royal city. While these things were being done in the port of Adulis, Dhu Nowas, king of the Homerites, learned that the fifteen thousand soldiers sent from the south into Homeritis had perished, as was said above, and understanding that he now had nothing to fear from that quarter, in the strait of Bab-el-mandeb, by which the ships of St. Elesbaas had to come, he stretched an iron chain, namely in that narrower tract where the sea flows between the Arabian coast and the island of Naucleria (Pilots' island). But this chain, with a favouring storm, was broken by the ships of the Ethiopians. The ships, however, either by the winds or rather deliberately, in order to take up the forces and carry them across from the Ethiopian shore to Arabia, were divided into three parts, into as many parts as Dhu Nowas too divided the forces of his Homerites. These things are related at length in the Acts of St. Aretha, which have been published in volume X of October. The first of the Homerite columns was defeated by St. Elesbaas himself, and not even one of them escaped to report what had occurred to the Homerite king, who was stationed before the other forty ships. For King Dhu Nowas was distant about three Egyptian stages, or ninety miles, that is, nearly 145 kilometres. Then King Elesbaas, with a kinsman of the king of the Homerites, who, though bound, was his guide on the way, went off to the royal city, by name Taphar, ἐπι την βασιλευουσαν πολιν Ταφαρ, and occupied it with the queens and many riches Volume X of October, page 755, number 35..

[101] This city is situated in inner Yemen, not in Hadhramaut by the sea. This city of Taphar, the royal city of the Homerites, which is called Ταφαρον by Philostorgius, we have shown to have been situated in inner Yemen at latitude 14° 13', and its ruins to have been seen by the travellers Niebuhr and Seetzen Ibid. page 676.. But two hundred years before, in the year 1588, the same ruins had been seen by the celebrated missionary Pedro Paez, by nation a Spaniard, called Pays by the Portuguese, who, captured by Arab pirates near Zhafar on the sea in Hadramaut (which city is called by him Dofar or Dhofar) Tellez, Historia de Ethiopia, page 212 and following., was led from there to Sana, the principal city of Yemen, in which he lived as a captive for five and a half years Ibid. page 223.. On the way he came upon the aforesaid ruins, as he himself reports in his memoirs, which narrative Tellez has abridged in this way: On the following day, at the beginning of July of the year 1588, they reached a small village called Melquis Ibid. page 218., or perhaps Belkis, since the Arabs report that this was the name of the Queen of Sheba, who they constantly say reigned and dwelt in this place; in which place they saw the ruins of great buildings, and ancient letters carved in stones, which not even the natives themselves could read Tellez, place cited, page 218; compare ibid. page 64.; but they said that there had been a very great city there, and that the queen had had numerous herds of

flocks; and if this is true, there will be confirmed from it what has already been said, that the Queen of Sheba was mistress not only of all Ethiopia, but also of the greater part of Arabia Ibid. page 64..

[102] [Whether the Queen of Sheba was at once queen of Homeritis and of Ethiopia; her royal city Mareb.] Tellez, namely, follows the opinion of the patriarch Alfonso Mendez, according to which the Queen of Sheba held dominion in Ethiopia and not in Arabia, and he inserted the arguments for this opinion, set forth by the patriarch himself, at the beginning of his History; but seeing that Fr. Paez, because of the ruins examined by him in Arabia and the tradition of the nation, wished not undeservedly to reconcile these two opinions Essai sur l'histoire des Arabes avant l'Islamisme, volume I, page 88., he also is not averse to it. On this matter something was said above, where we noted that Tapharum became the royal city of the Homerites after the overthrow of the dam of Mareb, or after the year of Christ 120, as the distinguished Caussin de Perceval considers Essai sur l'histoire des Arabes avant l'Islamisme, volume I, page 88.. Up to that time, however, the city of Mareb, mentioned by several ancients, held that dignity; whose huge ruins were seen by the daring travellers Wellsted and Thomas Arnaud Volume X of October, page 666., from which also not long ago the wealthiest Museum of London received twenty-eight inscriptions cut on as many copper tablets. These, not long ago, together with fourteen others incised on stone, the distinguished S. Birch, the well-known Egyptologist, published at London [Inscriptions in the Himyaric character discovered chiefly in southern Arabia and now in the British Museum, London 1863; Journal asiatique, October 1863, page 399 and following, and Zeitschrift d. d. m. G., volume XVIII, page 789 and volume XIX, page 159.].

[103] [Dhu Nowas himself is defeated, and on the arrival of St. Elesbaas is slaughtered.] But to return now to the point from which we digressed, Tapharum in Yemen, the royal city of the Homerites (as we have manifestly shown against Fulgence Fresnel), King Elesbaas had occupied already after the first victory gained over the Homerites on the shore. One day before, says the writer of the Acts of St. Aretha, the king of the Homerites learned that the city of Taphar had been taken with the queens, and fearing that some of his seven kinsmen might join King Elesbaas, he had an iron chain made, and binding both himself and them with it, he sat in his chariot on a golden seat, and the seven kinsmen, bound to him, on seven likewise golden seats Volume X of October, page 755, number 37.. This passage was used by the learned F. Movers to show that the Himyarites imitated the customs and usages of the Babylonians and Persians Movers, Die Phönizier, Book III, page 300.. Presently the Ethiopians gained the victory also over those forces which King Dhu Nowas himself commanded, with the help of St. Gabriel, as the Acts of St. Aretha say; which archangel they have in every age much venerated. Then the Ethiopians, leaping forth, slaughtered the enemy, keeping the king of the Homerites with his seven kinsmen as captives. And there was this voice from heaven crying out: Gabriel, Gabriel, Gabriel, for salvation and a great victory on that day. These things were announced to King Elesbaas, who coming up killed the impious king and his seven kinsmen, crying out and saying: Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered Ps. LXVII, 1.. And having erected altars in that very place, he poured out prayers to God.

[104] [St. Elesbaas builds a church at Tapharum. The latter part of the Acts of St. Aretha was composed between the years 570 and 597.] Then returning to the royal city of Taphar or Dhafar, he delivered to death and curse those who dwelt in the palace. But certain of the more illustrious magnates fled; afterwards they returned and became Christians. Then the king, digging the earth with his own hands for seven days, began the most holy church that is now seen. It seems that a church existed at Tapharum even before the rebellion of Dhu Nowas Volume X of October, page 701, number 137 and following.; but that there was a church at Sana in that age or not much later, which was destroyed in the reign of El Saffah, otherwise Seif, the last king of the progeny of Himyar, has been shown from the inscriptions by the distinguished Ern. Osiander, recently deceased Zeitschrift d. d. m. G., volume X, pages 22 and 27.. From these words, moreover: he began the most holy church that is now seen, as from other passages of the Acts Volume X of October, page 718, number 197 and following., it appears that they were composed not only before the victories of Muhammad, but also more probably before the year 597, in which the Ethiopians were expelled and wiped out by Chosroes Parviz, king of the Persians. For of the victories or dominion of these there is no mention in the Acts. Indeed we have said elsewhere that the first part of the Acts was originally composed not long after the year 525, whether in Homerite or in Greek Volume X of October, page 720, number 206.. As for this last part, however, it seems it must certainly be said that it was composed outside Arabia, after the death of St. Elesbaas but before the occupation of the kingdom by the Persians, or between about the years 570 and 597 Ibid. page 719, number 199.; which for that matter will be established also from what follows.

[105] [Then the patriarch of Alexandria sends a bishop to Tapharum; who was neither John the paramonarius nor St. Gregentius.] St. Elesbaas, moreover, announced all these things as soon as possible to Timothy, the most holy archbishop of Alexandria Above, number 92., and through him to the emperor Justin. The archbishop consecrated a certain holy and orthodox man as bishop, and sent him to the Homerites and to King Elesbaas. Coming there he sanctified the temple which King Elesbaas had built, and he baptized all the inhabitants of the cities and of the neighbourhood in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He also established presbyters in the individual places, and deacons and the other ministers of the churches. Then Elesbaas led the most holy bishop who had been sent to Negran, the city of the martyrs, and rebuilt it together with the most holy church. And he established the son of St. Aretha as leader and prince of the Negranites. He also gave to the church as a gift five estates from the royal lands, and in accordance with the charge of St. Aretha, three estates from his property Compare volume X of October, page 736, number 18.. The place too in which the bodies of the saints lay burned and thrown down he made venerable, and he endowed it with the right of asylum; and so, full of joy and happiness, he returned to the royal city of the Homerites, namely Taphar. The name of the bishop who in the year 525 was sent by the patriarch of Alexandria, and who was more probably established as bishop at Negran, and not at Tapharum, where Christians were not yet living in so great a number, no writer has reported. For it was not John the paramonarius, who was sent to Ethiopia in the year 479, as we have shown above against Michel Le Quien Above, page 307.. Nor could it have been Gregentius or Gregory, who only about the year 540, when St. Elesbaas crossed the sea for the third time, was established as archbishop of Tapharum and not of Negran: as Le Quien had already seen long ago. Of the bishop of Negran, the royal city of the Ethiopians, who in the year 525 came from Alexandria to Homeritis, John, bishop of Asia, the Monophysite writer, adds: Who, having governed that region for a short time, departed this life. How far this is accurate I cannot certainly say, since John wrote only about the year 585, and in this very place has erred in several things Volume X of October, page 713, number 180 and following..

§ XI. Of the viceroys of the Homerites established by St. Elesbaas, Esimiphaeus and Aryates, and of King Abraham, all of whom were Christians. An envoy sent to St. Elesbaas by the emperor Justinian in the year 530.

In the Acts of St. Aretha the reigns of Esimiphaeus and Aryates are omitted. In what follows the writer of the Acts of St. Aretha does not distinguish this second expedition of King Elesbaas, which we have said took place in the year 525 (for the first had occurred in the year 519), from the third expedition, in which he acknowledged as king or viceroy Abraham, who had killed Aryates, viceroy of the Ethiopians. Then, he says, he set over the inhabitants a certain king, by name Abraam, prudent, fearing God, and very Christian. To whom he handed over, together with the most holy bishop, ten thousand Christian Ethiopians. These things accomplished, he returned with immense booty to the royal city of his own kingdom, Axum. All these things, each and every one, pertain to the expedition of the year 540; and what lies between, from the year 525, has been omitted. For the first part of the Acts of St. Aretha, which contains the history of his martyrdom, was composed not long after the year 525, as we have just said; but the latter part was added after the death of King Abraha, or after the year 570 or 571, as the passage last recited sufficiently hints: and thence is confirmed what we were saying above Above, number 104 and volume X of October, page 619, number 199., that it was added between the year 570 and 597; and indeed, as we long ago noted Ibid. number 203 and page 724, note d., this was done not in Homeritis or in Ethiopia, but in Syria.

[107] The passage of Procopius on Esimiphaeus, We must therefore go back as far as the year 525, and what was done thereafter is to be gathered from other historians; but this has already been accomplished in part in volume X. Wherefore the sum of the matter must here be gathered only briefly, but a little more lucidly, inserting those things that were there omitted. In the year 525, Dhu Nowas having been defeated and slain and the whole of Homeritis subdued, St. Elesbaas established as viceroy of the region a certain Esimiphaeus, a Homerite by race, who the distinguished Caussin de Perceval not undeservedly conjectures was of the clan Dhu Kifan, and was called Ebn-Dzi-Kifan Essai sur l'hist. des Arabes avant l'Islamisme, volume I, page 139.. That St. Elesbaas spent nearly three years in completing and ordering these matters is hinted at somewhere in the first part of the Acts of St. Gregentius, which John Martinov has given to us turned into Latin from a Slavonic codex of the Berlin library Compare Fabricius, Bibl. græca, volume X, page 116, Harles's edition.. But the trustworthiness of these is doubtful. On Esimiphaeus, however, and the manner in which he fell, let us hear Procopius, of the VI century of which we write, a diligent historian in most things. Having put Esimiphaeus in his (Dhu Nowas's) place, he says, a Christian and a Homerite, on condition however that he should pay an annual tribute to the Ethiopians, he (St. Elesbaas) returned home. Many of the slaves of the army and all who were born to crime and plunder refused to follow him as he departed: these the singular felicity of the region of the Homerites captured and held. Not long afterwards this mob and rabble, and certain others, having stirred up a sedition against King Esimiphaeus, shut him up in a fortress, and conferred the kingdom of the Homerites on Abramus,

[108] Aryates and Abramus, viceroys of the Ethiopians: When Hellestheaeus (Elesbaeus, Elesbaas) [So Le Quien, Salt, Jo. Dan. Ritter in the Guthrie work, volume V, page 283 and following; compare volume X of October, page 694, number 110.] heard this, hastening to exact from Abramus and the sharers in the rebellion the penalty for the injury done to Esimiphaeus, he dispatched three thousand fighters against them, with a commander chosen from his royal kin. This commander the Arab historians call Aryates Compare L. George, de Æthiopum imperio in Arabia felice, pages 22, 29 and 36., and Theophanes Aretha. But these too, renouncing their homeland in order to dwell in a very good region (which prerogative of the region Procopius here records now for the second time, so great was still in the VI century the fame of the Arabs of Felix, or the Homerites!) Volume X of October, page 662, numbers 4–17 and page 757, note u. secretly came to terms with Abramus, without the knowledge of their commander Aryates, whom also they killed afterwards, when, led out in battle line against the enemy, they entered the fight. These things occurred about the year 540, after the fairly long reign of Aryates; from which we are taught that Procopius here reports several things in the same train of discourse, leaving out others. Wherefore he adds at the end: But these things are more recent Procopius, de Bello Persico, book I, chapter 20.. Esimiphaeus, therefore, governed Homeritis from the year 525 to about the year 527: for this year, put forward by the historian of the ancient Arabs, on weighing the matter, I readily accept; for what J. Malalas and Theophanes report of the embassy of Julian to the Ethiopians and Homerites teaches us that he did not reign much longer, as will presently be said. In the year 527, moreover, as has been said, Esimiphaeus being shut up in a fortress, Aryates was sent as viceroy of the Homerites, and, what will seem hard to believe, with only three thousand fighters. The Arab writers narrate that he was rather savage and cruel toward the Homerites [Volume X of October, page 712, number 176 and following; compare Walch in Novis comment. societ. reg. Gotting., volume IV, part II, page 28 and following, and 35.].

[109] the embassy of the emperor Justinian to Aryates in the year 530. To the same man, doubtless, there was sent by the emperor Justinian the envoy Julian, whom Theophanes reports to have been a magistrianus Theophanes, Bonn edition, volume I, page 456.; and indeed at the beginning of the reign of Aryates, who is called Aretha by Theophanes, as we have noted. For Procopius, who wrote the history of the Persian war about thirty years later, relates that the embassy was made to the viceroy Esimiphaeus; who it is therefore natural to say was then still alive, and perhaps held some authority together with Aryates. The same is established from what Procopius adds, and also from John Malalas. For they narrate that the envoy was sent by Justinian to stir up both the Homerite viceroy and Elesbaas, king of the Ethiopians, against Cavades, king of the Persians, with whom Justinian was waging wars. These things the chronologists refer, from the series of Procopius's narrative, to the year of Christ 530; and Cavades departed this life in the year 532. We may rightly say, therefore, that the envoy Julian came about the year 530, or even a little before. For Procopius adds that the Homerite viceroy and Elesbaas promised many things and prepared for war; but he complains that neither did anything against Cavades. Julian wrote a history of his embassy, and Malalas had it before his eyes Compare Dindorf's preface to Malalas and L. George, place cited, page 16.; in which he perhaps took in some fabulous matter, as Photius shows came about in Nonnosus also Photius, Bibliotheca, codex III., and as is known to all still happens among those who stay for a short time among foreign nations.

[110] [The history of the embassy from the chronography of Malalas; certain errors are corrected:] This history of the embassy John Malalas, a writer of the sixth century, has abridged in this way: But meanwhile, he says, the emperor Justinian, informed by Rufinus the patrician of the prevarication of Coades, king of the Persians, addressed through sacrae, or imperial letters, the king of the Auxumites or Ethiopians, namely Elesbaas, as Malalas himself will presently say, concerning these things. This king, having joined battle with the king of the Homerite Indians, had thoroughly subdued him in the year 525; and having occupied his kingdom and region, he had set up there as king one of his own stock, Anganes; because he now had the kingdom of the Homerite Indians also subject to him. This name of Anganes is read in Malalas alone, and it seems certain that it is corruptly read in the codices for the name of Aryates; for the letters of the names Ἀγγανης and Ἀριατης or Ἀῤῥιατης do not differ so very much. Besides, Theophanes, who in doubtful cases picks out biblical names, and who set down the name Adad in place of Aidog Above, number 29., clinging here almost word for word to Malalas, named the said prince neither Anganes nor Ariates, but Aretha; although, taking in another error, he wrote that he was king of the Ethiopians. Wherefore, since he knew that St. Elesbaas ruled them at this time, he brought the embassy down to the reign of Justin the Younger, writing however, no less than Procopius, that the envoy was Julian. But that the envoy was sent while Cavades ruled the Persians, and not long after the victory gained over the Homerites in the year 525, when Dhu Nowas was slain, is manifest from Procopius, a contemporary author [De Bello Persico, book I, chapter 20; compare volume X of October, page 694, number 111 and page 698, number 126.], and from John Malalas, not much later.

[111] [The envoy Julian is admitted before Elesbaas, whose dress and manner of proceeding in public are described.] Let us hear him again, now narrating the embassy itself: The envoy of the Romans, however, he says, having boarded a ship, directs his course toward Alexandria; and having crossed by the river Nile as far as Coptos, and by the Indian or Arabian Sea, from the port of Berenice Volume X of October, page 745, note x., he reached the regions of the Indians, namely Ethiopia; for Malalas omits the embassy to the Homerites, although it is manifest from Procopius that this too was undertaken by Julian: Justinian Augustus, he says, sent Julian as envoy to them, namely to the king of the Ethiopians and to the king of the Homerites, asking through him of both that .. they should help the Romans waging war with the Persians. At his entry, Malalas continues thus, the king of the Indians or Ethiopians, that is, Elesbaas, as will presently be clear, was struck dumb with the highest joy. It is long, he said, that a desire to enter into alliance with the Romans has held me. The dress of the Indian king, moreover, and the solemn pomp with which he received the Roman envoy, as the envoy himself also narrated, ὡς δε ἐξηγησατο ὁ αὐτος πρεσβευτης, which however is to be understood of a written narrative, were of this kind. He was naked, in the way, namely, that will now be stated: from a belt around the loins hung down a linen garment interwoven with gold; from the shoulders to the belly hung a loose tunic, marked with pearls and clavi arranged by fives; and on his hands he wore gold armlets. His head was adorned with a linen cap, interwoven with gold and much twisted, letting down four little chains on each side, and his neck with a gold necklace. He sat on a high chariot, supported on four wheels and drawn by four elephants, which was surrounded by four gold plates (such as the silver ones that the governors of provinces use). Sitting on this, the king of the Indians carried in his hands a small gilded shield and two little lances, also gilded. Small and round also is the shield of the Ethiopians of today. As regards the little lances, it is notable that the Homerite princes also carried such, and indeed most precious ones placed in a quiver, although they are called not λαγκίδια, as here, but κοντοί: λαβὼν πέντε κοντοὺς χρυσοῦς διαλίθους εἰς σκευοθηκάριον κρεμάμενον ἐν τῷ αὐτοῦ τραχήλῳ… Ὁ οὐν βασιλεὺς Ἐλεσβαὰν ἀνέθετο τοὺς πέντε κοντοὺς τοὺς χρυσοῦς τῷ Θεῷ Volume X of October, page 754, number 34 and following..

§ XII. Of the same embassy of the year 530; and of the trade of the Ethiopians with the Indians and others, above all of the silk trade. The embassy of Nonnosus to St. Elesbaas in the year 537.

The letter of the emperor Justinian to the same man. It seems that St. Elesbaas Malalas continues: He was attended by his chief men, likewise armed, and by a choir singing musical songs to the flutes. The Roman envoy, being led in and falling on his knees, did reverence to the king, but me (for Malalas is copying out the envoy's narrative: και ἐκελευσεν ὁ βασιλευς Ἰνδων ἀναστηναι με) the king ordered to rise and to approach nearer. Having received the letter of the Roman emperor, he kissed the seal, and having received also the gifts sent by the emperor; he was, that is, struck with amazement. Then the imperial letter being opened and read through an interpreter, he understood that the Roman emperor was asking this of him, that he should attack Coades in war; and that, having destroyed the regions neighbouring the Persians, he should no longer have commerce with them, but should, through the region of the Homerites which he had subjugated, and making for Egypt by the Nile, rather carry on his trade at Alexandria. From these words, the letter being read through an interpreter, you might say that in that age the commerce between the Romans and the Ethiopians was so slight, and that the knowledge of Greek letters, which the distinguished Letronne has shown once flourished in Ethiopia [Matériaux pour l'histoire du christianisme en Egypte, en Nubie et en Abyssinie, page 44 and following.], had already perished. Which Leopold George has admitted without any hesitation: From this description of John Malalas, he says, it is also evident that the connection between the Ethiopians and the Romans was not great before, since the embassy appears to the king of the Ethiopians as a new and unheard-of thing, and the barbarian customs of the Ethiopians seem to strike the envoy with amazement L. George, de Æthiop. imperio in Arabia Felici, page 37..

[113] [had some skill in Greek; frequent commerce between the Graeco-Romans and the Ethiopians.] But in truth, as we have said, experience has taught that those who go to distant kingdoms and stay in them for a few weeks are not to be believed in everything, above all since formerly most things were not, as today, already known from the books of others. For it is certain that even in that age the dealings of the Graeco-Roman emperors with the Ethiopian kings were fairly frequent, as the embassies of Abraham and his son Nonnosus Volume X of October, page 701, number 136. and the whole of the Acts of St. Aretha teach; and above all those of Ethiopian merchants with Greek merchants staying at Alexandria or on the island of Jotabe; as is gathered without any trouble from Cosmas Indicopleustes and other writers Ibid. page 687, number 84.. Indeed I hardly doubt that St. Elesbaas had some skill in Greek, at least to some extent. For about the year 545 the aforesaid Cosmas wrote as follows in Book II of the Topography: When, more or less twenty-five years ago, at about the beginning of the reign of Justin, emperor of the Romans, I was present in those places, namely at Adulis, the port of Ethiopia, Elesbaas,

or Ἐλλατζοβαα, as is read in the most ancient Vatican codex, then king of the Axumites, being about to undertake a military expedition against the Homerites, who are placed on the opposite shore of the gulf, commanded the prefect at Adulis by letter to send him a copy of the Ptolemaic inscription of the seat and of the stone. Then that prefect, by name Asbas, calling me and another trader, by name Menas …, ordered us to go to the places and to take down the inscription Cosmas Indicopleustes, page 138 and following.. From this it is clear, to note it in passing, that it was on the initiative of St. Elesbaas that there were copied by Cosmas and preserved for posterity the most precious inscriptions of Ptolemy Euergetes and of the first king of the eastern Ethiopians, on which Salt, de Sacy and recently most happily the distinguished Vivien de Saint-Martin have commented in the Acts of the Oriental Society of Paris See our dissertation on ancient Ethiopia.. St. Elesbaas also, in alternate years, on the testimony of the same Cosmas, used to send about five hundred merchants to the region of Sasi and of the Barbareotae, beyond Zeila, to trade for gold, and this was afterwards sold on to the Graeco-Romans.

[114] [The end of the embassy. St. Elesbaas in return sends an envoy to Justinian; he does not however seem to have attacked the Persians.] To me, therefore, it seems manifest that not all trust is to be placed in the envoy Julian, as the end of his narrative will also presently urge. But let Malalas now finish this, drawn from Julian's book: Without delay, therefore, the king of the Indians Elesbaas, Ἐλεσβοας, in the sight of the envoy himself, moves his arms against the Persians; and sending forward the Saracen Indians whom he had under him, he at once invaded Persia for the cause of the Romans; at the same time warning the king of the Persians by letter to expect as his enemy the king of the Indians, taking the part of the Romans, and laying waste whatever belonged to the Persian empire. All things thus succeeding in this way, the king of the Indians, taking the head of the Roman envoy and giving him the kiss of peace, dismissed him with very great honour; sending also to the Roman emperor, by an Indian envoy, a royal letter and gifts. From this you would say that St. Elesbaas moved his arms against the Persians; but Julian must have written the history of his embassy immediately upon his return, adding perhaps certain things to please his fellow citizens. For he signifies that it accomplished very much, when on the contrary Procopius, the historian of the Persian wars, records that it was without any success. Theophanes went so far that, having inserted an abridged narrative of John Malalas, he added that Aryates, whom he calls Aretha and king of the Ethiopians, entered the dominion of the Persians and devastated the neighbouring provinces as far as they extended; in which it seems certain that he did not distinguish him from Harith-el-Aradj, or Aretha V, king of Ghassan [Compare Caussin de Perceval, volume II, and volume X of October, page 691, numbers 98 and 99.].

[115] [On the same embassy of the emperor Justinian, the narrative of Procopius, and of the silk trade by Indian and Persian ships in the VI century.] Now let Procopius be heard, narrating the same embassy, who, although he reports hardly anything of St. Elesbaas and the manner in which he received Julian, yet adds much on the trade of that age, and other things that are not to be omitted here. At the time, he says, when Hellestheaeus (Elesbaeus, Elesbaas) Acta SS., place cited, page 694, number 110. reigned in Ethiopia and the Homerites obeyed Esimiphaeus Above, number 107., Justinian Augustus sent Julian as envoy to them, asking through him of both, for the sake also of the communion of religion by which they were bound to the Romans, that they should help them as they waged war with the Persians: And that the Ethiopians should buy silk, from which is made the garment once called by the Greeks Median, and now called silken, silk, I say, from the Indians, and afterwards put it up for sale to the Romans, by which they would both procure an immense sum of money for themselves and bring this advantage to the Roman people, that it should not be compelled to transfer its gold to the enemy: and that the Homerites should set over the Maaddites as phylarch Caisus, an exile from his homeland, and should burst into Persia with a strong army formed from those Saracens and their own people. Caisus was a man sprung from phylarchic blood, and outstanding in warlike valour; but since he had killed a kinsman of Esimiphaeus, he had committed his life to flight and the wilderness. For the Homerites, of whom Esimiphaeus was viceroy, held some authority over the Maaddites Ibid. number 61.. Both kings indeed, Elesbaas and Esimiphaeus or Ariates, assented to the requests, and promising to do these things, sent the envoy back generously: yet neither fulfilled the promises and agreements. Nor indeed could it be that the Ethiopians should buy silk from the Indians: for the Persian traders, being close at hand because of their nearness to those ports to which the Indians first put in, for the most part make haste to buy all the merchandise. And it seemed grievous to the Homerites to make a long journey through the wastes, and finally at its end to invade a far more warlike nation. Indeed afterwards Abramus himself, when he had established his kingdom, often pledged to Justinian that he would make an inroad into Persia: but having entered upon the way, and that only once, he returned forthwith. So at length ended the Romans' embassy to the Ethiopians and Homerites. The embassy of Nonnosus, which was undertaken in the year 537 for nearly the same reasons, Procopius omits, but by these words, afterwards Abramus himself (who about the year 540 was acknowledged as king of the Homerites)… often pledged to Justinian, he sufficiently shows that the embassies of Justinian to the viceroys of the Homerites, who were customarily set up by the Ethiopians, and therefore, as it seems, to Ethiopia itself, were most frequent; contrary to what Leopold George thought Above, number 112.. Observe too at these words of Procopius that from the time when the Persians began to set up an ample market with the Indians, the trade of the Ethiopians and of the Red Sea necessarily decreased somewhat, which however in the reign of St. Elesbaas, as we know from Cosmas Indicopleustes, a contemporary writer, was still huge [In Thom. Wright, Early Christianity, page 50; see also the Greek Acts of St. Aretha, number 2, volume X of October, page 722.].

[116] [The embassy of Nonnosus to St. Elesbaas and to the viceroy of the Homerites, of the year 537.] About the year 537 Justinian again sent an envoy to the Ethiopians and Homerites and to Kaisus or Imrulcays, who commanded the Chindini and Maaddites, and who, being about to be set over Second and Third Palestine, had first to meet the emperor. Nonnosus was sent for a double purpose, says Photius in his excerpts from his history of the embassy Photius, Bibliotheca, codex III.: to bring Kaisus to the emperor, if he could; and to set out to the king of the Auxumites, over which nation Elesbaas then ruled (Ἐλεσβαᾶς and not Ἐλεσβαάν, as however the Homerites seem to have said, and perhaps also the Syrians), and likewise to the Homerites… Nonnosus relates that Kaisus, Abramus the father of Nonnosus having been sent again as envoy to him, set out to Byzantium, and that he divided his prefecture of the nations Kinda and Maadd Above, number 61. between the brothers Ambrus and Iezidus; and that he himself received from the emperor the prefecture of the Palestines to administer (not of Palestine, as our Schott translates; for Arab phylarchs, however Christian, never ruled First Palestine), and led with him an infinite multitude of subject men. These things had therefore to be recited here, that it may be clear that Nonnosus undertook this embassy not long after the death of Abucharabus, likewise prefect of the Palestines, who died about the year 536; and that those are not to be heeded who have believed that this embassy occurred as early as the year 531 [Volume X of October, page 682, numbers 71 and 74; compare Vivien de Saint-Martin in Journal asiatique, 1863, volume II, page 351.].

§ XIII. The third Homerite war of St. Elesbaas in the year 540; a new king of the Homerites having been acknowledged, he abdicates his kingdom, becomes a monk, and about the year 555 departs from life. He is venerated as a Saint.

[What occurred in Homeritis in the year 540; its king Abraham had to pay tribute to St. Elesbaas,] About the year 540 Abramus or Abraham, who perhaps from the year 527 had hidden himself away and held dominion in the mountain tracts, as Dhu Nowas once did Volume X of October, page 694, number 112 and page 711, number 178., raised a second rebellion against the Ethiopians and their viceroy Aryates. And the latter's soldiers, renouncing their homeland, says Procopius, that is, Ethiopia, in order to dwell in a very good region, that is, in Homeritis, secretly came to terms with Abramus, without the knowledge of their commander Aryates, whom also they killed afterwards, when, led out in battle line against the enemy, they entered the fight Compare ibid. page 712, number 178 and following., and presently going over they remained there. Bitterly galled by this, Hellestheaeus (Elesbaas) at once dispatched a second army to the same place, which, finally engaging with Abramus, suffered a great defeat, and, shamefully mutilated, sailed back with all speed to its homeland. What commander this army had, the writers do not report. The king of Ethiopia, thereafter more cautious through fear, so Procopius continues, ceased to carry war against Abramus. Hellestheaeus (Elesbaas) having died, Abramus agreed on tribute with his successor, and so secured the kingdom for himself. In the last words Procopius did not distinguish the withdrawal of St. Elesbaas to the monastic life from his death; although ten or fifteen years came between. If from the year 540 up to the death of St. Elesbaas Abraham had paid no tribute, how would he have paid it after ten or fifteen years had elapsed, to his successor and son Gabra Masqal, who the Ethiopian books relate waged no wars Below, page 330, note f.?

[118] indeed he had to be publicly acknowledged by him and in some way established. Moreover the last part of the Acts of St. Aretha clearly teaches that St. Elesbaas established or acknowledged Abraham as king of the Homerites, and likewise the Greek Menaea, the Muhammadan writer Nuweiri, and the partly fabulous Acts of St. Gregentius. In these Acts, fairly ancient, which we have before our eyes partly turned from the Slavonic language into Latin, partly published in Greek by Boissonade in the fifth volume of his Anecdota, once more, as in the other monuments, several expeditions of the Ethiopians into Arabia are conflated into one, namely the second expedition of St. Elesbaas of the year 525 and his third of the year 540. From which and other things it is established that these Acts were not composed before the VII century. In them, further, it is fabulously related that Abraham was designated as king to SS. Elesbaas and Gregentius by a miracle; for this is shown from the foregoing without any trouble to be false. Indeed Procopius hints, above at number 117, that St. Elesbaas in the third and last expedition against the Homerites did not go to Arabia. In the additions to the most ancient Acts of St. Aretha, however, it is likewise read that St. Elesbaas, while staying in Homeritis, established Abraham as king, namely in this way: Then he set over the inhabitants a certain king, by name Abraam, prudent, fearing God and very Christian. To whom he handed over, together with the most holy bishop, ten thousand Christian Ethiopians. These things accomplished, he returned with immense booty to the royal city of his own kingdom, Axum. But in these additions, which are far later than the original Acts of St. Aretha, the second expedition of St. Elesbaas is manifestly confused with the third expedition,

and this appears sufficiently even from the words alone that we have just copied out. For it is certain that St. Elesbaas, after the second expedition of the year 525, established Esimiphaeus as viceroy of the Homerites, and in the year 527, when Abraham rebelled, sent into Homeritis Aryates, a commander chosen from his kin; and finally in the year 540, Aryates having been defeated and slain by Abraham, dispatched an army there again. But it is doubtful whether he himself went to Arabia in this year, above all since already against Abraham, when he first rebelled in the year 527, he had dispatched another commander there. This therefore must be left uncertain.

[119] St. Elesbaas abdicates his kingdom in the year 541, Matters having been settled in Homeritis, whose kings again had to be established or acknowledged by the Negus, or king of the Abyssinians, and to pay him an annual tribute (which condition of affairs lasted until the second occupation by the Persians, or until the year 597) Volume X of October, page 718, number 198., St. Elesbaas now thought of abdicating the kingdom, which he had held from his youth and for nearly thirty years. Peace therefore having been knit together at home and abroad, and a certain fairly ample cave having been constructed for himself, of which we shall speak below, he handed over the throne and sceptre to his son Gabra Masqal; as is most clearly related in the catalogues of the kings Compare the dissertation on Ethiopia., the Life of St. Aragawi [Dillmann, place cited, volume VII, page 348 and in the Catalog. codd. æthiop. preserved in the British Museum, codex 46, page 50, London 1847.], and the Ethiopian Senkessar Below, number 142.. After which, in the year 541 or the following one, he withdrew to the aforesaid cave, in which, imitating St. Pantaleon, he lived as a solitary until his death. On which matters the additions to the Acts of St. Aretha have the following: For so great a blessing of God, then, says the writer, namely for the very many victories in Homeritis and the peace concluded with Abraham, King Elesbaas said that he could return nothing worthy; he found only this, to lay down the royal crown and put on the monastic habit.

[120] and takes up the solitary life in a cave; he sends his crown to Jerusalem And setting out by night, without any escort, he came to a mountainous and lofty place, in which there is a monastery of ascetic men, and entering a certain cell, he determined that he would not go out of it alive, but would persevere there until the day of his death. Nor was anything to be found in his cell except a mat and a dish for drinking water, a little basket, and the monastic garments that he wore. For food he took three dry paximatia daily, without wine and oil or any fruits. And if someone by chance brought him green vegetables, he ate them raw. Nor did any of the laity, through all the time of his life, dare to speak with him or to look on him at close hand. The royal crown which he had worn on his head, made of gold and precious stones, he offered to Christ, sending it to Jerusalem, and by letter asking the most holy bishop John (or rather his successor, as will be shown below) that it be hung before the door of the life-giving sepulchre, in which Christ the Son of God, rising from the dead, showed us the beginning of resurrection and incorruption. To whom be glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit now and always, for ever and ever. Amen. With these words the Acts of St. Aretha, or rather their supplements, are finished.

[121] The same things are confirmed from other monuments. Similar things concerning the abdication of St. Elesbaas or Caleb and his monastic life are in the Ethiopian Senkessar, from which we shall below print a summary of the Life with annotations. Nor do the Acts of St. Gregentius differ further, where only two unknown names are added, of which we shall speak in their place. But now let the patriarch Mendez be heard on these matters, who spent many years in Abyssinia, and used not only the Acts of St. Aretha as composed by Metaphrastes, but also the books of the Ethiopians; whose language he thoroughly mastered, and in which he also wrote an ample catechism for the use of the Ethiopians [Sotwell, Biblioth. scriptorum S. J., and De Backer, Bibliothèque des écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, under Alfonso Mendes.]. Having sent his crown to Jerusalem, he says, going out from the palace by night, clad in haircloth, he went up onto a certain mountain, where he withdrew into a little hut. In this he led the monastic life for a long time, retaining nothing by him except a mat and a cup for drinking water In Tellez, Historia de Ethiopia a alta, page 81 and following..

[122] The cave of St. Elesbaas described by Mendez, Mendez then writes of the monastery and little tower of St. Pantaleon, which he examined several times; of which something was said above. And he adds: Midway on the road between Axum and Beta Pantaleon, or the monastery of St. Pantaleon, there are met with three continuous chambers, built of stone, through one of which entry is made to the other two. Its door opens to the west (The traveller Lefevre, volume III, page 433, fait face a l'ouest 25° nord it faces west 25° north), and inside it is fifteen cubits long (the Portuguese cubit or covado is worth 657 thousandths of a metre), four wide. At the side and at the beginning, in the manner of a cross, are seen those other two chambers, ten cubits long each, and that which is built on the right, toward the south, is four cubits broad, while the other, which corresponds to it, is six cubits. All the space that these chambers occupy, hollowed out of a hill, is surrounded on all sides by walls (compare below, number 124). This then is the place to which the holy King Caleb withdrew, and it is for this reason an object of veneration. The saint's tomb, however, like the tomb of St. Pantaleon, is kept in the church of the monastery of St. Pantaleon; and since these had been broken apart in the year 1630 by a huge earthquake that occurred, we charged the monks to repair them as soon as possible. We visited those places with great piety, and we ordered our companions to measure them diligently. Thus far Mendez Ibid. page 82..

[123] by the travellers Henry Salt The same cave of St. Elesbaas or Caleb, whom now some Ethiopians corruptly call Calam negus, or King Calam, was visited in the year 1805 by the English traveller Henry Salt, who adds only that there was a popular opinion there that St. Caleb, having entered the cave, went on under the earth as far as Jerusalem [Salt, Voyage en Abyssinie, extrait des voyages de Lord Valentia, volume I, page 223 and following, Paris 1812.]. But the ignorance of the Abyssinians in this age is so lamentable that one is ashamed to relate what they have dreamed about their saints and illustrious men. Finally the cave or cell of St. Elesbaas was diligently visited in the year 1843 by the French traveller Lefevre, and he measured most of it.

[124] and Lefevre, who stayed in Ethiopia in the years 1805 and 1843 The three chambers or cells, he writes, are covered by a certain ample terrace, twenty-five metres long and fifteen wide; and this was the centre of a building whose ruins still lie around. These are of unusual size and cut from amphibolic syenite, like the three caves themselves; and Salt notes that one of the syenite stones with which the caves are covered is eleven and a quarter English feet long (3.42 metres) and eight and a quarter wide (2.51 metres) Salt, place cited, page 233.. For which reason these ruins signify a large building, more probably, says Lefevre, sacred to religion or to a royal tomb; for the plan of the building of the ruins is similar to the tombs of the kings of Palestine Lefèvre, Voyage en Abyssinie, volume III, page 433.. From this it seems that St. Elesbaas wished to construct for himself at once a cell and a tomb, and perhaps he wished that in the upper part of the building, since he did not go out from the place, the sacred liturgy should sometimes be celebrated: this however is mere divination; for the Greek inclusi or ἐγκεκλεισμενοι went without the liturgy, although we are taught from the monuments that the Most Holy Eucharist was brought to them Compare volume X of October, page 746, note ll and 751, note gg.. Fifty-six metres from there, toward the south, there is seen another cave likewise with three chambers, in one of which Salt found three tombs, which seemed to lack all ornament. Of the origin of this cave, however, or its former use, he confesses that he is altogether ignorant Salt, place cited, page 234 and following..

[125] St. Elesbaas is shown to have died about the year 555. It remains that we inquire a little about the year of the death of St. Elesbaas; which Salt brings down as far as the year 570 Salt, Voyage (second) en Abyssinie, volume II, page 255., while Sapeto writes that it more probably occurred between the years 565 and 570 Viaggio ecc., page 69.. But in truth they propose these things as mere conjectures, and they support them with no arguments. Now Procopius wrote in book I of the Persian Wars, chapter XX: Hellestheaeus (Elesbaeus, Elesbaas) having died, Abramus agreed on tribute with his successor, and so secured for himself the kingdom of the Homerites. But these things are more recent. And we have shown elsewhere that Procopius wrote the books on the Persian war between the years 562 and 565, toward the end of the reign of Justinian, whom he had once flattered and from whom he now shows himself very much estranged; and besides that these books could not be published until after the death of Justinian Volume X of October, page 691, number 99, and page 750, note l.. Although, therefore, Procopius does not distinguish the abdication and the death of St. Elesbaas, and according to his custom deliberately omits his monastic profession Ibid. page 745, note t., yet he could not unknowingly write that he had recently died; for news of this kind easily reached Constantinople from Ethiopia, between which and the empire at that time there was huge commerce [Ibid. page 633, number 7 and following, and page 687, number 84, note d and 753, note qq; and above, number 112 and following.]. From another quarter, however, Procopius mixes in other things in the same place that were not so recent. Wherefore we shall not say that St. Elesbaas died in the year 562 or 563, but rather long before. For St. Elesbaas was already reigning in the year 519, when he ordered Cosmas Indicopleustes to copy out the Adulitic epigrams, and in the same year he crossed into Homeritis with an army, defeated the Homerites, and subdued the whole region; whose king Dhu Nowas was forced to flee to the mountains, and to live hidden in them for four years. Wherefore St. Elesbaas must then have been already 25 or 30 years old, and must have seen the light about the year 480 or 485; and since it is nowhere said that he reached an unusual old age, he seems to have departed this life between the years 550 and 560, that is, about the year 555, after he had spent about fifteen years in the cave.

[126] His cult among the Ethiopians, Greeks and Latins. The memory of the illustrious king, both distinguished

for his deeds and celebrated for the holiness of his life, the Ethiopians have zealously preserved. This will be clear from the elogium in the Ethiopian Senkessar, to be published below with a few annotations, and from the verses by which he is praised in the metrical Menology, excerpts from which, received from Ludolf, we give here. At the 20th day of the month giubot (15 May in the Julian reckoning), then, we read the following:

Greeting to Caleb, (who) left a sign of his power

When he sent his crown to Jerusalem that they might hang it up

(that it might be hung there in sign of his laying down his power)

This Hero made no use of vain glory because of his might,

Though by his hands the army of the Sabaeans had been destroyed,

So that no one of it remained Ludolf, Hist., book 2, chapter 4, number 39 and Comm., page 433..

The Russians in their Menologies announce St. Elesbaas on the 24th day of October, as is clear from the Graeco-Slavic Ecclesiastical Year Volume XI of October, at the said day., namely because on that day are celebrated the martyrs of Negran, in whose Acts there is much discussion of St. Elesbaas, who avenged them. The Catholic Italo-Greeks, as the Calendar of the Basilians teaches us, announce the same man, I know not for what reason, on the 19th day of the same month Ibid. at 19 October.. Finally Baronius in the Roman Martyrology, not undeservedly, ordered that the holy king of Ethiopia should be venerated immediately after the apostle of the same kingdom, Frumentius, in this way: In Ethiopia, of St. Elesbaas, king, who having overcome the enemies of Christ, and having sent his royal diadem to Jerusalem in the time of the emperor Justin (read Justinian), leading the monastic life as he had vowed, passed to the Lord. Why, however, Baronius selected the 27th day of October to announce these saints of Ethiopia, rather than the 24th day of the same month, we have sufficiently explained elsewhere Volume X of October, page 714.. But we who from the beginning of the work have always, so far as was permitted, followed the order set out in the Roman Martyrology, have had to collect the Acts of both saints on this day as well.

ELOGIUM OF ST. ELESBAAS FROM THE ETHIOPIAN SENKESSAR

Elesbaas, king and confessor. (S.)

Aragawi or Za-Michael, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Pantaleon, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Garima, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alef, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Tzehma, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alftze, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Liqanos, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Imeata, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Guba or Otz, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

The deeds of St. Caleb or Elesbaas up to his taking up of the monastic life; Giubot, day 20 (15 May in the Julian reckoning). Commemoration of Kaleb, king of Ethiopia, son of Tazena ^a, the God-loving ^b, for whom because of his living faith God opened the earth ^c, and thus he passed secretly from Aksum to the land of Matara ^d, from which he expelled the unbelievers ^e, called the nation of Gomorrha ^f, and there he built churches. But again ^g he waged war against Saba ^h, crossing the sea as if it were land, and he scattered the Jews, raised an altar to the Lord, and there he set up as king ⁱ his firstborn son, called Israel ^k. He ordered this son to reign in concealment, sitting in a chariot without being seen ^l, and he sent him to the impious nation with soldiers. They in that land did not build houses, but dwelt in tents ^m, nor did they labour under malice or any trouble in their ways, and they reached double the age of other men. In this way, moreover, they discharged javelins and arrows, and they pressed the war against the nation hateful to God. His other son, younger in age, Gabra-Masqal ⁿ, Kaleb ordered to reign openly, since he loved him; and he sat on his father's throne, and was called king of Sion ^o.

[2] his crown being sent to Jerusalem, he lives in a cave until his death. After these things Kaleb said to himself: “What shall I render to my God for such great gladness, with which he has filled me, and for so many prodigies, which he has worked by my hands? I have nothing else to give to my Lord and God, Jesus Christ, than my soul and my body.” Renouncing, therefore, the world and his kingdom, going out by night, he came on foot to the monastery situated on the summit of the mountain of Abbot Pantaleon [p]. In this monastery there were good monks, among whom he dwelt in a certain cave, the door being closed so that he should never see anyone, and having sworn an oath [q] that he would not go out from there. Nor did he take anything there with him, except a skin [r], which served him as a bed, an earthenware cup, and the monastic garment; nor had he any other food than bread with salt, nor drink except water. The most precious crown, however, which he wore on his head while reigning, he sent to Jerusalem, to John [s], patriarch of the city, and he asked him to hang it above the gate of the sepulchre of our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Having once entered the aforesaid cave, he spoke or conversed with no one, but devoted to the virtues and to piety he strove to please God, and he departed from life in peace.

ANNOTATIONS.

l. See note c.

p. On these things we shall speak at the synaxarium of St. Pantaleon. See also the Portuguese book: Os dous atlantes da Ethiopia… santo Elesbano e santa Ifigenia… by Fr. Joseph Pereira de santa Anna, volume 1, page 269 and following, and Annotacoens, page 89, Lisboa occidental, 1735. This author celebrates our saint, but at the same time wished to show that he was of the order of Elias, in which he spent a most useless labour. For the rest, he dwells much too long on amplification, he knows no eastern sources except the Greek, and although he uses the Portuguese fairly happily, he will teach the reader little.

q. Acts of St. Aretha, near the end: And entering a certain cell he shut himself up in it, determining (δους συνταγας) that he would not go out from there alive Volume X of October, page 758, number 39..

r. Acts of St. Aretha, place cited: except a mat, εἰ μὴ ψίαθος; a mat, indeed, was far more usual among monks than a skin.

s. See this Commentary a little above, number 120.

ELOGIUM OF THE HOLY NINE MONKS FROM THE ETHIOPIAN SENKESSAR. ST. ARAGAWI OR ZA-MICHAEL.

Elesbaas, king and confessor. (S.)

Aragawi or Za-Michael, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Pantaleon, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Garima, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alef, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Tzehma, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alftze, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Liqanos, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Imeata, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Guba or Otz, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

On the 14th day of the month Teqemt (11 October in the Julian reckoning). Commemoration of our holy father Aragawi ^a, who was also called Za-Michael ^b. This saint was the leader ^c of the servants of God, and he went up the holy mountain Dammo ^d … on which he cultivated virtue in a wondrous manner and received from God the pact Kidan ^e, in favour of those who should either invoke him or celebrate him with pious praises. After which he lived hidden until his death, by the grace of God, having however handed on to his disciples the religious rule which he had learned in the monastery of Pachomius, his father ^f.

ANNOTATIONS.

Aragawi, an Ethiopic word, signifies old man. The first, says Ludolf after Mendez, of the nine holy men who after St. Frumentius came to Ethiopia and converted it. He was first called Michael. He received a new name from the Ethiopians because of his old age Ludolf, Lexicon æthiopicum, under Aragawi., as the metrical synaxarist of the same Ludolf has at the 14th day of the month Teqemt or 11 October. For thus he sings:

Greeting to Michael, who was named Aragawi,

Because his life was wisdom and his death prudence.

With him the three who at once is one in essence (that is, God was with him).

Greeting to the saints, who lived concord in concord;

That by prayers they might destroy the kingdom of Arwe (that is, of the serpent) The same, Hist. Æthiop., book III, chapter 3..

The Ethiopian synaxarist by this word Arwe, serpent, signified idolatry. The Ethiopians indeed give this name to their first king, who they foolishly believe reigned long before the age of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and indeed for 400 years [Compare Dillmann in Zeitschrift d. d. morgenl. Ges., volume VII, page 341, and many others.]. But others take this of a certain great serpent which the ancient Ethiopians worshipped as God, and which was killed by a certain Angaba. For the Ethiopians believe that Angaba was their second king and reigned for two hundred years Dillmann, ibid.. And in this way too Arwe would signify idolatry. Others, however, understand the kingdom of Arwe simply of heathenism or the kingdom of Satan, who is called a serpent in the Bible (Genesis III; 2 Cor. XI, 3 etc.), whose kingdom was destroyed by the prayers of the nine saints Ludolf, Lexicon Æth., under Arwe.. And this seems to be the sense that Ludolf's synaxarist had before his eyes, although Mendez read in the Ethiopian monuments that the nine saints killed by prayers a certain serpent which devoured everything around Axum, cattle and men Tellez, Historia, page 79, column 2; Ludolf, Commentary, page 284.. This likewise is met with below in the synaxarium of St. Garima.

ST. PANTALEON.

Elesbaas, king and confessor. (S.)

Aragawi or Za-Michael, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Pantaleon, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Garima, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alef, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Tzehma, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alftze, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Liqanos, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Imeata, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Guba or Otz, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

The birth of St. Pantaleon, his coming to Ethiopia, miracles, On the sixth day of the month Teqemt (3 October in the Julian reckoning). There is celebrated the death of the holy Abbot Pantaleon ^a, who dwelt in a cave. This saint was the son of noble parents from Rome ^b, who sat at court at the right hand of the king. Weaned from his mother's milk, he was brought to a certain monastery, in which he grew up and became conspicuous for wisdom, sacred discipline, prayer and fasting. From there he went into exile and came to Ethiopia, one of the nine saints ^c, in the times of King Alameda ^d, son of King Saladoba, and they dwelt in a certain small house. Then they were separated, and St. Pantaleon went up a small mountain, on whose summit he made himself a little tower, five cubits high, two wide, three deep, and a stone was its top, and its window a small opening ^e. In it he stood and lived, without ever sitting, and without sleeping, for 45 years, and even without food or drink, so that his skin clung to his bones, and from his tears the lashes had fallen from his eyelids ^f.

[2] the prophecy made to King Caleb and his death. He worked innumerable miracles, restoring health to the sick and sight to the blind. Once in the morning he planted a tree, which grew and became tall before sunset and then dry; and when his disciple had cut it down and put it in the fire, he himself gathered coals from it in his garment and carried them to the thurible ^g. King Caleb, about to carry war to the king of Saba, came to Abbot Pantaleon and, having kissed ^h the cave, explained in what straits he was placed. To him Abbot Pantaleon said: Go in peace; God almighty will give you victory over your enemies, and you will return without any harm. King Caleb therefore, having come to Sabaea, waged war against the inhabitants, and defeated and killed them, and they fell like leaves, and none remained ⁱ. Moreover the holy Abbot Pantaleon was present at the battle itself, as many testify who saw him: We, they say, saw Abbot Pantaleon standing among us, in the midst of the battle line, and scattering the enemy

^k. King Caleb, however, victor over the Jewish king, on returning to his homeland, left the kingdom and made himself a monk under the rule of St. Pantaleon ^l. When finally the same holy abbot had completed his ascesis, our Lord Jesus Christ came to him, and gave him the kidan ^m, or pact, that all who should invoke him, or keep his memory, or even write his life, should be saved. Then he said to him: It is now enough, rest from now on. And at once his bones were loosed and he died in peace ⁿ.

ANNOTATIONS.

St. Pantaleon alone of the nine saints retained a Greek name. He is celebrated likewise by the metrical synaxarist of Ludolf at the 6th day of the month Teqemt, and in these words:

I say greeting to Pantaleon, the tempted,

In the interior of the cell built beside a sepulchre;

Making the dead speak by the ministry of his word [precious:

He turned into gladness the weeping of a certain widow,

And freed the soul of her sons from slavery [bitter.

* Golfe d'Akaba

ST. GARIMA.

Elesbaas, king and confessor. (S.)

Aragawi or Za-Michael, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Pantaleon, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Garima, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alef, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Tzehma, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alftze, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Liqanos, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Imeata, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Guba or Otz, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

The birth of St. Garima: On the 17th day of the month Sene (11 June in the Julian reckoning) ^a. Commemoration of Isaac, who was called Abbot Garima ^b, whose life, moved by piety toward this saint, Bishop John wrote ^c. There was a man by name Masfianos, king of the Graeco-Romans ^d, whose wife was called Sefenghia, because she was barren. For which reason they passed fifteen years in sadness, distributing alms to the poor. The wife, however, once prostrate before a painted image of our Lady Mary ^e, said: Give me a son, who may do your will and that of your Son; but if he were not going to please you, let my womb be shut. The painted image assented, and the woman conceived and gave birth to this saint, whom she called Isaac. When he was twelve years old his mother gave him to a teacher, from whom he learned to read the Acts of the Apostles and the Prophets. His father wished him to succeed him in the kingdom ^f, but an angel of the Lord, appearing to him, said: Let it not be, for by his ministry all will be saved. His father having died, the magistrates and governors of the provinces came together, and seizing him they made him king, although he wept.

[2] he passes over to Ethiopia and lives with the other eight saints. When however he had reigned for six years ^g, which passed in the peace and gladness of the nation, Abbot Pantaleon sent someone to say: O Isaac, the kingdom of this world is unstable; but the heavenly kingdom remains for ever. Then Isaac prayed: Hear, O Lord, my prayer, and show me the right way. And when he had gone out by night, Gabriel appeared to him, who carried him on his wings, in one day, from the region of the Greeks to the region of Aksum ^h; and in the morning at cockcrow ⁱ coming to Abbot Pantaleon, he said Awlogson ^k, repeating the same three times.

Then Abbot Pantaleon blessed him with the sign of the cross, embraced him, and gave thanks to God. They remained together for ten days, speaking of divine things. Isaac said once to Abbot Pantaleon: Clothe me with the Askima ^l; who said: Will you be able to live so? And when Isaac had affirmed it, he presented him with this garment. They remained together for one year; but when it became known that Isaac had left the kingdom and gone into exile, the saints came, Abba Liqanos from Constantinia ^m, Abba Imeata from Qosiat ⁿ, Abba Tzahma from Antioch, Abba Guba from Cilicia, Abba Aftze from Asia, Abba Mataë ^o from Rome and Abba Otz [p] from Caesarea, to Abbot Pantaleon and Abbot Isaac [q], and they embraced one another and lived for five years together. While they lay at table, a lamp, shining like the sun, came down in the midst of them, but they did not take food except at sunset. A horrid serpent, 170 cubits long, one cubit wide, having teeth also of one cubit, which reigned in Ethiopia for 25 years, was killed by them by prayer [r]. When an ignorant monk had come, who knew nothing else than to braid the hair of matrons [s], they began to cry out against him, and when the lamp had vanished forthwith, as they asked among themselves why this happened, the newcomer answered: Because you have murmured, the lamp has ceased to give you light.

[3] He works a good many miracles, This occasion being given, they departed one from another; and St. Isaac came to a place called Madara, and there he worked miracles, cast out demons and cured a woman who had suffered a flow of blood for thirty years. He remained in the same place for sixteen years, and once when he had sown wheat at the third hour of the day, he was able to reap it at the ninth hour [t] and to come at sunset to the sacrifice [u]. On the following day he climbed an acacia tree, of three arms. When the wheat of which we have spoken was threshed, there were 76 modii, which he distributed to the poor, keeping nothing for himself; nor did he buy anything except a little gourd and a sheepskin. When once two monks had come to St. Pantaleon, he gave them food, himself remaining fasting; but when at the time of the sacrifice he had come to the church and had received the holy Eucharist, the same men defamed him to St. Pantaleon, saying: Isaac celebrates Mass after he has eaten his meal. To them St. Pantaleon said: Do you assert these things by your faith? And when they had affirmed it, he asked them to swear it in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Then Abbot Pantaleon charged them to meet on the road, and when Abbot Isaac too had come, he said to him: I am going to say something unexpected to you, but first let these men withdraw. Not only the men, said Isaac, but the very trees of the forest and the stones. At which words they withdrew to five stadia [w].

[4] founds monasteries and dies in a cave. Seeing this, Abbot Pantaleon with body prostrate showed him reverence and kissed his head, and said: Brother, I utterly marvel at these things. Abbot Garima answered: Why did you call me; and when the other had answered that he had been defamed to him as though he had offered the sacrifice after a meal, Abbot Garima narrated the whole matter from the beginning; for which reason St. Pantaleon cursed those men, saying: Let them be accursed from the mouth of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Abba Garima was, like SS. Anthony and Macarius, the head of forty monasteries [x]. And God made the pact Kidan [y] with him, saying: Whoever shall celebrate your memory, shall commit your deeds to writing and shall place trust in your prayers, on him will I have mercy to the twelfth generation. At this Abbot Garima rejoiced, and saying farewell to his disciples, he entered a dark cave and vanished [z]. He finished his contest on the 17th day of the month Sene.

ANNOTATIONS.

St. Garima is announced by the metrical encomiographer of Ludolf first at the 17th day of the month Magabit, or 13 March in the Julian reckoning, in these words:

Greeting to Abba Garima, who was seen to grow up

In the monastery of the Saved, the monastery of Cinnamon.

Loving the purity of his heart and proving his goodness,

God promoted him from the rank of deacon to a higher,

Establishing him secretly as presbyter.

He is then announced a second time with the Senkessar at the 17th day of the month Sene:

Greeting to Abba Garima, who to show his power

Made seeds come together and joined them with their ears.

This just man, in whatever place he was,

From the face of his greatness and from the sound of his venerable voice

The rocks were removed and the trees departed Ludolf, Commentary, page 283 and following.

In these encomia the reader will again notice prodigies devised by the Ethiopians, which has been done by them so frequently that it is hardly possible to reprint their synaxaria in our work. And indeed as regards the present synaxarium of St. Garima, its writer must have been most stupid. But we have preserved these things that it might be clear how pitiable for many centuries has been the condition of the Ethiopian Church.

f. See note d.

p. Abba Otz is the same as Guba, as Mendez advises us In Tellez, page 79., adding that the word Guba signifies lofty, and that the name was given because he dwelt on a lofty mountain.

q. Isaac is the same as Garima, as was said above. Here therefore seven of the nine saints come forward.

r. See above, page 329, note a.

s. See note g.

t. These things again, like those that next follow, are most fabulous.

u. The Ethiopic word maswet signifies sacrifice and altar, but, so far as I see, the term is here to be understood of sacrifice. But in truth who would believe that still in the sixth century, or at the end of the fifth, the sacrifice was celebrated around evening?

w. See note a near the end.

x. How far these things are true I do not know. Of his church and monastery in Tigre the Fathers of the Society write that he was buried there In the additions to the report on Ethiopia, book V, chapter 2, page 279.. The words are those of Job Ludolf Commentary on the Hist. Æth., page 431.. He adds, however, elsewhere Ibid. page 284.. His church was built not far from Fremona, where our missionaries dwelt, great and wealthy, but laid waste by the Turks in the last century, namely the XVI: as the Fathers of the Society write in the Annual Letters of the years 1607 and 1608, book I, chapter XV, page 58.

y. See above, page 330, note e.

z. See note t.

ST. TZEHMA.

Elesbaas, king and confessor. (S.)

Aragawi or Za-Michael, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Pantaleon, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Garima, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alef, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Tzehma, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alftze, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Liqanos, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Imeata, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Guba or Otz, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

On the 15th day of the month Ter (11 January in the Julian reckoning). Commemoration of the blessed and holy Abbot Tzehma ^a, one of the nine saints, who by his most holy life pleased God.

ANNOTATION.

ST. ALEF.

Elesbaas, king and confessor. (S.)

Aragawi or Za-Michael, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Pantaleon, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Garima, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alef, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Tzehma, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alftze, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Liqanos, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Imeata, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Guba or Otz, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

On the 11th day of the month Magabit (7 March in the Julian reckoning). Commemoration of Abbot Alef ^a, one of the nine saints who came to the region of Agazi ^b, and who dwelt for some time together in a small dwelling ^c. He after these things went up onto Mount Behza ^d, and strove to please God with fasts, prayers and other pious works, and he died in peace.

ANNOTATIONS.

Of St. Alef, who is called Alefi by Mendez In Tellez, page 79., the poet of Ludolf sings the following at the same 11th day of the month magabit:

Greeting to Alef, who sanctified by his coming

The region of Ethiopia, the region of his emigration.

At the time of my death may he come with the other nine saints,

To strengthen me with his mighty help,

Since grim is the death of the sinner Ludolf, Commentary, page 284.

SS. AFTZE AND GUBA

Elesbaas, king and confessor. (S.)

Aragawi or Za-Michael, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Pantaleon, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Garima, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alef, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Tzehma, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alftze, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Liqanos, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Imeata, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Guba or Otz, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

On the 29th day of the month Giubot (24 May in the Julian reckoning). Memory of the Abbots Aftze and Guba ^a, of the nine saints who came from the Greek empire to the region of Agazi ^b, and illumined Ethiopia like the sun with their right faith. Abba Aftze accomplished what he knew to be pleasing to God, and was buried in the tract of Iaha ^c, and a church was dedicated to him, elegant, wonderful and splendid to behold. Abba Guba passed to the desert of Baraka ^d, and no one knows either the deeds he did or the place of his tomb.

ANNOTATIONS.

ST. IMEATA.

Elesbaas, king and confessor. (S.)

Aragawi or Za-Michael, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Pantaleon, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Garima, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alef, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Tzehma, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alftze, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Liqanos, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Imeata, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Guba or Otz, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

On the 23rd day of the month Teqemt (20 October in the Julian reckoning). Commemoration of the holy Abbot Imeata [a], of the nine saints.

ANNOTATION.

ST. LIQANOS.

Elesbaas, king and confessor. (S.)

Aragawi or Za-Michael, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Pantaleon, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Garima, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alef, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Tzehma, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alftze, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Liqanos, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Imeata, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Guba or Otz, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

On the 28th day of the month Hedar (24 November in the Julian reckoning). Commemoration of Abbot Liqanos, priest, who finished his contest on Mount Qonatzel [a] in Ethiopia ^b.

ANNOTATIONS.

When the metrical encomiast of Ludolf was writing, a little more was still circulating about Abbot Liqanos. For he sings:

I greet Abba Liqanos, one

Of the saints, of whom nine are numbered.

May these ever gird the crown of my head with the crown of life.

His fingers in prayer burned like lamps;

And when he held a staff his hands were pierced.

INSCRIPTION OF KING TAZENA FROM THE VERSION OF JOSEPH SAPETO.

Elesbaas, king and confessor. (S.)

Aragawi or Za-Michael, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Pantaleon, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Garima, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alef, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Tzehma, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Alftze, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Liqanos, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Imeata, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Guba or Otz, monk in Ethiopia. (S.)

Tazena's lineage and power; the irruption of the unbelieving Nubians By the power of God who stretched out heaven and earth, the Lord in eternity [a], who made King Tazena, son of Ala-Ameda [b], a man from Halen ^c, king of Axum ^d, and Hamer ^e and Raidan [f] and Saba [g] and Selken ^h and Tzaiom ⁱ and Ban ^k and Kassu [l], king of kings, son of Ala-Ameda ^m, unconquered by his enemies, by the power of the Lord of heaven, who gave him a kingdom most high, most excellent and unconquered by enemies; and in his presence enemies do not stand, and against him they do not prevail, by the strength of the Lord who endowed him with strength in the war against Noba, and they multiplied, and came from the river Takazze ⁿ, the enemy Nubians ^o, idolaters [p], plundered his kingdom, and overthrew and laid waste his provinces; then they came and multiplied the war and ravaged the faithful [q] twice and three times, and they spent the winter killing the inhabitants of the kingdom, and rose up and burned us. Then the Christians sent to us [r], saying: Whether the devastation and plundering and the rest carried out until this day pleased me? And I answered, a little after this was said: No. And (the enemy) left our kingdom, went far off, and crossed over (the river) Takazze.

[2] He attacks them near the river Takazze, routs them, and drives off much booty; Then at once I declared war on them and I rose up in the power of God and killed (the enemy) in (the river) Takazze and beyond (the Takazze)… After this (the idolaters) rose up, and I pursued them for twenty-three days, killing, plundering, and reducing the men of the enemy's kingdom to slavery, taking booty and the herds which the enemy were driving to pasture, burning the towns of Nedque and Hassar [s], plundering provisions, silver and iron, destroying the pictures in the houses, and the granaries in which there were foodstuffs, cotton, which I threw into the river Seïda [t]. And many died in the waters of (the river) Takazze, because its bed is narrower, and although they could swim (were skilled in the art of swimming), they were choked and died, until (the river) was filled with men and women. Coming to the city I plundered other foodstuffs, putting them in small boats, of which these are the names… In this place the inscription becomes inextricable, says Sapeto; such names, however, are read there: Naka, four Dagala, 4 Hawre, 4 Karikar, 4 Marahomu, 4 Anaku, 4 Isaka, 4 Butal, 4 Anghebenawi… Sapeto could not discern whether the boats themselves are signified by these names, or the towns to which they belonged. For Naka, Dagala and Karikar bear both meanings. They seem however, says Sapeto, to be names of cities and provinces, since the inscription adds that a hundred days were needed for them to be taken.

[3] he makes tributary the inhabitants of the tracts of Nedque, Kassu and Noba. And they plundered white silver… And I reached Kassu [u], killing and reducing to slavery the inhabitants of the region between the rivers Seïda and Takazze, and on the next day I sent an expedition of soldiers from Mahaza and soldiers from Hara, who conquered above, below and around (the river) Seïda. The parts of the region of Nedque are called Alhawa and Doro: which they plundered, they killed the inhabitants, throwing them into the water, and they returned happily, riding on horses. And afterwards I sent forces from Halen [w], and forces from Selken [x] and forces from Raidan [y] above, below and around the Seïda, into the region of Noba [z], and the king made tributary the four provinces (of the regions) Nedque, Kassu, Noba … and he imposed (tribute) on four camels, and reached as far as the borders of Red Nubia [aa], and held dominion over the idolaters, took their possessions, and killed them and made them slaves, by the power of the Lord of heaven. And I set up my throne at the confluence of the rivers Seïda and Takazze, opposite the region of Nedque and the lake of the island [bb]. The booty of men that the power of the Lord of heaven gave him was 204, and the booty of women and children was 157, and the number of the dead and the slaves together was 1176 [cc], and

the booty of oxen was fifty times a hundred [dd], and the booty of sheep was 500. And there I set up my throne, by the power of the Lord of heaven, who helped me and gave me the kingdom. May the Lord of heaven confirm my kingdom for ever…; and I entered Nubia again, that I might not be conquered by those who were subjects and are now enemies, and to chastise the idolaters in justice and holiness and to confirm the throne which I had raised to the Lord of heaven, who established me as king. And he who shall move my seat from its place, and shall plunder and destroy it, let him be crushed, uprooted, overthrown and plucked out of his homeland. And I raised my seat by the power of the Lord.

ANNOTATIONS.

g. Saba; see ibid.

p. Idolaters. Sapeto in French: les idolatres.

q. Faithful. Sapeto: les croyants.

r. From these words it would seem to be signified that not all the Abyssinians were yet Christians at that time.

s. Of these towns, or rather villages, and the others that occur lower down, geography is silent.

t. The river Seïda, or Seda, Sida, Seta, as is read in Rüppell Rüppell, Reise u. s. w., volume II, page 383 and following. and Vivien de Saint-Martin Journal asiatique, place cited, page 373., is known today to travellers, who call it the Setit. It flows together with the Takazze to the north of the high plain on which western Abyssinia, or the province of Tigre, lies.

u. Kassu. See above, note l.

w. Halen. See ibid., note c.

x. Selken. See ibid., note h.

y. Raidan. Compare ibid., note f.

z. Noba. See here, note o.

aa. Red Nubia, that is, Nubia more remote from Egypt, says Sapeto Nouvelles annales des voyages, 1845, volume II, page 305., namely situated toward the south. But in truth Red Nubia signifies that Nubia whose inhabitants are of a red or reddish colour, and not black; and that the ancient Ethiopians who dwelt on the island of Meroe and in present-day Nubia were somewhat reddish or dusky, we are taught by the painted monuments which Lepsius examined Ibid. volume III, page 333.. Such dusky Ethiopians dwelt, in the V and VI centuries, on the island of Meroe Ibid. page 340 and above, note k., in the province of Taka, and in its neighbourhood to the north Ibid. page 342 and above, note l.. Now King Tazena says indeed in the foregoing that he crossed the river Takazze, and thus he entered the island of Meroe in pursuit of the enemy; in this latter place, however, he omits the river Takazze, recording rather those tracts that stretch out to the east of the river. From which it would seem that Red Nubia extended in the province of Taka, or to the north of it. And thence also this is confirmed, that at the beginning of the sixth century the Nubians by no means seem to have reached the island of Meroe Lepsius, Nouvelles annales, place cited, pages 334, 339 and following.; and indeed to the province of Taka too there could come only certain colonies, which perhaps gave the name to a few tracts Ibidem..

bb. Sapeto: vis-a-vis de … et du lac de l'ile.

cc. It is manifest from these numbers that Tazena did not burst into huge cities, but only into villages and hamlets.

dd. That is, 5,000. This manner of reckoning the Ethiopians have retained to this very day. Sapeto.