The Provinces of the Roman Empire 65

The Provinces of the Roman Empire 65

[244] Ὁ ἄνω θρόνος in Philostratus, _Vit. Soph._ ii. 10, 5.

 

[245] Examples are Chaeremon, the teacher of Nero, previously installed

in Alexandria (Suidas, Διονύσιος Ἀλεξανδρεύς; comp. Zeller, _Hermes_,

xi. 430, and above, p. 259); Dionysius, son of Glaucus, at first in

Alexandria, successor of Chaeremon, then from Nero down to Trajan

librarian in Rome and imperial cabinet secretary (Suidas, _l. c._); L.

Julius Vestinus under Hadrian, who, even after the presidency of the

Museum, filled the same positions as Dionysius in Rome (p. 248 note),

known also as a philological author.

 

[246] The eunuch of Candace, who reads in Isaiah (Acts of the Apostles,

viii. 27) is well known; and a Candace reigned also in Nero’s time

(Plinius, _H. N._ vi. 29, 182).

 

[247] That the imperial frontier reached to Hiera Sycaminos, is evident

for the second century from Ptolemaeus, v. 5, 74, for the time of

Diocletian from the Itineraries, which carry the imperial roads thus

far. In the _Notitia dignitatum_, a century later, the posts again

do not reach beyond Syene, Philae, Elephantine. In the tract from

Philae to Hiera Sycaminos, the Dodecaschoinos of Herodotus (ii. 29),

temple-tribute appears to have been raised already in early times for

the Isis of Philae always common to the Egyptians and Aethiopians; but

Greek inscriptions from the Lagid period have not been found here,

whereas numerous dated ones occur from the Roman period, the oldest

from the time of Augustus (Pselchis, A.D. 2; _C. I. Gr._ n. 5086),

and of Tiberius (_ib._ A.D. 26, n. 5104, A.D. 33, n. 5101), the most

recent from that of Philippus (Kardassi, A.D. 248, n. 5010). These do

not prove absolutely that the place where the inscription was found

belonged to the empire; but that of a land-measuring soldier of the

year 33 (n. 5101), and that of a _praesidium_ of the year 84 (Talmis,

n. 5042 f.), as well as numerous others certainly presuppose it. Beyond

the frontier indicated no similar stone has ever been found; for the

remarkable inscription of the _regina_ (_C. I. L._ iii. 83), found

at Messaurât, to the south of Shendy (16° 25′ lat., 5 leagues to the

south of the ruins of Naga), the most southern of all known Latin

inscriptions, now in the Berlin Museum, has been set up, not by a

Roman subject, but presumably by an envoy of an African queen, who was

returning from Rome, and who spoke Latin perhaps only in order to show

that he had been in Rome.

 

[248] The _tropaea Niliaca, sub quibus Aethiops et Indus intremuit_, in

an oration probably held in the year 296 (Paneg. v. 5), apply to such a

_rencontre_, not to the Egyptian insurrection; and the oration of the

year 289 speaks of attacks of the Blemyes (Paneg. iii. 17).--Procopius,

_Bell. Pers._ i. 19, reports the cession of the “Twelve-mile-territory”

to the Nubians. It is mentioned as standing under the dominion, not

of the Nubians, but of the Blemyes by Olympiodorus, _fr._ 37, Müll.

and the inscription of Silko, _C. I. Gr._ 5072. The fragment recently

brought to light of a Greek heroic poem as to the victory of a late

Roman emperor over the Blemyes is referred by Bücheler (_Rhein. Mus._

xxxix. 279 f.) to that of Marcianus, in the year 451 (comp. Priscus,

_fr._ 27).

 

[249] Juvenal (xi. 124) mentions the elephant’s teeth, _quos mittit

porta Syenes_.

 

[250] According to the mode in which Ptolemy (iv. 5, 14, 15) treats of

this coast, it seems, just like the “Twelve-mile-land,” to have lain

outside of the division into nomes.

 

[251] Our best information as to the kingdom of Axomis is obtained from

a stone erected by one of its kings, beyond doubt in the better period

of the empire, at Adulis (_C. I. Gr._ 5127 _b_), a sort of writing

commemorative of the deeds of this apparent empire-founder in the style

of that of Darius at Persepolis, or that of Augustus at Ancyra, and

fixed on the king’s throne, before which down to the sixth century

criminals were executed. The skilful disquisition of Dillmann (_Abh.

der Berliner Akademie_, 1877, p. 195 f.), explains as much of it as

is explicable. From the Roman standpoint it is to be noted that the

king does not name the Romans, but clearly has in view their imperial

frontiers when he subdues the Tangaites μέχρι τῶν τῆς Αἰγύπτου ὁρίων,

and constructs a road ἀπὸ τῶν τῆς ἐμῆς βασιλείας τόπων μέχρι Αἰγύπτου,

and further, names as the northern limit of his Arabian expedition

Leuce Come, the last Roman station on the Arabian west coast. Hence it

follows further, that this inscription is more recent than the Periplus

of the Red Sea written under Vespasian; for according to this (c. 5)

the king of Axomis rules ἀπὸ τῶν Μοσχοφάγων μέχρι τῆς ἄλλης Βαρβαρίας,

and this is to be understood exclusively, since he names in c. 2 the

τύραννοι of the Moscophages, and likewise remarks in c. 14, that beyond

the Straits of Bab el Mandeb there is no “king,” but only “tyrants.”

Thus at that time the Axomitic kingdom did not reach to the Roman

frontier, but only to somewhere about Ptolemais “of the chase,” just as

in the other direction not to Cape Guardafui, but only as far as the

Straits of Bab el Mandeb. Nor does the Periplus speak of possessions

of the king of Axomis on the Arabian coast, although he on several

occasions mentions the dynasts there.

 

[252] The name of the Aethiopians was associated in the better period

with the country on the Upper Nile, especially with the kingdoms of

Meroe and Nabata (p. 275), and so with the region which we now call

Nubia. In later antiquity, for example by Procopius, the designation

is referred to the state of Axomis, and hence in more recent times is

frequently employed for Abyssinia.

 

[253] Hence the legend that the Axomites were Syrians settled by

Alexander in Africa, and still spoke Syrian (Philostorgius, _Hist.

Eccl._ iii. 6).

 

[254] This is the _praefectus praesidiorum et montis Beronices_ (_C.

I. L._ ix. 3083), _praefectus montis Berenicidis_ (Orelli, 3881),

_praefectus Bernicidis_ (_C. I. L._ x. 1129), an officer of equestrian

rank, analogous to those adduced above (p. 249), as stationed in

Alexandria.

 

[255] The letter, which the emperor Constantius in the year 356 directs

to Aeizanas, the king of the Axomites at that time, is that of one

ruler to another on an equal footing; he requests his friendly and

neighbourly assistance against the spread of the Athanasian heresy, and

for the deposition and delivering up of an Axomitic clergyman suspected

of it. The fellowship of culture comes here into the more definite

prominence, as the Christian invokes against the Christian the arm of

the heathen.

 

[256] Inland lay the primeval Teimâ, the son of Ishmael of Genesis,

enumerated by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pilesar in the eighth century

before Christ among his conquests, named by the prophet Jeremiah

together with Sidon, around which gather in a remarkable way Assyrian,

Egyptian, Arabian relations, the further unfolding of which, after

bold travellers have opened up the place, we may await from Oriental

research. In Teimâ itself Euting recently found Aramaic inscriptions of

the oldest epoch (Nöldeke, _Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie_,

1884, p. 813 f.). From the not far distant place Medâin-Sâlih (Hijr)

proceed certain coins modelled after the Attic, which in part replace

the owl of Pallas by that image of a god which the Egyptians designate

as Besa the lord of Punt, _i.e._ of Arabia (Erman, _Zeitschrift für

Numismatik_, ix. 296 f.). We have already mentioned the Nabataean

inscriptions just found there (p. 148, note 3). Not far from thence,

near ’Ola (el-Ally) inscriptions have been found, which correspond

in the writing and in the names of gods and kings to those of the

South-Arabian Minaeans, and show that these had a considerable

station here, sixty days’ journey from their home, but on the

frankincense-route mentioned by Eratosthenes, from Minaea to Aelana;

and alongside of these others of a cognate but not identical South-Arabian

stock (D. H. Müller in the _Berichte der Wiener Akademie_ of

17th December 1884). The Minaean inscriptions belong beyond doubt to

the pre-Roman period. As on the annexation of the Nabataean kingdom by

Trajan these districts were abandoned (p. 152), from that time another

south-Arabian tribe may have ruled there.

 

[257] The accounts connected with the trade in frankincense in

Theophrastus († 287 B.C.; _Hist. plant._ ix. 4) and more fully in

Eratosthenes († 194 B.C.); in Strabo (xvi. 4, 2, p. 768) of the four

great tribes of the Minaeans (Mamali Theophr.?) with the capital Carna;

the Sabaeans (Saba Theophr.) with the capital Mariaba; the Cattabanes

(Kitibaena Theophr.) with the capital Tamna; the Chatramotitae

(Hadramyta Theophr.) with the capital Sabata, describe the very circle

out of which the Homerite kingdom developed itself, and indicate

its beginnings. The much sought for Minaei are now pointed out with

certainty in Ma’in in the interior above Marib and Hadramaut, where

hundreds of inscriptions have been found, and have yielded already no

fewer than twenty-six kings’ names. Mariaba is even now named Marib.

The region Chatramotitis or Chatramitis is Hadramaut.

 

[258] The remarkable remains of this structure, executed with the

greatest precision and skill, are described by Arnaud (_Journal

Asiatique_, 7 série, tome 3, for the year 1874, p. 3 f. with plans;

comp. Ritter, _Erdkunde_, xii. 861). On the two sides of the

embankment, which has now almost wholly disappeared, stand respectively

two stone structures built of square blocks, of conical almost

cylindrical form, between which a narrow opening is found for the

water flowing out of the basin; at least on the one side a canal lined

with pebbles leads it to this outlet. It was once closed with planks

placed one above another, which could be individually removed, to carry

the water away as might be needed. The one of those stone cylinders

bears the following inscription (according to the translation, not

indeed quite certain in all its details, of D. H. Müller, _Wiener

Sitzungsberichte_, vol. xcvii, 1880, p. 965): “Jata’amar the glorious,

son of Samah’alî the sublime, prince of Saba, caused the Balap

(mountain) to be pierced (and erected) the sluice-structure named

Rahab for easier irrigation.” We have no secure basis for fixing the

chronological place of this and numerous other royal names of the

Sabaean inscriptions. The Assyrian king Sargon says in the Khorsabad

inscription, after he has narrated the vanquishing of the king of Gaza,

Hanno, in the year 716 B.C.: “I received the tribute of Pharaoh the

king of Egypt, of Shamsiya the queen of Arabia, and of Ithamara the

Sabaean; gold, herbs of the eastern land, slaves, horses, and camels”

(Müller, _l. c._ p. 988; Duncker, _Gesch. des Alterthums_, ii.^5 p.

327).

 

[259] Sallet in the _Berliner Zeitschrift für Numismatik_, viii. 243;

J. H. Mordtmann in the _Wiener Numism. Zeitschrift_, xii. 289.

 

[260] Pliny, _H. N._ xii. 14, 65, reckons the cost of a camel’s load of

frankincense by the land-route from the Arabian coast to Gaza at 688

denarii (= £30). “Along the whole tract fodder and water and shelter

and various custom-dues have to be paid for; then the priests demand

certain shares and the scribes of the kings; moreover the guards and

the halberdiers and the body-guards and servants have their exactions;

to which our imperial dues fall to be added.” In the case of the

water-transport these intervening expenses were not incurred.

 

[261] The chastising of the pirates is reported by Agatharchides in

Diodorus, iii. 43, and Strabo, xvi. 4, 18, p. 777. But Ezion-Geber in

Palestine, on the Elanitic gulf, ἣ νῦν Βερενίκη καλεῖται (Josephus,

_Arch._ viii. 6, 4), was so called certainly not from an Egyptian

princess (Droysen, _Hellenismus_, iii. 2, 349), but from the Jewess of

Titus.

 

[262] This (προσοικειοῦσθαι τούτους--τοὺς Ἄραβας--ἢ καταστρέφεσθαι:

Strabo, xvi. 4, 22, p. 780; εἰ μὴ ὁ Συλλαῖος αὐτὸν--τὸν

Γάλλον--προὐδίδου, κἂν κατεστρέψατο τὴν Εὐδαίμονα πᾶσαν: _ib._ xvii.

1, 53, p. 819) was the proper aim of the expedition, although also the

hope of spoil, just at that time very welcome for the treasury, is

expressly mentioned.

 

[263] The account of Strabo (xvi. 4, 22 f., p. 780) as to the Arabian

expedition of his “friend” Gallus (φίλος ἡμῖν καὶ ἑταῖρος, Strabo,

ii. 5, 12, p. 118), in whose train he travelled in Egypt, is indeed

trustworthy and honest, like all his accounts, but evidently accepted

from this friend without any criticism. The battle in which 10,000 of the enemy and two Romans fell, and the total number of the fallen in this campaign, which is seven, are self-condemned;