Gibbon's The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
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10, 13, 26, 27, 28. Gothic. l. ii. c. 11, 15,) Agathias, (l. iv.
-
141, 142,) and Menander, (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 132 - 147.)
Consult Barbeyrac, Hist. des Anciens Traites, tom. ii. p. 154,
181 - 184, 193 - 200.]
[Footnote 91: D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 680, 681, 294,
295.]
Justinian had been reproached for his alliance with the
Aethiopians, as if he attempted to introduce a people of savage
negroes into the system of civilized society. But the friends of
the Roman empire, the Axumites, or Abyssinians, may be always
distinguished from the original natives of Africa. ^92 The hand
of nature has flattened the noses of the negroes, covered their
heads with shaggy wool, and tinged their skin with inherent and
indelible blackness. But the olive complexion of the
Abyssinians, their hair, shape, and features, distinctly mark
them as a colony of Arabs; and this descent is confirmed by the
resemblance of language and manners the report of an ancient
emigration, and the narrow interval between the shores of the Red
Sea. Christianity had raised that nation above the level of
African barbarism: ^93 their intercourse with Egypt, and the
successors of Constantine, ^94 had communicated the rudiments of
the arts and sciences; their vessels traded to the Isle of
Ceylon, ^95 and seven kingdoms obeyed the Negus or supreme prince
of Abyssinia. The independence of the Homerites, ^! who reigned
in the rich and happy Arabia, was first violated by an Aethiopian
conqueror: he drew his hereditary claim from the queen of Sheba,
^96 and his ambition was sanctified by religious zeal. The Jews,
powerful and active in exile, had seduced the mind of Dunaan,
prince of the Homerites. They urged him to retaliate the
persecution inflicted by the Imperial laws on their unfortunate
brethren: some Roman merchants were injuriously treated; and
several Christians of Negra ^97 were honored with the crown of
martyrdom. ^98 The churches of Arabia implored the protection of
the Abyssinian monarch. The Negus passed the Red Sea with a
fleet and army, deprived the Jewish proselyte of his kingdom and
life, and extinguished a race of princes, who had ruled above two
thousand years the sequestered region of myrrh and frankincense.
The conqueror immediately announced the victory of the gospel,
requested an orthodox patriarch, and so warmly professed his
friendship to the Roman empire, that Justinian was flattered by
the hope of diverting the silk trade through the channel of
Abyssinia, and of exciting the forces of Arabia against the
Persian king. Nonnosus, descended from a family of ambassadors,
was named by the emperor to execute this important commission.
He wisely declined the shorter, but more dangerous, road, through
the sandy deserts of Nubia; ascended the Nile, embarked on the
Red Sea, and safely landed at the African port of Adulis. From
Adulis to the royal city of Axume is no more than fifty leagues,
in a direct line; but the winding passes of the mountains
detained the ambassador fifteen days; and as he traversed the
forests, he saw, and vaguely computed, about five thousand wild
elephants. The capital, according to his report, was large and
populous; and the village of Axume is still conspicuous by the
regal coronations, by the ruins of a Christian temple, and by
sixteen or seventeen obelisks inscribed with Grecian characters.
^99 But the Negus ^!! gave audience in the open field, seated on
a lofty chariot, which was drawn by four elephants, superbly
caparisoned, and surrounded by his nobles and musicians. He was
clad in a linen garment and cap, holding in his hand two javelins
and a light shield; and, although his nakedness was imperfectly
covered, he displayed the Barbaric pomp of gold chains, collars,
and bracelets, richly adorned with pearls and precious stones.
The ambassador of Justinian knelt; the Negus raised him from the
ground, embraced Nonnosus, kissed the seal, perused the letter,
accepted the Roman alliance, and, brandishing his weapons,
denounced implacable war against the worshipers of fire. But the
proposal of the silk trade was eluded; and notwithstanding the
assurances, and perhaps the wishes, of the Abyssinians, these
hostile menaces evaporated without effect. The Homerites were
unwilling to abandon their aromatic groves, to explore a sandy
desert, and to encounter, after all their fatigues, a formidable
nation from whom they had never received any personal injuries.
Instead of enlarging his conquests, the king of Aethiopia was
incapable of defending his possessions. Abrahah, ^!!! the slave
of a Roman merchant of Adulis, assumed the sceptre of the
Homerites,; the troops of Africa were seduced by the luxury of
the climate; and Justinian solicited the friendship of the
usurper, who honored with a slight tribute the supremacy of his
prince. After a long series of prosperity, the power of Abrahah
was overthrown before the gates of Mecca; and his children were
despoiled by the Persian conqueror; and the Aethiopians were
finally expelled from the continent of Asia. This narrative of
obscure and remote events is not foreign to the decline and fall
of the Roman empire. If a Christian power had been maintained in
Arabia, Mahomet must have been crushed in his cradle, and
Abyssinia would have prevented a revolution which has changed the
civil and religious state of the world. ^100 ^*
[Footnote 92: See Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. iii. p. 449.
This Arab cast of features and complexion, which has continued
3400 years (Ludolpb. Hist. et Comment. Aethiopic. l. i. c. 4) in
the colony of Abyssinia, will justify the suspicion, that race,
as well as climate, must have contributed to form the negroes of
the adjacent and similar regions.
Note: Mr. Salt (Travels, vol. ii. p. 458) considers them to
be distinct from the Arabs - "in feature, color, habit, and
manners." - M.]
[Footnote 93: The Portuguese missionaries, Alvarez, (Ramusio,
tom. i. fol. 204, rect. 274, vers.) Bermudez, (Purchas's
Pilgrims, vol. ii. l. v. c. 7, p. 1149 - 1188,) Lobo, (Relation,
&c., par M. le Grand, with xv. Dissertations, Paris, 1728,) and
Tellez (Relations de Thevenot, part iv.) could only relate of
modern Abyssinia what they had seen or invented. The erudition
of Ludolphus, (Hist. Aethiopica, Francofurt, 1681. Commentarius,
1691. Appendix, 1694,) in twenty-five languages, could add little
concerning its ancient history. Yet the fame of Caled, or
Ellisthaeus, the conqueror of Yemen, is celebrated in national
songs and legends.]
[Footnote 94: The negotiations of Justinian with the Axumites, or
Aethiopians, are recorded by Procopius (Persic. l. i. c. 19, 20)
and John Malala, tom. ii. p. 163 - 165, 193 - 196.) The historian
of Antioch quotes the original narrative of the ambassador
Nonnosus, of which Photius (Bibliot. Cod. iii.) has preserved a
curious extract.]
[Footnote 95: The trade of the Axumites to the coast of India and
Africa, and the Isle of Ceylon, is curiously represented by
Cosmas Indicopleustes, (Topograph. Christian. l. ii. p. 132, 138,
139, 140, l. xi. p. 338, 339.)]
[Footnote !: It appears by the important inscription discovered
by Mr. Salt at Axoum, and from a law of Constantius, (16th Jan.
356, inserted in the Theodosian Code, l. 12, c. 12,) that in the
middle of the fourth century of our era the princes of the
Axumites joined to their titles that of king of the Homerites.
The conquests which they made over the Arabs in the sixth century
were only a restoration of the ancient order of things. St.
Martin vol. viii. p. 46 - M.]
[Footnote 96: Ludolph. Hist. et Comment. Aethiop. l. ii. c. 3.]
[Footnote 97: The city of Negra, or Nag'ran, in Yemen, is
surrounded with palm-trees, and stands in the high road between
Saana, the capital, and Mecca; from the former ten, from the
latter twenty days' journey of a caravan of camels, (Abulfeda,
Descript. Arabiae, p. 52.)]
[Footnote 98: The martyrdom of St. Arethas, prince of Negra, and
his three hundred and forty companions, is embellished in the
legends of Metaphrastes and Nicephorus Callistus, copied by
Baronius, (A. D 522, No. 22 - 66, A.D. 523, No. 16 - 29,) and
refuted with obscure diligence, by Basnage, (Hist. des Juifs,
tom. viii. l. xii. c. ii. p. 333 - 348,) who investigates the
state of the Jews in Arabia and Aethiopia.
Note: According to Johannsen, (Hist. Yemanae, Praef. p. 89,)
Dunaan (Ds Nowas) massacred 20,000 Christians, and threw them
into a pit, where they were burned. They are called in the Koran
the companions of the pit (socii foveae.) - M.]
[Footnote 99: Alvarez (in Ramusio, tom. i. fol. 219, vers. 221,
vers.) saw the flourishing state of Axume in the year 1520 -
luogomolto buono e grande. It was ruined in the same century by
the Turkish invasion. No more than 100 houses remain; but the
memory of its past greatness is preserved by the regal
coronation, (Ludolph. Hist. et Comment. l. ii. c. 11.)
Note: Lord Valentia's and Mr. Salt's Travels give a high
notion of the ruins of Axum. - M.]
[Footnote !!: The Negus is differently called Elesbaan, Elesboas,
Elisthaeus, probably the same name, or rather appellation. See
St. Martin, vol. viii. p. 49. - M.]
[Footnote !!!: According to the Arabian authorities, (Johannsen,
Hist. Yemanae, p. 94, Bonn, 1828,) Abrahah was an Abyssinian, the
rival of Ariathus, the brother of the Abyssinian king: he
surprised and slew Ariathus, and by his craft appeased the
resentment of Nadjash, the Abyssinian king. Abrahah was a
Christian; he built a magnificent church at Sana, and dissuaded
his subjects from their accustomed pilgrimages to Mecca. The
church was defiled, it was supposed, by the Koreishites, and
Abrahah took up arms to revenge himself on the temple at Mecca.
He was repelled by miracle: his elephant would not advance, but
knelt down before the sacred place; Abrahah fled, discomfited and
mortally wounded, to Sana - M.]
[Footnote 100: The revolutions of Yemen in the sixth century must
be collected from Procopius, (Persic. l. i. c. 19, 20,)
Theophanes Byzant., (apud Phot. cod. lxiii. p. 80,) St.
Theophanes, (in Chronograph. p. 144, 145, 188, 189, 206, 207, who
is full of strange blunders,) Pocock, (Specimen Hist. Arab. p.
62, 65,) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 12, 477,) and Sale's
Preliminary Discourse and Koran, (c. 105.) The revolt of Abrahah
is mentioned by Procopius; and his fall, though clouded with
miracles, is an historical fact.
Note: To the authors who have illustrated the obscure
history of the Jewish and Abyssinian kingdoms in Homeritis may be
added Schultens, Hist. Joctanidarum; Walch, Historia rerum in
Homerite gestarum, in the 4th vol. of the Gottingen Transactions;
Salt's Travels, vol. ii. p. 446, &c.: Sylvestre de Sacy, vol. i.
Acad. des Inscrip. Jost, Geschichte der Israeliter; Johannsen,
Hist. Yemanae; St. Martin's notes to Le Beau, t. vii p. 42. - M.]
[Footnote *: A period of sixty-seven years is assigned by most of
the Arabian authorities to the Abyssinian kingdoms in Homeritis.
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