Herodotus on Ethiopia

In the introduction of the book, "Herodotus -- The Histories", his life has been described in part as follows:

Hardly anything is known of Herodotus' life. He was born between 490 and 480 BC at Halicarnassus, a Dorian town in Caria, on the south-west coast of Asia Minor, spent some years of his early manhood in travelling over the greater part of the then known world -- visiting Egypt as far south as Assuan, Mesopotamia, Palestine, southern Russia, and the northern fringe of the African continent -- and retired in later life to Thurii in Italy, where he expanded and revised his history...

Herodotus is better known to us as a person than any other ancient Greek writer. Plato was the supreme prose artist of the Greeks; but to read Plato brings one into communion with his mind and spirit only; to read Herodotus invites us to walk by his side, to listen to his voice, to mark on his face the shifts of expression from grave to gay, from wonder, awe and agression to incredulity or amusement: it gives us the man himself as he lived amongst men, noting with unappeasable zest their infinite variety and strangeness, not without a lift of the eyebrow at their old ways and occasional propensity for telling lies. Herodotus' prose is a mirror of personality and character.

Herodotus is the ancient world's equivalent of Michael Palin, the popular travel writer and narrator. Here is what Herodotus wrote about ancient Ethiopia:

... On this subject I could get no further information from anybody. I went as far as Elephantine to see what I could with my own eyes, but for the country still further south I had to be content with what I was told in answer to my questions. The most I could learn was that beyond Elephantine the country rises steeply; and in that part of the river, boats have to be hauled along by ropes -- one rope on each side -- much as one drags an ox. If the rope parts, the boat is gone in a moment, carried away by the force of the stream. These conditions last over a four days' journey, the river all the time winding greatly, like the Maeander, and the distance to be covered amounting to twelve schoeni (one schoenus is approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers), or the distance that could be traversed on foot in an hour, so 12 schoeni is about 42 miles or 67 km).

After this one reaches a level plain, where the river is divided by an island named "Tachompso". South of Elephantine, the country is inhabited by Ethiopians who also possess half of Tachompso, the other half being occupied by Egyptians. Beyond the island is a great lake, and round its shores live nomadic tribes of Ethiopians. After crossing the lake, one comes again to the stream of the Nile, which flows into it. At this point, one must land and travel along the bank of the river for forty days, because sharp rocks, some showing above water and many just awash, makes the river impracticable for boats.

After the forty days' journey on land, one takes another boat and in twelve days reaches a big city named "Meiroe", said to be the capital city of the Ethiopians. The inhabitants worship Zeus and Dionysus alone of the gods, holding them in great honour. There is an oracle of Zeus there, and they make war according to its pronouncements, taking from it both the occasion and the object of their various expeditions.

Continuing upstream for the same length of time as it takes to travel from Elephantine to the capital, one comes to the deserters -- a people whose name is Ashkam, a word which would mean in Greek 'those who stand on the left hand of the king'. They were a body of men 240,000 strong, of the Egyptian warrior class, who went over to the Ethiopians during the reign of Psammetichus. The Egyptians had guard posts in various parts of the country: one at Elephantine against the Ethiopians, another in Daphnae at Pelusium against the Arabians and Assyrians, and a third at Marea to keep a watch on Libya.

The Persians have similar garrisons today both at Elephantine and Daphnae. Now it happened in Psammetichus' time that the Egyptians were kept on garrison duty for three years without being relieved, and this was the cause of their desertion. They discussed their grievances, came to a unanimous resolution, and went off in a body to Ethiopia. The king, on hearing the news, gave chase and overtook them; and the story goes that when he besought them to return and used every argument to disuade them from abandoning their wives and children and the gods of the country, one of their members pointed, in reply, to his private parts, and said, that wherever those were, there would be no lack of wives and children. So they continued their journey to Ethiopia and put themselves at the disposal of the Ethiopian king, by whom they were well rewarded, for he gave them permission to expel certain Ethiopians with whom he was on bad terms, and settle on their land. The result of their living there was that the Ethiopians learned Egyptian manners and became more civilised.

The course of the Nile is, then, known not only where it traverses Egypt, but as much further southward as one can travel by land or water in four months; for calculation will show that that is the time it takes to go from Elephantine to the deserters. At that point, the river runs from west to east; beyond, nobody knows its course with any certainty, for the country is uninhabited because of the heat.

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Melaku says:

I learned that Meroe, the Northern part of present-day Sudan, was part of Ethiopia during the Sabean and Axumite Kingdoms, when I made a visit to Sudan's National Museum in Khartoum in 1994. In the museum, the remains of the ancient Christian churches, wall carvings, and other sacred items are exhibited.

But how about Elphantine and Tachompso (Upper Nile region)? Despite the confusion in the geographic location of the day by Herodotus, what we can learn from his illustrious description is that, as in the history of the legendary Queen of Sheba, there is a thread that links Egypt and Ethiopia. The other point which we can understand from this depiction of ancient Ethiopia is that the country had a strong army.

In another reading I made a few months ago on ancient Mesopotamia, specifically about the biography of the famous King Nebuchadnezzar, whose history has been well documented in the Old Testament, Ethiopian and Lybian soldiers had fought along with the Pharoah of Egypt against King Nebuchadnezzar. Unfortunately, they lost the war and had been severely vanquished, so much so that they were forced to retreat back to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar took over the entire Palestine area which was previously ruled by the Pharoahs of Egypt. Egypt was saved from being attacked by the powerful Mesopotamian king by making truce and dilomatic negotiation which resulted, among other things, in the marriage of the daughter of the Pharoah to King Nebuchadnezzar. Here again we see the connection or the relationship between Egypt and Ethiopia which survived the test of time. How about now?