Chap. 35.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 99 



that were sent by the Emperor Nero 21 under the command 

 of" a tribune, for the purposes of enquiry, when, among 

 his other wars, he was contemplating an expedition against 

 ^Ethiopia, brought back word that they had met with nothing 

 but deserts on their route. The Roman arms also penetrated 

 into these regions in the time of the late Emperor Augustus, 

 under the command of P. Petronius, 22 a man of Eques- 

 trian rank, and prefect of Egypt. That general took the 

 following cities, the only ones we now find mentioned there, 

 in the following order ; Pselcis, 23 Primis, Abuncis, Phthuris, 

 Cambusis, Atteva, and Stadasis, where the river Nile, as 

 it thunders down the precipices, has quite deprived the in- 

 habitants of the power of hearing : he also sacked the town 

 of Napata.* The extreme distance to which he penetrated 

 beyond Syene was nine hundred and seventy miles ; but still, 

 it was not the Roman arms that rendered these regions u 

 desert. ^Ethiopia, in its turn gaining the mastery, and then 

 again reduced to servitude, was at last worn out by its con- 

 tinual wars with Egypt, having been a famous and powerful 

 country even at the time of the Trojan war, when Memnon 25 

 was its king ; it is also very evident from the fabulous stories 

 about Andromeda, 26 that it ruled over Syria in the time of 

 king Cepheus, and that its sway extended as far as the shores 

 of our sea. 



In a similar manner, also, there have been conflicting 

 accounts as to the extent of this country : first by Dalion, 



21 Dion Cassius also mentions this expedition. From Seneca we learn 

 that Nero dispatched two centurions to make inquiry into the sources of 

 the Nile. 



22 Dion Cassius calls him Caius Petronius. He carried on the war in 

 B.C. 22 against the Ethiopians, who had invaded Egypt under their queen 

 Candace. He took many of their towns. 



23 Du Bocage is of opinion that this place stood not far from the 

 present Ibrim. 



24 Supposed by Du Bocage to have stood in the vicinity of the modern 

 Dongola. 



25 He was clearly a mythical personage, and nothing certain is known 

 with respect to him. Tombs of Memnon were shown in several places, 

 as at Ptolemais in Syria, on the Hellespont, on a hill near the mouth of 

 the river JEsepus, near Palton in Syria, in ^Ethiopia, and elsewhere. 



2C Her story has been alluded to in the account of Joppa, B. v. c. 34. 

 Opheus, the father of Andromeda, though possessing the coasts of Syria, 

 \viis fabled to have been king of ^Ethiopia. 



