238 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



monarchs in their revolt against the Hyksos, and who probably 

 dwelt on the west bank of the Nile, may have been Libyan 

 Egyptians, such as those who are represented in Homer as 

 repelling with chariots and horses the piratical descent of 

 Odysseus and his comrades at the mouth of the western branch 

 of the Nile. 



Let us now turn to the evidence respecting the horse- 

 breeding and horse-riding of the Libyan tribes in later times, 

 but prior to the Arab conquest. The Libyan tribe of Marmidae 

 occupied all the region between the temple of Ammon and 

 the frontiers of Gyrene. West of them lay the Nasamones 

 and the Psylli, behind whom lay the eastern part of the great 

 tribe of the Gaetuli, behind whom again came the Garamantes 1 . 

 Herodotus 2 tells us that these Garamantes, who lived in the 

 modern Fezzan, had four-horse chariots in which they chased 

 the Troglodyte Ethiopians, "who of all nations whereof any 

 account has reached our ears are by far the swiftest of foot." 

 These Troglodyte Ethiopians (as we know from Strabo 3 ) dwelt 

 on the Nile southward from Syene (Assouan), and it was over a 

 portion of them reigned Candace, " queen of the Ethiopians," 

 who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles 4 in the story of the 

 baptism of her eunuch by Philip the Evangelist. As she and 

 her nation had proved a real danger to the Roman control of 

 Egypt, and as Psammetichus I had found it necessary to plant 

 a strong garrison at Elephantine to check the Ethiopians in the 

 seventh century B.C. we may safely infer that Egypt was always 

 liable to invasion from this side. If the Libyan tribes like the 

 Garamantes were in touch with the Ethiopians, and there is 

 reason to think that there is a considerable Libyan element in 

 the population of that region, it is not at all unlikely that 

 bodies of invaders, partly Libyan, partly Ethiopian, may have 

 made their way into Egypt from the south from very early 

 times. 



Next to the Marmidae came the territory of Gyrene, founded 

 B.C. 632 by Battus, from whom Callimachus the poet traced 

 his lineage. "The city flourished," says Strabo 5 , "from the 



1 Strabo, 837. 2 iv. 183. 3 820-1. 



4 viii. 27. 5 837. 



