4i8 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



opening lines are an exact rendering in Sabasan of the 

 Greek text of the obverse. Both recount the titles, 

 exploits, and conquests of King Aeizanas, and the 

 narrative is of no special interest in itself: nevertheless 

 the two inscriptions, taken in conjunction, are of great 

 importance, inasmuch as they prove that there flourished 

 at one time at Axum a powerful Ethiopian dynasty, 

 which had extended its sway over nearly the whole of 

 Abyssinia and part of Southern Arabia, and whose kings 

 had a considerable acquaintance with Greek language 

 and art. Further, both these and the inscriptions 

 unearthed in the time of Rilppell, and now likewise 

 interpreted by Professor M tiller, prove beyond doubt 

 that the kings who set up these monuments in order to 

 relate their exploits were pagans ; for each of them 

 styles himself, "son of the unconquered god Ares" (in 

 Sabaean, Mahrom), an appellation which no Christian 

 king could possibly have used. At the end of the Greek 

 inscription, Aeizanas speaks of statues of gold and silver 

 and bronze, which, in gratitude for the victories vouch- 

 safed to him, he had erected to the unconquered Ares 

 "who begot me" — no doubt the statues crowning the 

 pedestals or altars, which I have described as lining 

 the road from Adua. The other Sabzean inscriptions, 

 found in the same locality, and regarded by Professor 

 Miiller as somewhat later than the bilingual one, tend to 

 the same conclusion, namely, that King Aeizanas and his 

 immediate successors for at least two generations were 

 pagans. I have not the ability to solve the dilemma, 

 but it seems clear from the above, that either the Aeizanas 

 of the inscription was not the same king as the Aeizanas 



