186 
AXUM. 
Axomites. It will be seen, that in copying from the stone^ I mis- 
took the £ for K, and the A for A. 
This discovery gives a particular value to the inscription, as it 
fixes, within a few years, the period when this monument was 
erected ; for Aizana was king of Abyssinia, or rather of the Axo- 
mites, in the reign of the Roman Emperor Gonstantius, and there 
is a letter still extant in St. Athanasius (vide St. Athan. Apol. pages 
693-6, Paris 1627*) from that emperor to Aizana, at the time that 
he was reigning conjointly with his brother Saizana, who, it is to 
be observed in the ninth line of my inscription, is mentioned only 
as his brother and general. There is a slight variation in the spell- 
ing of both names, from that which is used by Athanasius, Aeizana 
being there Aizana, and Saiazana, Saizana ; but this is so trifling, 
as to signify little, particularly as s is found redundant in other 
places in my inscription, as in a%^e<f for and ^oio-iXsicrKoig for 
QcnG-iXia-jcoig, The letter of Gonstantius was written in the vear of our 
Lord 356, and the purport of it was to disgrace Frumentius, who 
had been appointed Bishop of Axum, and those sent out by Atha- 
nasius in the year 327. 
If it were established as a fact, that the king himself, as well as 
the people, had at this time been converted, it would fix the date 
of the Axuiii inscription to about the year 327 ; for it could not 
have been much before, because when Frumentius left Axum for 
the purpose of being appointed, the king, we have reason to think, 
was scarcely out of his minority ; and it could not be after, as had 
the king been a Christian, he would not have been styled Son of 
Mars. But this circumstance of the king's conversion is by no means 
* This letter is given in Appendix. 
