AXUM. 199 
care of the sea coast, of which (if they are, as I think, the Somaule) 
they have ever since been in possession. After these an expedi- 
tion is undertaken against Arabia : and it is here that we find the 
origin of that power which the Abyssinian kings afterwards so long 
possessed over a great part of that country. For this purpose a land 
and sea army were prepared, precisely as was done afterwards by 
Elesbaas.* Now it is to be here remarked, that it was not likely 
that Ptolemy should attack Arabia from Adulis, neither would his 
army, after the conquest of Arabia, have returned to Adulis, when 
it could so much better have gone directly to Egypt. Having now 
returned from Arabia, what can be more completely convincing 
than what follows? Having thus (by my generals) conquered all 
the nations surrounding my territory, " ttccvtcx. roc e9voc ra. ofzo^owra, 
T7} ef^vjyT}^'' from the east so far as the frankincense country, from 
Ethiopia on the west to Sasus [nearly opposite Aden, which can only 
apply to a king of Abyssinia], having settled all this my world at 
peace, I descended to Adulis, [mark, descended ; whence ? from 
Axum, than which nothing can be more probable after the re- 
turn of his army from Arabia ; but how could this be said by 
Ptolemy?] to sacrifice to Jupiter, Mars, and Neptune, for those that 
navigate [not Bacchus or Hercules, whom Ptolemy would surely 
have mentioned], and having collected here all mv forces, I conse- 
crated this chair to my father Mars in the twenty-seventh year of 
my reign." The conformity of this last with my inscription; the 
extraordinary circumstance of their both taking Mars for their 
father, is to me perfectly convincing, not only that this was erected 
by an Abyssinian Prince, but that the date of the period when it 
* Vide Baronius. 
