HISTORY OF ABYSSINIA 
249 
and it is not improbable, that by this embassy was sent the letter 
of Constantius above referred to. The chief of this embassy was 
Theophilus, an Arian bishop. The account of his mission is valu- 
able, and appears to me not to have been before sufficiently noticed. 
" He was an Indian, who in Constantine's reign was sent as a 
hostage from the Divaei;* and being a man of great learning and 
knowledge, was afterwards raised to the episcopal dignity. In this 
mission he is said to have carried out two hundred Capadocian 
horses, besides other presents, to the eastern princes. He built 
three churches, one at Tapharon in Arabia, another at the Roman 
emporium at Aden, t and another on the island of Ormuz. He 
then passed over to Diabe, and to many other parts of India; 
crossing from Arabia, he went over to the Ethiopians called Axo- 
mites, who lived on the left side, to those sailing up the Red Sea, 
and who were so called from their metropolis, Axum. Having 
there settled every thing to his satisfaction, he returned to the 
Roman territory. Besides his extensive learning, he is recorded to 
have understood medicine (hunc enim divina virtute morbos curare 
fama Celebris erat). His success in Abyssinia, however, though 
-asserted in general terms, can scarcely be allowed, when we con- 
sider the high favour in which Frumentius was held ; for if we 
may believe the Abyssinian annals, which here are perfectly con- 
sistent with the Byzantine writers, both he and the other mission- 
aries with him, were, on his return, received with open arms by 
the chiefs, treated with high honour and respect, and by the com- 
* Inhabitants of islands in the eastern seas. Vide Vincent, 495. 
t This circumstance tends to make the Periplus of later date than this period, as 
Aden was then evidently not destroyed. 
