tions given in the native Chronicles, in the Historia Chronica of John of Antioch, as well as other Greek writers. In the first work it is related that during the reign of Ameda or Amda, arrived nine saints or holy men from Room[1] and Egypt, and settled the faith, one of whom, superior to all the rest, was called Arogawi,[2] signifying the old man, and that each built a church bearing his own name in Tigré. John Malala, after writing an account of the king of the Axomites' expedition against "Dimnus," which exactly agrees with that told by the Arabian authors against "Dunowas," proceeds to say, "that, the king of the Axomites, when he had obtained the victory, dispatched two of his relations with two hundred followers to Alexandria, for the purpose of soliciting from the Emperor Justinian that a bishop and some holy men might be sent, to instruct his subjects in the mysteries of the Christian faith. The Emperor being informed of these things by Licinius, his viceroy at Alexandria, gave an order that the ambassadors should be allowed to make choice of whomsoever they pleased: and they accordingly chose John, the almsgiver of St. John in Alexandria, a good and pious man, about sixty-two years of age; and took him, then a bishop, together with several holy men, to their country to Anda, (or Ameda) their king;"[3] which narra-
- ↑ By Room is meant Constantinople.
- ↑ The names of the rest were Abba Alef, Tsama, Asfé, Gúba, Likanos, Yemata, Garima, and Abba Pantaleon.
- ↑ Joh: Malala—Chronographia, page 163, et seq. Ἐν ἀυτῷ δὲ τῳ χρόνῳ συνέβη Ἰνδοὺς πολεμῆσαι πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς οἱ ὀνομαζόμενοι Αὐξουμῖται, καὶ οἱ Ὁμηρῖται, ἡ δὲ αἰτιὰ τοῦ πολέμου αὕτη. Ὁ τῶν Αυξουμιτῶν βασιλεὺς ενδότερὸς ἐϛὶ τῶν Ἀμεριτῶν, ὁ δὲ των Ὁμηριτῶν πλησίον ἐϛὶ τῆς Αἰγύπτου. Ὁι δὲ πραγματευταὶ Ῥωμαίων διὰ τῶν Ὁμηριτῶν εἰσέρχονται εἰς τὴν Αὐξούμην, καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ ἐνδότερα βασίλεῖα τῶν Ινδῶν· εἰσι γὰρ Ινδῶν, και Αἰθίοπων βασίλεῖα ἑπτὰ· τρία μὲν Ινδῶν, τέσσαρα δὲ Αἰθιόπων, τὰ πλησίον ὀντὰ τοῦ ὀκεανου ἐπὶ τὰ ἀνατολικὰ μέρη. Τῶν οὖν πραγματευτῶν εἰσελθόντῶν εἰς τὴν χώραν τῶν Ἀμεριτῶν, ἐπὶ τὸ ποιήσασθαι πραγματείαν, ἐγνωκὼς Δίμνος ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἀμεριτῶν, ἐφόνευσεν ἀυτοὺς, και πάντα τὰ αὐτῶν, ἀφείλετο, λέγων· ὅτι οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι οἱ Χριϛιανοὶ κακῶς ποιοῦσι τοῖς Ιȣδαίοις ἐν τοῖς μέρεσιν αὐτῶν, καὶ, πολλοὺς κατ’ ἔτος φονευούσι· καὶ ἐκ τούτου ἐκωλύθη ἡ πραγματεία· Ὁ δὲ τῶν Αυξουμιτῶν βασιλεὺς ἐδήλωσε τῷ βαδιλεῖ τῶν Ἁμεριτῶν, "ὁτι, κακῶς ἐποίησας, φονεύσας Ῥωμαίους Χριϛιανοὺς πραγματευτὰς, καὶ ἔβλαψας τὰ ἐμὰ βασίλεῖα." Καὶ ἐκ τούτου εἰς ἔχθραν ἐτράπησαν μεγάλην, και συνέβαλον πρὸς ἀλλήλους πόλεμον. Εν τῷ δὲ μέλλειν τὸν βασιλέα τῶν Ἀυξουμιτῶν πολεμεῖν, συνετάξατο λέγων ὅτι ἐὰν νικήσω Δίμνον τὸν βασιλέα τῶν Αμεριτῶν,
