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 APPENDIX 579 Homerites. (Revue Numisinatique, 1868, t. ii., 1, 2.) This conjeoture Beems very probable. In any ease the form Dim&an explains the Greek variants Al/xvos and Aa.fj.iai'Ss. 8 The Persian invasion of Yemen took place between 562 and 572 (cp. Noldeke, p. 224), and formed one of the causes of the war between Justin and Chosroes. Are- thas was at this time king of the Axumites, and Justin sent an ambassador named Julian to him, urging him to hostilities against Persia. In noticing this embassy (sub anno 571-2 — a.m. 6064) Theophanes has borrowed the aocount that is given by Malalas of the reception of the ambassador NonnoBus by Elesbaas ; and hence he is always supposed to refer to the same embassy and to have misdated it. But the sub- stitution of the new names (Arethas for Elesbaas, and Julianus for the ambassador whom Malalas doeB not name) refutes this opinion. In this npte much help has been derived from the valuable article of L. Du- chesne, in his Eglises Separ^es (cited above), where there will also be found an account of the conversions of the Blemmyes and the Nobadae of Upper Egypt. 19. THE WAR IN AFRICA AFTER THE DEATH OF SOLOMON— (P. 416 sqq.) John — who is distinguished, among the numerous officers who bore the same name, as the "brother of Pappus" (JordaneB calls him Troglita; Rom. 385) — arrived in Africa towards the end of a.d. 546. He had served under Belisarius in the overthrow of the Vandal kingdom and had remained in Africa during the first military governorship of Solomon (Joh. i. 470). He was then commander of the army in Mesopotamia in the Persian War (Procop. B. P. 2, 14), and was engaged in the battle of Nisibis in which Nabedes was defeated in 541. Procopius (ib. 17) re- presents him as on this occasion rashly involving the army in extreme peril, which was only avoided by the skill of Belisarius ; but Corippus ascribes the victory to his hero : — expulit ut Persas, stravit quo vulnere Parthos confisoe turbis densisque obstare sagittis tempore quo late manarunt Nitzibis agri sanguine Persarum, Parthoque a rege seoundus congressus Nabedes, fretus virtute feroci, amisit socias ipso superante catervas, &c. (i. 58 sqq.). John contrived to enter Theodosiopolis, when it was besieged by the host of Mer- meroes, and took part in the defeat of that general at Daras (Coripp., ib. 70 sqq.). He brought with him to Africa a trusted councill r named Recinarius — lateri Becin- arius haerens (ib. 2, 314), — who had been employed in the negotiations with Chosroes in a.d. 544. It would probably have been impossible for the Roman power to hold its own in Africa, if the Moors from the Syrtis Major to Mt. Atlas had been united in a Bolid league. It is highly important to observe that the success of the Empire depended on the discord of the Moorish chiefs, and that the forces upon which John relied in the war were more Moorish than Roman. The three most important chiefs were Antala, king of the Frexenses (Fraschisch), in Byzacium; Cusina, whose tribe 1 was settled under Mount Aurasius, in the neighbourhood of Lambaesis ; and JaudaB, king of the Moors of Mt. Aurasius. Cusina and Antala were always on opposite sides. Antala was loyal to Rome, when Cusina rebelled in 535 ; Cusina was true to Solomon, when Antala took up arms in 544. John was now supported by Cusina, and by Ifisdaias, the chief of another tribe in Numidia. The first battle was fought in the interior regions of Byzacium, in the winter a.d. 546-7, and Antala was routed. John returned to Carthage, but in the following summer had to face 8 This variation seems in itself to prove that Theophanes had before him another source. 1 The name is not certain. The verse 3,408, Cusina Mastracianis secum viribus ingens is obviously corrupt.