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 ETHIOPIA

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ETHIOPIA

(Vienna, 1S59); Schneider, Gottliche Wellcrrdnung und religions- lose SitttichkeU tPaderbom, 1900); Catureiv, Moralphilosophie (Freiburg, 4th ed., 1904); Sidgwick, The Methods of Elhics (London. 1S91); lu., Oullines of the History of Ethics (London. 3d ed., 1S92); B.\in, Mental and Moral Science (London, many editions); Spencer, Principles of Ethics (London, 2 vols. ); Calderwood. Handbook of Moral Philosophy (London, 14th ed.); Janet, H istoire de la philosophie morale (Paris); Fouillee, Critique des systimes de morale contemporaine (Paris, 2d ed.. 18S7); Martensen. Christliche Elhik (2 vols.; I, 6th ed., 1S92; II, 4th ed., 1S94); Kostlin, Christliche Elhik (Berlin, 1S9S); HiiFFDiNG. Elhik (Leipzig, 1888); Padlsen, System der Ethik (Berlin, 7th and Sth ed., 1906); Wdndt, Ethik (Stuttgart, 3d ed., 190.3); Jodl. Geschichle der Ethik in der neuem Philosophie (Stuttgart, 2 vols., 1SS2-89); Ziegler, Die Ethik der Griechen und liumer (Bonn, 1SS6); Geschichle der christlichen Ethik (Strasburg, 1S92).

V. Cathrein.

Ethiopia. — The name of this region has been de- rived, through the Greek form aWiowla, from the two words alSw, " I burn", and 6\f', "face". It woukl thus mean the coloured man's land — the land of the scorched faces. But a different origin is claimed for the name by many modern writers, some of whom say that the Greeks borrowed the word from the Egyp- tians, and that as early as the Twelfth Djniasty the Egyptians knew Ethiopia under the name of Ksh, or Kshi. One form of this word, with the aleph prefi.x, Ekoshi (the Coptic eshoosh,eshosh,cthosh),v,-ou\d thus be the real root-word. Others again maintain tliat it is derived from the Arabic word a!i/ab, the plural form of lib, which means "spices", "perfumes" (Glaser, "Die Abessinier in Arabien imd Afrika", Munich, 1895), or from an Arabo-Sabean word, ati/ub, which has the same meaning. (Hale\-y in "Revue Se- mitique", IV.)

Geography. — It is not easy to determine precisely to what part of the world the name of Ethiopia properly applies in the course of historj'. The territorj- it cov- ered, and even the use of the word to denote a terri- tory, have varied in various ages and at the hands of different writers. In the early pages of the Bible Ethiopia is used to designate the lands inhabited by the sons of Cush, and is therefore applied to all the scattered regions inhabited by that family. Such a nse of the word is purely ethnographical. Elsewhere, however, in the Bible it is applied to a definite region of the globe without consideration of race, and is thus used geographically. It is in this sense that we find it mentioned in all Egj-ptian documents (Brugsch, Geo- graphische Inschriften altagj-ptischer DenkmiUer). It denoted the region of Africa south of Egj-pt, and its boundaries were by no means constant. Generally speaking, it comprised the cotmtries known in our own day as Nubia, Kordofan, Senaar, and Northern Abys- sinia. It had one unvarying landmark, however: its northern boundary always began at Syene. AVe know from the writings of Pliny, Strabo, and Pomponius Mela that in the eyes of Greek geographers Ethiopia included not only all the territory south of Syene on the African Continent, but embraced all that part of Asia below the same parallel of latitude. Hence it came to pass that there were two regions with but one name: Eastern Ethiopia, including all the races dwell- ing to the east of the Red Sea as far as India ; Western Ethiopia stretching southward from Eg^'pt and west- ward as far as the southern boundary of Mauretania. Of all the vast tracts of country to which the name Ethiopia was given at one or other period of history, there are two to which the name has more peculiarly attached itself: the one is modern Nubia and the Eg^-ptian Sudan (the ancient Ethiopia of the Pha- raohs); the other modern .\byssinia (the Ethiopia of our own daj'), the last of all those regions to preserve the ancient name.

NtTBiAN Ethiopia. — In Egj^ptian inscriptions the name Ethiopia is applied to the region of the Upper Nile h-ing between the First Cataract and the sources of the .^tbara and of the Blue Nile. Greek writers often call this region the Kingdom of Napata, or of

Meroe, after two cities that were successively the cen- tres of its political life during the second period of its history. The name Island of Meroe, sometimes met with, is an allusion to the rivers which enclose it.

Ethnology. — The races which peopled these regions differed considerably. In the ^ alley of Syene as far as the junction of the Atbara the population consisted for the most part of husbandmen of Eg>-ptian extraction. In the plains of the Upper Nile, side by side with some negro tribes, were a people allied to the Himyarites, and who had migrated thither from Southern Arabia, while others again showed that they owed their origin to the Egj-ptians and Berbers.

History. — Of the history of this country we know only wliat has been handed down to us through the monuments of Egj-pt and those erected by the inhabi- tants of the country itself in the vicinity of the Cata- racts. It was the almost unanimous opinion of an- cient historians that this was the cradle of the people occupying all the Nile Valley; and in proof thereof they pointed out the evident analogy of manners and religion between the Kingdom of Meroe and Egj^pt proper. But to-day we know without a doubt that the Ethiopia known to the Greeks, far from being the cradle of Egj-ptian civilization, owed to Egj-pt all the civilization she ever had. The chronological evidence of the momunents makes this quite clear. Whereas the most ancient monuments are to be found along the Delta, those in the neighbourhood of Meroe are com- paratively modern. The antiquity attributed to Ethi- opian civilization was disproved as soon as the hiero- glyphics had been interpreted. What its beginnings were, we do not know.

During the first five Egyptian Dynasties — i. e. for nearly thirteen centuries — its history is hidden behind a veil. It is only underthe Sixth Dj-nasty that this coun- try comes within the ken of history. At that time King MerjTa, better known as Pepi I, marched as far south as the Second Cataract, but did not establish a per- manent foothold. Ethiopia 's real occupation by Egypt did not begin till the Twelfth Djmasty, when the Pha- raohs, being once more in peaceful possession of the Nile Valley, began an era of conquest, and the country of the Cataracts became their earliest prey. Amen- emhat I and his son Usertsen I, having driven out the priests of Amun-Ra who ruled at Thebes, and having exiled them beyond Phila?, continued their march as far as Wady-Halfa. Their successors, encouraged by these victories, carried on the work of conquest, and Usertsen III pushed as far as the Fourth Cataract and even beyond Napata. as far as the junction of the Atbara. At his death the frontiers of the Egj'ptian Empire extended as far as Semneh. and Ethiopia was a tributary province of Egypt. The darkness which envelops the history of the Thirteenth DjTiasty does not permit of our tracing the results of this conquest, but it would seem that the victories of the Egj-ptian monarchs were far from decisive, and that Ethiopia always retained enough liberty to openly aspire to in- dependence. Up to the time of the Eighteenth dy- nasty this aspiration persisted, if, indeed, the country did not at times enjoy independence.

After the advent of the Eighteenth Dj-nasty, and the overthrow of the Shepherd Kings, Egj^pt imder- took a series of wars against her isolated neighbours. The tribes along the X^Pf ^''^i though harassed by her troops, resisted stubbornly. In spite of the cam- paigns of Amenhotep I, son of Amosis. who advanced as far as Napata and Senaar — in spite of the violence of Thothmes I, his successor, who covereil the country with devastation and ruin, it was not until the djiys of Thothmes II that Ethiopia seems to have become re- signed to the loss of her liberty. The country was thereupon divided into nomesan the Eg>-ptian system, and was placed luider a viceroy whose power extended from the First Cataract to the Mountains of Abys- sinia. The office, entrusted at first to high functiona-