Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 4 (1897).djvu/565

 APPENDIX 541 Under the Kliaii ?ilukau the Turkish power in its early period seems to have been at its height. He " estabhshed a system of government which was j)racti- cally bounded b3- Ja])an and Corea, China and Thibet, Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire ". It appears from Turkisli inscriptions that the Turks called the ('hinese Tavyan : and it can hardly be questioned that this is the same word as Taugast, a land mentioned by Theophylactus as in the neighbourhood of India. He states that the khan was at peace with Taugast (in the reign of Maurice). Dizabul (or rather Silzibul) of the Greek sources is of course distinct from j[ukan ; but I have shown that it is impossible to regard him as a khan subordin- ate to Mukan, in the face of the statements of Menander (Eng. Hist. Review, July, 18!)7). There was a split among the Turks, at some time previous to the first embassy descrilied by Menander ; and the result was the existence of two suj)reme khanates. The seat of one was the Northern Golden Mountain (Ektag, Altai) ; the seat of the other was the Southern Golden Mountain (Ektel, in Kan- suh). During the reign of Justin, Silzibul was chief khan of the northern Turks, JMukan of the southern Turks. (See further: The Turks in the Sixth Century, Eng. Hist. Rev., loc. cit.) 17. THE AXUMITES AND HIMYARITES— (P. 384 s(?(?. ) The affairs of the kingdom of the Himyarites or Homerites of Yemen (Arabia Felix) always demanded the attention of the Roman sovrans, as the Himyarites had in their hands most of the carrying trade between the Empire and India. This peoj)le carried their civilization to Abyssinia, on the other side of the Red Sea. The capital of the Abyssinian state was Axum, and hence it was known as the kingdom of the Axumites. Our first notice of this state is probably to be found in the Pcriplvs of the Red Sea, which was composed by a merchant in the reign of Vespasian. (Best edition of this work by Fabricius, 1880.) There a king Zoskales is mentioned, and it is almost certain that an inscription which Cosmas Indico|)leustes copied at Adiilis (C. I. G. 5127 B) refers to him. (See D. H. Mtiller, Denkschriften of the Vienna Acad., xliii., 1894.) In the fourth century we find that the king of Axum has reduced the Homerites under his sway ; see C. I. G. .51^8, /Bao-iAcv? '^mixito>v koI 'On-qpLTwi'. This does not mean that botli nations had onlj- one king ; it means that the king of the Homerites acknowledged the overlordship of his more powerfixl neighbour. At the same time Christianity was beginning to make its way in these regions. Originall.y both Axumites and Homerites were votaries of the old Sabaean religion. Then the Jewish diaspora had led to the settlement of Jews in Central Arabia — in the region between the Nabataean kingdom (which reached as far as Leuke Kome) and Yemen, — and the result was that Judaism took root in the kingdom of the Homerites. The mission of Frumentius to Abyssinia about the middle of the fourth century has been mentioned bj- Gibbon in a former chajiter ; the foundations of tlic Ethiopian Church were "laid ; but the king him- self did not embrace the new doctrine. The name of the king of Axum at that time (c. ;)K5-3.j a. v.) was Aizan, and he was a pagan (C. I. G. 5128). The con- version of the Homerites was also begun under the auspices of the Em])eror Constantius. The missionary was Theophilus, either a Homerite or an Axumitc by birth,' wlio had lieen sent as a hostage to the court of Constantine. The HouK riti- king, though he had not adopted Christianity, built three Christian clnuclics ;it bis own expen.se and permitted his subjects to be converted if they wished. It was not till much later, in the reign of Anastasius, that Christianity began to spread, and a l)ishopric was founded (Thcodorus Lector, 2, 58). The progress of the Christian faith advanced at least equally in Axum. It has been J He was a native of the isle of Dibiis. Various suggestions have been made as to the identity of this island. M. Duchesne thinks it was one of the little islands off the coast of Abyssinia.