Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/76

 a woody and mountainous district (, Strab. l. c.;, Ptol. iv. 8). Above these were the Memnones, a name celebrated by the post-Homeric poets of the Trojan war, and who are supposed by some to have been a colony from Western India (Philological Museum, vol. ii. p. 146); and above these, north of the Blemmyes and Megabari, are the Adiabarae, who skirted to the east the province of Dodecaschoenus or Aethiopia above Egypt. But of all these tribes we know the names only, and even these very imperfectly. Modern travellers can only conjecturally connect them with the Bedjas, Bischáries, Shangallas, and other Nubian or Arabian races; and neither Greeks nor Romans surveyed the neighbourhood of their colonies beyond the high roads which led to their principal havens on the Red Sea.

The western portion of Aethiopia, owing to its generally arid character, was much more scantily peopled, and the tribes that shifted over rather than occupied its scanty pastures were mostly of Libyan origin, a mixed Negro and Barabra race. Parallel with the Astapus and the Nile after their confluence, stretched a limestone range of hills, denominated by Ptolemy the Aethiopian mountains (, iv. 8). They separated Aethiopia from the Garamantes. West of the elbow land which lay between Meroë and Napata was a district called Tergedum. North of Tergedum the Nubae came down to the Nile-bank between the towns of Primls Parva and Phturi; and northward of these were the above mentioned Euonymitae, who extended to Pselcis in lat 23°.

In the region Dodecaschoenus or Aethiopia above Egypt were the following towns: (: Ptol.; Plin. vi. 29. s. 32; Itin. Anton, p. 162:, Philostrat. Apoll. Tyan. iv. 2), the southernmost town of the district (Wady Maharrakah, Burckhardt's Travels, p. 100);  (, Agartharcides, p. 22; It. Anton, p. 162), Korti, four miles north of Hiera Sycaminos; and on the right bank of the Nile  (: Herod, ii. 29; Mela, i. 9. § 2: , Ptol. iv. 5 ; Tacompsos, Plin. vi. 29. s. 35) was situated upon an island (probably Deraz) upon the eastern side of the river, and was occupied by Aethiopians and Egyptians. Upon the opposite bank was (, Strab. p. 820; Aristid. Aegin. i. p. 512). It was built in the era of the Ptolemies, and its erection was so injurious to Tachompso, that the latter came to be denominated Contra Pselcis, and lost its proper appellation. Pselcis was eight miles from Hiera Sycaminos, and the head-quarters of a cohort of German horse (Not. Imp.) in the Roman period. On the left bank of the Nile was (Dschirdscheh), where some remarkable monuments still exist: and  (, Olympiad, ap. Photium, 80, p. 194;, Ptol. iv. 5), opposite to which was Contra-Taphis (Teffah), where ruins have been discovered, and in the neighbourhood of which are large stone-quarries. Finally,, the frontier-garrison of Egypt, where even so late as the 4th century A.D. a Roman legion was stationed. Pliny, in his account of the war with Candace (B.C. 22), has preserved a brief record of the route of Petronius in his second invasion of Meroë, which contains the names of some places of importance. The Roman general passed by the valley of the Nile through Dongola and Nubia, and occupied or halted at the following stations: Pselcis, Primis Magna, or Premnis (Ibrim) on the right bank of the river,Phturis (Farras), and Aboccis or Aboncis (Aboo-simbel, Ipsambul on the left, Cambysis and Atteva or Attoba, near the third cataract. If Josephus can be relied upon indeed, the Persians must have penetrated the Nile-valley much higher up than the Romans, and than either Herodotus or Diodorus (i. 34) will permit us to suppose. For the Jewish historian (Antiq. ii. 10) represents Cambyses as conquering the capital of Aethiopia, and changing its name from Saba to Meroë.

The architectural remains of Nubia belong to Meroë and are briefly described under that head. To Meroë also, as the centre and perhaps the creature of the inland trade of Aethiopia, we refer for an account of the natural and artificial productions of the land above Egypt.

The principal modern travellers who have explored or described the country above Egypt are Bruce, Burckhardt, Belzoni, Minutoli, Gau and Rosellini. Lord Valentia and Mr. Salt's Travels, Waddington and Hanbury's Journals, Rüppel's and Cailleaud's Travels, &c., "Heeren's Historical Researches," vol. i. pp. 285 — 473, and the geographical work of Ritter have been consulted for the preceding article.

 AETNA : Eth., Aetnensis), a city of Sicily, situated at the foot of the mountain of the same name, on its southern declivity. It was originally a Sicelian city, and was called or  (, Thuc. Strab.;, Steph. Byz. v. ; Diodorus has the corrupt form ): but after the death of Hieron I. and the expulsion of the colonists whom he had established at Catana, the latter withdrew to Inessa, a place of great natural strength, which they occupied, and transferred to it the name of Aetna, previously given by Hieran to his new colony at Catana. [.] In consequence of this they continued to regard Hieron as their oekist or founder. (Diod. xi. 76; Strab. vi. p. 268.) The new name, however, appears not to have been universally adopted, and we find Thucydides at a later period still employing the old appellation of Inessa. It seems to have fallen into the power of the Syracusans, and was occupied by them with a strong garrison; and in B.C. 426 we find the Athenians under Laches in vain attempting to wrest it from their hands. (Thuc. iii. 103.) During the great Athenian expedition, Inessa, as well as the neighbouring city of Hybla, continued steadfast in the alliance of Syracuse, on which account their lands were ravaged by the Athenians. (Id. vi. 96.) At a subsequent period the strength of its position as a fortress, rendered it a place of importance in the civil dissensions of Sicily, and it became the refuge of the Syracusan knights who had opposed the elevation of Donysius. But in B.C. 403, that despot made himself master of Aetna, where he soon after established a body of Campanian mercenaries, who had previously been settled at Catana. These continued faithful to Dionysius, notwithstanding the general defection of his allies, during the Carthaginian invasion in B.C. 396, and retained possession of the city till B.C. 339, when it was taken by Timoleon, and its Campanian occupants put to the sword. (Diod. xiii. 1 13, xiv. 7, 8, 9, 14, 58, 61, xvi. 67, 82.) We find no mention of it from this time till the days of Cicero, who repeatedly speaks of it as a municipal town of considerable importance; its territory being one of the most fertile in com of all Sicily. Its citizens suffered severely from the exactions of Verres and his agents. (Cic. Verr. iii. 23, 44, 45, iv. 51.), The Aetnenses