Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/60

 upon its parent; and by the middle of the fourth century the Negus of Axum had become the overlord of his less powerful neighbour, the king of the Homerites or Himyarites, as the inhabitants of that district of Arabia were called in this age. Christian missions began to penetrate these regions shortly after the reign of Constantine, and at the present time the Axumites were enthusiastic votaries of that religion and of Rome. Himyar, however, was full of Jews who had fled before Hadrian and his predecessors after the subjection of Palestine and the destruction of Jerusalem, and, therefore, of religious dissension; and the championship of the Cross more than once furnished an occasion for the Aethiopian despot to carry his arms into the Arabian kingdom for the maintenance of his rather precarious suzerainty. Only recently, in the reign of Justin (c. 524), the Negus of the day, Elesbaas, had crossed the gulf, expelled a Jewish ruler, and established Esimphaeus, a Christian, in his stead.

To Elesbaas, therefore, Justinian determined to apply, and forthwith detached an ambassador named Julian to enlist his aid against Persia. The embassy, provided with a letter and suitable presents, took ship for Alexandria, navigated the Nile to Coptos, crossed the desert to Berenice, and from thence sailed down the Red Sea to Adule. The Negus was trans-**