After This You Will Disembark And Make A
Journey By Land Of Forty Days; For In The Nile Sharp Rocks Stand Forth
Out Of The Water, And There Are Many Reefs, By Which It Is Not
Possible For A Vessel To Pass.
Then after having passed through this
country in the forty days which I have said, you will embark again in
another vessel and sail for twelve days; and after this you will come
to a great city called Meroe.
This city is said to be the mother-city
of all the other Ethiopians: and they who dwell in it reverence of the
gods Zeus and Dionysos alone, and these they greatly honour; and they
have an Oracle of Zeus established, and make warlike marches
whensoever the god commands them by prophesyings and to whatsoever
place he commands. Sailing from this city you will come to the
"Deserters" in another period of time equal to that in which you came
from Elephantine to the mother-city of the Ethiopians. Now the name of
these "Deserters" is /Asmach/, and this word signifies, when
translated into the tongue of the Hellenes, "those who stand on the
left hand of the king." These were two hundred and forty thousand
Egyptians of the warrior class, who revolted and went over to these
Ethiopians for the following cause: - In the reign of Psammetichos
garrisons were set, one towards the Ethiopians at the city of
Elephantine, another towards the Arabians and Assyrians at Daphnai of
Pelusion, and another towards Libya at Marea:
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