contained in the list as following in regular succession. The correctness of this distribution is strongly confirmed by the circumstance of the inadequate number of sovereigns mentioned in the Chronicle as having reigned between Abreha and Ameda; whereas, by the order I have ventured to adopt, it affords a very fair proportion; and from the singular coincidence that, taking the 8th year of Bazen for the birth of Christ, and adding the thirteen years of Abreha, which is the period assigned for the introduction of Christianity, it precisely makes up the number three hundred and thirty, which is the exact interval between those two events assigned to have taken place in the Chronicle. Supposing then Asfah, Arfad, Amosi, and Seladoba to have reigned altogether about seventy years, and adding them to the list after El Ahiawya; and it gives a probable consistency to the Chronicle, bringing it regularly down as far as Ameda, whom we know to have been contemporary with Justin.
The classical reader will find a pleasure in recognising, in the above list, the name of the sovereign who reigned in Abyssinia at the period when the Periplus of the Erythrean sea was written; as it can scarcely, I think, admit of a doubt that Zoskales (Σωσκαλες[1]) there mentioned answers to the Zahakale here named, who is said to have reigned between the years seventy-six and ninety-nine; and it is an extraordinary circumstance how nearly this agrees with the period to which Dr. Vincent had attributed the writing of the Periplus, namely, to the 10th year of Nero, or A. D. 64, making a difference of about twelve years only, a singular coincidence which necessarily adds a very important confirmation to both accounts.
The next light thrown on this history may be drawn from the narratives of the conversion of the Axomites to the Christian religion in the time of the Emperor Constantine, as related by Rufinus,[2] and other ecclesiastical
- ↑ The alteration of a single letter "α" for σ, would give precisely the same name, and it is a mistake that is very likely to have occurred. Vide Periplus of the Erythrean Sea edited by Dr. Vincent.—"The king of this country is Zoskales, whose dominions extend from the Moscóphagi to Barbaria—a prince superior to most, and educated with a knowledge of Greek."
- ↑ Lib. I. c. 9, and Cedreans, p. 284, Vol. I
