which he found in Malalas under 527-8.[1] It must be observed that Malalas was not the only source of Theophanes. On the other hand Ibn Ishāq (apud Tabari; Nöldeke, p. 219) gives a succession of kings of Yemen which leaves no room for Damian. The succession is Abraha, Yaksum, Masruq (who is supposed to be the same as Sanaturkes in Theophanes of Byzantium; which seems doubtful; for Sana in this name seems to correspond to the Homerite town Sana). Ibn Ishāq assigns an impossible number of years to these kings; and I doubt whether his statements are absolutely decisive as against Theophanes.[2]
It is another question whether, as Gutschmid and N{[subst:o:}}ldeke have suggested,
Malalas and Theophanes and John of Ephesus (who has the same story) have
interchanged the names of the Axunite and Homerite kings (see Nöldeke,
Tabari, p. 175). The reason is that on the obverse of some coins (
Greek characters) appears
as the heathen king of the Axumites; while on the reverse (Greek characters) is represented
as the vassal king of the Homerites. (Revue Numismat. 1868, t., ii. 1, 2.) This
conjecture seems highly probable. In any case the form Diméan explains the
Greek variants (Greek characters) and (Greek characters),[3]
The Persian invasion of Yemen took place between 562 and 572 (ep. Nöldeke, p. 224), and formed one of the causes of the war between Justin and Chosroes. Arethas was at this time king of the Axumites, and Justin sent an ambassador named Julian to him, urging him to hostilities against Persia. In noticing this embassy (sub anno 571-2—A.M. 6064) Theophanes has borrowed the account that is given by Malalas of the reception of the ambassador Nonnosus by Elesbaas; and hence he is always supposed to refer to the same embassy and to have misdated it. But the substitution of the new names (Arcthas for Elesbaas, and Julianus for the ambassador whom Malalas does not name) refutes this opinion.
In this note I have derived much help from the valuable article of M. l'abbé Duchesne, Missions chrétiennes au sud de l'empire romain, which is included in his Eglises Séparées', 1896. Here will be found also an account of the conversions of the Blemmyes and the Nobadae of Upper Egypt.
18. THE WAR IN AFRICA AFTER THE DEATH OF SOLOMON
—(P. 390 sqq.)
John—who is distinguished, among the numerous officers who bore the same name, as the "brother of Pappus" (Jordanes calls him Troglita; Rom. 385)— arrived in Africa towards the end of A.D. 546. He had served under Belisarius in the overthrow of the Vandal kingdom and had remained in Africa during the first military governorship of Solomon (Joh. i.. 470). He was then commander of the army in Mesopotamia in the Persian War (Procop. B. P. 2, 14), and was engaged in the battle of Nisibis in which Nabedes was defeated in 541. Procopius (ib. 17) represents him as on this occasion rashly involving the army in extreme peril, which was only avoided by the skill of Belisarius; but Corippus ascribes the victory to his hero :—
confisos turbis densisque obstare sagittis
tempore quo late manarunt Nitzibis agri
sanguine Persarum, Parthoque a rege secundus
congressus Nabedes, fretus virtute feroci,
amisit socias ipso superante catervas, &c. (i. 58 sqq.).
- ↑ The motive of Malalas was to group it with other conversions of heathen kings.
- ↑ It is to be observed that the expedition of Abraha against Mecca, being mentioned by Procopius, B.P. i., 20 (see Noldeke, p. 205), was earlier than A.D. 545; so that Abraha might conceivably have been dead before 542; and another ruler might have intervened between
him and Yaksum ((
Greek characters)).
- ↑ This variation seems in itself to prove that Theophanes had before him another source.
