578 APPENDIX Abramos soon demanded a second intervention on the part of Elesbaas. This time the negus was unlucky. One Abyssinian army deserted to the rebel, and a second was destroyed. Abramos remained in power, and after the death of Elesbaas recognized the overlordship of his successor. In connexion with the Homerite persecution, we must notice the shadowy figure of Gregentius, the Homerite bishop, who if he existed — and there seems no good reason to doubt it — flourished in che reign of Justin I. and Justinian. To him are attributed two works NJuoi ra>v 'OfJ.rjpiraiy and bid.Ae£ts /j.era 'lovSaiov 'Epfiav rovvo/ia, printed in Migne, P. G. 86, 561 sqq. There is a short biographical notioe of him in the Synaxarium Ecol. Cplitanse under December 19 (328-30, ed. Delehaye, 1902), but a full life is also preserved in Mas., and extracts from it have been recently published by A. Vasil'ev, from a Sinai Ms., in the Vizantiiski Vremennik, 14, 23 sqq., 1907. According to this narrative, Abramos was set up by Elesbaas, by the suggestion of Gregentius (who had been consecrated bishop and sent to Yemen by the Patriarch of Alexandria, Proterios). Abramos reigned for thirty years, and Gregentius survived him. [For the war of the Ethiopians with the Homerites, compare the articles in the Zeitschrift der morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, by Fell, 35, 74 sqq., 1881, and Mordtmann, 31, 67 sqq., 1877 ; 35, 693 sqq., 1881 ; also that of J. Deramey in the Eevue de l'histoire des religions, 28, 14 sqq., 1893 (cp. ib., 31, 155 sqq., 1895).] The embassy of Nomiosus to Elesbaas probably took place in the year a.d. 530. 5 In the year a.d. 542-3 we find, according to Theophanes (p. 223, ed. de Boor), Adad, king of the Axumites, and Damian, king of the Homerites. Damian put to death Eoman merchants who entered Yemen, on the ground that they injured his Jewish subjects. This policy injured the trade between Abyssinia and the Empire, and Adad and Damian fell out. Then Adad, who was still a heathen, swore that, if he conquered the Homerites, he would become a Christian. He was victorious and kept his vow, and sent to Justinian for a bishop. A man named John was sent from Alexandria. This notice of Theophanes was derived from John Malalas, who however apparently placed it in the first year of Justinian (a.d. 527-8). This date cannot be right, as Elesbaas was king of the Axumites in that year. M. Duchesne thinks that the episode of Adad (who in Malalas is called Andan) and Damian (Dimnos, in Malalas, more correctly) was anterior to the reign of Elesbaas. This may seem a hazardous conjecture. There is no reason why a successor of Elesbaas (whether his son or not) must needs have been a Christian ; and it i6 hard to believe that Theophanes acted purely arbitrarily in placing under the year a.d. 542-3 an event which he found in Malalas under 527-8. 6 It must be observed that Malalas was not the only source of Theophanes. On the other hand Ibn Ishaq (apud Tabari ; Noldeke, 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 Ishaq assigns an impossible number of years to these kings ; and I doubt whether his statements are absolutely decisive as against Theophanes. 7 It is another question whether, as Gutschmid and Noldeke have suggested, Malalas and Theophanes and John of Ephesus (who has the same story) have inter- changed the names of the Axumite and Homerite kings (see Noldeke, Tabari, p. 175). The reason is that on the obverse of some coins Ai^av appears as the heathen king, of the Axumites ; while on the reverse 'A<piSas is represented as the vassal king of the 5 We know from Nonnosus himself (ap. Phot. Bibl. Cod. 3 = Mliller, iv. p. 179) that he was sent to Elesbaas ; and it seems justifiable to identify this embassy with that described by Malalas (p. 457). From the previous dates in Malalas, it seems probable that the year was A.D. 530. The date a.d. 533 (given by Gibbon, Muller, &c.) is too late ; for the mission must have been previous to the conclusion of the peace. 6 The motive of Malalas was to group it with other conversions of heathen kings. 7 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 ('Ia|»yiti).
