ETHICS Syrian Churches, their early History, Liturgies and Literature " (1849) ; " The Apostolic Acts and Epistles, from the Peshito" (1849); "Je- rusalem and Tiberias, a Survey of the Religious and Scholastic Learning of the Jews" (1856); and "The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan benUzziel" (1862). ETHICS. See MOEAL PHILOSOPHY. ETHIOPIA (Gr. Aieumla, from oZ0en>, to burn, and by, countenance), an ancient country of Africa, south of Egypt. The name was also used by the Greeks as an ethnic designation of all dark-complexioned races in Africa and Asia. The tribes most frequently mentioned were the Blemmyes, Megabari, Ichthyophagi or fish- eaters, Macrobii or long-lived, and Troglodyte or cave-dwellers. As late as the time of Da- rius we find " Ethiopians of Asia " forming part of the 17th satrapy. Ethiopia proper was bounded N. by Egypt, "W. by the desert of Bahiuda, E. by the river Astaboras, and S. by the districts above the modern city of Khartoom, at the junction of the Blue river and the White Nile. In a wider sense, ancient geographers designated as Ethiopia the whole region between the Red sea and the Atlantic ocean, S. of Libya and Egypt. Pliny divides it by the Nile into East and "West Ethiopia. Ethiopia proper included the state of Meroe, which was probably centred in the modern Sennaar; and as the city of Meroe became the capital of the land during the Meroe dy- nasty, the whole of Ethiopia was sometimes spoken of as the kingdom of Meroe. Another Ethiopian capital was Napata, which was prob- ably in the neighborhood of Mount Barkal ; but there is reason for supposing that this word designated a movable royal residence rather than a fixed locality. The early history of the country is obscure. About 3,000 years before our era a considerable branch of the Cushite race, who had probably dwelt in Hedjaz, Ara- bia, crossed the Red sea, and settled in Ethio- Eia, the land of Napata and Meroe, till then ihabited by negroes. These regions of the upper Nile were from that time designated as the land of Gush. (See CUSH.) Other Cushites, called Sabseans, established themselves further south on the coast of Africa, opposite Yemen. The northern Cushites soon mixed with the negroes and Egyptians, and acquired peculiar- ities in type and language which separated them from the kindred race on the coast. As early as the 12th Egyptian dynasty (about 3000-2850 B. C.) they seem to have grown dangerous to the Egyptians, as the fortresses of Kumneh and Seinneh were built near the second cataract of the Nile to oppose them. Several steles recently found show that Osor- tasen III. conquered them, and in the tomb of Ameni, one of his generals, is an account of the campaign and his subsequent administration of the new province. The Ethiopian history of the thousand years following has not yet come to light. During the 17th century B. C. (according to the chronology of Mariette), the ETHIOPIA 749 Ethiopians were again at war with the Egyp- tians. Amen-hotep I. (Amenophis) was not as successful as Thothmes I., his successor, who left a description of his exploits on the rocks on the banks of the Nile, opposite the island of Tomboa, about lat. 19 30' N. The Ethiopians remained quiet for about two cen- turies, but rebelled again at the beginning of the 15th century, and were subdued by Har- em-Hebi, who, according to an inscription at Silsilis, " chastised the land of Cush as he had promised his father." In the time of Rameses II. the Ethiopians revolted again, and with them the negro tribes of Libya that had been subject to Egypt ; but after long and bloody wars they were again subdued. -In the subse- quent period the country was nearly every year invaded by the Egyptians, who came on a sort of slave-hunting expedition, and carried away thousands of every age and of both sexes. At the invasion of Egypt by the descendants of the shepherds, Merneptah (1341-1321 B. C.) sought with 300,000 men an asylum in Ethio- pia, and remained there till his son Seti IL, 20 years later, regained the throne. The Ethio- pian king Azerkh-Amen (the Zerah of Scrip- ture) invaded Egypt during the reign of Uasar- ken I. (or of Uasarken IL), and penetrated into Palestine, where he was finally conquered about 941 by Asa, king of Judah. His defeat was so complete that he seems not even to have main- tained his position in Egypt, but to have retired at once to his kingdom. Two centuries later, however, the kings of Ethiopia gained the crown of Egypt. Shabaka, the Sabaco of the Greeks and the So of the Bible, conquered all Egypt to the Mediterranean, and burned alive the king Bokenranf. Shabaka was subsequently calledonby Hoshea,kingof Israel, for assistance against the Assyrians ; but he started too late to save Samaria, though an inscription at Karnak names Syria as tributary to him. A little later Tahraka (Tirhakah) successfully fought the army of Sennacherib, but warded off the dan- ger for a short time only, for Esarhaddon en- tered Egypt and conquered him near Memphis. Esarhaddon remained two years in the country, and entitled himself " king of Egypt and Ethi- opia" (669). Tahraka reconquered the whole Nile valley, but was not able to maintain his supremacy against the troops of Asshur-bani- pal, and retreated beyond the cataracts. The insurrection that broke out soon after in the Delta gave Tahraka another opportunity to descend the Nile, and he drove out the Assyr- ians. Necho, the general of Asshur-bani-pal, regained the Delta, and Rot- Amen, son-in-law of Tahraka, succeeded only to the thrones of Thebes and Napata. He put to death Necho, whom he had taken captive in a battle for the possession of the Delta, but was finally driven back to his Ethiopian states by Asshur-bani- pal, who came in person to reconquer Lower Egypt. Rot- Amen died without direct heirs, and Amen-meri-Nut, who was probably only distantly related to him, was proclaimed king.
