cided to tear them down. Accordingly Narses, a Persarmenian by birth,
whom I have mentioned before as having deserted to the Romans[27], being
commander of the troops there, tore down the sanctuaries at the
emperor's order, and put the priests under guard and sent the statues to
Byzantium. But I shall return to the previous narrative.

XX

At about the time of this war Hellestheaeus, the king of the
Aethiopians, who was a Christian and a most devoted adherent of this
faith, discovered that a number of the Homeritae on the opposite
mainland were oppressing the Christians there outrageously; many of
these rascals were Jews, and many of them held in reverence the old
faith which men of the present day call Hellenic. He therefore collected
a fleet of ships and an army and came against them, and he conquered
them in battle and slew both the king and many of the Homeritae. He then
set up in his stead a Christian king, a Homerite by birth, by name
Esimiphaeus, and, after ordaining that he should pay a tribute to the
Aethiopians every year, he returned to his home. In this Aethiopian army
many slaves and all who were readily disposed to crime were quite
unwilling to follow the king back, but were left behind and remained
there because of their desire for the land of the Homeritae; for it is
an extremely goodly land.

These fellows at a time not long after this, in company with certain
others, rose against the king Esimiphaeus and put him in confinement in
one of the fortresses there, and established another king over the
Homeritae, Abramus by name. Now this Abramus was a Christian, but a
slave of a Roman citizen who was engaged in the business of shipping in
the city of Adulis in Aethiopia. When Hellestheaeus learned this, he was
eager to punish Abramus together with those who had revolted with him
for their injustice to Esimiphaeus, and he sent against them an army of
three thousand men with one of his relatives as commander. This army,
once there, was no longer willing to return home, but they wished to
remain where they were in a goodly land, and so without the knowledge of
their commander they opened negotiations with Abramus; then when they
came to an engagement with their opponents, just as the fighting began,
they killed their commander and joined the ranks of the enemy, and so
remained there. But Hellestheaeus was greatly moved with anger and sent
still another army against them; this force engaged with Abramus and