Ancient Historians Describe Meroe in Ancient Africa

Meroe was the second capital of the Kushite kingdom (750 BC - AD 350), located in what is now the Sudan, Africa. It is gaining fame for its matrilinear ruling queens [see "Nubian Queens in the Nile Valley and Afro-Asiatic Cultural History," by Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban; Museum of Fine Arts, 1998].

Ancient writers Herodotus (Greek; 5th century B.C.) and Strabo (Greek who may have had Roman citizenship; 1st century A.D. Augustan Age) traveled to Meroe. Here are passages by both of them describing Meroe in the context of information about the Nile, Egypt, and Ethiopia. Herodotus concentrates on the travel details; Strabo, on the geography and culture.

Herodotus

"29. From no other person was I able to learn anything about this matter; but for the rest I learnt so much as here follows by the most diligent inquiry;³⁷ for I went myself as an eye-witness as far as the city of Elephantine and from that point onwards I gathered knowledge by report. From the city of Elephantine as one goes up the river there is country which slopes steeply; so that here one must attach ropes to the vessel on both sides, as one fastens an ox, and so make one's way onward; and if the rope break, the vessel is gone at once, carried away by the violence of the stream. Through this country it is a voyage of about four days in length, and in this part the Nile is winding like the river Maiander, and the distance amounts to twelve schoines , which one must traverse in this manner. Then you will come to a level plain, in which the Nile flows round an island named Tachompso. (Now in the regions above Elephantine there dwell Ethiopians at once succeeding, who also occupy half of the island,³⁸ and Egyptians the other half.) Adjoining this island there is a great lake, round which dwell Ethiopian nomad tribes; and when you have sailed through this you will come to the stream of the Nile again, which flows into this lake. After this you will disembark and make a journey by land of forty days; for in the Nile sharp rocks stand forth out of the water, and there are many reefs, by which it is not possible for a vessel to pass. Then after having passed through this country in the forty days which I have said, you will embark again in another vessel and sail for twelve days; and after this you will come to a great city called Meroe. This city is said to be the mother-city of all the other Ethiopians: and they who dwell in it reverence of the gods Zeus and Dionysos alone, and these they greatly honour; and they have an Oracle of Zeus established, and make warlike marches whensoever this god commands them by prophesyings and to whatsoever place he commands."

_{37 επι μακροτατον, "carrying the inquiry as far as possible,"}

_{38 I have little doubt that this means the island of Elephantine; for at this point only would such a mixture of races be found. To this the writer here goes back parenthetically, and then resumes the account of the journey upwards from Tachompso. This view is confirmed by the fact that Strabo relates the same thing with regard to the island of Philai just above Elephantine.}

Source: Herodotus Book II

Strabo

"2 The Aethiopians live on millet and barley, from which they also make a drink; but instead of olive-oil they have butter and tallow. Neither do they have fruit trees, except a few date-palms in the royal gardens. But some use grass as food, as also tender twigs, lotus, and reed-roots; and they use meats, blood, milk, and cheese. They reverence as gods their kings, who generally stay shut up at home. Their greatest royal seat is Meroe, a city bearing the same name as the island. The island is said to be like an oblong shield in shape. Its size has perhaps been exaggerated: about three thousand stadia in length and one thousand in breadth. The island has both numerous mountains and large thickets; it is inhabited partly by nomads, partly by hunters, and partly by farmers; and it has mines of copper, iron, gold, and different kinds²⁵⁵ of precious stones. It is bounded on the Libyan side by large sand-dunes, and on the Arabian side by continuous precipices, and above, on the south, by the confluence of the three rivers - the Astaboras, and the Astapus and the Astasobas²⁵⁶ and on the north by the next course of the Nile, which extends to Aegypt along the aforesaid windings of the river. In the cities the dwellings are made of split pieces of palm-wood woven together, or of brick. And they have quarried salt, as do the Arabians. And, among the plants, the palm, the persea,²⁵⁷ the ebony, and the ceratia²⁵⁸ are found in abundance. And they have, not only elephants to hunt, but also lions and leopards. They also have serpents, the elephant-fighters, as also many other wild animals; for the animals flee for refuge from the hotter and more arid regions to those that are watery and marshy."

_{255 Diodorus Siculus (1.33) says "all kinds of precious stones."}

_{256 Cp. 17.1.2.}

_{257 This tree is carefully described by Pliny (N. H., 13.17).}

_{258 The carob or locust-tree.}

Source: Strabo Geography Loeb Edition Book XVII Chapter 2 (1932)

In this section, Strabo describes the relationship between Rome, under Augustus, and Meroe, under Candace, its queen.

More Ancient Writing on Meroe

• Pliny the Elder also writes about Meroe in his Natural History Book VI. Some of the Plinian references describe the physical location; others, constellations and the length of days.

• Dio Cassius Book 54 mentions Candace, in the context of the city of Elephantine, which was mentioned above, in the Herodotus passage.

• Diodorus Siculus Book 3 describes religion and worship at Meroe.

• KJV Acts of the Apostles [8.27]: "And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship."