fontes historiae nubiorum - Digitalt - Universitetet i Bergen

Fontes Historiae Nubiorum II
Introduction to source
For a general introduction to Pliny the Elder, Roman administrator, general,
and encyclopaedist (bom AD 23), and his Naturalis historia, see FHN III, 195.
For Aristocreon cf. 100 and 103.
Our Latin text is based on Jacoby (1958) No. 667 F3.
Text
[191] Aristocreon Libyae latere a Meroe oppidum Tollen dierum V itinere tradit,
inde dierum XII Aesar oppidum Aegyptiorum qui Psammetichum fugerint; in
eo prodente se CCC habitasse; contra in Arabico latere Diaron oppidum esse eorum.
Insula in Nilo Sembritarum reginae paret. [192] Ab ea Nubaei Aethiopes
dierum VIII itinere—oppidum eorum Nilo inpositum Tenupsis—, Sesambri,
apud quos quadrupedes omnes sine auribus, etiam elephanti; at ex Africae
parte tptoenbani thonenpanit, qui canem pro rege habent, motu eius imperia
augurantes, Harusbi oppido longe ab Nilo sito, postea Archisarmi, Phalliges,
Marigarri, Chasamari.
Translation
[191] Aristocreon relates that on the Libyan side [of the Nile] the town of Tollen
lies at a distance of five days' journey from Meroe; from there it is twelve days'
journey to Aesar, the town of the Egyptians who fled from Psammetich, a town
of 3000 inhabitants; opposite, on the Arabian side, is the town of Diaron, which
belongs to them.
There is an island in the Nile, belonging to the Sembrites, which is under
the rule of a queen. [1921 From this island it is eight days' journey to the
Aithiopian Nubians (Nubaei)—their town, Tenupsis, is situated on the Nile—,
and the Sesambrians, among whom all quadrupeds lack ears, even the elephants;
on the African side are the ...233 who have a dog as king, from whose
movements they divine its commands, the Harusbians, who live in a town
situated far from the Nile, further the Archisarmians, the Phalliges, the Marigarrians,
the Chasamarians.
[TE]
Comments
Aristocreon, as indicated by this excerpt from his lost work, also studied
Herodotus' description of Aithiopia (see FHN I, 56). While, however, the journey
from Meroe to the Deserters took 56 days according to Herodotus, Aristocreon
knows only of a 17 days travelling distance. The towns of Aesar and Diaron
belonging to the invented (Herodotus?) people of the Deserters (for the
classical tradition on these see FHN I, 56, Comments, end) are unidentifiable
233 For ptoenbani thonenpani in the Latin text editors have suggested various ethnic names.
548