Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

112 3 Military confrontations
their rule as far as south-west Arabia. 189 This inevitably affected Byzantium’s
economic interests because the Romans wanted to control the Red
Sea and thereby also the lucrative trade with India. 190 The fast spread of
Christianity on both sides of the Red Sea, in Ethiopia as well as within
the Arabian Peninsula, almost suggested Byzantium as a natural ally of
these states. 191 While in Ethiopia the Aksūmites had become Christians
and were backing the West, the Himyarites, who at the time were the dominant
power in South Arabia, had not yet been swayed by Christianity. In
particular the ambitious Jewish Himyarite king Yusuf, who wanted to establish
an empire of south-west Arabia, did not refrain from persecuting the
Christians. 192 Between 517 and 525 Yusuf’s national and religious subversive
movement dissolved the previous Aksūmite rule and assumed power. These
years were characterised by intensive persecutions of the Christians and
by a hostile attitude against Aksūm and Byzantium, which was especially
directed against merchants. Yusuf’s rule therefore impaired Roman trade
considerably.
In 525 a joint force of Romans and Aksūmites struck a decisive blow
against the Himyarites. The consequence was a second Ethiopian rule in
the Yemen, which lasted into the early 70s. 193 The Aksūmites appointed
a new Arab king of the Himyarites, who became a tribute paying dependant
of Aksūm. The Romans tried to maintain good relations with both
parties, not least because they wanted to win them over to become Roman
allies in the continuing war with the Sasanians. Moreover, they wanted
to avoid Persian intermediate trade but rather establish a direct route via
the Red Sea to India. At the beginning of the 530s the Ethiopian general
Abramos achieved Aksūm’s independence and founded his own state in
South Arabia. 194 Although his enemies approached Xusrō I and urged him
to intervene against the new ruler, the political situation in south-west
Arabia did not change until Abramos died in the year 570. However, the
accelerated spread of the Christian faith during this phase led to a closer
189 Smith 1954: 425–68; Bosworth 1983: 604–12;Müller 1991: 303–31; Shahîd 1995a: passim, esp. 723–4
and Morony 2001–2002: 25–37.
190 It is remarkable that Procopius BP i.19.1 and i.20.9 tells us about Justinian’s efforts to win the
friendship of the Aksumites in Ethiopia and of the Himyarites in South Arabia; Wiesehöfer 1998b:
19 sees these contacts with Aksūm and South Arabia, which enabled the Romans to avoid Sasanian
territory, closely linked with the Persian offensives in South Arabia.
191 On early Roman activities in Aksūm see Pigulevskaja 1969: 211–24.
192 Proc. BP i.20.1.
193 On the history of Aksūm in late antiquity, especially its attempts to expand into South Arabia, see
Munro-Hay 1991; Harmatta 1974: 95–100.
194 Proc. BP i.20.3–8.