In this way Arabian, Jewish, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman influences spread
slowly upon the Negro foundation. Early legendary history declares that a
queen, Maqueda, or Nikaula of Sheba, a state of Central Abyssinia, visited
Solomon in 1050 B.C. and had her son Menelik educated in Jerusalem. This
was the supposed beginning of the Axumite kingdom, the capital of which,
Axume, was a flourishing center of trade. Ptolemy Evergetes and his
successors did much to open Abyssinia to the world, but most of the
population of that day was nomadic. In the fourth century Byzantine
influences began to be felt, and in 330 St. Athanasius of Alexandria
consecrated Fromentius as Bishop of Ethiopia. He tutored the heir to the
Abyssinian kingdom and began its gradual christianization. By the early
part of the sixth century Abyssinia was trading with India and Byzantium
and was so far recognized as a Christian country that the Emperor
Justinian appealed to King Kaleb to protect the Christians in southwestern
Arabia. Kaleb conquered Yemen in 525 and held it fifty years.

Eventually a Jewish princess, Judith, usurped the Axumite throne; the
Abyssinians were expelled from Arabia, and a long period begins when as
Gibbon says, "encompassed by the enemies of their religion, the Ethiopians
slept for nearly a thousand years, forgetful of the world by whom they
were forgotten." Throughout the middle ages, however, the legend of a
great Christian kingdom hidden away in Africa persisted, and the search
for Prester John became one of the world quests.

It was the expanding power of Abyssinia that led Rome to call in the
Nubians from the western desert. The Nubians had formed a strong league of
tribes, and as the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia declined they drove back
the Abyssinians, who had already established themselves at Meroe.