by these barbarians even up to my time, but the Emperor Justinian
decided 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