Citation with stable link: Philip A. Harland, 'Egyptians: Strabo on animal gods and accompanying rites (early first century CE),' Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World, last modified September 2, 2024, https://philipharland.com/Blog/?p=21818.

Ancient author: Strabo (early first century CE), Geography 17.1.1-54 (with some omissions) and 17.2.5 (link).

Comments: Following his discussion of Arabians, Strabo turns further southwest to deal with Egyptians and some other peoples within Egypt. He starts by suggesting a high level of civilization for Egyptians in many respects when compared to Ethiopians (further south), who come next in the discussion. Strabo’s survey of Egyptians’ customs, however, focusses almost entirely on sanctuaries, gods, and especially the apparent worship of animals. (He also seems overly dependent on Herodotos’ much earlier work at points). Strabo generally refrains from some of the more denigrating comments about “animal worship” found in other Greek and Roman authors. One wonders whether he thought he knew much at all about Egyptian customs more generally, even though elsewhere he explains that he went on an expedition up the Nile with the Roman prefect Gallus (link). At one point, Strabo speaks in the first person about experiencing certain rites, perhaps while on that expedition.

Works consulted: D.W. Roller, A Historical and Topographical Guide to the Geography of Strabo (Cambridge: CUP, 2018).

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[For Strabo’s preceding discussion of Arabians, go to this link].

[Introduction to Egypt]

(17.1.1) Since, in my description of Arabia, I have also included the gulfs which pinch it and make it a peninsula, I mean the Persian and Arabian gulfs, and at the same time have gone around certain parts of both Egypt and Ethiopia, I mean the countries of the Troglodytes [on the west coast of the Red Sea] and the peoples situated in order after them as far as the Cinnamon-bearing country [modern Somalia], I must now present the remaining parts that are continuous with these peoples (ethnē), that is, the parts in the neighbourhood of the Nile. After that I will traverse Libya, which is the last remaining subject of my whole geography. And here too I must first present the declarations of Eratosthenes.

[Sembritians, Blemmyians, Megabarians, and Trogodytes, according to Eratosthenes]

(17.1.2) [omitted lengthy discussion of measurements of the Nile]. . . Above the confluence of the Astaboras and the Nile, he says, at a distance of seven hundred stadium-lengths, lies Meroe, a city bearing the same name as the island.There is another island above Meroe which is held by the Egyptian fugitives who revolted in the time of Psammetichos, and are called “Sembritians,” meaning “foreigners.” They are ruled by a queen, but they are subject to the kings of Meroe. The lower parts of the country on either side of Meroe, along the Nile towards the Red Sea, are inhabited by Megabarians and Blemmyians, who are subject to the Ethiopians and border on the Egyptians, and, along the sea, inhabited by Troglodytes (the Troglodytes opposite Meroe are a ten or twelve days’ journey distant from the Nile). However, the parts on the left side of the course of the Nile, in Libya, are inhabited by Nubians, a large population who, beginning at Meroe, extend as far as the bends of the river, and are not subject to the Ethiopians but are divided into several separate kingdoms. The extent of Egypt along the sea from the Pelusiac to the Canobic mouth is one thousand three hundred stadium-lengths. This, then, is what Eratosthenes says.

[Egyptians as a civilized people due to position on the Nile]

(17.1.3) But it is necessary to speak at greater length, and first of the parts about Egypt, in order to proceed from those that are better known to those that come in order afterwards. For the Nile effects certain common results in this country and in that which is continuous with it and lies above it, I mean the country of the Ethiopians, in that it waters them at the time of its rise and also leaves also those parts of them habitable which have been covered during the overflows, and in that it merely passes through all the higher parts that are at a greater altitude than its current, leaving them uninhabited and desert on both sides because of the same lack of water. However, the Nile does not pass through the whole of Ethiopia, nor alone, nor in a straight line, but it alone passes through Egypt, through the whole of it and in a straight line, beginning from the little cataract above Syene and Elephantine, which are the boundaries of Egypt and Ethiopia, to its outlets on the sea-coast.

In fact, the Ethiopians mostly live a nomadic and resourceless life because of the barrenness of the country, because of the unseasonableness of its climate, and because of its remoteness from us. Whereas with the Egyptians the contrary is the case in every respect because, from the beginning, they have led a civic and cultivated life and have been settled in well-known regions, so that their organisations are worthy of comment. The Egyptians are commended in that they are thought to have used worthily the good fortune of their country, having divided it well and having taken good care of it.

[Social organization and classes: soldiers, farmers, and priests]

When they had appointed a king they divided the people into three classes, and they called one class soldiers, another farmers, and another priests. The last class had the care of things sacred and the other two classes took care of things relating to human beings. Some had charge of the affairs of war, and others of all the affairs of peace, both tilling soil and following trades, from which sources the revenues were gathered for the king. The priests devoted themselves both to the pursuit of wisdom and to study of the stars, and they were companions of the king.

[Organization into districts]

The country was first divided into districts (nomes), the Thebais containing ten, the country in the Delta ten, and the country between them sixteen (according to some, the number of the districts all told was the same as that of the halls in the Labyrinth, but the number of these is less than thirty). Furthermore, the districts were divided into other sections, for most of them were divided into toparchies, and these also into other sections. The smaller portions were the arourai. There was need of this accurate and minute division on account of the continuous confusion of the boundaries caused by the Nile at the time of its increases, since the Nile takes away and adds soil, and changes conformations of lands, and in general hides from view the signs by which one’s own land is distinguished from that of another. Of necessity, therefore, the lands must be re-measured again and again. And here it was, they say, that the knowledge of land-measurement originated, just as accounting and arithmetic originated with the Phoenicians, because of their commerce. Like the people as a whole, the people in each district were also divided into three parts, since the land had been divided into three equal parts. The activity of people in connection with the river goes so far as to conquer nature through diligence.

[Agricultural management]

For by nature the land produces more fruit than do other lands, and still more when watered. But when nature has failed, often diligence has availed to bring about the watering of as much land even at the time of the smaller rises of the river as at the greater rises, that is, through the means of canals and embankments. Anyways, in the times before Petronius [Roman prefect of Egypt, ca. 24-21 BCE] the crop was the largest and the rise the highest when the Nile would rise to fourteen cubits, and when it would rise to only eight a famine would ensue. But in the time of his rule over the country, and when the Nilometer registered only twelve cubits, the crop was the largest, and once, when it registered only eight cubits, no one felt hunger. Such is the organisation of Egypt. But let me now describe the things that come next in order. . . [omitted extensive discussion of the flow of the Nile].

[Defining Egypt]

(17.1.5) . . . Now the early writers gave the name Egypt to only the part of the country that was inhabited and watered by the Nile, beginning at the region of Syene and extending to the sea. However, the later writers down to the present time have added on the eastern side approximately all the parts between the Arabian gulf and the Nile (the Ethiopians do not use the Red Sea at all), and on the western side the parts extending as far as the oases, and on the sea-coast the parts extending from the Canobic mouth to Katabathmos and the domain of the Cyrenaians. For the kings after Ptolemy became so powerful that they took possession of Cyrenaia itself and even united Cypros with Egypt. The Romans, who succeeded the Ptolemies, separated their three dominions and have kept Egypt within its former limits. The Egyptians call “oases” the inhabited districts which are surrounded by large deserts, like islands in the open sea. There is many an oasis in Libya, and three of them lie close to Egypt and are classed as subject to it. This, then, is my general, or summary, account of Egypt, and I will now discuss the separate parts and the excellent attributes of the country. . . [omitted initial physical description of Alexandria and surroundings].

[Roman control of Egypt under the prefect and characterization of the population of Alexandria]

(17.1.12) Egypt is now a Roman province. It not only pays considerable tribute, but also is governed by prudent men, namely, the prefects who are sent there from time to time. Now the person who is sent has the rank of the king. Subordinate to him is the administrator of justice, who has supreme authority over most of the law-suits. Another is the official called “Idiologos,” who inquires into all properties that are without owners and that should go to Caesar. These officials are attended by freedmen of Caesar, as well as stewards, who are entrusted with affairs of more or less importance. There are also three legions of soldiers, one of which is stationed in the city and the others in the country. Apart from these there are nine Roman cohorts, three in the city, three on the borders of Ethiopia in Syene, as a guard for that region, and three in the rest of the country. And there are also three bodies of horsemen, which likewise are assigned to the various critical points. Of the native officials in the city, one is the Interpreter (exēgētēs), who is clad in purple, has hereditary prerogatives, and is in charge of the interests of the city; another is the Recorder; still another is the Chief Judge; and, the fourth is the Night Commander. Now these officers existed also in the time of the kings. Yet, since the kings were carrying on a bad government, the prosperity of the cities was well as vanishing on account of the prevailing lawlessness.

Anyways, Polybios, who had visited the city, is disgusted with the state of affairs at that time. He says that three groups inhabited the city: first, the Egyptian native tribe, who were quick-tempered and not inclined to strife; second, the mercenary class, who were severe and numerous and intractable (for by an ancient custom they would maintain foreign soldiers who had been trained to rule rather than to be ruled, on account of the worthlessness of the kings); and, third, the tribe of the Alexandrians, who also were not distinctly inclined to civic life, and for the same reasons, but still they were better than those others, for even though they were a mixed, still they were Greeks by origin and mindful of the customs common to the Greeks. But after this mass of people had also been blotted out, chiefly by Euergetes Physkon, in whose time Polybios went to Alexandria (for, being opposed by factions, Physkon more often sent the masses against the soldiers and thus caused their destruction). With this state of affairs in the city, Polybios says, truly there remained for one merely “to go to Egypt, a long and painful journey,” in the words of the poet [Homer, Odyssey 4.483].

(17.1.13) Such, then, if not worse, was the state of affairs under the later kings as well. But the Romans have, to the best of their ability, I might say, set most things right, having organized the city as I have said, and having appointed throughout the country officials called chief-commanders (epistratēgoi), district-leaders, and people-leaders, thought worthy to superintend affairs of no great importance. Among the happy advantages of the city, the greatest is the fact that this is the only place in all Egypt which is by nature well situated with reference to both things: commerce by sea because of good harbours and commerce by land because the river easily conveys and brings together everything into a place so situated. This is the greatest trading-center in the inhabited world.. . [omitted sections providing a navigatoinal itinerary from one place to the next].

[Egyptian, Carthaginian, and Persian negativity towards foreigners, and the cowherd bandits of the Delta region]

(17.1.19) . . . According to Eratosthenes, the expulsion of foreigners (xenēlasia) is a custom common to all barbarians, and yet the Egyptians are condemned for this fault because of the myths which have been circulated about Bousiris in connection with the Bousirite district [located in the centre of the Nile Delta]. The later writers wish falsely to malign the inhospitality of this place even though – my Zeus – no king or tyrant named Bousiris ever existed. Eratosthenes also says that the poet’s words are also constantly cited: “to go to Egypt, long and painful journey.” The lack of harbours contributes very much to this opinion, as well as the fact that even the harbour which Egypt did have, the one at Pharos, gave no access, but was guarded by cowherd bandits (boukoloi lēstai) and who attacked those who tried to bring ships to anchor there. Eratosthenes adds that the Carthaginians likewise used to drown in the sea any foreigners who sailed past their country to Sardo or to the Pillars [Rock of Gibraltar] and that it is for this reason that most of the stories told about the west are disbelieved. Furthermore, he says that the Persians would treacherously guide the ambassadors over roundabout roads and through difficult regions. . . [omitted sections].

[Priests of Helioupolis previously associated with wisdom and astronomy]

(17.1.29) In Helioupolis [part of modern Cairo] I also saw large houses in which the priests lived. It is said that this place in particular was in ancient times a settlement of priests who pursued wisdom and study of the stars. However, both this organisation and its pursuits have now disappeared. At Helioupolis, in fact, no one was pointed out to me as presiding over such pursuits, but only those who performed the sacrifices and explained to strangers what pertained to the sacred rites. When Aelius Gallus the prefect sailed up into Egypt [i.e. south], he was accompanied by a certain man from Alexandria, Chairemon by name, who pretended to some knowledge of this kind, but was generally ridiculed as a bragger and ignorant person.

[Legend of Plato and Eudoxos learning from the priests, including the 365 day year]

However, at Helioupolis the houses of the priests and places of Plato and Eudoxos [of Knidos] were pointed out to us. Eudoxos went up to that place with Plato, and they both passed thirteen years with the priests, as is stated by some writers. Since these priests excelled in their knowledge of the heavenly bodies, even though the priests were secretive and slow to impart that knowledge, Plato and Eudoxos convinced the priests in time and by courting their favour to let them learn some of the principles of their doctrines. But the barbarians concealed most things. However, these priests did teach them the fractions of the day and night which, running over and above the three hundred and sixty five days, fill out the time of the true year. But at that time the true year was unknown among the Greeks, as well as many other things, until the later astrologers learned from the men who had translated into Greek the records of the priests. Even to this day they learn their teachings, and likewise those of the Chaldeans. . . [omitted sections].

(17.1.30) From Helioupolis, then, one comes to the Nile above the Delta [i.e. south of the Delta]. Of this, the parts on right [i.e. the west], as one sails up [i.e. south], are called Libya, as well as the parts around Alexandria and Mareotis lake, whereas those on the left [i.e. east] are called Arabia. Now Helioupolis is in Arabia, but the city Kerkesoura, which lies near the observatories of Eudoxos, is in Libya. One can see a kind of watch-tower in front of Helioupolis, as well as in front of Knidos, with reference to which Eudoxos would note down his observations of certain movements of the heavenly bodies. This is in the Letopolite district.

[Settlement of Babylonians]

After sailing farther up river [i.e. south], one comes to Babylon, a stronghold, where some Babylonians had withdrawn in revolt and then successfully negotiated for permission from the kings to build a settlement. But now it is an encampment of one of the three legions that guard Egypt. There is a ridge extending from the encampment even as far as the Nile, on which the water is conducted up from the river by wheels and screws. One hundred and fifty prisoners are employed in the work. From here one can clearly see the pyramids on the far side of the river at Memphis, and they are near to it.

[Rites at Memphis]

(17.1.31) Memphis [modern Mit Rahina] itself, the royal residence of the Egyptians, is also near Babylon. For the distance to it from the Delta is only three large land measures (schoinoi). It contains temples, one of which is that of Apis, who is the same as Osiris. It is here that the bull Apis is kept in a kind of sanctuary, being regarded, as I have said, as god. Apis’ forehead and certain other small parts of his body are marked with white, but the other parts are black. It is by these marks that they always choose the bull suitable for the succession, when the one that holds the honour has died. In front of the sanctuary is situated a court, in which there is another sanctuary belonging to the bull’s mother. Into this court they set Apis loose at a certain hour, particularly that he may be shown to foreigners, because although people can see him through the window in the sanctuary, they wish to see him outside as well.. But when he has finished a short bout of skipping in the court they take him back again to his familiar stall.

Not only is there the temple of Apis here, which lies near the sanctuary of Hephaistos [i.e. Ptah], but also the sanctuary of Hephaistos itself. This is a costly structure both in the size of its temple (naos) and in all other respects. In front, in the walking area, stands also a large statue made of one stone. It is the custom to hold bull-fights in this walking area., and certain men breed these bulls for the purpose, like horse-breeders. The bulls are set loose and join in combat, and the one that is regarded as victor gets a prize. At Memphis there is also a temple of Aphrodite, who is considered to be a Greek goddess, though some say that it is a temple of Selene.

(17.1.32) There is also a sanctuary of Sarapis at Memphis, in a place so very sandy that dunes of sand are heaped up by the winds. By these some of the sphinxes which I saw were buried even to the head and others were only half-visible. From this situation, one might guess the danger if a sand-storm should fall upon a man travelling on foot towards the temple. The city is both large and populous, ranks second after Alexandria, and consists of a mixture of people, like those who have settled together at Alexandria. There are lakes situated in front of the city and the palaces. The palaces, which are now in ruins and deserted, are situated on a height and extend down to the ground of the city below. Adjoining the city are a grove and a lake. . . [omitted sections about pyramids, about other locales, and about Strabo’s Stoic-oriented theory of nature and providence].

[Rites at Arsinoe, which Strabo participated in]

(17.1.38) Sailing along shore for a distance of one hundred stadium-lengths, one comes to the city Arsinoe [modern Kiman Faris], which in earlier times was called Krokodeilonpolis. For those in this district hold in very great honour the crocodile, and there is a sacred one there which is kept and fed by itself in a lake, and is tame to the priests. It is called Souchos, and it is fed on grain and pieces of meat and on wine, which are always being fed to it by the foreigners (xenoi) who go to see it.

Anyways, our host, one of the officials, who was introducing us into the mysteries there, went with us to the lake, carrying from the dinner a kind of small cake, some roasted meat and a pitcher of wine mixed with honey. We found the animal lying on the edge of the lake. When the priests went up to it, some of them opened its mouth and another put in the cake, and again the meat, and then poured down the honey mixture. The animal then leaped into the lake and rushed across to the far side. But when another foreigner arrived, likewise carrying an offering of first-fruits, the priests took it, went around the lake in a run, took hold of the animal, and in the same manner fed it what had been brought.

[Rites at Herakles City]

(17.1.39) After the Arsinoite and Herakleotic districts, one comes to a City of Herakles [modern Ihnasya al-Medina], where the people hold in honour the mongoose (ichneumon), the very opposite of the practice of the inhabitis of the Arsinoe. Whereas the latter hold the crocodile in honour – and for this reason both their canal and the Moeris lake are full of crocodiles because the people revere them and abstain from harming them – the former hold in honour the mongoose, which are the deadliest enemies of the crocodile, as well as of the asp snake. For the mongooses destroy not only the eggs of the asps, but also the asps themselves, having armed themselves with a breastplate of mud. First they roll themselves in mud, make it dry in the sun. Then, seizing the asps by either the head or the tail, drag them down into the river and kill them. As for the crocodiles, the mongooses lie in wait for them. When the crocodiles are basking in the sun with their mouths open the mongooses throw themselves into their open jaws, eat through their entrails and bellies, and emerge from their dead bodies.

[Rites at Kynonpolis]

(17.1.40) One comes next to the Kynopolite district, and to Kynonpolis, where Anubis is held in honour where a form of worship and sacred feeding has been organised for all dogs. On the far side of the river lie the city Oxyrynchos and a district bearing the same name. They hold in honour the oxyrynchos-fish and have a temple sacred to Oxyrynchos, though the other Egyptians in common also hold in honour the oxyrynchos.

[Clarification regarding customs of animal worship in Egypt]

In fact, certain animals are worshipped by all Egyptians in common. For example, they worship three land animals, namely the bull, dog and cat; two birds, namely the hawk and ibis; and two aquatic animals, namely scale-fish and the oxyrynchos-fish. However, there are other animals which are honoured by separate groups independently of the rest, including a sheep by the Saitians and by the Thebans; a latus-fish of the Nile by the Latopolitians; a wolf (lykos) by the Lykopolitians; a dog-faced baboon by the Hermopolitians; a nisnas-monkey (kēbos) by the Babylonians who live near Memphis (the nisnas-monkey has a face like a satyr, is between a dog and a bear in other respects, and is bred in Ethiopia); an eagle by the Thebans; a lion by the Leontopolitians; a female and male goat by the Mendesians; a shrew-mouse by the Athribitians; and, other animals by other peoples. However, the reasons which they give for worshipping such animals differ. . . [omitted sections].

[Rites at Abydos and Tentyra]

(17.1.44) At Abydos they hold in honour Osiris. In the temple of Osiris neither singer nor flute-player nor harp-player is permitted to begin the rites in honour of the god, as is the custom in the case of the other gods. After Abydos one comes to the Little Diospolis, and to the city Tentyra where, in contrast to other Egypitans, the people hold in particular dishonour the crocodile and consider it the most hateful of all animals. For although the others know the malice of the animal and how destructive it is to human beings, they still they revere it and abstain from harming it. Whereas the Tentyritians track them and completely destroy them. Some say that, just as there is a kind of natural antipathy between the Psyllians near Cyrenaia and reptiles, so there is between the Tentyritians and crocodiles. The result is that they suffer no injury from them, but even dive in the river without fear and cross over, though no others are bold enough to do so.

When the crocodiles were brought to Rome for exhibition, they were attended by the Tentyritians. When a reservoir and a kind of stage above one of the sides had been made for them, so that they could go out of the water and have a basking-place in the sun, these men at one time, stepping into the water all together, would drag them in a net to the basking-place, so that they could be seen by the spectators, and at another would pull them down again into the reservoir. They worship Aphrodite there is a temple of Isis behind Aphrodite’s shrine. Then one comes to the Typhonia, as they are called, and to the canal that leads to Koptos, a city common to the Egyptians and the Arabians. . . [omitted sections].

[Rites, wise priests, and supposed sacred prostitution at Thebes]

(17.1.46) After Apollonospolis one comes to Thebes, which is now called Diospolis: “Thebes of the hundred gates, from which two hundred men come out to attack through each with horses and chariots” [Iliad 9.383]. That’s what Homer says, and he also speaks about its wealth: “even all the revenue of Egyptian Thebes, where lies in treasure-houses the greatest wealth.” And others also say things of this kind, making this city the metropolis of Egypt. Even now traces of its magnitude are pointed out, extending as they do for a distance of eighty stadium-lengths in length. There are several temples, but most of these, too, were damaged by Cambyses [the Persian king]. Now it is only a collection of villages, a part of it being in Arabia, where the city used to be, and a part on the far side of the river, where the sanctuary of Memnon was. Here are two colossal statues, which are near one another and are each made of a single stone. One of them is preserved, but the upper parts of the other, from the seat up, fell when an earthquake took place, so it is said. It is believed that once each day a noise, as of a slight blow, emanates from the part of the latter that remains on the throne and its base. When I was at these places with Aelius Gallus and his crowd of associates, both friends and soldiers, I myself heard the noise at about the first hour. However, whether it came from the base or from the colossal statue, or whether the noise was made on purpose by one of the men who were standing all around and near to the base, I am unable positively to assert Because of the uncertainty of the cause, I am induced to believe anything rather than that the sound issued from stones thus fixed.

Above the sanctuary of Memnon, in caves, are tombs of kings, which are stone-hewn, are about forty in number, are marvellously constructed, and are a spectacle worth seeing. Among the tombs, on some obelisks, are inscriptions which show the wealth of the kings at that time, and also their dominion, as having extended as far as the Scythians, Baktrians and Indians and what is today Ionia, and the amount of tributes they received, and the size of army they had, about one million men. The priests there are said to have been, for the most part, experts in study of the stars and pursuers of wisdom.

It is due to these priests also that people reckon the days, not by the moon, but by the sun, adding to the twelve months of thirty days each five days each year. For the filling out the whole year, since a fraction of the day runs over and above, they form a period of time from enough whole days, or whole years, to make the fractions that run over and above, when added together, amount to a day. They attribute to Hermes [i.e. Thoth] all wisdom of this particular kind. However, they dedicate a maiden of greatest beauty and most illustrious family (such maidens are called “pallades” by the Greeks) to Zeus [i.e. Ammon], whom they hold highest in honour. She prostitutes herself, and cohabits with whatever men she wishes until the natural cleansing of her body takes place. After her cleansing she is given in marriage to a man. But before she is married, after the time of her prostitution, a rite of mourning is celebrated for her. . . [omitted sections, including critique of Herodotos].

[Various nearby peoples: Troglodytes, Blemmyians, Nubians, Megabarians, and Ethiopians]

(17.1.53) Now Egypt was generally inclined to peace from the outset, because of the self-sufficiency of the country and of the difficulty of invasion by outsiders, being protected on the north by a harbourless coast and by the Egyptian sea, and on the east and west by the desert mountains of Libya and Arabia, as I have said. The remaining parts, those towards the south, are inhabited by Troglodytes, Blemmyians, Nubians, Megabarians, and those Ethiopians who live around Syene. These are nomads, and not numerous, or warlike either, though they were thought to be so by the ancients, because often, like bandits (lēstai), they would attack defenceless persons. As for those Ethiopians who extend towards the south and Meroe, they are not numerous either, nor do they collect in one mass, inasmuch as they inhabit a long, narrow, and winding stretch of river-land, such as I have described before. Neither are they well equipped either for warfare or for any other kind of life.

[Roman control of the generally unwarlike peoples]

Now the entire country is similarly disposed to peace. The following is a sign of that fact: the country is sufficiently guarded by the Romans with only three cohorts, and even these are not complete. When the Ethiopians dared to attack the Romans, they imperilled their own country. The remaining Roman forces in Egypt are hardly as large as these, nor have the Romans used them collectively even once. The Egyptians themselves are not warriors, although they are very numerous, nor are the surrounding peoples. Cornelius Gallus, the first man appointed prefect of the country by Caesar, attacked Heroonpolis, which had revolted, and took it with only a few soldiers, and in only a short time broke up a sedition which had taken place in the Thebais on account of the tributes. At a later time Petronius [the prefect], when all that countless multitude of Alexandrians rushed to attack him with a throwing of stones, held out against them with merely his own body-guard, and after killing some of them put a stop to the rest. And I have already stated how Aelius Gallus, when he invaded Arabia with a part of the guard stationed in Egypt, discovered that the people were unwarlike. In fact, if Syllaeus had not betrayed him, he would even have subdued all of Arabia the Blessed.

[Exceptional Ethiopian uprising under Petronius]

(17.1.54) But the Ethiopians, emboldened by the fact that a part of the Roman force in Egypt had been drawn away with Aelius Gallus when he was carrying on war against the Arabians, attacked the Thebais and the garrison of the three cohorts at Syene, and by an unexpected onset took Syene and Elephantine and Philae, and enslaved the inhabitants, and also pulled down the statues of Caesar. But Petronius, setting out with less than ten thousand infantry and eight hundred cavalry against thirty thousand men, first forced them to flee back to Pselchis, an Ethiopian city, and sent ambassadors to demand what they had taken, as well as to ask the reasons why they had begun war. When they said that they had been wronged by the leaders of the districts, Petronius replied that these were not rulers of the country, but Caesar. When they had requested three days for deliberation, but did nothing they should have done, he attacked and forced them to come out to battle. Petronius quickly turned them to flight, since they were badly marshalled and badly armed, because they had large oblong shields, and those too made of raw ox-hide, and as weapons some had only axes, others pikes, and others swords. Now some were driven together into the city, others fled into the desert, and others found refuge on a neighbouring island, having waded into the channel, for on account of the current the crocodiles were not numerous there. Among these fugitives were the generals of queen Kandake, who was ruler of the Ethiopians in my time. She was a masculine sort of woman, and blind in one eye. These, one and all, Petronius captured alive, having sailed after them in both rafts and ships, and he sent them immediately down to Alexandria. He also attacked Pselchis and captured it. If the large number of those who fell in the battle are added to the number of the captives, those who escaped must have been altogether few in number. From Pselchis Petronius went to Premnis, a fortified city, after passing through the sand-dunes, where the army of Cambyses had been overwhelmed when a wind-storm struck them. After attacking, he took the fortress at the first onset. After this he set out for Napata. This was the royal residence of Kandake. Her son was there, and she herself was residing at a place near by. But though she sent ambassadors to negotiate friendship and offered to give back the captives and the statues brought from Syene, Petronius attacked and captured Nabata too, from which her son had fled, and rased it to the ground; and having enslaved its inhabitants, he turned back again with the booty, having decided that the regions farther on would be hard to traverse. But he fortified Premnis better, threw in a garrison and food for four hundred men for two years, and set out for Alexandria.

As for the captives, he sold some of them as booty, and sent one thousand to Caesar, who had recently returned from Cantabria. The others died of diseases. In the meantime Kandake marched against the garrison with many thousands of men, but Petronius set out to its assistance and arrived at the fortress first. When he had made the place thoroughly secure by sundry devices, ambassadors came, but he commanded them go to Caesar. When they asserted that they did not know who Caesar was or where they should have to go to find him, he gave them escorts. They went to Samos, since Caesar was there and intended to proceed to Syria from there, after despatching Tiberius to Armenia. And when the ambassadors had obtained everything they asked for, he even remitted the tributes which he had imposed. . . [omitted sections on Ethiopians which appears in another post].

[Additional peculiar customs among Egyptians]

(17.2.5) The statement of Herodotos is also true, that it is an Egyptian custom to knead mud with their hands, but suet for bread-making with their feet. Further, kakeis is a peculiar kind of bread with checks the bowels. And kiki is a kind of fruit sown in the fields, from which oil is pressed, which is used not only in lamps by almost all the people in the country, but also for anointing the body by the poorer classes and those who do the heavier labour, both men and women. Furthermore, the koikina are Egyptian textures made of some plant, and are like those made of rush or of the date-palm. Beer is prepared in a peculiar way among the Egyptians. Beer is a drink common to many peoples, but the ways of preparing it in the different countries are different.

One of the customs most zealously observed among the Egyptians is the following: They rear every child that is born, and circumcise the males, and excise the females. This is also customary among Judeans, who are also Egyptians in origin, as I have already stated in my account of them. . . [omitted a few sentences]. So much for Egypt.

[For Strabo’s subsequent discussion of Ethiopians, go to this link].

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Source of translation: H.L. Jones, Strabo, 8 volumes, LCL (Cambridge, MA: HUP, 1917-28), public domain (passed away in 1932), adapted by Harland.