Citation with stable link: Philip A. Harland, 'Ethiopians and Trogodytes: Roman military report on clashes (late first century CE),' Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World, last modified November 11, 2026, https://philipharland.com/Blog/?p=24204.

Ancient author: Unknown Roman military reporter (second half of the first century CE), E. G. Turner, “Papyrus 40 ‘Della Raccolta Milanese,’” Journal of Roman Studies 40 (1950): 57–59 (link) = Tormod Eide et al., eds., Fontes Historiae Nubiorum, 4 vols. (University of Bergen, Department of Classics, 1994-2000), 3:932-935, no. 224.

Comments: Despite its short length, fragmentary condition, and apparent insignificance, this report on papyrus – along with other evidence in this series – illustrates how important military networks could be for the dissemination of information about specific populations. This was information which could then be redeployed in written ethnographic accounts about peoples such as the Ethiopians and Trogodytes / Troglodytes (on which see, for instance, Agatharchides at this link). So although this example is far from an extensive characterization of either Ethiopians or Trogodytes, evidence like this regarding the dissemination of information in imperial networks further confirms Strabo’s claim that oral reports from soldiers (alongside other travelers such as merchants) played a key role in the production of descriptions of peoples (link).

Part of a series on military networks and the dissemination of information about peoples:

• Military reports on Ethiopians and Trogodytes in the first century CE (link)
• Military reports on Barbarians in the eastern desert of Egypt in the second century CE (link)

Works consulted: H. Cuvigny, Ostraca de Krokodilô: La Correspondance Militaire et sa Circulation, O.Krok. 1-151, Praesidia du Désert de Bérénice II (IFAO, 2005), 144-145.

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Rufus also arrived bringing . . . (missing half a line) . . . and the person who had been summoned also came . . . (missing half a line) . . . by the prefect (eparchos), horsemen whom the Ethiopians . . . (missing half a line). . . fled to the mountains, the tops of which the . . . (missing half a line). (5) The Trogodytes who had been dispersed (?) by Rufus . . . (missing half a line) . . . when the horsemen and (missing half a line) . . . (remainder too fragmentary to translate).

παρεγένετο καὶ Ῥοῦφος ἐπαγόμε[νος — — —] | ΛΩΝ, ἐπῆλ<θ>εν δὲ καὶ ὁ μεταπε[μφθεὶς — — — τῷ ἐ]|πάρχῳ ἱππεῖς, οὗ<ς> οἱ Αἰθίοπες Ε[— — — εἰς τὰ ὅ]|ρη ἕφευγον, ὧν τ<ὰ>ς κορυφὰς οἱ ΚẠ[— — — οἱ δὲ διασ]||παρέντες ὑπὸ Ῥούφου Τρωγοδ̣[ύται — — —] | στάντων δὲ τῶν ἱππέων καὶ [— — — πα]|ραγενέσθαι ποιησάντων ΠΑΡΗ̣[— — —] | [— — —]ΡΙ, ἂν κελευσθω῀σι ἠρεμίᾳ Ε[— — —].

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Source of translation: Harland.