Ancient Aethiopia () first appears as a geographical term in classical documents in reference to the skin color of the inhabitants of the upper Nile in Sudan, areas south of the Sahara, and less often to certain parts of Asia. Its earliest mention is in the works of Homer: twice in the Iliad, and three times in the Odyssey. The Greek historian Herodotus uses the appellation "Aethiopian" to refer to people of regions south of Egypt, most commonly Nubia. Despite this, the Byzantine Greeks also started to call the Aksumites Ethiopians after Negus Ezana conquered Meroë in 330 AD and took on the title of "king of Ethiopia" from the Nubians (Modern day Sudan).Munro-Hay, Stuart (1991). Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN 0748601066 Greco-Roman sources also report the existence of 'White Aethiopians' in Africa.Morel, Edmund Dene (1968) . Affairs of West Africa. Library of African Study. Routledge. . By the modern period, the term Aethiopian Sea was used to refer to the southern Atlantic Ocean, particularly the area adjacent to West Africa.
Though near universally used to invoke the "Aethiopia of Africa" ("African Aethiopia"), there was another region sometimes called Asiatic Aethiopia,The Classical Journal, Volume 17. A. J. Valpy, 1818. p. 8. located somewhere in 'the East'. According to Herodotus: "the Aethiopians from the East are straight-haired, but those of Libya [Africa] have hair more thick and woolly than that of any other men." The Greek geographer Strabo noted in a similar vein that "As for the people of India, those in the south are like the Aethiopians in colour, although they are like the rest in respect to countenance and hair (for on account of the humidity of the air their hair does not curl), whereas those in the north are like the Aegyptians."
Unlike the earlier Greek writers who distinguished Aethiopians (Nubians) from other types of Africans, Claudius Ptolemy (90–168 AD), a Roman citizen of Greek culture who lived in Alexandria, used "Aethiopia" as a generic term for Sub-Saharan Africa. In his Tetrabiblos, he tried to explain the physical characteristics of people around the world saying, 'They are consequently black in complexion, and have thick and curled hair ... and they are called by the common name of Aethiopians.
Pseudo-Jerome in the 4th century or later referred to the region of Colchis as the "Other Aethiopia" (), or, in the Greek translation of Pseudo-Sophronius, the "Second Aethiopia" ().
Etymology
The Greek name Aithiopia (, from ) is a compound derived of two Greek words: + . According to the Perseus Digital Library, this designation properly translates in noun form as burnt-face and in adjectival form as red-brown.Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. 1940. "Αἰθίοψ." In A Greek–English Lexicon, revised and augmented by H. S. Jones and R. McKenzie. Oxford: Clarendon Press. As such, it was used as a vague term for darker skinned populations than the Greeks since the time of Homer.“” Homer, Iliad, 1.423, whence nom. “” Call.Del.208: (, ):—properly, Burnt-face, i.e. Ethiopian, negro, , etc.; prov., 'to wash a blackamoor white', Lucian, , 28. (Lidell and Scott 1940).
Cf. , . The term was applied to such peoples within the range of observation of the ancient geographers, primarily in what was then Nubia (in ancient Sudan). With the expansion of geographical knowledge, the exonym successively extended to certain other areas below the Sahara. In classical antiquity, the term Africa did not refer to any part of sub-Saharan Africa, but rather, in its widest sense, to Ancient Libya—what is now known as the Maghreb and the desert to the south.
Before Herodotus Homer () is the first to mention "Aethiopians" (, ), writing that they are to be found at the east and west extremities of the world, divided by the sea into "eastern" (at the sunrise) and "western" (at the sunset). In Book 1 of the Iliad, Thetis visits Olympus to meet Zeus, but the meeting is postponed, as Zeus and other gods are absent, visiting the land of the Aethiopians. Meanwhile, in Book 1 of the Odyssey, Athena convinces Zeus to let Odysseus finally return home only because Poseidon is away in Aithiopia and unable to object.
Hesiod () speaks of Memnon as the "King of the Aethiopians."Hesiod, Theogony, 984–85. In The Catalogues of Women, he stated that the Egyptian king Epaphus was the progenitor of the Aethiopians and other dark-skinned tribes of Libya. He wrote:
The Sons of Boreas pursued the Harpies to the lands of the Massagetae and of the proud Half-Dog men, of the Underground-folk and of the feeble Pygmies; and to the tribes of the boundless Black-skins and the Libyans. Huge Earth bare these to Epaphus -- soothsaying people, knowing seercraft by the will of Zeus the lord of oracles, but deceivers, to the end that men whose thought passes their utterance might be subject to the gods and suffer harm -- Aethiopians and Libyans and mare-milking Scythians. For verily Epaphus was the child of the almighty Son of Cronos, and from him sprang the dark Libyans, and high-souled Aethiopians, and the Underground-folk and feeble Pygmies. All these are the offspring of the lord, the Loud-thunderer.Hesiod, The Catalogues of Women
The Assyrian king Esarhaddon when conquering Egypt and destroying the Kushite Empire states how he "deported all 'Aethiopians' from Egypt, leaving not one to pay homage to me". He was talking about the Nubian 25th Dynasty rather than people from modern Ethiopia.
In 515 BC, Scylax of Caryanda, on orders from Darius I of the Achaemenid Empire, sailed along the Indus River, Indian Ocean, and Red Sea, circumnavigating the Arabian Peninsula. He mentioned "Aethiopians", though his writings on them have not survived.
Hecataeus of Miletus () is also said to have written a book about 'Aethiopia,' but his writing is now known only through quotations from later authors. He stated that 'Aethiopia' was located to the east of the Nile, as far as the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. He is also quoted as relating a myth in which the Skiapods ('Shade feet'), whose feet were supposedly large enough to serve as shade, lived there.
In Herodotus In his Histories (), Herodotus presents some of the most ancient and detailed information about "Aethiopia". He relates that he personally traveled up the Nile to the border of Egypt as far as Elephantine (modern Aswan). In his view, "Aethiopia" is all of the inhabited land found to the south of Egypt, beginning at Elephantine. He describes a capital at Meroë, adding that the only deities worshipped there were Zeus (Amun) and Dionysus (Osiris). He relates that in the reign of Pharaoh Psamtik I (), many Egyptian soldiers deserted their country and settled amidst the Aethiopians.
Herodotus remarked on shared cultural practices between the Egyptians and Ethiopians, also stating that out of "three hundred and thirty kings" of Egypt, there had been 18 Ethiopian kings, one native Egyptian queen, and the rest had been Egyptian men.
Herodotus tells us that king Cambyses II () of the Achaemenid Empire sent spies to the Aethiopians "who dwelt in that part of Libya (Africa) which borders upon the southern sea." They found a strong and healthy people. Although Cambyses then campaigned toward their country, by not preparing enough provisions for the long march, his army completely failed and returned quickly.
In Book 3, Herodotus defines "Aethiopia" as the farthest region of "Libya" (i.e. Africa):
Herodotus also wrote that the Ammonians of Siwa Oasis are "colonists from Egypt and Aethiopia and speak a language compounded of the tongues of both countries".
Herodotus also refers to "the Aethiopians of Asia" (or "Ethiopians of the East"), who are said to be straight-haired, whereas the Aethiopians from Libya (Africa) have "the woolliest hair of all men".
Herodotus wrote with regard to the inhabitants of Libya (the Greek name for Africa): "One thing I can add about this far country [Libya]: so far as one knows, it is inhabited by four races, and four only, of which two are indigenous and two not. The indigenous peoples are the Libyans and Ethiopians, the former occupying the northerly, the latter the more southerly parts; the immigrants are the Phoenicians and Greeks."
Relationship with Macrobia
According to Herodotus, the Macrobians dwelt geographically along the sea south of Libya on the Atlantic. This Libya was far south of the Pillars of Hercules and Atlas Mountains along the Atlantic coast, while the northern Libyan sea coast was the Mediterranean Sea that stretched from Egypt to Morocco in an east to west direction. Concerning the southern sea, Herodotus places the Persians east of the southern sea in Asia, the Arabians & East Africans south of the sea in Arabia and the Macrobians west of the southern Sea in Libya. Herodotus also stated that the Macrobians were indigenous to southern Libya while the Libyans along the Mediterranean Sea were indigenous to northern Libya.
According to his account, the Persian Emperor Cambyses II upon his conquest of Egypt (525 BC) sent ambassadors to Macrobia, bringing luxury gifts for its king to entice his submission. The Macrobian ruler, who was elected based at least in part on stature, replied instead with a challenge for his Persian counterpart in the form of an unstrung bow: if the Persians could manage to string it, they would have the right to invade his country; but until then, they should thank the gods that the Macrobians never decided to invade their empire.John Kitto, James Taylor,The popular cyclopædia of Biblical literature: condensed from the larger work,(Gould and Lincoln: 1856), p.302. This is similar to an account of the Nubians challenging foreigners to draw and fire their great bows, but the fact Cambyses is said to have already conquered at least part of Aethiopia makes connecting Nubia and the Macrobians untennable.
Later authors such as Pseudo-Scylax in his periplus also place the Aethiopians south of the Pillars of Hercules, and Pseudo-Scylax also reported a trade taking place between Phoenicians (Carthaginians) and tall Aethiopians.Periplus of Scylax Herodotus also mentions a silent trade of gold that took place between Carthaginians and natives south of Libya beyond the Pillars of Hercules; it was also this gold trade that motivated Cambyses, the King of Persia, to plan a land and sea expedition against both the Carthaginians and Macrobians. Pliny in his natural histories places them west of Meroe, far west of Meroe beyond the deserts of Chad that is. Cambyses, after being insulted by the tallest and long-lived (Macrobian) King of Ethiopia in the west, he eagerly wanted to conquer and subdue all people of Amun and destroy all temples of the God, but failed in his desperate attempt. And although Cambyses had departed from Susa to invade and conquer the land of Egypt by crossing the Sinai desert and afterwards departing from Egypt to reach the southern realms of Ethiopia south of Egypt, he was still far away from the land of the Macrobians, who dwelt beyond the vast Sahara desert at the ends of the earth as far as the Ocean towards the western sunset.
Other Greco-Roman historians and primary accounts The Egyptian priest Manetho () listed Kushite (25th) dynasty, calling it the "Aethiopian dynasty," and Esarhaddon the early 7th century BC ruler of the Neo-Assyrian Empire describes deporting all "Aethiopians" from Egypt upon conquering Egypt from the Nubian Kushite Empire which formed the 25th Dynasty. Moreover, when the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek (c. 200 BC), the Hebrew appellation "Kush, Kushite" became in Greek "Aethiopia, Aethiopians", appearing as "Ethiopia, Ethiopians" in the English King James Version.KJV: Book of Numbers 12 1