The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam by G. W. Bowersock, and: Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa by George Hatke (review)

The two books under review (here designated “B” and “H,” respectively) are important and warmly welcome. Both focus on the African kingdom of Aksum, which flourished during the first millennium AD in the highland region now divided between northern Ethiopia and southern Eritrea, and both are more concerned with that kingdom’s external relations than with its internal development. This review, as is inevitable when dealing with books so rich in data and interpretation, draws particular attention to points of disagreement. Such emphasis should not be taken as implying that either work is of little merit. Both are rich and important offerings, well worthy of study by specialists, who will find many stimulating ideas to consider, and by more general readers—perhaps familiar with adjacent areas and/or periods—whose horizons will be greatly extended.

Both authors interpret their chosen topic broadly, and concentrate on written—including epigraphic—sources, some of the evidence from which they are inclined to accept rather uncritically. Neither author appears to be familiar with recently published archaeological evidence, particularly that from Ethiopia and Eritrea. Despite similarities in approach, their conclusions—where overlapping—are not always mutually consistent. B in particular ranges far more widely than the title implies, but his work culminates in a valuable reconstruction of the military expeditions mounted into southern Arabia by the Aksumite king Kaleb/Ella Atsbaha during the first half of the sixth century. Based to a substantial extent on recent French scholarship, B is only tenuously linked with the significantly earlier stone throne that gives the book its title, having been recorded early in the sixth century by Cosmas Indicopleustes at Adulis in what is now Eritrea. H faces rather more firmly in the opposite direction, to the Nubian Nile Valley, evaluating evidence for fourth-century Aksumite involvement there under king Ezana and—less certainly—his predecessor Ousanas/Ella Amida.

B adopts the spelling “Axum,” while H and the present reviewer prefer “Aksum” (the “k” and “s” sounds are written separately in Ethiopic scripts, but have been combined in Greek and other European scripts since at least the fourth century). The two authors’ maps also locate the metropolis differently, with B showing it some 50 kilometers southeast of its true position. B’s treatment of Ethiopian geography is muddled in other respects also, notably his invariable reference to the Takkeze River in Ethiopia by its Sudanese name, Atbara, which is unknown in the former country. B’s references to the Horn as “East Africa” will be confusing to many Africanists, since the term is usually applied specifically to the more southerly region centered on Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. H also has difficulties with African geography, as discussed below. Neither author deals adequately with changing Graeco-Roman designations of the Aksumite kingdom’s core territory (but see H, 52‒53), whether regarded as part of India or of Ethiopia, which latter term was sometimes applied to any part of the African continent beyond Egypt. It would have been helpful to note, especially when considering areas or periods under Christian influence, that the Kus of the Hebrew bible was translated Αἰθιοπια in the Septuagint.

The two books differ significantly in approach and in scholarly apparatus: H presents a mass of detail supported by 719 footnotes and a 26-page bibliography, but his arrangement and conclusions are not always readily apparent. By contrast, B always presents his arguments clearly but (perhaps under the publisher’s influence) is less assiduous in indicating the sources of his information, with the result that parts of his...