Nonnosus, History — Embassy to Aethiopia and the Saracens
The History of Nonnosus has been read by me; in it he gives an account of his embassy to the Ethiopians, the Amerites, and the Saracens — the strongest peoples of that time — and also to other eastern nations. Justinian then held the Roman Empire, and Caïsus served as phylarch of the Saracens, a descendant of Arethas. To Caïsus, already phylarch, Nonnosus's grandfather had been sent as ambassador, dispatched by Anastasius, emperor at the time, and had arranged terms of peace. Indeed, Nonnosus's father too — Abrames was his name — went as ambassador to Alamandarus, phylarch of the Saracens, and rescued two Roman generals, Timostratus and John, taken captive under the laws of war; for the emperor Justin he secured the generals' release. Caïsus, however, to whom Nonnosus was dispatched, ruled the two most notable tribes among the Saracens, the Chindeni and the Maadeni. To this Caïsus, Nonnosus's father had also been sent before Nonnosus was chosen for the embassy, dispatched by Justinian, and had concluded treaties of peace — so much so that he took Caïsus's son (Mavias was his name) as hostage and conveyed him to Justinian at Byzantium. After this period Nonnosus undertook his embassy on two errands: to bring Caïsus, if possible, to the emperor, or to reach the king of the Auxumites — Elesbaas then ruled that people — and besides these, to visit the Amerites. Auxumis is a very great city, a metropolis of all Ethiopia, lying to the south and east of the Roman dominion. Nonnosus endured many plots of peoples and many assaults of wild beasts along the road, falling often into many straits and impasses, yet he accomplished what had been resolved and returned home safe.
Caïsus, after Abrames had again served as ambassador to him, presents himself at Byzantium; dividing his own phylarchy between his brothers Ambrus and Izidus, he received from the emperor the governorship of Palestine, with a great multitude of his subjects accompanying him.
What we now call sandals, he says, our forefathers called arbylae, and what we call a phakiolion they called a phasolis.
Most of the Saracens — those at Phoenicon and those beyond Phoenicon and the so-called Taurene mountains — hold a certain place sacred, where, as they hold, a god was set free; and there they gather twice each year. The first of these festivals, as it runs its course, fills a whole month, falling, by his reckoning, about mid-spring, when the sun enters Taurus. The second festival extends over two months; they hold it after the summer solstice. At these festivals, he says, they keep complete peace — not only with one another but with all the native inhabitants; and they say the wild beasts too are at peace with men, and not only that, but with one another. He also reports many other marvels, no different from myths.
He says Adulis stands fifteen days' journey from Auxumis. As they journeyed to Auxumis, Nonnosus and his companions witnessed a remarkable sight near the place called Aue — Aue lies between the city of the Auxumites and that of the Adulites — a herd of elephants, not small but near five thousand. These elephants grazed in a great plain; it fell to the natives to approach them, and that was easy, with nothing to keep them from their pasture. This, then, was the spectacle that met them on the way. One must also speak of the blending of the airs, as it succeeds from Aue to Auxumis. For summer and winter are reversed. When the sun passes through Cancer, Leo, and Virgo, as far as Aue — as with us — summer and drought possess the air, but from Aue to Auxumis and the rest of Ethiopia fierce winter sets in, not through the whole day, but beginning each time at midday, clouding the air and flooding the land with violent rains. At that same season the Nile, full toward Egypt, overflows and irrigates the land. But when the sun passes through Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces, the air is reversed: upon the Adulites as far as Aue it floods the land with rains, while from Aue to Auxume and the rest of Ethiopia the land yields them summer and the season's fruits.
Sailing from Pharsan, Nonnosus put in at the farthest of the islands, where the following befell him — strange even to hear. He met some with human shape and appearance, smallest in stature and black in skin, shaggy with hair over the whole body. With the men came women like them and children still smaller than their own men. All were naked except that the full-grown, men and women alike, covered their nakedness with some small skin. They showed nothing wild or savage; they had human speech, but a dialect utterly unknown to all their neighbours and far more to Nonnosus's party. They lived off sea-oysters and fish cast up by the sea onto the island. They had no boldness, but at the sight of men like us they cowered, as we do before the greater beasts.
Greek
Ἀνεγνώσθη ΝΟΝΝΟΣΟΥ ἱστορία, ἐν ᾗ διαλαμβάνει πρεσβείαν αὐτοῦ πρός τε Αἰθίοπας καὶ Ἀμερίτας καὶ Σαρακηνούς, τὰ ἰσχυρότερα τῶν τότε ἐθνῶν, ἔτι δὲ καὶ πρὸς ἄλλα ἀνατολικὰ ἔθνη. Ἰουστινιανὸς δὲ τότε τὴν Ῥωμαϊκὴν περιεῖπε πολιτείαν· φύλαρχος δὲ τῶν Σαρακηνῶν ἐχρημάτιζε Καΐσος, ἀπόγονος Ἀρέθα, ᾧ αὐτῷ φυλάρχῳ γεγενημένῳ, πρὸς ὃν ὁ Νοννόσου πάππος ἐπρεσβεύσατο παρὰ Ἀναστασίου τότε βασιλεύοντος ἀποσταλείς, καὶ τὰ πρὸς εἰρήνην ἐσπείσατο. οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ Νοννόσου (Ἀβράμης δ' ἦν αὐτῷ ὄνομα) πρὸς Ἀλαμάνδαρον φύλαρχον Σαρακηνῶν ἐπρεσβεύσατο, καὶ δύο στρατηγὺς Ῥωμαίων, Τιμόστρατον καὶ Ἰωάννην, νόμῳ πολέμου συλληφθέντας ἀνεσώσατο· Ἰουστίνῳ δὲ τῷ βασιλεῖ τὴν τῶν στρατηγῶν διηκόνητο ἀνάῤῥυσιν. ὁ μέντοι Καΐσος, πρὸς ὃν ἐστάλητο Νόννοσος, δύο γενῶν ἡγεῖτο τῶν παρὰ τοῖς Σαρακηνοῖς ἐπισημοτάτων, Χινδηνῶν καὶ Μααδηνῶν. πρὸς τοῦτον δὴ τὸν Καΐσον καὶ ὁ Νοννόσου πατήρ, πρὶν ἢ Νόννοσον πρεσβεῦσαι αἱρεθῆναι, Ἰουστινιανοῦ πέμποντος ἀπέσταλτο καὶ εἰρηνικὰς ἔθετο σπονδάς, ὥστε καὶ τὸν υἱὸν Καΐσου (Μαυίας δὲ ἐκαλεῖτο) ὅμηρα λαβεῖν καὶ πρὸς Ἰουστινιανὸν ἐς Βυζάντιον ἀποκομίσαι. μεθ' ὃν χρόνον ἐπρεσβεύσατο Νόννοσος ἐπὶ δυοῖ τούτοις, Καΐσον, εἰ δυνατόν, πρὸς βασιλέα ἀγαγεῖν, ἢ πρὸς τὸν τῶν Αὐξουμιτῶν ἀφικέσθαι βασιλέα (Ἐλεσβαᾶς δὲ τότε ἐκράτει τοῦ ἔθνους), ἢ πρὸς τούτοις ἢ εἰς τοὺς Ἀμερίτας παραγενέσθαι. ἡ δὲ Αὐξοῦμις πόλις ἐστὶ μεγίστη ἢ οἷον μητρόπολις τῆς ὅλης Αἰθιοπίας, κεῖται δὲ μεσημβρινώτερα καὶ ἀνατολικώτερα τῆς Ῥωμαίων ἀρχῆς. ὁ δὲ Νόννοσος πολλὰς μὲν ἐπιβουλὰς ἐθνῶν ὑποστάς, πολλὰς δὲ θηρίων χαλεπότητας παρὰ τὴν ὁδόν, ἢ πολλαῖς δυσχωρίαις καὶ ἀπορίαις πολλάκις περιπεσών, ὅμως καὶ τὰ δόξαντα ἐξετέλεσε καὶ σῶος τῇ πατρίδι ἀποδίδοται. ὅτι Καΐσος Ἀβράμην πάλιν πρὸς αὐτὸν πρεσβεύσαντος πρὸς τὸ Βυζάντιον παραγίνεται, καὶ τὴν ἰδίαν φυλαρχίαν Ἄμβρῳ καὶ Ἰεζίδῳ τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς διανειμάμενος αὐτὸς τὴν Παλαιστινῶν ἡγεμονίαν παρὰ βασιλέως ἐδέξατο, πλήθους πολλοῦ τῶν ὑποτεταγμένων αὐτῷ σὺν αὐτῷ ἐπαγομένου. ὅτι τὰ σανδάλια, φησί, νυνὶ λεγόμενα ἀρβύλας ἔλεγον οἱ παλαιοί, καὶ τὸ φακιόλιον φασῶλιν. ὅτι τῶν Σαρακηνῶν οἱ πλεῖστοι, οἵ τε ἐν τῷ Φοινικῶνι καὶ οἱ τοῦ Φοινικῶνος καὶ τῶν ὀνομαζομένων Ταυρηνῶν ὀρῶν ἐπέκεινα, ἱερόν τι χωρίον νομίζουσιν, ὅπου δὴ θεὸν ἀνειμένον, καὶ ἐνταῦθα συλλέγονται κατ' ἐνιαυτὸν ἕκαστον δίς. ὧν τὴν μὲν τῶν πανηγύρεων αὐτῶν μῆνα ὅλον μετρεῖ παρατείνων, σχεδόν πῃ τὸ ἔαρος κατὰ τὸ μέσον τεκμαίρῃ, ὅτε τὸν ταῦρον ὁ ἥλιος ἐπιπορεύεται. ἡ δὲ ἑτέρα πανήγυρις δυσὶ μησὶ παρατείνεται· μετὰ θερινὰς τροπὰς ἄγουσι ταύτην. ἐν ταύταις, φησί, ταῖς πανηγύρεσιν πᾶσαν ἄγουσιν εἰρήνην, οὐ πρὸς ἀλλήλους μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς ἅπαντας τοὺς ἐνδημοῦντας ἀνθρώπους· φασὶ δὲ ὅτι καὶ τὰ θηρία πρὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, οὐ μόνον δὲ ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὰ πρὸς ἄλληλα. λέγει δὲ καὶ ἄλλα πολλὰ παράδοξα καὶ μύθων οὐδὲν διαλλάττοντα. ὅτι διεσχηκέναι φησὶ τὴν Ἄδουλιν τῆς Αὐξούμιδος ιε ἡμερῶν ὁδόν. ἀπιοῦσι δὲ εἰς τὴν Αὐξοῦμιν Νοννόσῳ τε καὶ τοῖς μετ' αὐτοῦ μέγιστον ἐφάνη θέαμα περὶ χωρίον Αὖην προσονομαζόμενον (κεῖται δὲ ἡ Αὖη ἐν μέσῳ τῆς τε τῶν Αὐξουμιτῶν καὶ τῆς τῶν Ἀδουλιτῶν πόλεως), ἐλεφάντων πλῆθος οὐκ ὀλίγον, ἀλλὰ σχεδὸν ὡς χιλιάδων πέντε. ἐνέμοντο δὲ οὗτοι οἱ ἐλέφαντες ἐν πεδίῳ μεγάλῳ· καὶ πελάζειν αὐτοῖς ἔδει τῶν ἐγχωρίων, ἦν εὔκολον, οὐδὲ εἴργειν τῆς νομῆς. τοῦτο μὲν δὴ μεταξὺ τὸ θέαμα αὐτοῖς προσεγίνετο. Χρὴ δὲ καὶ τὰ περὶ τῆς κράσεως τῶν ἀέρων εἰπεῖν, οἷα ἀπὸ τῆς Αὖης ἐπὶ τὴν Αὐξοῦμιν διαδέχεται. ἐναντίως γὰρ περὶ τε θέρος καὶ χειμῶνα διάκειται. τῷ γὰρ ἡλίῳ τὸν καρκίνον τε καὶ λέοντα καὶ παρθένον διερχομένῳ μέχρι μὲν τῆς Αὖης, ὥσπερ καὶ παρ' ἡμῖν, θέρος τε καὶ ξηρότης διακρατεῖ τὸν ἀέρα, ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς Αὖης ἐπὶ τὴν Αὐξοῦμιν καὶ τὴν ἄλλην Αἰθιοπίαν χειμὼν ἐπίκειται σφοδρός, οὐ δι' ὅλης ἡμέρας, ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἀπὸ μεσημβρίας ἀρχόμενος ἑκάστοτε, συνεφῆ τε τὸν ἀέρα ποιῶν καὶ ὄμβροις ῥαγδαίοις τὴν χώραν ἐπικλύζων. τηνικαῦτα δὲ ἅμα καὶ ὁ Νεῖλος πολὺς ἐπὶ τὴν Αἴγυπτον ἐρχόμενος πλημμυρίζει τε καὶ καταρδεύει τὴν γῆν. ὅτε δὲ ὁ ἥλιος τὸν αἰγόκερων τε καὶ ὑδροχόον καὶ ἰχθῦας ἐπιπορεύεται, ἀνάπαλιν ὁ ἀὴρ τοῖς μὲν Ἀδουλίταις μέχρι τῆς Αὖης ὄμβροις ἐπικλύζει τὴν χώραν, τοῖς δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς Αὖης μέχρι Αὐξουμέως καὶ τῆς ἄλλης Αἰθιοπίας θέρος τε καὶ τὰ ὡραῖα τηνικαῦτα τούτοις ἡ γῆ παραδίδωσιν. ὅτι ἀπὸ τῆς Φαρσὰν πλέων τῷ Νοννόσῳ, ἐπὶ τὴν ἐσχάτην τῶν νήσων κατηντηκότι, τοιόνδε τι συνέβη, θαῦμα καὶ ἀκοῦσαι. ἐνέτυχε γάρ τισι μορφὴν μὲν καὶ ἰδέαν ἔχουσιν ἀνθρωπίνην, βραχυτάτοις δὲ τὸ μέγεθος καὶ μέλασι τὴν χρόαν, ὑπὸ δὲ τριχῶν δασυνομένοις διὰ παντὸς τοῦ σώματος. εἵποντο δὲ τοῖς ἀνδρῶσι καὶ γυναῖκες παραπλήσιαι καὶ παιδάρια ἔτι βραχύτερα τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς ἀνδρῶν. γυμνοὶ δὲ ἦσαν ἅπαντες πλὴν δέρματί τινι μικρῷ τὴν αἰδῶ περισκεπάζοντες οἱ προβεβηκότες ὁμοίως ἄνδρες τε καὶ γυναῖκες. ἄγριον δὲ οὐδὲν ἐπεδείκνυντο οὐδὲ ἀνήμερον, ἀλλὰ καὶ φωνὴν εἶχον μὲν ἀνθρωπίνην, ἄγνωστον δὲ παντάπασι τὴν διάλεκτον τοῖς τε περιοίκοις ἅπασι καὶ πολλῷ πλέον τοῖς περὶ τὸν Νόννοσον. διέζων δὲ ἐκ θαλαττίων ὀστρέων καὶ ἰχθύων τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης εἰς τὴν νῆσον ἀποῤῥιπτομένων. θάρσος δὲ εἶχον οὐδέν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁρῶντες τοὺς καθ' ἡμᾶς ἀνθρώπους ὑπέπτυσσον, ὥσπερ ἡμεῖς τὰ μείζω τῶν θηρίων.
About this text
Photius of Constantinople, Bibliotheca (Myriobiblon) — Codices 1-17 in new English from Bekker 1824 Greek, from Theodore on Dionysius through the Acts of Ephesus and Chalcedon. Codices 18-279 are not in this volume.
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.