26 PAST AGES OF CONQUEST forced his way actually to Napata, which he razed before retiring.

Nero despatched two centurions and soldiers to report on the Sudan, and they even appear to have reached the districts of the " sudd," which they faithfully describe ; indeed, it is not by any means certain that they did not approach within measurable distance of the Great Lakes, for they describe fierce rapids which only exist near the exit of the Nile, and mention to Seneca the location of the " Nili Paludes" as under the "Mountains of the Moon."

The Alexandrian geogi'apher Ptolemy, 150 a.d., correctly divined the sources of the Nile.

The Romans, however, never made any serious occupation of the Sudan. They added some temples, and, generally content with safeguarding Upper Egypt, merely put a heavy hand down on their turbulent neighbours when necessity arose.

The bugbears of the ancient Egyptians, the Anti, became known as the Blemmyes, and spread into Upper Egypt. Diocletian (284 a.d.) brought diplomacy into play, and secured the assistance of the Blemmyes by a payment similar to the British subsidy to the Ameer of Afghanistan, and cemented the arrangement by an agreement with another warlike tribe, the Nubae, or Nobatse, who were enlisted to watch the Blemmyes, and were probably blacks from the west bank. By the year 580 a.d., in the reign of Tiberius II., the Roman rule had practically come to an end.

Considering tlie fanatical character of the religion