B.C. 525— A. D. 200. 225 Between the years 625 and 560 the capital seems to have been shifted from Napata to Meroe. The kingdom ruled by these monarchs included Aiwa, a place identified with the later Soba on the Blue Nile. The connection with Egypt was weakened ; Heru-Sa-Atef found the royal palace at Napata in ruins and restored it ; his successor Nastasenen re-visited it and went on a journey of inspection as far north probably as the .3rd Cataract, but Meroe was the principal seat of his kingdom. Nastasenen mentions on his inscription five campaigns, apparently against the rich pastoral peoples of the Eastern Desert, from whom he captured in all nearly 2,fX)0,000 head of cattle, sheep, goats, etc. At Meroe, about 40 miles to the south of the Atbara, at a place now termed Bagarawiya, were built temples and pyramids copied from Napata.

It was in his reign that, according to Herodotus, Cambyses, first king of the Twenty-seventh Dynasty (Persian), sent an Embassy into Ethiopia, and on this being received by the natives with jeers, collected a large army and sent it south against them. He detached 50,000 men from the army when it arrived at Thebes against Siwa, or more b.c. hTl probably Kharga, Oasis, but these were all overwhelmed by a sandstorm and were never heard of again. The remainder, ill-supplied with food or transport, marched into a desert on the way south, ate their transport animals, and finally began on each other ; the greater part undoubtedly perished of hunger and thirst. It is impossible to trace where the disaster happened (Arbain road ?), but it appears not to have been very far south, perhaps no further than the latitude of Aswan. The latest critic (Heinrich Schafer) argues from Nastasenen's inscription that Cambyses sent, in concert with the desert expedition, another one by river. This latter expedition seems to have reached the 3rd Cataract, where it was met and defeated by Nastasenen ; this is, however, not yet universally accepted. Cambyses is reported to have himself reached the " Island " of Meroe, to have built a town there, and to have named it after his sister Meroe, who died there ; but this is certainly a fable.

Between B.C. 525 and 260 came 11 more kings, but their chronology is more than doubtful, and little is known of them beyond their names, which are as follows : — HeruNekht.

Sekheper en Ra, Senka Amen Seken. * Khuka Ra, Athlenersa (and four other names). Kheper ka Ra Amen Netek. Amen-tani-Ralbath. Amen Arit, Kenthahebit. Ankh Ra Ra, Arkenkhernlu. Kenrethreknen. Khenem ab Ra, Amenarkneb. Kalka, Kaltela.

Ankh nefer ah Ra, Amen Mer Aser.

These names are here given for reference in case of future discoveries. About .300 B.C. (?), or perhaps earlier, the frontier of Egypt was then fixed at a point about 80 miles south of ac. 300. Aswan.

Ark Amen, better known as Ergamenes, who was brought up at the court of Ptolemy II, was a man of some character, for besides bmlding a temple at Dakka he set a new fashion in Priest-Kings by refusing to commit suicide at the request b.c. 260. of the priests and by executing those who demanded it.

In the days of Ptolemy V, Nubia caused trouble to Egypt, and the Egyptian king added the country between , 210. Aswan and Napata (?) to his possessions, dividing it into 13 districts.

In later Ptolemaic times the kings of Ethiopia evidently became more negroid, and owned barbaric names ; and as time went on, the Kingdom of Meroe seems to have been governed by a series of queens or queen-mothers, bearing the title of Candace. Little is known of this period.

When Egypt became a Roman province, an embassy from Ethiopia arrived at Philae, and the king of the country j,.c. 30. near Khartoum was taken under Roman protection.

Eight years after, a Queen Candace attacked Aswan and routed the Roman garrison there. She was, however, b.c. 22. heavily defeated by the Prefect Petronius, who pursued her as far as Napata (?) and destroyed that town, leaving Roman garrisons there and near to Dongola.

In the time of Strabo, who visited Egypt during the government of M\ms Callus, Petronius's successor, Aswan was a.d. 200. again the frontier, the Romans having, as he observes, " confined the province of Egypt within its former limits." Philaj then belonged " in common to the Egyptians and Ethiopians." This did not, however, prevent the Csesars from considering Lower Ethiopia as belonging to them or from adding to the temples already erected there.

The descendants of the priest-kings of Ethiopia seem to have died out about a.d. 200.