Monumentum Adulitanum

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The Monumentum Adulitanum was an ancient Aksumite inscription in Greek and Ge'ez depicting the military campaigns of an early Aksumite king. Though the inscription no longer exists, it survives today through the copying of the inscription by Cosmas Indicopleustes, a 6th century Greek traveller-cum-monk. The original text was inscribed on an Aksumite throne (Ge'ez: መንበር manbar) written in Ge'ez in both the Ge'ez script and South Arabian alphabet, while the Greek was written in the Greek alphabet. Seeing that the text was in Greek and followed an inscription about King Ptolemy III Euergetes's conquests in Asia, Cosmas Indicopleustes mistook the Aksumite inscription for the continuation of Ptolemy's.

The anonymous text describes the King's conquests, including the Gaze (from whose name the name Ge'ez is thought to be derived) and the Agame (a region in Tigray, Ethiopia). The inscription also mentions the subjugation of the Arabs, the Sabaeans, and the Kinaidokolpitas in modern day Yemen (and perhaps Saudi Arabia). Interestingly, the inscription also notes that in the unnamed King's expedition to the mountains past the Nile, his men were knee-deep in snow. The inscription ends with the King's affirmation that he is the first to have subjugated all of the aforementioned peoples, and dedicates his throne to Zeus (or the god Astar, cognate to the Semitic goddess Astarte), Poseidon (possibly identified with Beher, "nation," "earth"), and especially Ares (or Mahrem).

The 3rd century AD Aksumite inscription also contains what may be the first reference to the Agaw, referring to a people called "Athagaus" (perhaps from ʿAd Agäw).^[1]