EMERALDS AND EMBASSIES IN THE ETHIOPIAN STORY OF HELIODORUS

Abstract

In The Ethiopian story of Heliodorus reference is made to a disputebetween the Persians and the Ethiopians over control of the emeraldmines to the south of Egypt. This disagreement leads to war betweenthese two nations and sets the action of the plot of the novel inmotion. When taken together with the similar manner in whichprecious stones are viewed in The Ethiopian story and in the pseudo-Orphic Lithica — a poem about the magical properties of stonesdated to the fourth century of our era — the argument overpossession of the mines can convincingly be placed in the context ofthe political and religious changes taking place at this time inEthiopia, as documented by Epiphanius of Cyprus in his sermonOn the gems. Under Constantine and his successor Constantius IIembassies were exchanged with the Ethiopians, specifically with thepeople of Axum (who appear to have displaced the people of Meroefrom power at about 350), the Blemmyes, and the Indians. The factthat embassies involving these peoples feature prominently in TheEthiopian story also provides yet more circumstantial evidence tosuggest that the novel belongs to a similar fourth-century milieu toother texts from the same period, especially the anonymous Lithicaand the Περὶ Καταρχῶν (On Beginnings) of Maximus of Ephesus.