his
men, and, after suffering a severe defeat in the battle, straightway
returned home. Thereafter the king of the Aethiopians became afraid, and
sent no further expeditions against Abramus. After the death of
Hellestheaeus, Abramus agreed to pay tribute to the king of the
Aethiopians who succeeded him, and in this way he strengthened his rule.
But this happened at a later time.

At that time, when Hellestheaeus was reigning over the Aethiopians, and
Esimiphaeus over the Homeritae, the Emperor Justinian sent an
ambassador, Julianus, demanding that both nations on account of their
community of religion should make common cause with the Romans in the
war against the Persians; for he purposed that the Aethiopians, by
purchasing silk from India and selling it among the Romans, might
themselves gain much money, while causing the Romans to profit in only
one way, namely, that they be no longer compelled to pay over their
money to their enemy. (This is the silk of which they are accustomed to
make the garments which of old the Greeks called Medic, but which at the
present time they name "seric"[28]). As for the Homeritae, it was
desired that they should establish Caisus, the fugitive, as captain over
the Maddeni, and with a great army of their own people and of the
Maddene Saracens make an invasion into the land of the Persians. This
Caisus was by birth of the captain's rank and an exceptionally able
warrior, but he had killed one of the relatives of Esimiphaeus and was a
fugitive in a land which is utterly destitute of human habitation. So
each king, promising to put this demand into effect, dismissed the
ambassador, but neither one of them did the things agreed upon by them.
For it was impossible for the Aethiopians to buy silk from the Indians,
for the Persian merchants always locate themselves at the very harbours
where the Indian ships first put in, (since they inhabit the adjoining
country), and are accustomed to buy the whole cargoes; and it seemed to
the Homeritae a difficult thing to cross a country which was a desert
and which extended so far that a long time was required for the journey
across it, and then to go against a people much more warlike than
themselves. Later on Abramus too, when at length he had established his
power most securely, promised the Emperor Justinian many times to invade
the land of Persia, but only once began the journey and then straightway
turned back. Such then were the relations which the