Ula in north
Arabia, it is probable that they had colonies in that district. With
regard to their date opinion is very much divided; some, with E. Glaser
and F. Hommel, maintaining that their kingdom existed prior to that of
Saba, probably from about 1500 B.C. or earlier until the Sabaeans came
from their home in the north and conquered them in the 9th century.
Other scholars think, with D.H. Muller, partly on palaeographical
grounds (cf. M. Lidzbarski's _Ephemeris_, vol. i. pp. 109 seq., Giessen,
1902), that none of the inscriptions are earlier than about 800 B.C. and
that the Minaean kingdom existed side by side with the Sabaean. It is
curious that the Sabaean inscriptions contain no mention of the
Minaeans, though this may be due to the fact that very few of the
inscriptions are historical in content.

About 115 B.C. the power over south Arabia passed from the Sabaeans to
the Himyarites, a people from the extreme south-west of Arabia; and
about this time the kingdom of Katabania came to an end. The title taken
by the new rulers was "king of Saba and Raidan." Twenty-six kings of
this period are known from the inscriptions, some of which are dated. In
this period the Romans made their one attempt at direct interference in
the affairs of Arabia. The invasion under Aelius Gallus was an absolute
failure, the expedition being betrayed by the guides and lost in the
sands of the desert. During the latter part of this time the
Abyssinians, who had earlier migrated from Arabia to the opposite coast
of Africa, began to flow back to the south of Arabia, where they seem to
have settled gradually and increased in importance until about A.D. 300,
when they became strong enough to overturn the Himyarite kings and
establish a dynasty of their own. The title assumed by them was "king of
Saba, Raidan, Hadramut and Yemen." The Himyarites were, however, still
active, and after a struggle succeeded in establishing a Jewish Sabaean
kingdom, having previously accepted Judaism as their religion. Their
best-known king was Dhu Nuwas. The struggle between them and the
Abyssinians now became one of Judaism against Christianity. The
persecution of the Christians was very severe (see E. Glaser's _Die
Abyssinier in Arabien und Afrika_, Munich, 1895, and F.M.E. Pereira's
_Historia dos Martyres de Nagran_, Lisbon, 1899). Apparently for this
reason Christian Abyssinia was supported from Byzantium in its attempts
to regain power. These attempts were cr