The Archaeology of Late Antique Sudan: Aesthetics and Identity i ...

based at Meroë, between the Fifth and Sixth Cataracts, from the fourth century BC to the fourth century AD; and the Roman Empire had control of Egypt following the death of Cleopatra VII, when Augustus commented laconically, “Egypt I added to the Empire” (Velleius Paterculus, trans. Shipley 1924, 27). During this period, contact between the Roman Empire and the Meroitic Empire is well attested to, both in the textual and archaeological record (see, e.g., details of exchange in Edwards 1998, 188–190).

The Roman Egyptian frontier was established at the First Cataract around 29 BC by Cornelius Gallus. Soon after, hostilities broke out as the Meroites attacked towns in southern Egypt, including Philae, Elephantine, and Syene (Aswan). Gaius Petronius retaliated against the Meroites, taking Qasr Ibrim (Primis, in the classical sources) and penetrating as far south as Gebel Barkal and the Fourth Cataract. Although the accounts differ in certain aspects, these campaigns were recorded by both Strabo and Pliny. A peace treaty was agreed upon at Samos, in which the Roman frontier was drawn at Maharraqa (Hiera Sycaminos) (Bagnall and Rathbone 2004; Updegraff 1978, 61). Subsequently, in the first few centuries AD, Roman Egypt and Meroë were involved in a trade relationship (Roman goods have been found in Meroitic tombs of this period). An inscription in Meroitic hieroglyphs on a Meroitic pyramid records a visit from Romans bringing gifts from Caesar to Meroë. The southernmost-known inscription in Latin is to be found at Musawwarat es-Sufra and was written by a Roman visitor (Lajtar and Vliet 2006).

The centralised Meroitic state finally fell in the mid-fourth century AD, having suffered incursions from the Axumites based in modern-day Ethiopia. Their leader, King Aezana, erected a stela at Meroë recording his victory (Adams 1977, 386) over a state that had been weakened for some time. The hold that the Meroitic state had in the north of Nubia seems to have declined by the end of the third century AD (Shinnie 1967, 52; Edwards 1996a, 92; Welsby 1996, 197), since by that date, inscriptions at the temple at Philae had ceased and the Roman frontier was gradually atrophying from both internal and external pressures.