Corrigendum

Extract

Dr S. Munro-Hay has kindly drawn my attention to an error in my review of his Aksum, an African civilisation (JRAS 3rd ser. vol. 2, 1992, p. 250) where, in commenting on Munro-Hay's pp. 220–1, I made it seem as if the source for the last sentence about the composition of Kaleb's invasion flotilla is Procopius. In fact, the source is the anonymous sixth-century A.D. Martyrdom of St Arethas. The passage deserves quoting in full (pp. 44–5 in Boissonade's edition): “By the providence of our Saviour Jesus Christ there had arrived sixty ships belonging to Roman, Persian, Indian and Farasanite traders, namely 1 s from Aila, 20 from Clusma, 7 from Berenike, 2 from Iotaba, 7 from Farasan, 9 from India. The king, gathering all these in a certain harbour named Gabaza on the seashore below the coastal town of Adulis, ordered them to (anchor close ?) to land. He himself also caused ten ‘Indian’ ships to be built.” By “Indian” ships here is meant boats constructed in the local Red Sea style. The verb queried is , a hapax said by Sophokles in his Byzantine Greek dictionary to be synonymous with ; though the context would have suggested to me rather "be drawn up on land” or “be beached‛.