5. History. The government was in the hands of a race or caste of priests, who chose from among themselves a king ; and this form con tinued down to the reign in Egypt of the second Ptolemy, when Ergamenes, at that time king, mas sacred the priests in their sanctuary, and became absolute monarch.
Of the history of Ethiopia, previous to that last revolution, only scanty information has been pre served, but it is enough to evince its high an tiquity and its early aggrandizement.
(1) An Independent State. In the Persian period it was certainly an independent and im portant state, which Cambyses in vain endeavored to subdue. But its most flourishing era was be tween the years B. C. Soo and 70o, when arose three potent kings, Sabaco, Sevechus, and Tar hako, or Tirhakah, who extended their conquests over a great part of Egypt. Sevechus is supposed to have been the So or Sua king of Egypt, to whom an embassy was sent by Hoshea, king of Israel (2 Kings xvii :4), whose reign ended B. C. 722. He was thus the contemporary of Salma nassar or Shalmaneser IV, king of Assyria, as was Tirhakah of the next Assyrian mon arch, Sennacherib, who (about the year B. C. 714) was deterred from the invasion of Egypt merely by the rumor that Tirhakah was ad vancing against him (2 Kings xix :9). There seems no reason to doubt that the remarkable prophecy in the eighteenth chapter of Isaiah was addressed to Tirhakah and his people to an nounce to them the sudden overthrow of the Assyrian host before Jerusalem. In verse 7 it is intimated that, struck at the mighty deeds of the God of Judah, this distant people should send gifts to his dwelling-place at Zion. They were, no doubt, among the 'many' who are described in 2 Chron. XXXII:23, as having 'brought gifts unto Jehovah at Jerusalem, and presents to king Heze kiah, so that he was magnified in the sight of all the nations.' The expectation of the entire con version of the Ethiopians is frequently expressed by the I lebrew prophets (Zeph. :to; Ps. 32; lxxxvii -4) and those who take pleasure in tracing the fulfillment of such predictions in subse quent history may find it in Acts viii :27 (the con version both to Judaism and Christianity of the treasurer of Queen Candace).
(2) Egypt and Ethiopia. Isaiah often men tions Egypt and Ethiopia in so close political re lation (see especially chap. xx :3-6). The same fact is noticeable in the latter prophets, and proves the continuance of a friendly understanding (Ezek. xxx sq.: Jer. xlvi :9; Nahum iii :g: Dan. xi :43). In fine, Ethiopia is employed chiefly as the name of the national and royal family that were now in the ascendency.
If we go back about two centuries, to the reign of Asa, king of Judah (B. C. about 95o), we read
of Zerah, or rather Zerach, an Ethiopian going out against him with a host of a thousand thousand men and three hundred chariots (2 Chron, xiv :9).
It is doubtful whether this was an Ethiopian mon arch or commander, or only a mere Cushite ad venturer ; but that his army was mainly of African and not Arabian origin is evident from the fact of its having included Libyans as well as. Cushites (2 Chron. xvi :8), and from the mention of war chariots, which never were in use in Arabia.
There is every reason to conclude that the separate colonies of the priest-caste spread from Meroe into Egypt ; and the primeval monuments in Ethiopia strongly confirm the native traditions reported by Diodorus Siculus, that the worship of Ammon and Osiris originated in Meroe, and thus render highly probable the opinion that com merce and civilization, science and art, descended into Egypt from Nubia and the upper regions of the Nile. In proportion as we ascend into the primeval ages, the closer seems the connection be tween Egypt and Ethiopia. The Hebrew poets seldom mention the former without the latter; the inhabitants of both are drawn as commercial nations. When Isaiah celebrates the victories of Cyrus their submission is spoken of as his most magnificent reward (Is. xlv :i4). When Jeremiah extols the great victory of Nebuchadnezzar over Pharaoh-nechoh, near Carchemish, the Ethiopians are allied to the Egyptians (Jer. xlvi :9). When Ezekiel threatens the downfall of Egypt he unites it with the distant Ethiopia (Ezek. xxx :4). Every page, indeed, of Egyptian history exhibits proofs of the close intimacy in which they stood.
(3) Queen Candace, who is mentioned in Acts viii :27, was doubtless the reigning sovereign of Meroe (see CANDACE), where it is likely a form of Judaism was at that period professed by a por tion of the inhabitants, as seems to have been the case in the adjacent region of Abyssinia. The prophets (e. g. Is. xi :i ) sometimes allude to the Jews who were scattered throughout Cush. Ebed melech, the benevolent eunuch of King Zedekiah, who showed such kindness to the prophet Jere miah, was an Ethiopian (Jer. xxxviii :7 ; comp. Acts viii :27). Josephus calls the Queen of Sheba, who visited Solomon, a queen of Egypt and Ethi opia, and with this agrees the tradition of the Abyssinians, who claim her as a native queen. give her the name of Maqueda, and maintain that she had a son by Solomon, called Istlenilek, who bore the title of David I. Yet Sheba was un doubtedly in Arabia Felix, though it is possible that, in remote antiquities, the sovereignty of its monarchs. extended across the Red Sea to the coast of Ethiopia. N. M.