AXUM, alc-soi5m' (Gk."A,cotaas, 'AuEog.as, ax oum is, amromis, Lat. auxamis). Once the capital of the Ethiopian kingdom of the same name, now capital of the modern Abyssinian Province of Tigri. situated in latitude 14° 7' N., and in longitude 38° 43' E. Even before the Christian Era, Axum seems to have become the capital of an Ethiopian kingdom, whose chief port was Adule (q.v.). about 100 miles distant, through which it carried on an extensive trade with Egypt and the Roman world. The kingdom of the Axumites seems to have been gradually ex tended from the borders of Roman Egypt to the south, as far as the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, or even Cape Gardafui, and its kings claimed also dominion over the liomerites (or Hintyar ites) on the Arabian coast of the Red Sea. These kings were acquainted with Greek culture, as is shown by the inscriptions at Adule and Axum. One of those in the latter place was also written in the Geez language, sometimes called Ethiopic, hut in the Sablvati characters used in southern Arabia. Christianity was introduced by ,Ede
sius and Fruntentius early in the Fourth Cen tury, and in A.D. 356 the Emperor Constantius wrote to King Aizanes, asking his assistance against the teachings of Athanasins. The king dom later lost its power and wealth with the advance of Mohammedanism, which gradually hemmed it in, though the country has always kept its Christian faith. Axum is regarded now as a sacred city by the Abyssinians, and still contains memorials of its greatness in a large number of curious obelisks and the remains of an im posing Christia.n church. The population of the town at present is only about 5000. Consult: Dillntann, Abhandlungen der Berliner Akademic for 1879 and 1880: Nfommsen, Prorinees of the Roman Empire, Vol. II. (Eng. trans., New York, 1886): Bent. The Sacred City of the Ethiopians (London. 1893) ; Glaser, Geschiehte Artibicns (Berlin, 1885-901: id. Die Abessinier in Arabian and Arrika (Munich, 1895).