224 THE ROMAN CONQUESTS. [CHAP.
considerable ruins still bears the name of Germa, and is about 70
miles distant from Mourzouk, the modern capital of Fezzan.
Almost contemporary with this campaign was the
toAetoopU. expedition of C Petronius into Aethiopia. In
22 B.C. Candace the queen of that country—taking
advantage of the withdrawal from Egypt of a part of the Roman
forces, which were being employed in the invasion of Arabia
which Aelius Gallus had undertaken by the order of Augustus-
had attacked and captured the city of Syene and the neighbouring
island of Elephantine, which formed the frontier station of the
Romans in that quarter. Petronius, however, who was in com-r
mand in Egypt, not only recovered these places, but invaded
Aethiopia, and defeated the army of Candace. After this he
made himself master of three important towns, Pselchis, Premnis,
and Candace's royal city, Napata, which are mentioned as having
been taken in the order here given1. Of these, Pselchis, which is
called Pselket in the hieroglyphics, and lay between the first and
second cataract, is undoubtedly the modern Dakkeh, which place
is situated a little distance to the south of Korosko, where the
great westward bend of the river in the direction of Dongola com-
mences. Again, the site of Napata, with the remains of temples
and pyramids in its neighbourhood, has been discovered at a
place called Merawi, near the conspicuous height of Jebel Baikal,
just below the fourth cataract. The points thus fixed enable us
approximately to determine that of Premnis also. Strabo, from
whom our knowledge of the campaign is derived, tells us that in
passing from Pselchis to that town Petronius' line of march lay
across the desert; and by this he can hardly fail to mean that he
followed the modern caravan route from Korosko to Abu Hamed,
which forms the chord of the arc here made by the Nile. It
is natural therefore to conjecture that Premnis lay at no very
great distance from Abu Hamed, because in passing from Pselchis
to Napata by this route Petronius would rejoin the river near that
place, from which Napata is distant about a hundred miles lower
down the stream2.
1 Strabo, 17. i. 54.
8 See Bunbury, Hist. ofAnc. Geogr., a. pp. 168, 183,184.