ABSTRACT

In the autumn of 518, an Alexandrian spice trader, later nicknamed Cosmas Indicopleust"es (i.e. the voyager to India), sailed into the Gulf of Zula on the African coast of the southern Red Sea. On his arrival at the Axumite trade centre in Adulis he became aware of preparations, which King Kaleb Ella Asbeha, the ruler of the Christian kingdom of Axum was undertaking for a military campaign he intended to lead against the Himyarites in South Arabia.1 King Kaleb, it seems, aimed to reinforce or re-establish a still young Christian presence and pro-Byzantine political course at the Himyarite court in South Arabian Zafar. For Axumite and Byzantine ambitions, Christian rulers at Zafar

1 For the following see Cosmas, Christian Topography 2, 54ff. with Robin 2010: esp. 69ff. 78ff. and Bowersock 2013: esp. 34ff. 92ff. and (however, adhering ibid. 92 to the traditional date of 523/524 of Cosmas’ arrival at Adulis). See also Hatke 2013: esp. 37ff. 150ff. Phillipson 2012: 63ff. Power 2012, 46ff. Nebes 2010. Fauvelle 2009. Beaucamp/Briquel-Chatonnet/ Robin 1999-2000: 73ff., all with further bibliography.