ABSTRACT
Prior to the research work of the Deutsche Aksum Expedition, there was only one royal Aksumite inscription about which we had any adequate knowledge: the Greek inscription of Ezana relating to the campaign against the Beja, currently known by the abbreviation DAE 4. In 1878 and 1880, A. Dillmann undertook an assessment of our knowledge of Aksumite history, compiling the literary and epigraphic documents that were available at the time. This inscription is the only Aksumite document in which these two names figure, with the Greek 'Ethiopians' equating to the Ge'ez 'Habasat'. Not only did Enno Littmann discover several inscriptions in Aksum, thereby increasing our documentation, but he also checked and put on a firm basis the reading of the previously known inscriptions. He published everything, with the texts accompanied by photographs, interpretations and substantial commentaries, in the fourth volume of the Deutsche Aksum Expedition.
