The Monumentum Adulitanum, so named by Leo Allatius, was an ancient inscription written in Greek, depicting the military campaigns of an anonymous king.
Aua, Zingabene, Aggabe, Tiamaa, Athagous, Kalaa and the people of Samen who live across the Nile in inaccessible and snowbound mountains where storms and icy cold persist and the snowfall is so deep that a man sinks in it up to the knees; I subdued them after crossing the river.
I fought against the Sesea who entrenched themselves on a very high and very inaccessible mountain; I surrounded them and forced them to come down and I seized for myself their young, women, children, virgins, and all their belongings.
I subdued the Rauso who live in the midst of vast, waterless plains in the heart of a barbarous country, rich in incense; and the Solate whom I ordered to watch over the coasts of the sea.
All these peoples, defended by mighty mountains, I conquered them and compelled them to submit, taking part myself in the campaign, and I allowed them to keep their land in return for tribute.
I am the first and the only one of my line to have rendered subject all these peoples and for this I give thanks to the greatest of my gods, to Ares who begat me and who has enabled me to extend my sway over all those neighboring my country, to the east as far as the Land of Incense, to the west as far as the regions of Ethiopia and Sasu, conquering some myself in person, sending my armies against others.
And having brought peace to the whole world under my dominion, I have returned to Adulis to offer sacrifices to Zeus and Ares, and also to Poseidon for the safety of those who sail on the sea.
[9] There is a note in Cosmas Indicopleustes work that the Simien Mountains were a place of exile for subjects condemned to banishment by the Aksumite king.
The "Arabites" can safely be equated with the coastal bedouins,[12] while the Kinaidokolpitai were a tribe whose name already appears in Ptolemy's Geography in the 2nd century, and are believed to be the Kinana.