In about 60 CE, the emperor Nero of Rome sent an expedition to find the source of the Nile. Historians believe that he was really trying to figure out if he would want to conquer Kush.
When his explorers returned, they told him that Kush was much too far away and too poor to be worth taking. They told him that Meroë was in an area where the grass became greener, where there were forests, and where they found elephants and rhinoceros. They reported that the city was ruled by a queen called "Candace," and that there were temples there to "Jupiter Hammon" (Amun) and "a strange barbaric god" (which was probably the lion-headed god Apedemak). The palace, they said, had a garden of fruit trees, and the houses of the common folk were constructed of bricks or "interwoven pieces of split palm wood." At Meroë "Candace" gave them letters of introduction to other rulers farther south, and the explorers continued on for another 900 km, where they met the great Nile swamps. Blocked from traveling farther, they turned around and came home.
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Bronze octagonal bell, decorated on each face with the figure of a man representing of one of the enemy peoples of Meroë. Seven of the figures appear as lightly clad Africans, and these are each pierced with an arrow. The eighth figure (shown at left) wears a helmet and armor and is pierced with a sword. He appears to be a Roman soldier. From Meroë, about 50-150 CE. |
| Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. |
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Roman imported oil lamp with handle in the shape of a galloping centaur, from Meroë. About 50-100 CE. |
| Courtesy of the Sudan National Museum, Khartoum. |