Cambusis
Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Cambusis was an Arabian tribe mentioned by Pliny[1].
Variants
Jat Gotras Namesake
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[2] mentions Ethiopia....These are the names of places given as far as Meroë: but at the present day hardly any of them on either side of the river are in existence; at all events, the prætorian troops that were sent by the Emperor Nero7 under the command of a tribune, for the purposes of enquiry, when, among his other wars, he was contemplating an expedition against Æthiopia, brought back word that they had met with nothing but deserts on their route.
The Roman arms also penetrated into these regions in the time of the late Emperor Augustus, under the command of P. Petronius,8 a man of Equestrian rank, and prefect of Egypt. That general took the following cities, the only ones we now find mentioned there, in the following order; Pselcis,9 Primis, Abuncis, Phthuris, Cambusis, Atteva, and Stadasis, where the river Nile, as it thunders down the precipices, has quite deprived the inhabitants of the power of hearing: he also sacked the town of Napata.10 The extreme distance to which he penetrated beyond Syene was nine hundred and seventy miles; but still it was not the Roman arms that rendered these regions a desert.
7 Dion Cassius also mentions this expedition. From Seneca we learn that Nero dispatched two centurions to make inquiry into the sources of the Nile.
8 Dion Cassius calls him Caius Petronius. He carried on the war in B.c. 22 against the Æthiopians, who had invaded Egypt under their queen Candace. He took many of their towns.
9 Du Bocage is of opinion that this place stood not far from the present Ibrim.
10 Supposed by Du Bocage to have stood in the vicinity of the modern Dongola