When Greek was an African Language | Page 4

script for Meroitic was developed to replace Egyptian hieroglyphs,
making possible the replacement of Egyptian by Meroitic as the
language of government and religion.
While we lack a clear statement of the rationale for these changes, they
clearly amounted to a partial declaration of independence from the
Egyptian traditions that had been central to Kushite elite culture since
the glorious days of the late 8 &supth; th and early 7 &supth; th
centuries BC when the Nubian Pharaohs of the 25 &supth; th dynasty

had united Kush and Egypt in a vast empire that stretched from the
Mediterranean to the central Sudan. But were they also a vote for
Hellenization? Such evidence as we have suggests, not surprisingly,
that the answer is more complex than a simple yes or no. The Egyptian
aspects of traditional Kushite culture were reinterpreted in accordance
with local values, but they were not repudiated.
Although they themselves were not Egyptian, the rulers of Kush, like
the Pharaohs, had claimed to be sons of the sun god Re and kings of
Upper and Lower Egypt. They traditionally had conducted their
government in Egyptian; celebrated their exploits in hieroglyphic
inscriptions; and were buried with Egyptian rites in pyramids decorated
with excerpts from the Book of the Dead and other traditional funerary
texts. Even the reform by Ergamenes and his successors of the Kushite
monarchy was expressed in forms that were derived ultimately from
Egypt. Not surprisingly, therefore, it was the Egyptian side of
Ptolemaic civilization that attracted the Kushites in the decades
following Ptolemy II's Nubian campaign. Thus, the royal titularies of
the third century Kushite kings and their regalia echo those of the
contemporary Ptolemies. Even when they borrowed an office from the
Ptolemaic government, they used the Egyptian designation for it, not
the Greek. [16]
Similarly, when Kushite kings used Greek architects and masons to
build temples, as they did at the pilgrimage center of Musawwarrat
es-Sufra, south of Meroë, the temples they built were adaptations of
Egyptian, not Greek temples. A good example is the so-called Lion
temple, excavated and partially restored by the East Germans in the
1960's. Here in an impressive series of reliefs accompanied by texts--
based on Egyptian originals that from Philae and inscribed in
hieroglyphs typical of the early Ptolemaic period--the Kushite king
Arnekhamani, is depicted wearing a Ptolemaic style crown and
receiving pledges of victory from the Kushite pantheon. Only now,
however, the pantheon is headed now not by Amon but by the native
war god Apedemak, who also wears a similar crown. By contrast, the
evidence for Greek influence in Hellenistic Kush is easy to find but
limited in scale and scope.

The most dramatic examples are the possible adoption of the use of war
elephants and the construction in the so-called royal enclosure at Meroe
of a small water sanctuary decorated with statuary modeled on Greek
originals. The discovery of a set of Greek flutes—one of the few ever
discovered—in a tomb at Meroe suggests that Greek musicians may
have performed for elite audiences at there. Otherwise, however, the
evidence consists of a limited range of luxury goods such as metal
vessels of various types--goose head wine strainers, drinking cups,
buckets and basins--and fragments of wine amphorae, which are found
in palace complexes and royal or noble tombs at Meroe and Napata.
Clearly, the development of a taste for Greek wine by the Kushite
aristocracy and possibly also the use of war elephants, were the most
notable results of the exposure to Greek culture in Hellenistic Kush. As
for knowledge and use of the Greek language, however we explain
Ergamenes' Greek education—a "wandering scholar" has actually been
suggested [17] —the evidence is scant. An inscription from Philae
[18] and the historian Diodorus' (3.11) claim to have spoken with
Aithiopian ambassadors at Alexandria, however, suggest that
knowledge of Greek was limited and that its primary use was
communication with Ptolemaic diplomats and officials. In the Roman
period, however, the scope of Greek influence and the use of Greek
both increased and began to affect core areas of Kushite culture,
particularly religion.

ROME AND KUSH [19]
As was true in the case of the Ptolemies, the first encounter between
Rome and Kush was hostile. Following the collapse of Ptolemaic
power in northern Nubia after the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC,
both Kush and Rome rushed to fill the vacuum with predictable results.
Fresh from the suppression of a revolt in southern Egypt, C. Cornelius
Gallus, the new Roman Prefect of Egypt, crossed into Nubia in force,
appointed a Roman client ruler for Lower Nubia, and forced local
Kushite officials to recognize Roman suzerainty and to agree to pay
tribute to Rome. Roman suzerainty over Kush