Zoskales

Zoskales (Ancient Greek: Ζωσκάλης)[1] (c. 100 CE) was an ancient King in the Horn of Africa. His realm included the ancient city of Adulis.

Zoskales
King of Aksum
PredecessorUnknown
SuccessorGDRT

History

The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea mentions Zoskales as the ruler of the port of Adulis in Eritrea.[2] According to the ancient sources he was miserly but otherwise upright.[1] He also knew Greek.[1]

At least as early as Henry Salt, some scholars, including Sergew Hable Sellassie[3] and Y. M. Kobishchanov,[4] have identified him with Za Haqala, who is listed in the King Lists of the Kingdom of Aksum as having ruled for 13 years, and who ruled between Za Zalis and Za Dembalé.[5] G.W.B. Huntingford points out, on the other hand, that there is not enough information to be certain of this identification. He argues instead that Zoskales was a petty king whose power was limited to only Adulis.[6]

Notes
  1. Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, 5
  2. Schoff, Wilfred Harvey (1912). The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century. London, Bombay & Calcutta. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  3. Ancient and Medieval Ethiopian History to 1270 (Addis Ababa: 1972), p. 72
  4. Axum (University Park: 1979), pp. 54-5
  5. Salt, A Voyage to Abyssinia (Philadelphia, 1816), p. 358
  6. Quoted in Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 18
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