The Egyptian priest
Manetho () listed
Kushite (25th) dynasty, calling it the "Aethiopian dynasty," and
Esarhaddon the early 7th century BC ruler of the
Neo-Assyrian Empire describes deporting all "Aethiopians" from Egypt upon conquering Egypt from the Nubian
Kushite Empire which formed the 25th Dynasty. Moreover, when the
Hebrew Bible was
translated into Greek (c. 200 BC), the Hebrew appellation "Kush, Kushite" became in Greek "Aethiopia, Aethiopians", appearing as "Ethiopia, Ethiopians" in the English
King James Version.
Agatharchides provides a relatively detailed description of the gold mining system of Aethiopia. His text was copied almost verbatim by virtually all subsequent ancient writers on the area, including
Diodorus Siculus and
Photius.
Diodorus Siculus in his work
Bibliotheca Historica, reported that the Ethiopians claimed that
Egypt was an early colony, and that the Ethiopians also cited evidence that they were more ancient than the Egyptians as he wrote: {{Blockquote He recounted this story that attributes the origins of Egyptian civilization to migrants from the south, which in this context corresponds to the
Kingdom of Kush. Diodorus Siculus also discussed the similar cultural practices between the Ethiopians and Egyptians such as the writing systems as he states "We must now speak about the Ethiopian writing which is called hieroglyphic among the Egyptians, in order that we may omit nothing in our discussion of their antiquities".
Achilles Tatius described the complexion of the Egyptian herdsmen near
Alexandria as "dark-coloured (yet not absolutely black like an
Indian but more like a bastard Ethiopian)". With regard to the Ethiopians,
Strabo indicates that they looked similar to
Indians, remarking "those who are in Asia (South India), and those who are in Africa, do not differ from each other."
Pliny in turn asserts that the place-name "Aethiopia" was derived from one "Aethiop, a son of
Vulcan"
Physiognomonics, a Greek treatise traditionally attributed to
Aristotle, but now of
disputed ownership made an observation on the physical nature of the
Egyptians and Ethiopians with the view that "Those who are too black are cowards, like for the instance, the Egyptians and Ethiopians" The Greek travelogue from the 1st-century AD, known as the
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, initially describes the
littoral, based on its author's intimate knowledge of the area. However, the
Periplus does not mention any dark-skinned "Ethiopians" among the area's inhabitants. They only later appear in
Ptolemy's
Geographia in a region far south, around the "
Bantu nucleus" of northern
Mozambique.
Arrian, wrote in the 1st-century AD that "The appearance of the inhabitants is also not very different in India and Ethiopia: the southern Indians are rather more like Ethiopians as they are black to look on, and their hair is black; only they are not so snub-nosed or woolly-haired as the Ethiopians; the northern Indians are most like the Egyptians physically". The
Ezana Stone, a stele documenting the reign of
Ezana of Axum states the following: The terms King and Kingdom of Ethiopia would later be used by, among others,
Amda Seyon I and
Zara Yaqob. Early in the history of
Italian Eritrea the name "Nuova Etiopia" (New Ethiopia) was proposed. Also the Roman Christian
Pseudo-Jerome and his translator
Pseudo-Sophronius referred to
Colchis as the "other Ethiopia" or "second Ethiopia".
Stephanus of Byzantium, from the 6th-century AD, had written that "Ethiopia was the first established country on earth; and the Ethiopians were the first to set up the worship of the gods and to establish laws." Manilius, a Roman poet wrote in his
Astronomicon "The Ethiopians stain the world and depict a race of men steeped in darkness; less sun-burnt are the natives of India; the land of Egypt, flooded by the Nile, darkens bodies more mildly owing to the inundation of its fields: it is a country nearer to us and its moderate climate imparts a medium tone."
Philostratus (c. 170 – c. 245 AD) had written in his
journeys and life of
Apollonios of Tyana, he had at one point arrived at "the crossing point between Ethiopia and Egypt, which is called Kaminos", where at a marketplace the Ethiopians and Egyptians would trade and barter products. It was seen that "those who live at the border of the two countries are not quite black, but of the same color as each other, since they are less black than the Ethiopians, but more so than the Egyptians." ==In literature==