Nero sent scouts into Sudan?

[Onasander]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-Roman_relations

 

They mention it only briefly on this wiki page about Ireland.

 

I found nothing on the net, Sudan is too busy blowing itself up.

 

So..... anyone know about this?

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=kQhSfYhSMA4C&pg=PA172&lpg=PA172&dq=nero+sudan&source=bl&ots=t1U6THkeNj&sig=kk8gJfN5PAPYpV2MMVpTSZXLQzw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=K8q7UuyBLIK0sATW8ICoCA&ved=0CEQQ6AEwCDgK

Edited December 26, 2013 by Onasander

[Number Six]

I don't think I ever heard of it, but I'm not surprised either. There were trades between Egypt and India already under the Ptolemies, via Red Sea: those trades became meaningful under the Roman Empire and there is even a literary text from the 1st century that describes the routes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periplus_of_the_Erythraean_Sea. I'm not surprised that they explored the inland of routes which were sizable enough to burden the Roman finances.

 

I don't think there is much more to know on the episode you reported, except putting it into the context which is given by the fact that ancient Romans were active out of the Mediterrean Sea more than we tend to believe.

Edited December 26, 2013 by Number Six

[Onasander]

No..... no......

 

There is alot more......

 

There are a series of cataracts in the Nile that kept the Ottomans, and for the longest time even the British out. Wasnt until the Mahdi War that the region was conquered.... by building rail lines.

 

In many ways, the Mahdi War was the first modern war...... dedicated MOUT tactics, use of mortars, ideology and xenophobia driving theological fanatacism, bureaucracies rising to the awkward challenge of a mastermind opponent, the first modern combat boot, etc.

 

Im still looking up on google images of the sites listed on my last link.

 

This is the region that divided Axum from Egypt. Its little consequence therefor is of hugh consequence. What exactly does it take to stop a empire from expansion? A few waterfalls, and desolate swamplands that stretch on forever.

 

Now this is no longer a issue, will east africa remain fragmented and tribal, or will a regional entity begin empire building in the future? Its mostly muslims now there, and mecca sits close to the western shore. Not a shiite friendly population, who sit east of Saudi Arabia.

 

This could in time drag the battle lines from Iraq and Syria down into the heart of arabia itself in a few generations.

 

So yeah, its important, and I want to know more about why post-saudi Arabia might soon be full of radioactive glass.

[Axel Wers]

Currently I read Nero's biography (from book by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus). When I finish, then I'll write if Nero sent scouts to Sudan haha.

[joe]

i did some research into this a few years ago, and found some evidence. if you have a look at jstor.org you can find a few papers discussing this, it is mentioned by suetonius and a few other roman historians. he did send an expedition to meroe (the ancient kingdom in sudan) and possibly further south to axum (ethiopia). in all likelyhood he was trying to get money and hoping to score an easy victory or at least improve trade. he is also said to have sent an expedition into the western desert possibly in the hopes of reaching lake chad although this expedition was lost, and another east of the rhie to find the source of the amber they traded with the germans, but they turned back when they realised how far it was (somewhere on the baltic coast i believe) although there is less evidence for these expeditions.

[caldrail]

There is a mention somewhere of an expedition southward. They found nothing but desertt and some 'cavemen' with whom they fought.

[Onasander]

Cavemen?

[Falacer]

I recently read a book about the search for the origin of the Nile and it states that in 66 AD Nero sent an expedition upriver led by two Centurions, with instructions to find the headwaters of the river. Apparently they made it about halfway but were eventually defeated by the Sudd, the huge expanse of mosquito infested swamp that extends for hundreds of kilometres.

[caldrail]

Cavemen?

If I remember right, the word used was 'troglodyte'.

[Axel Wers]

Now I read book The Search Begins (1973), there is mentioned that Nero sent an expedition to discover the source of the Nile. The results of the expedition were uncertain, but it is assumed that expedition probably reached south-central Sudan.

[Onasander]

I can't wait till they make a movie of this expedition....

 

It's hot, lots of desert.... army marching. A few mud huts, a occasional caveman the army roughs up for little apparent reason.... and at the end a big old stinking desolate swamp of stagnant death.

 

Slap up a mud statue of Nero in the swampy desolation, "worship it with curses" and march back.

 

I think the US had it right with Louise and Clarke. A few canoes, and cartography. The Romans had a grasp on mapping, they could of pulled this off on the cheap....

 

Or just asked around. Sure someone got bored and decided to walk that sidistance.