WARDING OFF A ROMAN INVASION IN AETHIOPIA (UPPER NUBIA) WITH TALL ELEPHANT TALES? REVISITING PLINY, NATURALIS HISTORIA 6.186

Abstract It has recently been suggested that the Romans baulked at the idea of expanding their empire beyond Egypt into Aethiopia (Upper Nubia) during the principate of Nero because they were tricked into thinking that a powerful army equipped with war elephants awaited them. This discussion aims to demonstrate that such a view, based on a minority reading of Pliny, HN 6.186 that plumps for 3,000 elephants once being stationed on the island of Meroë, is difficult to support on both textual and contextual grounds.