Aethiopia

Ancient Aethiopia, (Greek: Αἰθιοπία, romanized: Aithiopía) first appears as a geographical term in classical documents in reference to the skin color of the inhabitants of the upper Nile in Sudan, areas south of the Sahara, and less often to certain parts of Asia. Its earliest mention is in the works of Homer: twice in the Iliad, and three times in the Odyssey. The Greek historian Herodotus uses the appellation to refer to regions south of Egypt when describing "Aethiopians," most commonly Nubia. Despite this, the Byzantine Greeks also referred to the Aksumites as Ethiopians and Negus Ezana, conqueror of Meroë took on the title of "king of Ethiopia" prior to the rise of the medieval Ethiopian Empire. Greco-Roman sources also report the existence of 'White Aethiopians' in Africa. By the modern period the term Aethiopian Sea was used to refer to the southern Atlantic Ocean, particularly the area adjacent to West Africa.

Though near universally used to invoke the "Ethiopia of Africa" ("African Ethiopia"); there was another region sometimes called Asiatic Ethiopia, located somewhere in 'the East'. According to Herodotus: "the Ethiopians from the East are straight-haired, but those of Libya [Africa] have hair more thick and woolly than that of any other men." The Greek geographer Strabo noted in a similar vein that “As for the people of India, those in the south are like the Aethiopians in colour, although they are like the rest in respect to countenance and hair (for on account of the humidity of the air their hair does not curl), whereas those in the north are like the Aegyptians.”

Unlike the earlier Greek writers who distinguished Ethiopians from other Africans, Claudius Ptolemy (90–168 AD), a Roman citizen who lived in Alexandria, used "Ethiopia" as a racial term. In his Tetrabiblos: Or Quadripartite, he tried to explain the physical characteristics of people around the world saying, 'They are consequently black in complexion, and have thick and curled hair...and they are called by the common name of Aethiopians.'"

Pseudo-Jerome in the 4th century or later referred to the region of Colchis as the "Other Ethiopia" (altera Aethiopia), or, in the Greek translation of Pseudo-Sophronius, the "Second Ethiopia" (ἐν τῇ δευτέρᾳ Αἰθιοπίᾳ).