Aristides did not Read Strabo: Ethiopian Rains in the Aigyptios

Abstract

Aristides was one among the ancient writers who mistakenly rejected the theory that related the seasonal rains on the Ethiopian mountains to the origin of the Nilotic flood, a link that we know today to be closer to the truth than any other ancient theory. The Nile’s two singularities drove Aristides to commit two severe methodological mistakes, which are particularly noticeable in an intellectual of his category: the hydric behavior of the current (apparently opposed to that of other rivers) and the spatial and temporal discrepancy between the atmospheric factors that caused the rising of the river and the perception of said rising in Egypt. Aristides’ forceful rejection of this theory is one of the most interesting factors in the text and one that I shall use in order to define which elements in the Aigyptios are in fact correct and which are not.