Page "History of Sudan" Paragraph 19

In the 2nd century AD, the Nobatae occupied the Nile's west bank in northern Kush.

They are believed to have been one of several well-armed bands of horse-and camel-borne warriors who sold their vagility to the Meroitic Population for protection ; eventually they intermarried and established themselves among the Meroitic people as a military aristocracy.

Until nearly the 5th century, Rome subsidized the Nobatae and used Meroe as a buffer between Egypt and the Blemmyes.

Meanwhile, the old Meroitic kingdom contracted because of the expansion of the powerful Ethiopic Kingdom of Aksum to the east.

By AD 350, King Ezana of Axum had captured and destroyed Meroe city, ending the kingdom's independent existence, and conquering its territory into modern-day northern Sudan.