Authorship and Dating of the Inscription Monumentum Adulitanum II (OGIS 199 = RIE 277)
Bukharin Mikhail D.
he authorship and dating of the inscription MA-II are long debated problems. The view that this text has been inscribed by a South Arabian king finds no confirmation in the sources. The comparison of the military achievements of the king, author of MA-II, and the data of the South Arabian inscriptions dealing with the Axumite penetration in Aimyar in the early 3rd century A.D. reveals that the author, king of Abyssinia, became in the course of his campaigns king of Abyssinia and Axum. This can be applied to the king Gadura. At the end of the 2nd century A.D. he signed an alliance with the king of Saba' 'Alhan Nahfan and his son and successor, Sa'ir 'Awtar. After the death of the latter, in the interregnum, free of any obligation Gadura invaded Himyar.