(anc. geogr.), an island of Ethiopia beyond Egypt, in the Nile; with a cognominal town, the metropolis of the Ethiopians. Here the shadow is said to decrease twice a-year, viz. when the sun is in the 18th degree of Taurus and in the 14th of Leo. (Pliny.) Josephus says, that its ancient name was Saba; but changed to Meroe by Cambyses, either after his sister or after his consort, who died there, (Strabo). All the ancients represent Meroe as an island, but in modern times it is a peninsula; to which greater credit is to be given, as more accurate than the ancient accounts.