Indian elephants in the context of "African elephant"

The Triakontaschoinos (Greek: Τριακοντάσχοινος, "Land of the Thirty Schoinoi"), Latinized as Triacontaschoenus, was a geographical and administrative term used in the Greco-Roman world for the part of Lower Nubia between the First and Second Cataracts of the Nile, which formed a buffer zone between Egypt and later Rome on the one hand and Meroë on the other hand. The northern part of this area, stretching from the First Cataract south to Maharraqa, was known as the Dodekaschoinos or Dodecaschoenus (Δωδεκάσχοινος, "Land of the Twelve Schoinoi"). In the Ptolemaic and Roman periods the Dodekaschoinos was often annexed to Egypt or controlled from it, and the rest of the Triakontaschoinos sometimes was as well.

In 275 or 274 BC, Ptolemy II (r. 283–246 BC) sent an army to Nubia, and defeated the Kingdom of Kush. The expedition pursued several objectives: on the one hand, it curbed Kushite power, which had been steadily expanding for the past century, and helped secure Ptolemaic rule against the native Egyptians of Upper Egypt, who might be tempted to seek Kushite aid in their revolts. In addition, the expedition secured the Ptolemies' control of the supply route for African elephants, which played a crucial role as war elephants in their conflicts with the rival Seleucid Empire, that monopolized access to the larger Indian elephants. As a result of this campaign, the area between the First and Second Cataracts of the Nile, which also included the valuable gold mines of the Eastern Desert, was annexed to Egypt and became later known as Triakontaschoinos.