"One of the peculiar features of the Meroitic political system was the choice of a new sovereign by election. Classical authors from Herodotus, fifth century BCE, and Diodorus of Sicily, first century BCE express their surprise about this usage, so different from the other ancient kingdoms." from General History of Africa: Abridged Edition Vol. II page 172
Background:
Meroe seems to have been a flourishing town at least as early as the eighth century BC. It was situated at the junction of several main river and caravan routes, connecting central Africa, via the Blue and White Niles, with Egypt, and the Upper Nile region itself with Kordofan, the Red Sea and the Ethiopian highlands. Since it lay within the rainbelt, the land about it was seasonally more productive than the region of Napata, and it was thus a somewhat more pleasant place to live. By the third century BC it was only one of several large towns that had arisen in the same region. Bounded to the west by the Nile, the north by the River Atbara and to the south by the Blue Nile, this area, now known as the Butana, was the heartland of the later Kushite kingdom, and came to be known in classical literature as 'the Island of Meroe.' From Nubia Museum http://www.numibia.net/nubia/meroe.htm
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