Aksum An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity Stuart Munro-Hay

exploit the possibilities of imported weapons, as the Periplus mentions, it was, if we can 
hazard a guess, increased manpower, organisational ability, speed and capable 
generalship which eventually gave Aksum the dominant military role in the region.  
How the governmental system of the earlier polity functioned can only be suggested. 
Possibly it was based on some sort of tribal council, which eventually made way for a 
single leader, or possibly traditional organisations based on such examples as the ancient 
chiefs of Punt and the mukarribs and kings of the earlier South Arabian period had 
already left the heritage of a system of chiefly control. Aksum must have begun to take 
its place as an ever more important part of the local political scene, partly by the exercise 
of military initiative, and partly, perhaps, by developing treaty-relationships with 
neighbouring tribal groups and gradually assuming the position of primus inter pares. We 
have no idea about the Aksumites' attitudes towards these surrounding peoples until later, 
when they were definitely considered to be subordinate; but presumably the dominance 
the Aksumites eventually achieved was not easily gained, and even in the heyday of 
Aksum one or other of the lesser tribes occasionally made a bid for freedom, described in 
the official Aksumite sources as `rebellions'.  
Absorption of neighbouring tribal groups seems to have followed the initial impetus for 
expansion, often with the traditional rulers left in power as sub-kings, until in the end the 
Aksumites controlled a very large area of modern Ethiopia. Under the umbrella of 
Aksumite control, we can envisage a number of older systems of government still 
functioning, and perhaps themselves in some ways influencing the Aksumites politically 
and culturally. The kings' titles on inscriptions list a number of regions, certainly those 
which constituted the most important provinces of the empire, but the many sma ller 
polities mentioned in the body of the inscriptions, with their local kings, were evidently 
not considered significant enough to merit this special mention in the titularies. They 
may, by this time, have been subsumed under the general term `Habashat', or even, in 
some cases, `Aksumites', and, as it were, been transformed from foreign tribesman to 
Aksumite citizen. The designation `Habashat' may originally have referred to the 
population of the prosperous eastern area of Tigray. Probably, after their submission, 
levies from the various tribes or their clans would have swollen the Aksumite potential 
for putting armies into the field, and might even have given the names to some of the 
military regiments known from the inscriptions (
Ch. 11: 2
).  
Whether the Aksumites had formed a concept of the state as comprising these 
communities of the central region, but excluding those particularly mentioned in the 
titularies, is uncertain. The primary title, negus in Ge`ez or najashi in Arabic, (signifying 
king or military leader) of Aksum, or `of the Aksumites', seems to refer to the nucleus of 
tribal groups taken in to form a single polity, quite aside from the more `foreign' peoples 
and regions later subordinated to Aksumite control. But the inscriptions still continue to 
refer to revolts in the inner territories for as long as we have records from Aksumite 
times, and we have little idea what was regarded as constituting the `Aksumite' ingredient 
of the state. The land belonging to the subordinate tribes was perhaps not considered part 
of `Aksumite' territorial jurisdiction, land-rights remaining vested in those tribes and the 
payment of tribute reserving a measure of autonomy. These neighbours did not, then, 

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immediately become united in a political sense to the Aksumites by the merger of their 
lands and institutions with those of Aksum, though their eventual disappearance from the 
record indicates that ultimately absorption was inevitable. It would evidently have been 
in the interest of the security of the Aksumite crown to diminish the power of provincial 
authorities, eliminate provincial royalty, and reduce the provinces to the direct control of 
the monarchy, but only if the monarchy itself were capable of controlling the areas thus 
acquired; but it may well be that the continued existence of the smaller units reflects the 
central government's inability to do this adequately. Aksum may have been obliged by 
necessity to tolerate an imperfect situation for some time, until through a policy of 
gradual replacement by Aksumite officials of hereditary rulers with a hold on local 
loyalties, the separate identity of the smaller entities was slowly eroded away.  
This retention of a separate identity by certain tribes for some centuries after their 
submission to Aksumite authority might help to explain the revolts reported in Aksumite 
inscriptions, since if we presume that there were neither Aksumite garrisons nor royal 
retainers with land in the tribal areas, such risings would have been easier to foment. It is 
interesting to note that Procopius (Dewing 1914: 183) still refers to Adulis as the 
`harbour of the Adulites' using the ethnic name Ptolemy (Stevenson 1932: 108), had used 
much earlier. Other writers, like Epiphanius (ed. Blake and de Vis 1934), who in the late 
fourth century listed nine kingdoms of the `Indians' including `Adoulites', also recognised 
a difference between Adulites and Aksumites, though they are subsumed together in the 
Latin version; "Aksumites with Adulites" (Cerulli 1960: 16-17). It may have taken a 
considerable time before formal incorporation into the Aksumite state altered established 
social patterns.  
In due course there must have been changes in the Aksumites' own political outlook, too, 
perhaps partly resulting from the exposure of the country to Graeco-Roman and other 
influences, particularly after the development of the Red Sea trade and Aksum's entry 
into a wider network of commerce. By around AD200 the Aksumite kings were able to 
intervene militarily in internal struggles in South Arabia, and in the fourth century we 
have evidence for at least theoretical suzerainty over several groups in the Sudan, such as 
the Kasu, Noba, and the Northern Cushitic-speaking Beja tribes (see the titulature on the 
inscriptions, 
Ch. 11: 5
). Here, Aksum had to some extent taken over the imperial role of 
Meroë. In the south, Agaw (Central Cushitic-speaking) peoples also became subject to 
the Semitic-speaking Aksumites. The expansion to the Adulite coastal region now 
permitted Aksum to convey goods originating in districts beyond the Nile or its 
tributaries to their own port on the Red Sea coast, and the rulers doubtless hoped that 
their projects across the Red Sea would eventually lead to control of some of the 
immensely rich trade of the Arabian kingdoms. With Rome as a powerful ally and trading 
partner, Aksum's prosperity was based on firm geographical and historical realities, and 
was maintained until these altered in the late sixth/ early seventh century.  
The Aksumite cultural province, as far as reported sites can indicate, was centred in 
Eritrea and Tigray, particularly the districts of the Akkele Guzay, Agame, and the regio n 
around Aksum, Adwa, and Shire. Traces have also been found in Enderta, Hamasien, 
Keren, and as far as the Rore Plateau (Conti Rossini, 1931), and even in Wollo (Anfray 

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