Aksum An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity Stuart Munro-Hay

The stelae of two prominent Ethiopians of the late third century offer a little information 
about local matters (Drewes 1962: 67-8). One, the Matara stele, reads `This is the stele 
which Agaz has made for his ancestors . . .', but no information is given about Agaz 
himself. The other, the Anza (near Hawzien) stele, was erected by Bazat (BZT) negus of 
Agabo, perhaps a local king. His stele seems to celebrate a 15 day festival, and 520 
containers of beer and 20,620 loaves are recorded as a donation.  
The Aksumite state at this stage appears fully- fledged as a militaristic monarchy with 
wide-reaching foreign connexions. The interest in South Arabia may have been 
encouraged by the need to keep the Red Sea efficiently policed so that vessels of the 
Aksumites or their trading partners could come and go safely. Aksum may also have been 
concerned to be included in the enormously profitable trade in incense and other valuable 
goods along the routes which crossed Arabia to the markets of the Roman empire. 
Sembrouthes' inscription attests Aksumite power as far north as Daqqi Mahari, and 
confirms that he controlled subordinate kings, since he uses the title `king of kings'. His 
inscription is in Greek, the language Zoskales also knew. It remains possible that 
Sembrouthes should be situated at an earlier date, though the elevated title of `king of 
kings' does perhaps tend to support the dating proposed above.  
5. Period 3; Endubis to Ezana 
From the reign of king Endubis we are fortunate in having the newly issued coinage, in 
gold, silver, and bronze, to guide us in tracing out a framework for the history and 
chronology of Aksum (Munro-Hay, loc. var.; Hahn 1983). The issue of a coinage (
Ch. 9
) 
is of very great importance in itself, and for Aksum the issue of an independent gold-
based currency was a move which announced that the state considered itself on a par with 
its great neighbours at least in so far as sovereignty was concerned. It further enabled the 
rulers to employ a powerful propaganda instrument, simplified trade, and, not to be 
forgotten, was profitable.  
As far as publicising themselves and their state was concerned the Aksumite rulers were 
highly successful from our point-of-view; most of the Aksumite kings are known to us 
only from the legends on their coins, all other evidence for their existence having 
perished or disappeared among the ruins of Aksum. The main features and significance of 
the coinage are dealt with in 
Ch. 9
 below. From the evidence presented through study of 
the coinage (Munro-Hay 1978) it can be inferred that Endubis employed the Roman 
monetary system as a model, but used his own selected designs to maximise the impact of 
his coinage as a vehicle to convey the official propaganda. The subsequent kings added 
or removed motifs and other elements of the design as the current situation 
recommended.  

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Illustration 10a. Drawing of a silver coin (d. 12mm) of king Wazeba with its alternative 
reverses, the right- hand example belonging to king Ousanas and perhaps indicating joint 
tenure of the throne.  
A new title, not met with before in Aksumite records, first appears in the coin- legends of 
the pagan rulers. This consists of the word `Bisi', from `be`esya', `man of . . .' in Ge`ez, 
followed by a name. It could be perhaps a tribal or clan designation, or perhaps a military 
title, and it remained in use until the sixth century AD (see 
Ch. 7: 5
), and possibly even 
on into the eleventh and later centuries (Conti Rossini 1901).  
Endubis and his successors all included the pre-Christian disc and crescent symbol on 
their coins, until, with Ezana's conversion in c333AD it was replaced by the cross. This 
enables us to group the five kings Endubis, Aphilas, Wazeba, Ousanas and Ezana at the 
head of the coinage sequence. Although the first four of these pre-Christian kings are not 
mentioned anywhere else, the archaeological record, in so far as it can be interpreted, 
almost certainly leads to the conclusion that at least some of them were responsible for 
the erection of the series of large decorated stelae in the central necropolis of the capital 
(
Ch. 5: 5
). Some of the tombs marked by these stelae must also be theirs, but in most 
cases the tombs belonging to the various stelae have not yet been identified. Very little 
political information can be extracted from the coins for this period, but it may be that 
Wazeba and Ousanas ruled for a time conjointly (see 
Ch. 7: 3
), since there is one issue 
which combines obverse dies of Wazeba with reverse dies of Ousanas. The scarcity of 
Wazeba's coins may hint at a short reign. His unique use (at this period) of Ge`ez for his 
coinage, instead of the usual Greek, may betray an interest in encouraging the use of the 
coinage in Ethiopia itself, rather than mainly for external trade.  
It may have been during the reigns of Endubis or Aphilas that the last events we know of 
during the first Abyssinian involvement in Yemen occurred. By the 270s Yasir Yuhan`im 
of Himyar and his son and co-ruler Shamir Yuhar`ish seem to have ended the Abyssinian 
danger, and, in addition, to have triumphed to such an extent that they could annex Saba 
itself. About 290AD Hadhramawt fell in its turn, and Shamir Yuhar`ish adopted, by 295, 
the longer title of king of Saba, Dhu-Raydan, Hadhramawt, and Yamanat. If the 
Ethiopians retained territory on the east side of the Red Sea, it must have been at most 
some minor coastal districts; at any rate, the inscriptions of Shamir no longer mention 
them.  
In the fourth century, after the reign of Shamir Yuhar`ish, another South Arabian 
inscription alludes to Karibil Watar Yuhan`im, king of Saba, Dhu-Raydan, Hadhramawt 
and Yamanat, sending ambassadors to the "land of Habashat and Aksuman, to the 
nagashi . . . and he (the nagashi?) sent with him as emissaries `HQM and ZLNS".  

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