Aksum An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity Stuart Munro-Hay

Abreha and Atsbeha, were on the throne at the time of the conversion of Ethiopia to 
Christianity. The first of these documents is only a copy of the letter preserved in the 
writings of Athanasius of Alexandria; and even if the letter is an accurate copy, we have 
no means of knowing how well- informed the Roman chancery was about the Ethiopian 
sovereign and his family. The second is so late a tradition that it is of very dubious value, 
and another explanation has been given for the names Abreha and Atsbeha (see 
Ch. 10: 
3
). Ezana alludes to his brother Sazana in his inscriptions, but he neither accords him any 
special titles, nor does he differentiate him from the other brother, Hadefan, who is also 
mentioned. Finally, it is not considered that the numismatic suggestion has sufficient 
value to strengthen the proposal (Munro-Hay 1984ii).  
Another possible dual reign is again suggested by the coinage. The kings Nezana and 
Nezool both have gold issues, which are, in terms of modern recovery figures, commoner 
for Nezool than for Nezana. On the other hand Nezana has a silver issue while Nezool 
does not (so far). On Nezana's silver appears a monogram, NZWL, or Nezool. The 
tentative interpretation of this is that Nezool was the chief partner in a dual reign, issuing 
gold in his own name, whilst his partner Nezana issued the lesser metal but also added his 
senior's monogram. On Nezool's death, Nezana issued his own gold, even employing one 
of Nezool's obverse dies with his own reverse (Munro-Hay 1984ii). However, the much 
enlarged selection of these coins supplied by the al-Madhariba hoard (Munro-Hay 1989ii) 
shows the condition of the die as worsening from Nezana to Nezool, and the situation 
could well be reversed.  
 
Illustration 43. The obverse of a silver coin of king Nezana of Aksum shows the 
monogramme of Nezool above his head.  
The inscription of Sumyafa` Ashwa`, appointed by Kaleb as king of Himyar, refers to 
`the kings of Aksum', using the plural forms nagast and amlak (
Ch. 4: 7
; Ryckmans 
1946). Since coins of Kaleb and Alla Amidas are die- linked (Munro-Hay 1984ii), it 
seems possible that the latter was co-opted by Kaleb, (conceivably when Kaleb began to 
turn his attention to South Arabia), and that it is to these joint monarchs that Sumyafa` 
Ashwa` refers. However, the inscription, which is much damaged, mentions only Ella 
Atsbeha by name, and may simply refer to the Aksumite crown in general terms. The 
question is interesting in that Kaleb is the only one of the coin- issuing Aksumite 
monarchs who is thought to have left Africa for some considerable time, if we can 
believe the various accounts of the Himyarite war (Shahid 1979), and, under such 

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circumstances, he would surely have needed to arrange a regency in his absence to deal 
with the day-to-day running of the kingdom.  
Finally, again on numismatic grounds, Dr. Hahn has suggested that the kings Ioel, 
Gersem and Hataz all reigned together. Once again, the numismatic evidence, though 
interesting, is not conclusive enough to show beyond doubt that these three were joint 
rulers.  
To sum  up, the suggestion of dual kingship, plausible enough as a theory, seems 
conceivable for Wazeba/Ousanas, Nezana/Nezool, and Kaleb/Alla Amidas, but is not 
very convincing otherwise.  
4. Succession 
 
Determining the nature of the succession is difficult. Tho ugh it might be expected that the 
monarchy was hereditary in a particular family following the system of primogeniture in 
the male line, this is not absolutely certain. Nor do we know if, as seems likely in so long 
a period, there were changes of dynasty. We know the names of sons of the third-century 
nagashis Gadarat and `Adhebah, respectively Baygat and Garmat, but they do not appear 
under those names elsewhere. Ezana's father was Ella Amida; but nowhere in the 
inscriptions is it stated that he was a king, although the `Ella' element allows us to 
suppose that he was, and Rufinus (ed. Migne 1849: 479) confirms that the child-king who 
was later converted to Christianity, and who is usually identified as Ezana, succeeded his 
father. A ring of truth is given to this supposition by the fact that Ezana had to undertake 
a series of campaigns in Ethiopia and neighbouring countries in his early years, perhaps 
the result of neglect during a long minority under a regency in a system of tributary 
control such as the Aksumite. Ezana's assumption of his majority under such difficult 
circumstances, when he needed to set out immediately on campaigns to secure his 
kingdom, may also partly explain his continued use of pagan phraseology in his 
inscriptions; the result of a delay from practical causes in announcing his new religion.  
The sequence Tazena-Kaleb-Wa`zeb follows from father to son, but in fact only the later 
hagiographies and king lists call Tazena a king, naming his father as another Ella Amida. 
Only for Wa`zeb, therefore, do we have primary evidence from Aksumite documents for 
hereditary succession on the throne. In spite of this paucity of evidence, the flourishing 
urban society of Aksum, with its prosperous trade and lack of defensive installations 
seems to indicate that the transmission of power was relatively stable over a considerable 
period.  
The basic idea of the hereditary succession in Ethiopia is confirmed by Ibn Ishaq's 
biography of the prophet Muhammad, as preserved, though sometimes altered, 
abbreviated, and annotated, in the works of such later historians as Ibn Hisham and 
Tabari (Guillaume 1955: Introduction). The story as given in this source is very 
interesting from the point-of-view of late Aksumite history (Guillaume 1955: 153ff). It is 

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