Kandake Amanirenas and the Kushite War with Rome (25-22 BC)

Kandake Amanirenas was a ruling queen of the Kingdom of Kush who led a war against Roman Egypt between about 25 and 22 BC. Her forces raided Aswan and the islands of the First Cataract, and although the Romans struck back deep into Nubia, the peace that followed favoured Kush. The war produced one of the most famous trophies of the ancient world, a bronze head of the emperor Augustus buried beneath a temple at Meroë.

Background: Rome reaches the Nile frontier

In 30 BC, after the death of Cleopatra VII, Octavian annexed Egypt as a Roman province. Three years later he took the name Augustus and became the first Roman emperor. Egypt was governed for him by a prefect, backed by three legions and auxiliary troops.

South of Egypt lay the Kingdom of Kush, ruled from Meroe on the middle Nile. Kush had once controlled Egypt itself as its 25th Dynasty and remained a wealthy power trading in gold, ivory and other goods from the African interior. The region between the First Cataract at Aswan and the Second Cataract, called Lower Nubia, was a contested borderland.

The first Roman prefect, Cornelius Gallus, marched south of Aswan in 29 BC and set up a protectorate over the area. Roman officials began to treat the Kushites as tribute-paying subjects, which the rulers of Meroe did not accept.

The Kushite attack

In about 25 or 24 BC the prefect Aelius Gallus led part of the Roman garrison on an expedition to Arabia. The Kushites seized the opportunity. According to the Greek geographer Strabo, who knew Aelius Gallus personally, an army of some 30,000 men attacked Syene (Aswan), Elephantine and Philae.

The raiders defeated the three Roman cohorts stationed there, took captives and threw down statues of Augustus. Strabo writes that the Kushites were led by the queen he calls Candace, whom he describes as masculine in manner and blind in one eye. Her son also took part in the war.

The Roman counter-attack

The new prefect, Gaius Petronius, responded with fewer than 10,000 infantry and 800 cavalry. He drove the Kushite forces back to Pselchis (modern Dakka) in Lower Nubia, defeated them in battle and then advanced south. He captured the fortress of Premnis, later known as Qasr Ibrim, and marched on to Napata, the old religious capital of Kush near the Fourth Cataract.

Strabo says Petronius razed Napata to the ground and took many prisoners, some of whom were sent to Augustus. Augustus himself later claimed in his Res Gestae that a Roman army had advanced as far as Napata. Some modern historians think the destruction was less complete than the Roman sources suggest, but the expedition was clearly a major blow.

Petronius did not try to hold the distant south. He strengthened Premnis, left a garrison of 400 men with two years of supplies, and returned to Alexandria.

The second campaign and the peace of Samos

In about 22 BC the queen’s forces advanced on Premnis with a large army. Petronius marched south again and reached the fortress first. Faced with this, the Kushites opened negotiations. Petronius told the envoys to take their requests to Augustus himself, who was then on the Greek island of Samos.

The envoys reached Augustus during the winter of 21/20 BC. According to Strabo, the emperor granted everything they asked and cancelled the tribute he had imposed on them. The frontier of Roman Egypt was set at Hiera Sykaminos (modern Maharraqa), and the strip of land between Aswan and that point, known as the Dodekaschoinos, became a buffer zone.

The settlement held for a long time. Rome and Kush kept largely peaceful relations for the next three centuries, with trade and diplomatic contact across the frontier.

The queen behind the title

Greek and Roman writers took “Candace” to be a personal name, but it was the Meroitic royal title kandake, used for queens and queen mothers. The same title appears in the New Testament story of an Ethiopian official, an envoy from Kush, in the Acts of the Apostles.

Meroitic inscriptions name a ruler Amanirenas with the titles qore (ruler) and kandake, often together with a prince named Akinidad. The great Hamadab Stela, now in the British Museum, records them in the Meroitic script and seems to refer to campaigns of this period, but the language is only partly understood. Most historians identify Amanirenas with Strabo’s one-eyed queen, although some have proposed her successor Amanishakheto instead.

Key people and common myths

Amanirenas was the ruling queen of Kush in the later 1st century BC. Apart from Strabo’s brief description, almost everything known about her comes from Meroitic inscriptions and from her probable burial in a pyramid at Meroë, although the identification of her tomb is debated.

Akinidad was a Kushite prince who appears beside Amanirenas, and also beside another royal woman, Amanishakheto, in several inscriptions. He is often identified with the queen’s son mentioned by Strabo, and he may have commanded troops in Lower Nubia during the war.

Gaius Petronius was prefect of Egypt from about 25 to 21 BC. A capable soldier, he fought the Kushites twice and opened the talks that led to peace. Aelius Gallus, his predecessor, led the Arabian expedition whose absence gave Kush its opening. Augustus decided the final terms himself.

Myths and facts

Popular retellings sometimes claim that Amanirenas lost her eye in battle against the Romans. Strabo only says that she was blind in one eye; he gives no cause, and no other source mentions it.

Another common claim is that Kush defeated Rome outright. In fact the Romans won the pitched battles described in the sources and sacked Napata. The Kushite success lay in the outcome: Rome withdrew to a frontier far to the north and dropped its demand for tribute, which suggests it judged a war in Nubia not worth the cost.

By the numbers

These figures come from Strabo and may be rounded or exaggerated, as ancient army sizes often are.

The Meroë Head of Augustus

In 1910 the British archaeologist John Garstang, excavating at Meroë, found a bronze head of Augustus buried beneath the steps of a small temple. The head had been cut from a larger-than-life statue and still had its inlaid glass and calcite eyes. It is now one of the best-known objects in the British Museum.

The head was almost certainly taken from a statue in southern Egypt during the Kushite raid. By burying it under a temple threshold, the Kushites ensured that everyone entering would walk over the image of the Roman emperor, a gesture of triumph. The temple’s walls were painted with scenes that appear to show captives before a Kushite ruler.

Timeline

• 30 BC: Rome annexes Egypt after the death of Cleopatra VII.
• 29 BC: Prefect Cornelius Gallus establishes Roman control south of Aswan.
• c. 25–24 BC: While Aelius Gallus campaigns in Arabia, Kushite forces raid Syene, Elephantine and Philae.
• c. 24 BC: Gaius Petronius counter-attacks, takes Premnis and sacks Napata.
• c. 22 BC: Kushite forces advance on Premnis; Petronius returns and negotiations begin.
• 21/20 BC: Augustus receives the Kushite envoys on Samos and grants peace without tribute.
• 1910: John Garstang discovers the bronze head of Augustus at Meroë.

Why it matters

The war of Amanirenas is one of the few occasions when an African state faced the Roman Empire at its height and came away with favourable terms. It fixed a stable frontier on the Nile for centuries and shows Kush as a confident power able to negotiate with Rome. The queen’s image as a warrior ruler, and the head of Augustus buried at Meroë, remain powerful symbols of Kushite history today.