The Kingdom of Kush, or the Kushite Empire, was in the region of southern Egypt and northern Sudan from around 780 BC to 350 AD. It had an eventful history, including war with Rome. Here, Husain Roussel looks at war between the states over 27 to 22 BC.
Strabo as shown in the Nuremberg Chronicle.
Introduction
The Romans, like the Greeks under Alexander the Great and the Persians under Darius the Great were without doubt one of the super powers of the ancient world. However, many kingdoms small and large throughout the Greco-Roman world would fight Greek, Persian or Roman armies to maintain their independence, often without success leading to either their annihilation or their assimilation into these emerging western and central Asian empires. The Romans, like all conquerors of the period, would demand these conquered territories to provide a supply of grain to feed their growing republic, annexation of more land, the payment of taxes leading to debt or famine in the host kingdoms, and send conscripts to fill their Roman auxiliary legions (Auxilia) necessary to fight in new wars of conquest.
Historians and Archeologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries have often covered European and Asian conflicts of the Greco-Roman era, but due to racial views of the period often overlooked kingdoms for one reason or another in ancient sub Saharan Africa. One such African kingdom in the ancient Sudan (also termed Nubia) coming to light more recently forced Rome through none other than armed conflict into signing a peace treaty allowing their status as at the very least a client state with exemption from paying offensive taxes, and maintaining their independence from any further Roman incursions into their borders. This kingdom in the Sudan was viewed as another satellite region of ancient Egypt. Researchers like the archeologist George Andrew Reisner, jr. who did extensive research in Nubia during the early 20th published very little on the culture of the black Africans in the region. His belief like so many of his peers during the period was Africans in the Sudan were incapable of creating a powerful kingdom or artistic innovations that could compete with the ancient Egyptians.
The famous Queen Cleopatra VII, the last Ptolemy to rule as Pharaoh of Egypt lost her war with Rome under the rule of Octavian Augustus during Rome’s civil war at the Battle of Actium on September 2, 31 BC with her lover Mark Antony ending approximately 300 years of Ptolemaic rule in Egypt. Octavian Augustus, now the sole ruler of the Roman Republic and soon to be Emperor of the Roman Empire, has with the defeat of Queen Cleopatra made Egypt a province of Rome with a Roman Governor as Prefect (praefectus Aegypti). Octavian decided to venture further south of the Nile River to demand tribute and taxes from another kingdom. This new potential tax revenue and grain source called the Kingdom of Kush (1070 BC - 350 AD) located in the city of Meroe with a Kushite Queen now witnessed a new threat the Romans on their border.
Prelude to the War
The people of Kush formerly had a love and hate relationship with their previous neighbors the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. The two kingdoms for centuries shared similar customs and cultural exchanges in the form of Gods and Goddesses, both kingdoms built pyramids, fought against each other at various times, had royal intermarriages, and practiced similar religious ceremonies, but the Kingdom of Kush maintained a very separate identity, had a unique Meroitic language, provided a more liberating status given to women like female rulers called Kandakes or Candaces (Queens), and did not mummify their dead. The ancient Egyptians were never able to subdue, vanquish, or fully conquer the Kingdom of Kush. Therefore, it can be said the two maintained a form of cold war status with a border equivalent to what today is the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
The Kingdom of Kush on the other hand managed to invade and rule Egypt for approximately 100 years during the 25th dynasty (747-656 BC), known as the rule of the Black Pharaohs beginning with the Kushite King Piye until driven out by the last native Egyptian dynasty at the start of ancient Egypt’s Late Period. The war between Rome under Octavian the heir to Julius Caesar and Ptolemaic Egypt under Queen Cleopatra VII and the Roman General Mark Antony allowed the Kingdom of Kush or at the time the Kushitic Kingdom of Meroe an opportunity to take more territory from defenseless borders previously held by Ptolemaic ruled Egypt. The frequent incursions around 27 BC into Roman held Egyptian lands and border skirmishes with the Kingdom of Kush dynasty based in Meroe would set the stage for a new conflict between Rome and another Nile Queen. The Greek geographer and historian Strabo would refer to this Queen as Candace in his writings of the Meroitic war against the Roman Empire.
Preemptive Strikes against Romans
The Romans full with thought of invincibility and no doubt egomania now decided they wanted to make the Kingdom of Kush a vassal to Roman domination as well, and demanded the Queen Amanirenas (ruler of the Kingdom of Kush 40-10 BC) give up territory and provide tribute in the form of heavy taxes or face invasion. The Queen of Kush refused this insult, and while the Roman Prefect of Egypt Aelius Gallus was away on official business during an Arabian campaign for Emperor Augustus the Queen decided she had other plans for Roman demands. This Queen obviously knew the outcome of Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt, and was determined her kingdom would not suffer the same fate.
Queen Amanirenas had decided instead to strike first blood at Roman Egypt, and her armies did just that in 25 BC led by herself and her son Crown Prince Akinidad attacking several towns in lower Nubia namely, Philae and Syene (Aswan) on the 1st Cataract of the Nile River in the Roman Egyptian border while defeating several Roman garrisons protected by Roman auxiliary cohorts who were caught off guard at these locations. The famous and well preserved head of the Roman Emperor Augustus was removed from a statue during looting from one of these border raids in Roman Egypt. The Augustus head was buried as insult to Rome under a Temple in Meroe dedicated to victory that was excavated from the site in 1912, and now on display in the British Museum.
According to Strabo, The Geography, Book XVII, "the Aethiopians, emboldened by the fact that a part of the Roman force in Aegypt had been drawn away with Aelius Gallus when he was carrying on war against the Arabians, attacked the Thebaïs and the garrison of the three cohorts at Syene, and by an unexpected onset took Syene and Elephantine and Philae, and enslaved the inhabitants, and also pulled down the statues of Caesar.”
The success of the Kushite attacks was indeed due in part to the Roman Prefect Aelius Gallus taking approximately 8,000 men from 3 Roman legions that made up 16,800 men to include the majority of the 5,500 men in the Roman auxiliary cohorts on campaign to Arabia. This intelligence gathering would have played a key role in the Queen’s decision to attack the Romans in Egypt while their forces were depleted. It was a risk and opportunity the Queen was willing to take in sending a clear message for driving the Roman threat from her kingdom’s border. The victorious Octavian Augustus would again face another Queen of the Nile who dared to challenge the power of Rome.
Rome sends Commander Petronius
The now angry Octavian Augustus possibly thinking the audacity of this barbarian queen removed the Prefect Aelius Gallus from his post in Egypt replacing him with a new Roman Prefect Publius Petronius, a close friend and Roman military commander giving him the order to invade the Kushite homeland. The newly posted and confident Petronius mobilized a force of 10,000 men from the exercitus Aegyptiacus (Army of Egypt), Roman infantry and cavalry to battle a force of 30,000 Kushite warriors during his assault on the Kushite people. Petronius was able to defeat but not cripple the Kushite military at Syene forcing them to retreat back to defend the Kushite homeland. The Roman army then marched into the northern part of the Kushite territory and began to pillage the area while taking Kushite citizens who survived the onslaught to sell as slaves around the Roman Empire.
Strabo, The Geography, Book XVII, “but Petronius, setting out with less than ten thousand infantry and eight hundred cavalry against thirty thousand men, first forced them to flee back to Pselchis, an Aethiopian city, and sent ambassadors to demand what they had taken, as also to ask the reasons why they had begun war; and when they said that they had been wronged by the Nomarchs, he replied that these were not rulers of the country, but Caesar; and when they had requested three days for deliberation, but did nothing they should have done, he made an attack and forced them to come forth to battle; and he quickly turned them to flight, since they were badly marshalled and badly armed; for they had large oblong shields, and those too made of raw ox-hide, and as weapons some had only axes, others pikes, and others swords.”
The Roman legions under Publius Petronius eventually reached the city of Napata (Npte) that was located on the 4th Cataract of the Nile River in 24 BC to lay siege. Napata was the religious cult city of the Kushite God Amun, the former capital of the 25th dynasty, and the capital of the Kingdom of Kush. Generations of Kushite Kings and Queens (Kandakes) were buried in the royal cemetery of Napata. Petronius successfully attacked Napata defended by Crown Prince Akinidad but could not hold the city without sufficient supplies. He decided to retreat back to Roman Egypt while leaving the city burned to the ground in retaliation for what Rome considered aggression by the Kushite Queen. The Kushite’s precious Temple of Amun located next to the small mountain of Jebel Barkal where generations of Kushite people worshipped was laid to waste by the Romans.
Strabo, The Geography, Book XVII states in his writings of the events, “Petronius attacked and captured Nabata too, from which her son had fled, and rased it to the ground; and having enslaved its inhabitants, he turned back again with the booty, having decided that the regions farther on would be hard to traverse. But he fortified Premnis better, threw in a garrison and food for four hundred men for two years, and set out for Alexandria.”
Large Kushite Military Reserves
Queen Amanirenas who sustained an injury to her eye during her campaigns became known to the Romans as the one-eyed warrior Queen who commanded an army of fierce Kush warriors, legendary Kush bowmen, and war elephants. The Queen continued attacking the Romans in occupied locations around the Kushite kingdom when the Romans let their guard down. She chose to lead a guerilla war campaign against the Romans which lasted 5 years, and moved all of her southern reserve forces recruited from other locations near the capital city of Meroe to fight her war against the Roman invasion of her kingdom. The Queen coordinating her war plans on Rome from her secure capital in the city of Meroe was not intimidated, nor was her army in anyway incapacitated, and she decided to cross the border into Roman Egypt in revenge for the destruction of their holy city Napata. Her ongoing successful attacks and guerilla war campaigns against more Roman Egyptian towns in 24/23 BC led this time to Kushite forces taking Roman prisoners and Egyptian victims to sell in slavery while looting more precious Roman items. Rumors of the time mentioned her feeding Roman prisoners of war to her pet lions.
The Romans vastly underestimated this Nile Queen who refused to surrender no matter the cost of an extended campaign with Rome. The Queen managed to assemble another large Kushite army in 22 BC to attack more garrison towns in Roman Egypt, so forcing the Roman Prefect Publius Petronius to assemble more legionnaires while rushing back to quickly upgrade the border defenses of Qasr Ibrim (Pedeme). The Romans were surrounded, but the armies of Kush were unable to make any frontal attacks due to the strategically placed Roman ballistae (bolt/stone throwers). The large Kushite army made it as far as the island of Elephantine before the Romans having had enough decided it was time for an alternative to the conflict. Finally, in 22 BC the Romans unable to prolong a very costly war deep in Kushite territory, and with no solution in sight for either side winning the war a decision was made for diplomatic talks.
According to Strabo, The Geography, Book XVII “Meantime Candace marched against the garrison with many thousands of men, but Petronius set out to its assistance and arrived at the fortress first; and when he had made the place thoroughly secure by sundry devices, ambassadors came, but he bade them go to Caesar; and when they asserted that they did not know who Caesar was or where they should have to go to find him, he gave them escorts; and they went to Samos, since Caesar was there and intended to proceed to Syria from there, after despatching Tiberius to Armenia. And when the ambassadors had obtained everything they pled for, he even remitted the tributes which he had imposed.”
Conclusion
A peace treaty was signed in 22/21 BC by emissaries sent by the Meroitic Queen Amanirenas, the Roman Prefect Petronius, and Emperor Augustus of the Roman Empire at Samos that recognized the Kingdom of Kush as a regional power. The benefits for the Kushites were full exemption from taxes, and having the Kingdom of Kush as an ally in the form of a client state. The benefits for the Romans were an end to a war that threatened their Egyptian supply of grain, a powerful kingdom as a buffer to hold back the nomadic raiders which threatened both powers in the region, and the return of some statues and other looted items back to Rome. The treaty made an agreement for the occupation of the Dodekashoinos (Twelve Cities) region by Rome between the 1st and 2nd Cataracts of the Nile River in Kush becoming the border zone between the Kingdom of Kush and Roman Egypt creating a new DMZ.
The relations after the treaty proved favorable for each side more so for the Kingdom of Kush leading to mutual cooperation for the duration of the Kingdom of Kush’s existence as a recognized power in the Sudan region. So much so, that a future Queen of the Kingdom of Kush, Queen Amanikhatashan of Meroe (ruler of the Kingdom of Kush 62-85 AD), was said to have sent her Kushite cavalry in 70 AD to assist the future Roman Emperor Titus Caesar Vespasianus when he was a general commanding Roman legions during the Jewish Revolt against Rome in Judea.
One could only imagine what could have occurred if Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Queen Amanirenas of Kush had been given the opportunity to form a treaty and work together in hopes of protecting both of their kingdoms in northeast Africa from Roman domination. Unfortunately it would seem Queen Cleopatra VII had higher aspirations and in the end chose the wrong ally in Mark Antony. Queen Amanirenas of Kush relied on her leadership and military strategy, the will of her people to resist Rome, costly revolts around the Roman Empire depleting manpower for long term conflicts to fight deep in Kushite territory, and the benefit of her kingdom’s location in Sudan. The Kingdom of Kush would survive with Meroe as the capital until the middle of the 4th century AD (circa 350 AD) when it was invaded and destroyed by the growing Axumite Empire under the rule of King Ezana that emerged from Ethiopia.
What do think of the war between the Kush Kingdom and Rome? Let us know below.
References
National Geographic Society Magazine (1981) Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World, pages 171-173
Strabo, Jones, H.L., Sterrett, R.S. (2018) Strabo: The Geography in Two Volumes, Volume II. Books IX ch.3 – XVII. (ed. By Giles Lauren) Sophron Editor.
New York Public Library Digital Collections: Aethiopen. Naga [Naqa]. Tempel a. Vorderseite des Pylons. Atlas of Ancient Egypt. p. 186
Wikipedia Website (2010) Map of Ancient Egypt, showing the Nile up to the fifth cataract, and major cities and sites of the Dynastic period (c. 3150 BC to 30 BC). Jerusalem is shown as reference cities. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Petronius
