Sembrouthes was a King of the Kingdom of Aksum who most likely reigned sometime in the 3rd century. He is known only from a single inscription in Ancient Greek that was found at Dekemhare (ደቀምሓረ ድንበዛን), Hamasien in modern-day Eritrea, which is dated to his 24th regnal year. Sembrouthes was the first known ruler in the lands later ruled by the Emperor of Ethiopia to adopt the title "King of Kings".[1] He is a probable candidate for the king who erected the Monumentum Adulitanum.[2]
| Sembroutheios | |
|---|---|
 | |
| King of Aksum | |
| Reign | c.240-260 |
| Predecessor | ʽDBH |
| Successor | DTWNS |
His inscription reads as:
"King of kings of Aksum, great Sembrouthes came (and) dedicated (this inscription) in the year 24 of Sembrouthes the Great King" [3]
In his 1978 doctorate thesis, Stuart Munro-Hay notes that Sembrouthes had been identified with a number of other personages: with Ella Samara of the Ethiopian Royal King Lists; with Shammar Yahri'sh, king of Himyar, although this is highly unlikely, and as the author of the Monumentum Adulitanum.[1] The latter is an inscription at Adulis that Cosmas Indicopleustes made a copy of for king Kaleb of Axum.[4]
Discussing the evidence provided in the inscription and the absence of any coins issued with his name of them, Munro-Hay concludes that Sembrouthes "finds better into the earlier part of the Aksumite royal sequence.[5] In his later history of Aksum, Munro-Hay narrowed the date of his reign to a gap between `DBH and DTWNS, or c.250.[6] However, W.R.O. Hahn, in a study published in 1983, assigns Sembrouthes to the 4th century, between Aphilas and Ezana. Hahn further identifies him with Ousanas or the legendary Ella Amida.[7]
Notes
edit- ^ a b Munro-Hay, "The Chronology of Aksum: A Reappraisal of the History and Development of the Aksumite State from Numismatic and Archeological Evidence" (University of London, 1978), p. 185
- ^ Bowersock, G. W. (2013-04-01). The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam. Oxford University Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-19-933367-7.
- ^ "The Inscriptions" (PDF).
- ^ Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity (Edinburgh: University Press, 1991), p. 80
- ^ Munro-Hay, "The Chronology", p. 187
- ^ Munro-Hay, Aksum, p. 73
- ^ As cited in Munro-Hay, Excavations at Axum (London: British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1989), p. 22
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