Amani Reyna and the confrontation with the Roman Empire
The period following the Roman occupation of Egypt in the Kingdom of Meroe saw Tanidamani ascend to the throne around 120-100 BC. Its inscriptions were found in both Meroe and Napata 1887 Brugsch, and in its inscription found in 1920 in Gebel Barkal, the king was depicted standing before the gods and trampling under his feet the bodies of bound enemies, which indicates that the text, which is difficult to read because it was written in the cursive Meroe script, is an annal. However, the Tanidamani inscription as well as the bronze tablet bearing his name written within a royal frame (cartouche) at Napata allows a definite conclusion to be drawn. The matter is that Reisner, who studied the Gebel Barkal pyramid group, came to the conclusion that Kush disintegrated at the end of the 2nd - 1st century BC into two kingdoms and a second Meroe dynasty was established in Napata, which was not only powerful and controlled only the area around Napata, but in such a situation it remains unclear how Tanidamani could leave his chronicles in Napata, as the queen who lived after him Amani Reyna and Prince Aquinidad left. Their inscriptions are in both a bench and a niche. Therefore, the hypothesis of the emergence of a second ruling Meroe family in Napata, which means the disintegration of Kush into two kingdoms, is unjustified. It is a hypothesis whose invalidity was confirmed by Macadam 1955 and later agreed with by Arkell 1961. It seems that there was found in Napata a secondary branch of the royal family subject to the Meroe kings.
We do not have sufficient information about the Meroe kings Amani-Khabali and Tritakasi 70-30 BC. And the kings immediately preceding them, contemporaries of the later Ptolemies. It is possible that a temporary weakness befell the kingdom if we take the burials of these kings as a standard, because their pyramids were smaller in size. However, this did not last long, and it was a phenomenon that only characterized the end of the first century BC. With Queen Amani Shakheti, the royal cemeteries are once again returning to what they were, as we find the pyramid of this queen (Al-Bajrawiya - 6) measuring 17.9 cubic metres, and the sizes of the pyramids of her successors in the northern cemetery of Al-Bajrawiya reached 9-16 cubic metres. Specifically in the pyramid of Queen Amani Shakiti, the “saboteur” Ferlini found the queen’s jewelry and its formula, which consisted of exquisitely crafted gold artifacts (Ferlini was called a saboteur because he blew up the tops (crowns) of the pyramids in Al-Bajrawiya with dynamite in the hope that he would find treasures there in the peaks). The treasures are there in the peaks
We do not have direct sources on the basis of which we can reconstruct the complete picture of the Kingdom of Meroe in the era of its prosperity, and therefore we are forced to rely on the remains of material culture and architectural ruins. One of the most important indicators of the state of prosperity in which the country lived is the great development of cities. Thus, we find Pliny enumerating, quoting from Peony and Juba, dozens of cities on both banks of the Nile from the first cataract to Meroe and also to the south of it. Archaeological exploration work in Al-Butana indicated that the region was characterized in the Meroe era by a high population density, and Hintze had identified, through his exploration of the region in the late 1950s, fifty residence centers there (Hintze 1960). 1960 Hintze
In the capital of the kingdom - the city of Meroe - great temples and luxurious palaces were built, including the Temple of Isis, the Temple of Amun, the Temple of Apademak, a chapel near the Temple of the Sun, the magnificent Apis Chapel built by Aspalta, and the complex of royal palaces with its magnificent columns, hall, and baths, in addition to the observatory, which was mostly built in the second century BC. This architectural activity was not limited only to the capital, but included other Meroe cities.
The gifts given to the temples by the Kushite kings, which were mentioned in the annals of Ariki Amanuti, Horsyotef, and Nestasen, confirm that the state treasury is inexhaustible, which is also confirmed by the massive construction work in the temples of Gebel Barkal and Kawa. It seems that internal and external trade formed an important part of the country's economy, which prompted the Kushite kings to pay attention to the safety of trade routes and securing them by establishing forts, not by stationing soldiers who were tasked with providing protection for those routes from attacks by thieves or Bedouin tribesmen.
Events at the end of the first century BC confirmed the power of Kush. After Augustus became king in the year 30 BC. Egypt and put an end to the rule of the Ptolemaic family. The Roman forces advanced towards the south and reached Egypt’s southern border with Kush. It is possible that in the same year, power in Meroe devolved to Queen Amani-Rina 18-30 BC. Successor to King Tritakasi. In the twenty-ninth year of Roman control over Egypt, the Roman governor Cornelius Gall was forced to suppress an uprising in Thebes carried out by the local population. It seems that news of the uprising and its suppression reached Meroe, because when Corneille went to the southern Egyptian border, messengers of the King of the Ethiopians, legalis regis Aethiopum, brought him to the island of Philae. Since the text clearly identifies the king, “Basileus,” confronting the leaders subject to him, the “tyrannoi,” it does not rule out that those were indeed messengers of the King of Meroe. However, it is unlikely that the words attributed to them, “te presbeis Aithiopon enphilajs kai proksenian para tou basileus labon,” which refer to the declaration of the King of Meroe’s submission to the Roman ruler, are merely wishful thinking that Corneille tried to disguise. The dress of truth. However, the Romans placed the subject leaders of the Tyrannian region in the thirteenth region under Roman protection, because the Romans were in dire need of stable peace on their southern borders.
In the year 24 BC. Cornelli's successor, Commander Eli Gall, under instructions from Augustus, launched a campaign to the Arabian Peninsula. The Kushites took advantage of the small number of Roman forces in Egypt due to that campaign, so they attacked the island of Philae, Al-Fannin, and Aswan, and reduced the inhabitants to slavery, in keeping with what the Romans apparently did, and destroyed the statue of Caesar. However, their victory did not last long, as Guy Petroni, who was appointed as a replacement for Eli Gal as governor of Egypt, succeeded in expelling them from there and decided to take measures to hinder such attacks from the south in the future. We are told about this by Strabo (Book Hence, we see no need to add anything to the text of Strabo, which says that Petroni marched “with a force consisting of 10,000 infantry soldiers and 8,000 cavalry against 30,000 of the enemy’s army, and imposed on the enemy the beginning of their escape to the Kushite city of Psalachis, and then he sent his messengers to them asking them (i.e. the Kushites - Osama) to return what they had seized, asking them for the reason.” Which made them start the war. When the Ethiopians responded that the Egyptian regional rulers had angered them, Batrouni replied to them that the latter were not the rulers of the country, but rather the ruler was the Caesar. Then they asked them to give them three days to think, but they did not do anything that they were supposed to do. He attacked them, forcing them to enter into battle, and quickly dispersed them and made them flee since they were poorly organized and possessed poor weapons...and among those fleeing were military leaders. Of Queen Kandake, who ruled the Ethiopians in our time, a woman with a masculine build and one blind eye. Petroni captured them all alive and sent them to Alexandria, and then he attacked Psakhlis and captured it. By counting those who were captured and those who died in the battle, it becomes clear that few of them were survivors of Psakhlis. Petruni arrived at the fortified city of Primis (Qasr Ibrim - Arkamani)... He attacked the castle. He seized it and took it in surrender. After that, he began his attack against Napata, and this city was the headquarters of Kandake, and her son resided there while she was present somewhere near the city. Although the queen sent messengers requesting a temporary friendship agreement to return the prisoners and the statue of the Caesar that her forces had seized in Aswan, Petroni attacked Napata and seized it, and the queen succeeded in escaping from it, destroying it to the foundations and destroying its inhabitants. He returned to slavery and retreated with the spoils after he saw that the areas beyond Napata were difficult for his army to pass. He strengthened the fortifications in Primis, leaving there a protection squad and supplies sufficient for four hundred people over two years, and he neglected to return to Alexandria... Then Kandake suddenly attacked the castle with an incalculable force, but Batrouni returned to the rescue of the castle and preceded the queen in reaching it. He left after taking a series of necessary measures to secure it Protect the castle from enemy attacks. Once again the queen's messengers arrived, but Petroni ordered them to be sent to the Tsar. Then the messengers said that they did not know who the Tsar was and where he should go, and Petroni provided them with someone to accompany them. The messengers arrived in Samos where the Caesar was, and after they succeeded in obtaining all their demands, the Caesar liberated their country from the tribute imposed on it.” [End of Strabo’s text] In the year 24 BC. A caliph rose
Amani Rina was the Kandake who attacked Egypt. Meroe inscriptions were found in which the name of Amani Rena and her son Aquinidad were inscribed on the column of the Temple of Selkis Deka, when she tried for the second time to attack the Romans and was thwarted, as Strabo confirms. This is the place where the leaders of the Meroe Queen had stopped to negotiate with Petroni. Despite Strabo's sympathy for the Romans, he recounts the general course of events in a complete and sequential manner, but it seems that he exaggerated in specifying the numbers of the forces, whether Roman or Kushite. Strabo points out the reasons that led to the defeat of the army of the Queen of Meroe, which, in his opinion, are poor organization and weapons at the same time compared to the Roman army, which received training over hundreds of years and battles under the leadership of distinguished military personnel such as Sipione, Julius Caesar, Mary, Pompey and others. The validity of Strabo's story is confirmed by the results obtained by archaeologists. In Meroe, in one of the palaces, a statue of Caesar Augustus was found on top (currently on display in the Sudan National Museum of Antiquities in Khartoum), which may indicate that Kandake did not return all the statues of Caesar that she seized.
The most important thing is that there is another source that contains important information that we cannot use effectively, unfortunately, and that is the Obelisk of Prince Aquinidad, which mostly represents his chronicles of the war with the Romans. It is an obelisk that was uncovered in the winter of 1913/1914 during excavations in the village of Al-Hammadab, located three kilometers from the heart of the capital, Meroe. The Meroe text - the longest of the Meroe texts discovered to date - carries at the top an image of Kandake, which is often Amani Rena. This obelisk is still difficult to read, and only some intermittent words and scattered phrases can be understood, and it is difficult to understand the overall content of the text, in the part in which it seems that the talk is about the campaign against the Romans. According to Griffiths’ interpretation, it is indicated that Aquinidad took 167 people captive, among whom was his chief, a local governor who was often the same person appointed by Cornelli in the year 29 BC to manage the affairs of the thirteenth region. As for Kabirah’s sons, they were mostly killed.
In this text and his other annals revealed in Meroe, Naqa, and Dekka, Akinidad bears the title of Bakar-Aw-Bisha-N-Ti, which means prince and heir to the throne. It appears that the events described in the text precede Batrouni's campaign, and they may be among the reasons for that campaign. However, the text does not mention Batrouni’s name. There is a possibility that Aquinidad may have been during that campaign in 25/24 BC. As an army commander, Strabo indicated that Kandake's son was present in Napata at that time.
The history of the frustrated Kushite campaign against Primis dates back to 21/20 BC. Despite the failure of their attempt to seize Primis, they achieved a victory that had political significance, represented in the evacuation of the Roman garrison, and in the negotiated solution with the Romans, which resulted in the Kingdom of Meroe being exempted from paying tribute and the release of the Kushite prisoners who had previously been sent to Alexandria, in addition to fixing the border between Kush and Roman Egypt there where it was during the Ptolemaic era, that is, at the Holocaust (Ira Siakmana). Augustus's abdication may not be considered out of love for the Kushites. Despite the defeat its forces suffered, the Kingdom of Meroe remained a strong enough enemy to make the Romans avoid antagonizing it, firstly to protect peace and stability in Egypt, which the Romans greatly desired, and secondly to secure trade routes with tropical Africa and the flow of desired goods from there. Thus, the twelfth province - Dodekaschoinos - turned into a buffer zone between the clashes of Kush and the Romans, and therefore it was not subject to Roman civil administration, only military patrols were left in it to protect the region from attacks by desert Bedouin tribes.
After the death of Amani Rena, her son Aquinidad ascended the throne of Meroe 18-12 BC. Who, as we mentioned previously, had left his name inscribed in the temple complex in a niche along with the name of Amani Shakheti. There is no doubt that the clash with the Roman Empire had far-reaching effects on the Kingdom of Meroe, but we say that it is not permissible to jump to the conclusion that the defeat of Meroe was the result of internal crises and conflicts that the kingdom suffered from, or to say that the defeat led to the emergence of such crises. The matter is simpler and less complicated, which is the inequality of the two powers: Rome was the great power in the global system at that time and the power that stands at the heart of that system, while the Kingdom of Meroe was one of the marginal countries in the existing global system. The temporary loss of Napata heralded the beginning of a final phase in the history of Meroe, and Napata ceased to be the main center of religious life in Kush with the shift of that center south to the capital of the kingdom at Meroe, with the consequent shift of economic and political aspirations southward.
In its defense policy, the Kingdom of Meroe relied on the construction of fortifications on its northern outskirts. These fortifications were usually built on high rocks on both banks of the Nile, where the course was twisty, which gave a series of tactical advantages. This is how castles were built in Qasr Ibrim, Mount Adda, and many other areas of Lower Nubia. It is an area that must be recognized as having a high population density in the Meroe era, as evidenced by the cemeteries extending along both banks of the Nile, dating back to that period. In those tombs, the body was placed in a cavity dug on the wall of the tomb and closed with stones or unburned bricks. These are the tombs that came to be called cave tombs, and the burial rituals in them were not different from the tombs of the Napata era, where the body was placed on a pedestal or mat, not in a coffin. The tombs of the noble people were covered with piles of stones resembling small pyramids in imitation of the pyramids of the Kushite kings in Al-Kurru, Nuri, Barkal, and Meroe. The accompanying pottery showed continuity with the pottery of the third group and at the same time with the pottery of the Kingdom’s region farther to the south, such as Mount Muwayya. The funerary pottery also contained wonderfully decorated Meroe pottery.
It seems that the second century AD witnessed the peak of prosperity of the cities of the northern outskirts of Kush and its villages Emery Kirwam 1935, and the most architectural activity in Persia was in the first and second centuries AD. Later in the third century, the construction of fortifications began as a result of the increasing rate of attacks launched by Bedouin tribes from the Eastern Desert. Relations in that period between Kush and Rome were characterized by affection, which is indicated by the mission of King Tikred Amani to Egypt in the third year of the reign of Tribonian Gal, that is, in the year 253 AD. It is clear from the inscription placed by the Kushite envoys in the Temple of Isis on the island of Philae, praying to the gods to protect them and enable them to reach their goal of presenting the gifts they brought, that the Kingdom of Meroe still possessed enough goods that made its kings able to practice Kushite generosity. In just two years, the crew of Isis priests in Philae received gifts from King Tikridamani of approximately twenty talents of silver and gold items, which weighed 16.5 pounds.
Disintegration of the Kingdom of Meroe
Bedouin Kush is a rising force
The development of relations between Meroe and Rome is still unclear, as the crisis to which the Roman Empire was exposed coincided with the weakness that struck the body of the Kingdom of Meroe, which led to the emergence of a third force on the scene of events in the region that forced both powers to deal with it, which affected the course of future events. This third force was embodied in the nomadic Blemmye tribes traveling in the eastern desert, who began to announce their presence in the Nile Valley, which was not possible in the era of the prosperity of Meroe and Rome.
The question of the origin of the Blemmyes is no longer a matter of controversy at the present time, as it has been agreed that they should be identified with the Medjay who are mentioned frequently in ancient Egyptian texts and who form part of the Beja ethnic group, a group whose distant ancestors are said to have arrived in ancient times in the region of the Arabian Peninsula to practice a nomadic life between the hills of the Red Sea and the Nile Valley. This ethnic group belongs to speakers of Afro-Asiatic languages (formerly called Hamitic Semitic). Of course, it is not correct to establish a complete correspondence between the current Beja and the Blemmyes, whose name appears in ancient Greek writings, but at the same time it is not permissible to deny this kinship.
The Greek name Blemmys (and the plural is Blemmyes or one Blemyes) is possibly a derivation of the name Behmw mentioned in the Egyptian Demotic texts, which is mentioned in Coptic in the form Balnemmooui in the Maritime dialect, and Balehmooui or Balehmoue - Blhmooue in the Saidic dialect. However, despite this, the Greek name is fully interpreted with the help of the laws of the language. Coptic is not possible.
Greek sources indicate that the Blemmyes appeared for the first time in the Nile Valley in the year 250 AD. That is, during the reign of Emperor Ditsi, it seems that they were forming an ethnic group made up of united tribes or clans that enjoyed a level of good living, which we find reflected in the annals of King Nestasen, who talks about the spoils that came to him after his victory over them, pointing to large quantities of gold and more than a million heads of livestock (the exaggeration is clear, of course). This ethnic group, like the other ethnic groups of Kush, was administered by its own chiefs and kings subordinate to the King of Meroe, a fact noted by Seneca and Pliny and cited by Strabo in Book XVII of his Geography as “the Blemmyes subject to the Ethiopians.”
The Bedouin attack and influx into the Nile Valley in the third century AD was not the first, as the Romans, despite their friendly relations with the Kingdom of Meroe, were forced to make strenuous efforts to protect their southern borders from those Bedouins, but the reality is that in the third century AD the Blemmyes became more dangerous and their rates of influx into the Nile Valley increased. Rome fixed its southern borders at the burner, where it established its fortifications and maintained large numbers of soldiers, and did not attempt to penetrate beyond that. It seems that fighting the Blemmyes was not an easy matter for Rome if we take into account what Herodotus said about the speed of movement in the desert that was characteristic of the Blemmyes and the adoption of tactics based on surprise, “hit and run” Prokopski 1876.
It seems that the Blemmyes continued to pose a danger on Rome's southern borders when Emperor Diocletian arrived in Egypt in 297 AD. This forced him to resort to taking measures about which detailed information has come down to us thanks to their precise description in the work of Procopius of Caesarea: “When Diocletian arrived in Egypt in the year 297, he saw that launching campaigns against the twelfth district was useless, as the land was narrow. He also saw that keeping soldiers there for long periods would cost the state treasury a lot, and those close to the oasis cities always launched attacks to plunder the customs points. Then the emperor decided to lure those barbarians and persuade them to leave the desert and settle on the banks of the city. The Nile, promising to give them large cities and vast lands better than those in which they lived previously. He assumed that the Nobadians would no longer attack the areas around the oases. The Nobadians agreed to that offer and quickly moved to the areas designated for them by Diocletian and occupied the Roman cities and regions, starting with Elephantine on both banks of the Nile. In addition, the Emperor promised them and the Blemmyes to give them an annual amount of gold on the condition that they stop plundering the lands. During my reign (Procopius died in 565 AD, Osama) received these sums of money, but they did not stop attacking the customs points and looting them. There was no way to make the barbarians adhere to their agreement with Rome except by intimidating them by waging war against them.
Rome began to follow its well-known tactic of divide et impera, and began to inflame confrontations between the Blemmyes and the Nobadians. Although Diocletian had achieved victories over enemies more powerful, better organized, and more dangerous than the Blemmyes, he preferred to distance himself in his policy towards them rather than enter into an active war with them. It seems that his motive for pursuing such a policy was not only to save energy and resources that there was no reason to waste to control an economically miserable region like Dodekaschoinos, and it was also not only to avoid war with mobile nomads who always took shelter in a desolate, waterless desert. It seems that there was a more important motive represented by the decline in trade exchange with Meroe, if not its complete cessation, and therefore the lack of justification for protecting the roads leading there. Hence, his concern became only to secure the southern borders of the Roman Empire, which he succeeded in achieving, even if that was for a short period.
When Christianity became the official religion of the state during the reign of Constantine I (306-337 AD), unrest began again in the border regions, and the Blemmyes became the defenders of the old faith. However, thanks to Rome's more flexible policy, the unrest did not last long. While Diocletian sought to create discord between the Nobadians and the Blemmyes, at the same time he allowed them to practice their religious rituals in the Temple of Isis on the island of Philae. He even allowed them to carry a statue of Isis for a limited period to fertilize the land according to their beliefs, and the Nobadians had built a sacred boat for this purpose. Worship in the temple was conducted by priests chosen by the Romans. Thus, the policy of Diocletian, which was continued by his successors, sought to establish peace by all means, proving its effectiveness over a period of approximately one hundred and fifty years (Cuntz 1929). In fact, if the royal road extended to the Holocaust, according to the travel diaries of Antoni Augustus Itinerarium Antoni Augsti, then the Roman border forces after a century became present in Aswan, Philae, and Elephantine, according to the Notitia dignitatum.
The Blemmyes had arrived in the Nile Valley at an earlier time than the Nobadians, who differed from them in terms of religious belief and whose oldest burials on the banks of the Nile date back to the third and fourth centuries AD. The Blemmyes succeeded in seizing lands from the Egyptians and to some extent from the Romans and Meroes, and a portion of them gradually transitioned to a sedentary lifestyle and assimilated into the local population.
Starting in the middle of the third century AD, the Nobadians and Blemites began to break away from the authority of the Meroe kings, with the northern edges of Kush effectively in their control by the end of this third century. Thus, the crisis that spread throughout the Mediterranean world in the third century shook not only Rome, but also affected Kush, to the point that its trade with Egypt stopped completely. Neither Meroe nor Rome were able to stand against the Nobad-Blemite expansion in Lower Nubia.
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A.J.Arkell: A History of the Sudan from the Earliest Times to 1821, 2nd Ed., London.
F.Hintze: Eine neue Inschrift von 19 Jahe Königs Taharqas,- Mitteilungen des Instituts für Orientforschung 7,Hft 3.
W.B.Emery and L.P.Kirwan: Excavations and Survey between Wadi es Sebua and Adindan, 1929-1931. Cairo.
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The Blue Nuba and the Izana campaign