The Roman-Kushite war is briefly mentioned in the “Res Gestae Divi Augusti” (The Deeds of the Divine Augustus), a monumental inscription composed by the first Roman emperor Augustus, giving a first-person record of his life and accomplishments, as well as in Cassius Dio’s “Roman History”. But the most authoritative account comes from Strabo’s “Description of Aithiopia”, which although, as we will see has a few issues, is the most comprehensive account available to us. From the Kushite perspective, it has been postulated that the war is mentioned in the Hamadab stele, although difficulties in translating the Meroitic language in which the inscription was written, makes it impossible to confirm. The decapitated head of a bronze statue of Emperor Augustus, buried beneath the steps of a victory shrine in Meroë, which also featured a fresco of bound prisoners of war, including a Roman legionary, also attest to the military conflict between Rome and Kush in the late 1st century BC.
What follows is a rundown of the events primarily based on Strabo’s account.
In 30 BC, following the suicide of Queen Cleopatra VII and the Roman annexation of Egypt, Upper Egypt (the southern half of the country) revolted against Roman rule. Kushites took advantage of the events to their north to conquer the entire stretch of the Lower Nubian Nile Valley as far north as Syene (Aswan). Lower Nubia is the northernmost stretch of Nubia, between the 1st cataract and the 2nd cataract, bordering Egypt. It has historically often been a flashpoint between Egypt and Kush. There are some parallels between the events of 30 BC and the Great Theban revolt of 205 BC – 186 BC, which saw Upper Egypt cede from the Ptolemaic Dynasty, establishing a rival Theban dynasty for almost 20 years with Kushite military support.
Unlike the Theban revolt 2 centuries earlier, the revolt against Roman rule was swiftly crushed by the first Roman “praefect” of Egypt, Cornelius Gallus, who went on to conquer Lower Nubia as well, undoubtedly causing much resentment among the Kushites.
In 25 BC, Emperor Augustus ordered the second Roman prefect of Egypt, Aelius Gallus to launch a military expedition against Arabia, taking almost half the forces stationed in Egypt with him. Aelius Gallus was replaced by C. Petronius as the new prefect of Egypt. In the meantime, the population of Lower Nubia revolted against the new Roman tax regime, with the support of the Kushite King Teriteqas, who is attested in an inscription he left at Dakka in Lower Nubia during his campaign. Almost as soon as the Roman forces had departed for Arabia, the Kushites attacked, raiding the Thebaid region in Upper Egypt, defeating the remaining garrison of 3 cohorts, taking Philae, Elephantine and Syene by surprise, enslaving its inhabitants and pushing down the newly erected statues of the Roman Emperor, taking some of them back to their country as loot.
The Roman prefect, Petronius, counter attacked with almost 10.000 foot soldiers and 800 horsemen, forcing the Kushites to retreat to Dakka, in Lower Nubia. It is probable that King Teriteqas had already died by this time, as Strabo speaks of an army led by “the generals of Queen Candace”, “a manly woman who had lost one of her eyes”. A reference to Queen Amanirenas, the “Kandake”, or Queen of Kush, who after her husband’s death, also assumed the male title of “Qore”, or “King”. In the subsequent battle at Dakka, the Kushite army of 30.000 men was reportedly easily defeated by the Romans. According to Strabo, Petronius then marched on Napata, the religious capital of the Kushites, forcing prince Akinidad to flee, enslaved its population and razed it to the ground.
According to Strabo, rather than taking the nearby city of Meroë, the most important seat of Kushite royal authority, Petronius simply returned with his army to Qasr Ibrim (Primnis) a fortified Kushite town in Lower Nubia halfway between the southern Egyptian border to the north and the northern border of Upper Nubia to the south. He garrisoned the town and strengthened it with artillery including bolt shooters and stone throwers. Then in 22 BC Queen Amanirenas “marched against the garrison with many thousands of men”, presumably more than the 30.000 men mentioned earlier, and laid siege to the fortress. The Roman artillery made a frontal assault nearly impossible, but the Kushite army would have effectively cut off the Roman forces from supplies, reinforcements and communications. Roman armies across the Empire at this time were also already overstretched, putting them in no position to send a large relief force. With a large Kushite army once again at the doorstep of Egypt, Rome’s most important supplier of grain, they were left with little choice but to negotiate.
In 21 – 20 BC, Kushite envoys were given a Roman escort to meet with Emperor Augustus in person on the island of Samos. According to Strabo, they “achieved all they asked for”, and Augustus relinquished all demands for taxes. Qasr Ibrim was surrendered to the Kushites and the Roman border was established at Maharaqqa, almost 80 kilometers downriver. The Roman portion of Lower Nubia north of Maharraqa, known as the Dodecaschoenos, although now a Roman military buffer zone, was to be ruled by an independent civilian administration headed by local Lower Nubian elites who still maintained some relations with the Kushite rulers at Meroë, for whom the temples at Philae and Elephantine remained important pilgrimage sites. Rather than weakening the Kushite state, the Roman-Kushite war seems to have reinvigorated Kush. With the new trade opportunities following the peace deal, also came a boom in construction activities.
It must be noted that Strabo’s personal bias likely affected his account of the war. This is equally clear from his description of the Arabian campaign which happened during the same period, and was equally disastrous. Strabo was in fact a close personal friend of Aelius Gallus, one of the Roman commanders during the war and one of his main sources. One of the most contentious points is the sack of Napata, which seems unlikely to have ever actually happened. Petronius’ march from Alexandria to Napata could not have happened in the short timeframe provided, and the few towns mentioned by Strabo himself indicate that the Romans may have gotten bogged down between the 2nd and 3rd cataract region, never actually reaching Napata. In the archaeological record too, we see no indication that Napata was ever sacked in the 1st century BC. According to historians like Inge Hofmann, the sack of Napata was “added only propagandistically” to the popular accounts of the war, and the 5 year duration of the war may also indicate a few relevant omissions on Strabo’s part. Whatever the case may be, Queen Amanirenas managed to secure the sovereignty of the Kushite state in the face of a considerable existential threat.
(Illustration by Victor Rossi and LordGood. Promotional art for 0 A.D.: Empires Ascendant, a free and Open Source, historical Real Time Strategy Game comparable to Age of Empires, that features the Kushites as a playable civilization.
