| Sembroutheios | |
|---|---|
 | |
| King of Aksum | |
| Reign | c.240-260 |
| Predecessor | ʽDBH |
| Successor | DTWNS |
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]
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
- ^ 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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