Login with Patreon
Amanirenas
(c.60 BCE - c.10 BCE)
The One-Eyed Queen Who Fought Rome Tooth and Nail
1 There’s a ton of different spellings of her name – Amanirenat, Imminerant, etc – but this seems to be the most common one. The Roman historian Strabo referred to her merely by her title as Candace (kandake), but there’s a general consensus that Amanirenas was the one that he was talking about.
2 No, Marc Antony and Cleopatra weren’t together when they died. Visual shorthand! Trying to cover a fair bit of history here.3 This expansion was initiated by Augustus’s henchman, Cornelius Gallus, who established Ethiopia as a protectorate. While Cornelius overplayed his hand and was soon thereafter demoted, Augustus nevertheless seemed to approve of the southern expansion, and they continued under Cornelius’s successor, Petronius.
4 It’s unclear as to whether Kush knew of Rome’s plans for expansion, but it seems likely, given that Ethiopia had been looped in as early as 29 BCE. Estimates I’ve read indicated Kush began early skirmishes around 27, with its major invasion occurring in 24. Rome was dealing with wars in Arabia at the time, hence the distraction. 5 Kush does not get NEARLY enough play in the history books. A lot of historians have treated it as a satellite state to Egypt, but it actually conquered Egypt in the 25th Dynasty, and had a fairly distinct culture. It repelled a ton of outside invasions, and had an army of archers so fierce that Egypt referred to it as the Land of the Bow. They also had metalworking, thanks to the Assyrians.6 Kush is also sometimes conflated with Meroe — Meroe was its capitol city (after it was moved from Napata). You’ll sometimes see references to Candace of Meroe, whom Alexander the Great reportedly met (a myth; more on that later).
7 It’s a little unclear to me when her son, Akinidad, died. He was alive for the invasion of Napata in 24 BCE. Teritegas, Amanirenas’ husband, died in 27 BCE, I believe.
8 The Roman historian Strabo — who was a personal friend of Augustus — describes the Kushites flailing about ineffectively, with poor leadership (almost certainly under Amanirenas’ son, Akinidad. she was elsewhere during the sack of Napata). However, given that Rome later agreed to peace terms that were incredibly favorable to Kush, I view the finer details of his account with mild suspicion.
9 Other carvings depict Kushite leaders feeding people to dogs. The war elephant thing is true, although they were probably used more by Carthage than Kush. The biggest direct tie of elephants to kandakes is a mythic telling of Alexander the Great being greeted by an elephant-riding kandake. Nobody seems to believe that really happened, but hey.
10 Here’s where you get a thousand armchair historians saying “they could have taken Kush if they wanted to, this is feminist bullshit!” (seriously, Rome “experts” are only marginally less annoying than WW2 “experts”). I am not arguing Rome couldn’t have taken Kush – it was a combination of harsh environment, armed resistance, and logistical difficulty that sank the expansion. Kush was too far-flung to allow for easy import of reinforcements or mass export of goods. From the viewpoint of the Kushites, this was a David and Goliath story. Other cultures are allowed their heroes.11 Here’s the “misunderstanding” theory, which is just my reading of events: Strabo described the Kushites suing for peace, citing grievances with previous administrators. They displayed surprisingly little awareness of Rome, not knowing who its leader was or where to find him. This indicates to me that the aforementioned administrator, Cornelius Gallus, was provoking Kush in ways that didn’t make it into the histories, and that when they started fighting, it was against him – they didn’t really know who they were fighting. It’s possible it was all a misunderstanding, one that Amanirenas ironed out. Doesn’t square with their continued disrespect for Augustus’s head, but hey. Egypt had swapped hands a lot in the years leading up to the war, confusion is understandable.
12 There’s other Augustus statues out there, other bronze ones even – but none had the original eyes. Hence “best preserved.”
13 I just wanted to share that old-school diss. The rest of the wall had crumbled so who knows which ruler it was. I’m rooting for Amanirenas.
Footnotes
| ↑1 | There’s a ton of different spellings of her name – Amanirenat, Imminerant, etc – but this seems to be the most common one. The Roman historian Strabo referred to her merely by her title as Candace (kandake), but there’s a general consensus that Amanirenas was the one that he was talking about. |
| ↑2 | No, Marc Antony and Cleopatra weren’t together when they died. Visual shorthand! Trying to cover a fair bit of history here. |
| ↑3 | This expansion was initiated by Augustus’s henchman, Cornelius Gallus, who established Ethiopia as a protectorate. While Cornelius overplayed his hand and was soon thereafter demoted, Augustus nevertheless seemed to approve of the southern expansion, and they continued under Cornelius’s successor, Petronius. |
| ↑4 | It’s unclear as to whether Kush knew of Rome’s plans for expansion, but it seems likely, given that Ethiopia had been looped in as early as 29 BCE. Estimates I’ve read indicated Kush began early skirmishes around 27, with its major invasion occurring in 24. Rome was dealing with wars in Arabia at the time, hence the distraction. |
| ↑5 | Kush does not get NEARLY enough play in the history books. A lot of historians have treated it as a satellite state to Egypt, but it actually conquered Egypt in the 25th Dynasty, and had a fairly distinct culture. It repelled a ton of outside invasions, and had an army of archers so fierce that Egypt referred to it as the Land of the Bow. They also had metalworking, thanks to the Assyrians. |
| ↑6 | Kush is also sometimes conflated with Meroe — Meroe was its capitol city (after it was moved from Napata). You’ll sometimes see references to Candace of Meroe, whom Alexander the Great reportedly met (a myth; more on that later). |
| ↑7 | It’s a little unclear to me when her son, Akinidad, died. He was alive for the invasion of Napata in 24 BCE. Teritegas, Amanirenas’ husband, died in 27 BCE, I believe. |
| ↑8 | The Roman historian Strabo — who was a personal friend of Augustus — describes the Kushites flailing about ineffectively, with poor leadership (almost certainly under Amanirenas’ son, Akinidad. she was elsewhere during the sack of Napata). However, given that Rome later agreed to peace terms that were incredibly favorable to Kush, I view the finer details of his account with mild suspicion. |
| ↑9 | Other carvings depict Kushite leaders feeding people to dogs. The war elephant thing is true, although they were probably used more by Carthage than Kush. The biggest direct tie of elephants to kandakes is a mythic telling of Alexander the Great being greeted by an elephant-riding kandake. Nobody seems to believe that really happened, but hey. |
| ↑10 | Here’s where you get a thousand armchair historians saying “they could have taken Kush if they wanted to, this is feminist bullshit!” (seriously, Rome “experts” are only marginally less annoying than WW2 “experts”). I am not arguing Rome couldn’t have taken Kush – it was a combination of harsh environment, armed resistance, and logistical difficulty that sank the expansion. Kush was too far-flung to allow for easy import of reinforcements or mass export of goods. From the viewpoint of the Kushites, this was a David and Goliath story. Other cultures are allowed their heroes. |
| ↑11 | Here’s the “misunderstanding” theory, which is just my reading of events: Strabo described the Kushites suing for peace, citing grievances with previous administrators. They displayed surprisingly little awareness of Rome, not knowing who its leader was or where to find him. This indicates to me that the aforementioned administrator, Cornelius Gallus, was provoking Kush in ways that didn’t make it into the histories, and that when they started fighting, it was against him – they didn’t really know who they were fighting. It’s possible it was all a misunderstanding, one that Amanirenas ironed out. Doesn’t square with their continued disrespect for Augustus’s head, but hey. Egypt had swapped hands a lot in the years leading up to the war, confusion is understandable. |
| ↑12 | There’s other Augustus statues out there, other bronze ones even – but none had the original eyes. Hence “best preserved.” |
| ↑13 | I just wanted to share that old-school diss. The rest of the wall had crumbled so who knows which ruler it was. I’m rooting for Amanirenas. |
Art Notes
- The art notes are pretty much all inline! Amanirenas’s outfit is a stripped-down version of her carving. It is more likely she would have worn something like a leopard pelt, but I liked the design so much I ran with it.
- Kush had cool little pyramids that survive to present day, so I sprinkled them throughout.
- That blue-eyed elephant is named Jumbo. Totally legally distinct.
If you were a Patreon backer,
you'd be seeing some cool stuff right here.
(if you've bought one of the books, you get a month free of behind-the-scenes access - get that started here!)
Next Time on Rejected Princesses
This Afghan queen refused to make veiled comments about women’s education.
“Jumbo” is very intimidating. Was his secret weapon shooting peanuts out of his trunk? ;)
Loved the art on the last pic!
I think the very unsecret weapon of crushing enemies underfoot was probably good enough
A few years back I watched a miniseries, and then read a book, called Guns, Germs, and Steel. One of the basic premises is that Europe, by luck of geography, ended up with access to the best crops and domesticated animals, and advanced very quickly past the rest of the world as a result. They basically walked over North America, Australia, and the northern and southern parts of Africa because they all had familiar climates. South America and central Africa were more problematic because just as indigenous North American people had no immunity to European diseases, Europeans were just as vulnerable to tropical diseases like Malaria and Yellow Fever. So, if Colonial-era Europeans with all their firearms and more arvancedmedicine ground to a halt in conquering Central Africa, I’m not sure the Romans would have just walked over the continent no matter how many soldiers they sent down there. Yeah, maybe Kush would have been bowled over, but that’s probably as far as the would have gotten at the time.
Fascinating, I don’t know why I’ve never heard about her before.
Does anyone know how she lost her eye? The art here depicts her with a scar, so did she lose it in battle?
The histories don’t say, but most assume she lost it in battle. Strabo describes her as man-like and missing an eye.
There is a number of problems with Guns, Germs, and Steel. It’s far too reductive and deterministic, and that doesn’t even mention the holes various actual historians have poked in its hypotheses.
https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/2x362w/guns_germs_and_steal/
I looked up Candace to see why some people submittted that. It is actually believed to have been a name used for Amanirenas in Strabo’s account of the Meroitic war. So, people were submitting an alternate name actually.
I just watched an episode of “Africa’s Great Civilizations” and Amanirenas was mentioned. Super cool to have the visuals and your writing to go along with it. Awesome job!
This is wonderful, makes the story so easy to understand. Where were you when I was a girl?
Sounds like reluctance to admit that an African Army defeated a Roman army, fair and square.
All black queens were called Candace
dumbo!
I just saw that episode and learned of her….i knew of Cleopatra of course. It a shame Cleoatras story doesnt progress into Amanirenas’s