An Introduction to Axumite Coinage

According to Manichean literature, the great prophet Mani, living in the 3rd century AD, claimed that four great empires ruled the world: Rome, Persia, China, and Axum. The latter was one of the great African kingdoms of Antiquity, with its eponymous capital, Axum, located in the highlands of what is today northern Ethiopia.

The Rise of Axum

Archaeological evidence indicates that the kingdom emerged from a Proto-Axumite polity between circa 400 BC and 50 BC, although little details are known. At least by the 1st century AD, Axum had incorporated parts of the Red Sea coast, including the harbor city of Adulis, according to the Roman Periplus Maris Erythraei, a guide for merchants plying their trade on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean written around that time. Although the further rise of the early Axumite state is obscure, by the third century AD, it controlled much of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, while epigraphic sources indicate that the Axumites campaigned in all wind directions: from Egypt to the north, to Djibouti/northern Somalia to the east, the Ethiopian interior to the south, and the Nile valley to the west. They even temporarily expanded into southern Arabia, a region the kingdom shared religious, cultural and linguistic ties with.

Unfortunately, our knowledge of Axumite political history is deplorably lacunose: aside from some epigraphic material, scant literary sources and archaeological remains, the coins (to which we shall return below) are the most important sources for studying the political, economic and cultural developments of the kingdom. At the head of the Axumite state was the king (‘negus’ in Ge’ez), who, as far as we know, wielded semi-absolute, sacral power, and was worshipped as a son of the war deity, Mahrem, in pre-Christian times. Kingship was generally passed from father to son, though not necessarily based on primogeniture.

As mentioned, Axum’s expansion towards the Red Sea included the conquest or incorporation of the port city of Adulis, located near modern-day Zula in Eritrea, a major gain that only accelerated the integration of the kingdom into a wide spanning and lucrative trade network running from the Atlantic Ocean to the Andaman Sea and beyond. An impression of the goods Axum might have supplied to foreign merchants, and what the Axumites would have wanted in return, is offered by the aforementioned Periplus Maris Erythraei. According to this indispensable 1st century source, the Axumites exported ivory, both of elephants and rhinoceroses, and tortoise shell, while they imported a variety of goods including textiles, glass, metal objects, unworked brass (which they supposedly cut up to use as small change) and Roman money for foreigners residing in Adulis. The Axumites were not passive recipients in this process, however: graffiti in Ge’ez found in a cave on the Yemenite island of Socotra, located some 230 km east of the Horn of Africa, show that the Axumites themselves also sailed abroad, although whether on their own ships or as passengers on foreign merchant vessels we do not know.

Christianity

With trade came foreign ideas, including a new religion. Previously, the Axumites had been polytheists, worshipping both their own deities and some imported from southern Arabia, but in the 4th century, Christianity was introduced in the country. Supposedly, the Axumites seized a Roman ship, slaying all aboard but two young, Christian boys, Frumentius and Aedasius, who were brought up to serve at the court, the former as treasurer, the latter as cupbearer. Legendary as this tale most likely is – it is reminiscent of so many ancient stories about stranded foreigners conveying knowledge – it reportedly occurred during the reign of Ousanas I (circa 325-345). However, it was his successor, Ezanas (circa 345-380), who eventually converted to Christianity and accepted the installation of Frumentius as Axum’s first bishop under the auspices of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. Over the following centuries, the new faith spread throughout the country, in part due to the influx of persecuted Roman Christians who did not follow official Church doctrine. To this day, Christianity endures in Ethiopia, though the country’s geographical removal from both Rome, Constantinople, and, after the rise of Islam, Alexandria, has caused the Ethiopian Church to retain many idiosyncratic elements, some perhaps even relics of its pre-Christian past.

Involved in Arabia’s Affairs

Though we are in the dark about many of Axum’s political developments after Ezanas, under Kaleb (circa 510-530s), the kingdom again entered the international stage when it invaded southern Arabia with Byzantine approval to stop the persecution of Christians at the hands of the Jewish Himyarite king, Yusuf. The campaign was initially successful, and an Axumite viceroy was installed, but a revolt soon broke out, possibly supported by Ethiopian troops stationed in Himyar, and Kaleb was ultimately unable to restore order, although he was later canonized as a saint for his efforts. It was not the last time Axum would be involved in Arabia’s affairs, however. According to Muslim tradition, the earliest followers of the prophet Muhammed were famously encouraged to seek refuge in Axum to escape persecution in Mecca (the so-called First Hijra), where they were welcomed warmly.

Downfall in the 6th Century

Internally, Axum appears to have declined over the course of the 6th century, perhaps in part due to the Plague of Justinian, which likely spread from Ethiopia to Egypt and the Mediterranean, and a potential sack of Adulis by a Sasanian expedition in the 570s (see lot 334). The deathblow to the Axumite kingdom came from the double calamity of the Sasanian conquest of Egypt under Khosrau II in 618 and the Arab conquest of Egypt starting in 639, exacerbated by the collapse of the Gupta Empire in India during the 6th century. All these events would have disrupted the Red Sea trade, the lifeblood of the kingdom, and soil degradation around the capital coupled with poor Nile inundations made a difficult situation untenable in the end. Axum was abandoned as the kingdom’s capital in the middle of the 7th century, and Ethiopia became more and more isolated as it lost access to the sea. The kingdom lived on until the 10th century, until it was conquered by the Ethiopian queen Gudit, who also sacked the former capital. The latter was not completely destroyed, however, and still exists as a smallish city today, its monuments silent witnesses to the splendour it once possessed.

Coins in Axum

Aside from the physical monuments which survive in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Yemen, such as stelae, monasteries, and churches, one of the most enduring legacies of Axum is its coinage. Coin production likely began at the close of the 3rd century AD, during the reign of Endybis (circa 300-310). From the onset, the Axumites opted for a trimetallic system, consciously based on the Roman currency of the time, i.e., the aurei, argentei and nummi introduced by Diocletian in his sweeping coin reform in 294 AD, which would have been familiar through the Red Sea trade. To facilitate exchangeability, the early Axumite gold coins were struck at the weight of half an aureus, i.e., a gold quinarius of about 2.7 grams, although the weights of the other two metals were not as deliberately fixed to the Roman system, no doubt because of their smaller role in international trade during this period. That the coinage was intended for foreign exchange is also implied by the use of Greek legends, which survived on the gold coins down to the very last issues. While this may seem surprising, the Periplus Maris Erythraei notes that the Axumite king in the 1st century AD was well-versed in Greek, and there is no reason to assume this could not have been the case for Endybis and a certain segment of Axumite society. Reflecting the importance of trade with Graeco-Roman merchants, the Axumite gold coins also followed the later introduction of the Roman solidus (which came into broad use circa 324 AD) with a parallel weight reduction, so that they circulated at the weight of half a solidus, or a full semissis, of circa 2.25 grams.

Despite the clear parallels between the Axumite and Roman coinage, the former did not slavishly copy the foreign prototypes. For instance, one striking feature of Axum’s coinage is the common occurrence of partially gilding silver and bronze coins, attested as early as Endybis’ successor, Aphilas (circa 310-325). This was achieved by applying a mixture of gold and mercury with a fine brush or with a small, tapered rod to the coin, which was then heated, causing the mercury to evaporate. The success of this method is evidenced by the fact that many Axumite coins still retain partial or full gilding today. The primary reason for this process, which certainly took some effort, was no doubt to increase the value of the coin in question, but it also served to highlight certain iconographic elements, such as particular religious symbols or the king himself. In the latter case, the golden background may have appeared to grant the king an almost literal “golden aura”.

Iconography

As for the iconography, here too the Axumites developed their own particular style. Unlike with Roman coinage, which traditionally showed the imperial portraits on the obverse, Endybis placed his on both the obverse and the reverse of his coins. He is shown wearing a sacred head cloth, although from his successor, Aphilas, onwards, the gold coins would almost invariably show the king with a decorated tiara on the obverse, and with the sacred head cloth on the reverse. Other common attributes include a spear on the obverse (although this attribute severely degenerated under later kings), and a peculiar object, which is usually interpreted as a laurel or olive branch, a whip, or a fly-whisk, on the reverse. Flanking the king’s bust were two ears of barley, probably a fertility symbol. While this pattern was ubiquitous on the gold coinage – there are very few remarkable exceptions to this standardized depiction, such as lot 337, a unique chrysos of Gersem showing a frontal bust of the king on the obverse with a Byzantine-style crown – more iconographical experimentation is found on the silver and bronze coins. For instance, Aphilas produced an interesting issue of bronze coins showing a frontal bust wearing a head cloth on the obverse (lot 278), while Wazeba played with the convention by showing a tiaraed bust on both sides of an extremely rare issue of silver coins (lot 290).

Pre-Christian and Christian Issues

Unsurprisingly, the spread of Christianity had a great impact on the Axumite coinage. On the pre-Christian issues, we often find a pellet in crescent above the king’s bust. The moon had a religious connotation in practically all ancient cultures, while the pellet likely refers to either the Morning or the Evening Star. From the time of Ezanas (circa 345-380) onwards, these symbols would mostly be replaced with a Christian cross, which also appeared more regularly as the central design element on the reverse of the bronze coinage. The silver coins went one step further in the 6th century, depicting a shrine containing a cross or a schematized Eucharist scene (see lot 323).