Endubis

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Endubis
Aksumite king
KingEndybisEthiopia227-235CE.jpg
Coins of king Endybis, 227–235 CE. The left one reads in Greek "ΑΞΩΜΙΤΩ ΒΑϹΙΛΕΥϹ", "Emperor of Axum". The right one reads in Greek: ΕΝΔΥΒΙϹ ΒΑϹΙΛΕΥϹ, "Emperor Endybis". British Museum.
Reign270–300

Endubis or Endybis was a late-3rd-century sovereign of the Kingdom of Aksum in East Africa (modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea). He was among the earliest rulers in the Horn of Africa to mint his own coins; the Aksumite currency of his reign was issued in gold and silver denominations and bore inscriptions in Koine Greek.

The coins of Endubis are dated to c. 295 to c. 310 and are "undoubtedly [...] the oldest Aksumite coins".[1]

On the coins of Endubis so far recovered, either of two mottos were engraved. On some coins he described himself as "ΑΞΩΜΙΤΩ ΒΑϹΙΛΕΥϹ", "king of Axum". On others appeared the motto "ΒΙϹΙ ΔΑΧΥ", "bisi Dakhu"; this is the first appearance of the title "bisi", which S. C. Munro-Hay believes is related to the Ge'ez word "be'esya", "man of".[2]

References

  1. ^ Hahn, Wolfgang; West, Vincent (2016). Sylloge of Aksumite Coins in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Oxford: Ashmolean. p. 10.
  2. ^ S. C. Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity (Edinburgh: University Press, 1991), p. 75.

External links

Regnal titles
Preceded by King of Axum Succeeded by