Endubis
{{Short description|Late-3rd-century Aksumite king}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name = Endubis
| title = Aksumite king
| image = KingEndybisEthiopia227-235CE.jpg
| caption = Coins of king Endybis. The left one reads in Greek "ΑΞΩΜΙΤΩ ΒΑϹΙΛΕΥϹ", "King of Axum". The right one reads in Greek: ΕΝΔΥΒΙϹ ΒΑϹΙΛΕΥϹ, "King Endybis". British Museum.
| reign = c. 270-310{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG90446|title=Endubis|publisher=British Museum|accessdate=2023-03-18}}
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| predecessor = DTWNS
| successor = Aphilas
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Endubis or Endybis (Greek: Ενδυβις) 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 Africa to mint his own coins; according to Stuart Munro-Hay, "No other sub-Saharan African state issued its own independent coinage in ancient times -- indeed no other African state at all, since those in North Africa (Libya and Mauritania) fell under Roman dominion."Munro-Hay, "Aksumite Coinage" in African Zion: the Sacred Art of Ethiopia, ed. Marilyn Heldman (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), p. 101 The Aksumite currency of his reign was issued in gold, silver, and bronze or copper denominations and bore inscriptions in Koine Greek.
Coinage
{{main|Aksumite currency}}
The coins of Endubis are dated to c. 295 to c. 310 and are "undoubtedly [...] the oldest Aksumite coins".{{cite book|first1=Wolfgang |last1=Hahn |first2=Vincent |last2=West |title=Sylloge of Aksumite Coins in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |year=2016 |location=Oxford |publisher=Ashmolean |page=10}} The weight of the gold coins issued in his reign are equivalent to "the weight of the half-aureus or quinarius of the last half of the 3rd century AD."{{cite book |last1=Munro-Hay |first1=Stuart C. |author-link=Stuart Munro-Hay |title=The Coinage of Aksum |date=1984 |publisher=Manohar |page=26}} More precise clues can be seen in the currency reforms during the reign of Diocletian, who reorganised the issuing of gold coins in 286 and silver coins in 294, the latter after having been suspended for several decades. As such, it is likely that the coins of Endubis, which were minted in gold, silver and copper, do not date to before c. 295.
The coins of Endubis set the design that his successors followed for the most part. Both obverse and reverse are characterized by a profile bust of the rule facing to the right, with a stalk of two-row barley on either side between the bust and the inscription. Endubis and his pagan successors include in the legend at the top of the coin a "crescent representing perhaps the Moon-god Sin and the disc representing Shams, the Sun-goddess."Munro-Hay, Coinage, p. 45
Two mottos in Greek characterize the coins of Endubis:
- "ENΔYBIC BACIΛEYC" – "King Endybis"{{cite book|first1=Wolfgang |last1=Hahn |first2=Vincent |last2=West |title=Sylloge of Aksumite Coins in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |year=2016 |location=Oxford |publisher=Ashmolean |page=34}}
- "AξωMITω BICIΔAXY" – "of the Aksumites, man of Daku", or "bisi Dakhu". This is the first appearance of the title "bisi", which Stuart Munro-Hay believed is related to the Ge'ez word be'esya ("man of").{{cite book|author=S. C. Munro-Hay |title=Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity |location=Edinburgh |publisher=University Press |year=1991 |page=75}}
On some coins Endubis described himself as "ΑΞΩΜΙΤΩ ΒΑϹΙΛΕΥϹ", "king of Axum".
Gallery
File:Endubis1.jpg|Gold coin of Endubis.
File:Triens d’or du Royaume Axoumite.jpg|Gold coin of Endubis.
References
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070223070934/http://www.numismatics.org/exhibits/DrachmasDoubloonsDollars/cases/case10.A.html Page with coin struck under Endubis]
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{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef | before = DTWNS }}
{{s-ttl | title = King of Axum }}
{{s-aft | after = Aphilas }}
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