The Aksumites grew rich and powerful thanks to their control of Red Sea trade, particularly in ivory and gold, and was thought to be the greatest market in the north east.
It was the center from which the Semitic language and culture and the Christian religion seeped south until, by the thirteenth century, the provinces of Begemdir, Gojjam and Shoa had ceased to be pagan.
Axum elaborately carved stelae and the ruins of palaces and other edifices attest to high attainments in building technology. Its towns included the eponymous capital and Adulis, a Red Sea port of international repute.
Adulis, the main trade port of the Aksumite Kingdom was about 340 miles, or five days’ sail, south of Theron. Pliny calls this region ‘Anzania’ and uses accounts from the Augustan era in his description of its resources.
There were legends that Adulis was founded by runaway slaves from Egypt and the settlement was therefore known as Freeman’s Town.
The Aksumites controlled a powerful empire covering much of northeast Africa and southern Arabia during the 1st millennium A.D. The conversion of the Aksumite king Ezana to Christianity in the 330s ushered in a new chapter in the country’s history, making it one of the world’s earliest Christian states, and meaning it was closely tied with Byzantine Egypt.
The prime exports from the Aksumite Kingdom were ivory, tortoise and turtle-shell. This trade was highly lucrative since the Romans had a great desire for expensive craft items made from exotic eastern materials.
Aksum was an important participant in international trade from the 1stcentury AD (Periplus of the Erythraean Sea) until circa the later part of the 1st millennium when it succumbed to a long decline against pressures from the various Islamic powers leagued against it.
The influence of South Arabia would see the dominance of Aksum challenged in the 7th and 8th centuries. Combined with its fertile lands drying up and trading routes blocked by emerging powers in the Middle East, the kingdom gradually declined.
Aksumite Empire
