Ousanas

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Ousanas Kingdom of Aksum
Image:Ousanas5upload.jpg Preceded by Wazeba King of Aksum Succeeded by Ezana

Ousanas (c.320) was a king of Axum. S. C. Munro-Hay believes that it is "very likely" that Ousanas is the king to whom Aedesius and Frumentius were brought; this king is called in Ethiopian tradition "Ella Allada" or Ella Amida.¹ "Ella Amida" would be his throne name, although "Ousanas" is the name that appears on his coins.

W.R.O. Hahn, in a study published in 1983, identifies Sembrouthes, who is known only from an inscription found in Daqqi Mahari in modern Eritrea with Ousanas. If correct, this would give Ousanas a reign of at least 27 years.²

Coins with the name of this ruler were found in the late 1990s at archeological sites in India.³

[edit] Notes

1. S. C. Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity (Edinburgh: University Press, 1991), p.77. (Online text.)
2. As cited in Munro-Hay, Excavations at Axum (London: British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1989), p. 22.
3. Details in Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 31 n.18.