Ousanas

Ousanas
Kingdom of Aksum
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 then be his throne name, although "Ousanas" is the name that appears on his coins. If this identification is correct, then it was during his reign that Christianity was introduced to Axum and the surrounding communities.

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 archaeological sites in India.[3]

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.