Wazeba (early 4th century), vocalized by historians as Wazeba, or WZB was a

Negus Negus (Negeuce, Negoose) ( gez, ንጉሥ, ' ; cf. ti, ነጋሲ ' ) is a title in the Ethiopian Semitic languages. It denotes a monarch,

Kingdom of Aksum The Kingdom of Aksum ( gez, መንግሥተ አክሱም, ), also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom centered in Northeast Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based primarily in wh ...

, centered in the highlands of modern

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

and

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

. He succeeded

Aphilas Aphilas bisi Dimele (early 4th century) was a Negus of the Kingdom of Aksum in East Africa modern day northern Ethiopia and Eritrea. He is known only from the coins he minted, which are characterized by a number of experiments in imagery on the obv ...

. Wazeba is known only from the

coins A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to ...

that he minted during his reign. He was the first Aksumite ruler to engrave the legends of his coins in Ge'ez, and the only King of Aksum to use that language on his

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

currency. S. C. Munro-Hay suggests that the scarcity of Wazeba's coins may hint at a short reign. There is one coin issue that combines a die from Wazeba on the obverse and a die from

Ousanas Ousanas (fl. 320) was a King of Kingdom of Aksum, Axum. S. C. Munro-Hay believes that it is "very likely" that Ousanas is the king to whom Aedesius and Saint Frumentius, Frumentius were brought. In Ethiopian tradition, this king is called Ella Alla ...

on the reverse. S.C. Munro-Hay suggests that these two kings may have been co-rulers.Munro-Hay, ''Aksum'', p. 76 Wolfgang Hahn and Vincent West instead suggested that Wazeba was an usurper who interrupted the reign of

. Wazeba's coins were the first Aksumite coins to use the script and language ( Ge'ez), with some variations on the regalia on gold coins. The standard design was restored by

Notes

{{Ethiopia-royal-stub Kings of Axum 4th-century monarchs in Africa