Sembrouthes was a King of the

Kingdom of Aksum The Kingdom of Aksum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, based in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and spanning present-day Djibouti and Sudan. Emerging ...

who most likely reigned sometime in the

3rd century The 3rd century was the period from AD 201 (represented by the Roman numerals CCI) to AD 300 (CCC) in accordance with the Julian calendar. In this century, the Roman Empire saw a crisis, starting with the assassination of the Roman Emperor ...

. He is known only from a single inscription in Greek that was found at Dekemhare (ደቀምሓረ ድንበዛን),

Hamasien Hamasien ( Tigrinya: ሓማሴን) ('' Ge'ez'' ሓማሴን) was a historical province including and surrounding Asmara, part of modern Eritrea. In 1996 the province was divided and distributed largely to the modern Maekel region, with smaller pa ...

in modern-day

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

, which is dated to his 24th

regnal year A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year of rule, a t ...

. Sembrouthes was the first known ruler in the lands later ruled by the

Emperor of Ethiopia The emperor of Ethiopia (, "King of Kings"), also known as the Atse (, "emperor"), was the hereditary monarchy, hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, from at least the 13th century until the abolition of the monarchy in 1975. The emperor w ...

to adopt the title "

King of Kings King of Kings, ''Mepet mepe''; , group="n" was a ruling title employed primarily by monarchs based in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. Commonly associated with History of Iran, Iran (historically known as name of Iran, Persia ...

".Munro-Hay, "The Chronology of Aksum: A Reappraisal of the History and Development of the Aksumite State from Numismatic and Archeological Evidence" (University of London, 1978), p. 185 He is a probable candidate for the king who erected the

Monumentum Adulitanum The ''Monumentum Adulitanum'' is the name for two Greek inscriptions from Adulis, the major port city in the modern day Eritrea Kingdom of Aksum. The two Greek inscriptions are known, respectively, as Monumentum Adulitanum I and Monumentum Adulitan ...

. His inscription reads as: Discussing the evidence provided in the inscription and the absence of any coins issued with his name of them, Munro-Hay concludes that Sembrouthes "finds better into the earlier part of the Aksumite royal sequence. In his later history of Aksum, Munro-Hay narrowed the date of his reign to a gap between `DBH and DTWNS, or c.250. However, W.R.O. Hahn, in a study published in 1983, assigns Sembrouthes to the 4th century, between

Aphilas Aphilas beni Dimel (early 4th century) was a King of the Kingdom of Aksum. He is known only from the coins he minted, which are characterized by a number of experiments in imagery on the obverse, and being issued in fractions of weight that none of ...

and

Ezana Ezana (, ''‘Ezana'', unvocalized ዐዘነ ''‘zn''), (, ''Aezana'') was the ruler of the Kingdom of Aksum (320s – ). One of the best-documented rulers of Aksum, Ezana is important as he first adopted for his country the religion of Christ ...

. Hahn further identifies him with

Ousanas Ousanas (fl. 320), known as Ella Allada or Ella Amida in Eritrean and Ethiopian tradition, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Aksum in the 320s AD. Some historians believe that Christianity was introduced into Aksum during his reign. Little is known a ...

or the legendary

Ella Amida Ousanas (fl. 320), known as Ella Allada or Ella Amida in Eritrean and Ethiopian tradition, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Aksum in the 320s AD. Some historians believe that Christianity was introduced into Aksum during his reign. Little is known a ...

.As cited in Munro-Hay, ''Excavations at Axum'' (London: British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1989), p. 22

Notes

{{Ethiopia-royal-stub Kings of Axum 3rd-century monarchs in Africa