Aphilas: Difference between revisions

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Aphilas (early 4th century) was a king of Axum. He is known 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 his successors copied.¹

He produced the smallest gold coins ever minted in sub-saharan africa equivalent to one sixth of a roman aureus. The obverse of this coin feature not only his portrait, but the crescent and disc symbolic of their pre-christian beliefs. The reverse features his name and title rendered in Greek the lingua-franca of the civilized world at that time. ΑΦΙ-ΛΑC ΒΑCΙ-ΛΕY (Aphilas, King) Notice that the "A"s lack a horizontal crossbar but have a dot placed below them instead.

G.W.B. Huntingford suggests that he was the ruler who erected the anonymous inscription at Adulis known as the Monumentum Adulitanum.²

Notes

S. C. Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity (Edinburgh: University Press, 1991), p. 188.
G.W.B. Huntingford, The Historical Geography of Ethiopia (London: The British Academy, 1989), pp. 40f.

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ΑΦΙΛΑC ΒΑCΙΛΕY (Aphilas, King)

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 '''Aphilas''' (early [[4th century]]) was a king of [[Kingdom of Axum|Axum]]. He is known 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 his successors copied.<sup>[[#Notes|1]]</sup>
-He produced the smallest gold coins ever minted in sub-saharan africa equivalent to one sixth of a roman aureus.  The obverse of his coins feature not only his portrait, but the crescent and disc symbolic of their pre-christian beliefs.  The reverse features his name and title rendered in Greek the lingua-franca of the civilized world at that time.  ΑΦΙ-ΛΑC ΒΑCΙ-ΛΕY  (Aphilas, King)    Notice that the "A"s lack a horizontal crossbar but have a dot placed below them instead.
+He produced the smallest gold coins ever minted in sub-saharan africa equivalent to one sixth of a roman aureus.  The obverse of this coin feature not only his portrait, but the crescent and disc symbolic of their pre-christian beliefs.  The reverse features his name and title rendered in Greek the lingua-franca of the civilized world at that time.  ΑΦΙ-ΛΑC ΒΑCΙ-ΛΕY  (Aphilas, King)    Notice that the "A"s lack a horizontal crossbar but have a dot placed below them instead.
 [[Image:Aphilas.jpg]]