Amanirenas: the African queen who humiliated Rome

Imagine facing off against the Roman Empire - the biggest military machine of the ancient world. Most who dared were crushed, their lands swallowed up by Rome’s endless appetite for conquest. But every now and then, a rebel did actually triumph. Enter Amanirenas, the warrior queen of Kush, who not only defied the emperor Augustus himself but rubbed his defeat in his face.

Rome vs. Amanirenas

Amanirenas ruled the wealthy kingdom of Kush, in what is now north Sudan. For years, Kush had a complicated relationship with neighbouring Ptolemaic Egypt, who sated their appetite for luxury with Kush’s natural resources. However, when Augustus defeated Cleopatra and Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium, Egypt was absorbed into the Roman Empire. This now brought Kush into direct contact - and conflict - with Rome.

Augustus was the OG Roman emperor, who was so sold on his own legendary status, he created a whole cult so everyone could worship him. Hungry for expansion, he wanted to add Kush and its rich resources to his empire. But Amanirenas had other plans. She watched as Rome continued its expansion and as Augustus was stretched increasingly thin. When Augustus had to redeploy some of his troops, she struck. Her armies stormed into Roman-occupied Egypt, taking key cities and, in a masterstroke of historical trolling, she beheaded a giant statue of Augustus and buried its head beneath the steps of a temple. The most powerful man in the world got metaphorically stomped on every time a Kushite went to pray. That’s next-level petty.

Naturally, Rome was not amused. Augustus sent Gaius Petronius, the Roman governor of Egypt, to put Amanirenas in her place. His legions, battle-hardened and technologically superior, drove her forces back. The exact details of this campaign are unclear. Some historians, including Strabo, say that Petronius reached the royal city of Napata and razed it to the ground; others say Napata was too long of a march for the Roman army. We should take sources like Strabo with a pinch of salt - it’s possible he overstated Petronius’s achievements because he was generally pro-Roman and because someone like Amanirenas would have been anathema to him. Sadly, the Meroitic language of Kush is still mostly unknown, so their side of the story remains a mystery.

Amanirenas, however, was not the kind of queen to roll over. She regrouped, counterattacked, and soon had Roman forces bottled up at Primis, forcing a stalemate. Both sides were exhausted. A long war would be costly for both, and Augustus, ever the pragmatist, decided a deal was better than more bloodshed. But Amanirenas wasn’t about to come begging for peace.

The ultimate power move

Instead, she sent envoys to Augustus with a set of golden arrows and a message:

"The Candace sends you these arrows. If you want peace, they are a token of her warmth and friendship. If you want war, you will need them."

This was the ancient world’s equivalent of a mic drop. And by refusing to meet with Augustus personally, Amanirenas made it clear that (a) she was far too grand to travel long distances to deliver messages and (b) Augustus was just some guy who wasn’t worth her time. She was a motherf***ing queen! Amazingly, Augustus, who crushed rebellion after rebellion, took the deal. The Romans retreated, Kush was left in peace, and unlike so many others who faced Rome, Amanirenas didn’t lose an inch of her land.

The queen who was too much for Rome

So who was this woman who defied the most powerful empire of her time? Unsurprisingly the Romans wrote of her quite disparagingly, employing their standard insult for any powerful female leader: manly. Strabo described her as a ‘masculine sort of woman’ who towered over her warriors on the battlefield. This was typical of a Greco-Roman man. They had a very specific idea of femininity, one which valued more traditional womanly traits. Anyone who deviated from this was weird and it was often used to highlight the uncouth ways of the barbarians Rome was “civilising”.

But in Kushite culture, powerful women were nothing new. Amanirenas was part of a long line of warrior queens (called Kandakes, Latinised as "Candace"). Kush had no problem with women leading armies, ruling nations, or kicking invaders to the curb. Female power was something to be celebrated, not mocked or feared. It also went hand-in-hand with military strength. Temple art shows Kushite queens brandishing weapons, surrounded by prisoners. Their curvaceous figures are clear to see. A woman could be feminine AND a fierce warrior.

At some point, Amanirenas lost an eye in battle, leading Strabo to derisively call her the “one-eyed queen”. The Roman perhaps saw this as another sign of her ‘savagery’. The Nubians might have viewed it as a symbol of her ferocity. It’s possible she also had facial scars, not just from fighting but also from ritual scarification (which was practiced by the Sudanese people until recently). Her imposing appearance no doubt matched her disposition. She had the confidence and nerve to do battle with Rome instead of allowing them to annex her kingdom like so many others.

Despite her epic victory, Amanirenas is little known outside of history circles. Meanwhile, male leaders who lost to Rome are household names (looking at you, Hannibal). Why? Because history, as they say, is written by the victors—and the Romans weren’t about to hype up the one-eyed African woman who made Augustus back down. But make no mistake: Amanirenas was a force to be reckoned with, a ruler who proved that empires, no matter how mighty, are not invincible.