Aphilas beni Dimel (early 4th century) was a

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

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 ...

. He is known only from the coins he minted, which are characterized by a number of experiments in imagery on the

obverse The obverse and reverse are the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ''obverse'' ...

, and being issued in fractions of weight that none of his successors copied.

G.W.B. Huntingford George Wynn Brereton Huntingford (19 November 1901 – 19 February 1978) was an English linguist, anthropologist and historian. He lectured in East African languages and cultures at SOAS, University of London from 1950 until 1966.

suggests that he was the ruler from the inscription on the throne at

Adulis Adulis (Sabaic, Sabaean: 𐩱 𐩵 𐩡 𐩪, , ) was an ancient city along the Red Sea in the Gulf of Zula, about south of Massawa. Its ruins lie within the modern Eritrean list of cities in Eritrea, city of Zula. It was the emporium (antiquit ...

known as 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 ...

which celebrates military victories and claims to be erected in the 27th year of the ruler's reign. However David W. Phillipson seems to suggest otherwise, "coins of Aphilas – notwithstanding their diversity – are comparatively rare, and his reign may have been brief."

Coins

Aphilas produced at least four series of gold coins (16mm, 12mm, 10mm, 7mm in diameter), two silver (17mm, 12mm in diameter), and two bronze (18mm, 15mm in diameter). Both of the larger gold coins feature the Aksumite tiara resting on his head cloth, which became the norm in future Aksumite coins. It is postulated that the Aksumite tiara was made for Aphilas. All coins feature the disc and crescent symbol of the Aksumite pagan period. All of his coins are inscribed in

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

, following the practice of his predecessor Endubis. The gold coins were weighted to the standard of the Roman

aureus The ''aureus'' ( ''aurei'', 'golden') was the main gold coin of ancient Rome from the 1st century BC to the early 4th century AD, when it was replaced by the ''solidus (coin), solidus''. This type of coin was sporadically issued during the Roman ...

, the smallest gold coin of Aphilas being 1/16th aureus. The lowest gold content recorded for Aphilas is 90%; while high purity, this was lower than

Roman coins Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum#Numismatics, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction during the Roman Republic, Republic, in the third century BC, through Roman Empire, Imperial ...

. The larger gold coins of Aphilas are the earliest known Aksumite coins to have reached

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The smaller silver coin shows a distinguishing feature of Axumite coinage: the interior portrait is overlaid with gold. These were half value of the larger silver coin, but less than half the weight. They were probably deliberately underweight to counteract the cost of the gold gilding on the smaller coin. At least two bronze coins feature Aphilas from a frontal position, as well as his 12mm gold coin. The style was abandoned afterwards until the 6th century. The typology and use of a frontal bust on Aphilas' coins appear to have taken inspiration from "special presentation pieces of the Roman emperor

Licinius Valerius Licinianus Licinius (; Ancient Greek, Greek: Λικίνιος; c. 265 – 325) was Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign, he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the Edict of Milan that ...

". On one of his bronze issues the obverse features an ear of wheat alone in the center.

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 ...

copied this design in a pre-Christian issue.Munro-Hay, ''Aksum'', p. 189. The coins of Aphilas generally feature the following inscription in Greek: * Obverse: "AΦIΛAC BACIΛEYC" – "King Aphilas" * Reverse: "AξωMITωN BICIΔIMIHΛH" – "of the Aksumites, man of Dimele" Some copper coins include a variant inscription: * Obverse: "AΦIΛACBA CIΛEYCAξω" – "King Aphilas of the Aksu..." * Reverse: "MITωNBI CIΔIMIHΛH" – "...mites, man of Dimele" File:Aphilas tiara.jpg, 16mm Gold issue featuring Aksumite tiara. File:Aphilas_front_gold_03.jpg, Smallest gold coin of Aphilas. Just 7mm in diameter. Obverse reads 'King Aphilas'. File:Aphilas_front_gold_02.jpg, Bronze coin with wheat alone on obverse. File:Aphilas_front_gold_01.jpg, 12mm gold coin noteworthy for Aphilas' frontal position.

Coins

Notes

Further reading