Aphilas
Encyclopedia
Aphilas 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.
G.W.B. Huntingford suggests that he was the ruler who erected the anonymous inscription at Adulis
known as the Monumentum Adulitanum
.
. The obverse of this coin features not only his portrait, but the crescent and disc symbolic of the pre-Christian beliefs of Axum. The reverse features his name and title rendered in Greek, the lingua-franca of the civilized world at that time. Note that the "A"s lack a horizontal crossbar but have a dot placed below them instead.
His silver coin features his portrait on both the obverse and reverse with the disc and crescent (at top). The reverse revals a distinguishing festure of Axumite coinage; gilding. The reverse interior portrait is overlaid with gold.
G.W.B. Huntingford suggests that he was the ruler who erected the anonymous inscription at Adulis
Adulis
Adulis or Aduli is an archeological site in the Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea, about 30 miles south of Massawa. It was the port of the Kingdom of Aksum, located on the coast of the Red Sea. Adulis Bay is named after the port...
known as the Monumentum Adulitanum
Monumentum Adulitanum
The Monumentum Adulitanum was an ancient Adulite inscription in Greek and Ge'ez depicting the military campaigns of an Adulite king. Though the inscription and the monument have never been located by archaeologists we know about it through the copying of the inscription by Cosmas Indicopleustes, a...
.
His coins
Aphilas produced the smallest gold coins ever minted in sub-saharan Africa, equivalent to one sixteenth of a Roman aureusAureus
The aureus was a gold coin of ancient Rome valued at 25 silver denarii. The aureus was regularly issued from the 1st century BC to the beginning of the 4th century, when it was replaced by the solidus...
. The obverse of this coin features not only his portrait, but the crescent and disc symbolic of the pre-Christian beliefs of Axum. The reverse features his name and title rendered in Greek, the lingua-franca of the civilized world at that time. Note that the "A"s lack a horizontal crossbar but have a dot placed below them instead.
His silver coin features his portrait on both the obverse and reverse with the disc and crescent (at top). The reverse revals a distinguishing festure of Axumite coinage; gilding. The reverse interior portrait is overlaid with gold.