King Ezana of Aksum Becomes Christian

The evidence from Aksum itself is the king’s own. In a long inscription cut in Greek and, in two different scripts, in Ge’ez, Ezana calls himself king of the Aksumites, the Himyarites and other peoples, “king of kings” and son of the unconquered god Ares, and ends by dedicating statues to Ares in thanks for a victory (Inscription of Ezana, RIÉ 270 Greek text, lines 1–9 and 28–31). A second Greek inscription of the same king records a campaign against the Noba (Inscription of Ezana, RIÉ 271 Greek text, lines 22–26). It begins differently: with the faith of God and the power of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and with Jesus Christ as the king’s helper (Inscription of Ezana, RIÉ 271 opening lines, in the translation quoted by A. M. Butts (2025), p. 9). The online record of the stone does not transcribe these opening lines; they are given here from the translation quoted by Aaron Butts. The same king thus appears both as son of Ares and as a Christian.

The story of how the faith reached his court comes from outside. Rufinus, writing in Italy about 402, says he had it from Aedesius, one of the two men concerned, who was by then a priest at Tyre. A philosopher of Tyre sailed to “India” with two boys he was educating, Aedesius and Frumentius. On the way home the ship put in at a port and the crew were killed. The boys were spared and taken to the king, who made Aedesius his cupbearer and put Frumentius in charge of his accounts and records. When the king died, the queen asked them to help govern until her son grew up. Frumentius sought out Christians among the Roman merchants and encouraged them to build places of prayer (Rufinus, Church History 10.9 (book 1, chapter 9 in Migne)).

When the prince came of age the two left. Frumentius went to Alexandria and urged the bishop to send a bishop to the Christians there. Athanasius ordained Frumentius himself and sent him back, and, Rufinus says, a great number were converted (Rufinus, Church History 10.9–10 (book 1, chapter 9 in Migne)). Rufinus names neither the kingdom nor its king. Socrates repeats his account a generation later (Socrates, Church History 1.19).

Athanasius supplies the names. Writing in 356–357, while in hiding, he reports that the emperor Constantius II had written to the rulers of Aksum demanding that Frumentius, “Bishop of Auxumis”, be sent to Egypt (Athanasius, Defence before Constantius 29). He quotes the letter. It is addressed to Aezanes and Sazanes, says that Frumentius was ordained by Athanasius, and requires him to be sent to Egypt and examined by Bishop George (Athanasius, Defence before Constantius 31). The inscription to Ares names among the king’s brothers a Saiazana, a name close to the Sazanes of the letter (Inscription of Ezana, RIÉ 270 Greek text, lines 1–9 and 28–31).

The church of Aksum thus began with a bishop ordained at Alexandria, and within a generation of Constantine a Roman emperor was writing to its rulers about the doctrine to be taught in their churches (Athanasius, Defence before Constantius 31).