Kentake Amanirenas & Pharaoh Amenemhet I

The Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC brought a new challenge to the Kingdom of Kush, to the south. Augustus Caesar, the Roman emperor, threatened an invasion, following his Egyptian campaign. According to Strabo, a famous geographer, sometime between 29 and 24 BC the conflict with Kush began. Kentake (i.e. Queen-Mother) Amanirenas, the Kushite ruler, gave the order to march into Egypt and attack the invaders. Akindad led the campaigns against the Roman armies of Augustus. The Kushites sacked Aswan with an army of 30,000 men and they destroyed the statues of Caesar in Elephantine. The Romans, under Petronius, counterattacked. Though described as a strong and fortified city, they captured Qasr Ibrim in 23 BC after their first assault. The Romans invaded as far as Napata and sacked it, though Amanirenas evaded their clutches. Petronius returned to Alexandria with prisoners and booty leaving behind a garrison in Lower Nubia. Amenirenas ordered her armies to march a second time with the aim of seizing the Roman garrison. This time, however, a standoff with Petronius was reached without fighting. The Roman army retired to Egypt and withdrew their fort declaring Pax Romana (peace). In fact, the full extent of the Roman humiliation has yet to be disclosed since the relevant Kushite account of the affair has yet to be published. The Kushite account of this encounter, written in the Meroïtic script, cannot as yet be fully understood.

Amenemhet I, founder of the Negro Twelfth Egyptian Dynasty, was the Prime Minister of Pharaoh Mentuhotep IV, but overthrew him in 3405 BC. He moved the royal residence to a site near the modern town of el-Lisht, near to Memphis. Returning to old ideas, he built a mortuary temple of fluted columns. He also erected a pyramid. Rising to a lofty 352 feet, it was the largest built since the Fifth Dynasty. His officials were buried nearby in mastabas. Waset remained the centre of Amen worship. In this city, he built the statues and altar in the Temple of Amen in Luxor. In the Nubian cities of Buhen and Wawat, he built great castles with walls 16 feet thick and nearly 30 feet high. These monuments guarded Egyptian control over the Nubian gold mines and quarries. In the eastern Delta, he built fortifications to secure routes to the Sinai peninsular. This led to Egyptian control of the copper and turquoise mines. Amenemhet I, however, was unable to secure the western border with Libya. He thus resorted to occasional campaigns to deal with this element. The king’s palace was astonishing – a veritable fever of the gods. Its doors were overlaid with sheet copper fitted with bolts of bronze. The floors were inlaid with silver. Its walls were embellished with gold leaf. The roof was made of sycamore. Finally, lapis lazuli decorated its ceilings.