Wonder Woman of the Week: Amanirenas

There are several mythologized warriors and monarchs of modern day Sudan who supposedly threw back Greek and Roman attempts at conquest, but this week's Wonder Woman made her name into the history books. Amanirenas was known as a fierce warrior queen blind in one eye who managed to keep the Romans out of her Nubian kingdom in the 1st Century BC. When the Roman Republic annexed Ptolemaic Egypt in the 1st Century BC, Roman politicians were eager to expand on their annexation under the Republic period during the early years of the new Roman Empire- and that put their sights on Nubia (modern day Sudan).

While the bulk of the Roman military in Egypt were on campaigns in Arabia, Queen Amanirenas launched a campaign against Roman forts along the Egypt-Nubia border in the region of Lower (or northern) Nubia. Amanirenas descended from a long line of Nubian warrior queens (known as Candaces) and successfully raided or annihilated Roman defensive positions in southern Egypt. In one case, Amanirenas beheaded a Roman commander and buried his head under a temple. Historians believed the story was a folktale until archaeologists discovered the head in Meroe in 1912. When the Roman army returned, they counter-attacked and struck deep into Nubian territory.

After a prolonged siege of Roman positions in Nubia, Amanirenas sent word to the Romans to negotiate a ceasefire. Roman forces evacuated Nubia, the Nubians did not have to pay any taxes to the Roman Empire, and a border zone (like an ancient demilitarized zone) was established between Egypt and Nubia. Few nations of the ancient world defeated the Roman Empire in battle, but Amanirenas' Nubia was one of them. Following the ceasefire, Nubia became a powerful ally of Rome as both a trade partner and buffer state between Rome and the growing strength of rising nation states in East Africa and the Middle East.