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Did Rome ever go to war with the Aksumite Empire


awsome5

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From what i can gather the Askumites were a major trading ally of the Roman Empire, they were heavily involved with the trading routes between India and the mediterranean and to my knowledge never went to war with the Romans. Rome never ventured that far into Africa on a military scale.

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Just to confuse things slightly I am currently reading Michael Pitassi's The Navies of Rome in which on page 279 he makes a 'throwaway' comment that in AD 266 the Ethiopians closed the Red Sea to Roman trade.

 

Because he doesn't reference this particular statement I don't know if he means Ethiopia as a separate entity to the Askanite Kingdom, who apparently did control Northern Ethiopa around this period, or if he has accidently conflated the two. :(

 

BTW GPM's comment about Rome not venturing that far into Africa is only partially correct as Pitassi states earlier in his book that Rome was previously able to make use of a canal (originally cut by the Egyptians) between the Nile and the Red Sea to send naval fleets into the Red Sea. These fleets were apparently sent on a couple of occasions to take punative action against pirates interferring with Rome's then thriving long distance marine trade with India, the Middle East and Africa.

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