Ezana of Aksum: The First Christian African King

Abstract

This article reinterprets the fourth-century Aksumite king Ezana's adoption of Christianity through contemporaneous coins and inscriptions, challenging the regnant scholarly narrative derived from church historians, especially Rufinus’s Ecclesiastical History. It argues that Ezana—like Constantine a few decades earlier—used Christianity strategically, projecting his faith differently to distinct audiences for political effect. By reframing Ezana's adoption of Christianity, the article offers a fresh view of both the king and Late Antique Aksum, suggesting that Christianity in the Horn of Africa spread from the bottom up rather than being imposed from the top down.