December 3, 2018

The Military Structure

By Stuart Munro-Hay

The military establishment was undoubtedly one of the key institutions of the Aksumite monarchy, and as such was closely associated with it. The king himself was the commander-in-chief, but royal brothers and sons, and perhaps other relatives, were frequently put in charge of campaigns when the king was occupied elsewhere. The semisacred character of the monarchy may have been one of the bases of its domination, but the control of its military arm by members of the ruling family must also have been a source of strength and security. It is possible that the brothers of Ezana who were in theoretical charge of the Beja campaign described in the inscription from Geza `Agmai (Bernand 1982) and in DAE 4, 6 & 7 (Ch. 11: 5) were in fact very young at the time (Munro-Hay 1990), and that experienced military leaders accompanied them. Nevertheless, credit for the victory went to the royal brothers under the supreme authority of the king.

There seems to have been at least one remarkable war-leader king (Ezana), though the achievements of Gadarat earlier in the third century could hardly have been accomplished without some military skill. Kaleb, too, managed to organize a major overseas expedition and to win an initial success even if the results were, in the long run, negative (see Ch. 4). The Aksumite army was organized into sarawit (sing. sarwe), groups or `regiments’ of unknown numerical strength, each with a name (possibly a provincial district name, or a `tribal’ name, see Ch. 7: 5), under their own commanders or generals. The generals of these groups were referred to in the inscription DAE 9 by the title Nagast, the plural of negus or king, exactly the same as the word used in the royal title Negusa Nagast, king of kings, in the same inscription. This indicates the importance of their office and was possibly a reminiscence of the former sub-kingdoms now part of Aksum. The troops were presumably levied as needed, though there must surely have been some kind of `Praetorian Guard’ at the capital for ordinary guard duties about the palace, treasury, and the king’s person. In medieval times such troops were designated by the name of the part of the palace which they guarded. If the troop-names were related to provinces, perhaps the local rulers had to send contingents on demand to their overlord in Aksum. Sergew Hable Sellassie (1972: 95) suggested that the troop-names referred to function, identifying commando, elephant-fighter, and infantry units.

The inscriptions speak of specific troops being sent on certain missions and thus have preserved several of these Aksumite troop or `regiment’ names. It may transpire that these names are reflected in the `Bisi’-title of the kings, as one or two have a close resemblance to those of individual kings. The `regiment’ names known include Hara, Halen, Damawa, Sabarat, Hadefan, Sabaha, Dakuen, Laken, Falha, Sera, Metin, Mahaza; they have been referred to by different modern authors as detachments, Truppe, armies, corpi di militzia, colonnes, and troupes, all translations from the Ge`ez word sarwe. Unfortunately, as yet we do not have the Greek translation of this from any of the inscriptions. From the known `Bisi’-titles of Aksumite rulers we can find parallels as follows: Halen for Halen; Hadefan for Hadefan; and Dakuen for Dakhu.

When on the campaign, encampments were set up, possibly in some cases in recognized military stations or garrisons, or traditional muster-points. Certain provisions were requisitioned where necessary from the enemy’s country. Others were brought on beasts of burden or by human portage. Mention is made of the water-corvée, and the provision of water must have been particularly important when the campaigns reached the more arid areas. Camels were certainly used in transport, and are sometimes specified among the plunder taken.

There is no hint as to the size of the regiments or the armies, but in various inscriptions, the dead and captured are noted as follows;

DAE 11 — killed 758, prisoners 629; DAE 10 — killed 705, prisoners 205; Kaleb inscription; killed, more than 400 men (figure lost for women and children). Fifty of the captives in DAE 10 were given to Mahrem as an offering. In the sixth century Arabian war, the historian Procopius says that the Ethiopian army sent by Kaleb to Yemen to punish the usurper Abreha and his supporters for the deposition of Sumyafa` Ashwa` consisted of three thousand men; a figure the more convincing for its relative modesty. This army, in fact, turned against Kaleb and remained to support Abreha (Procopius, ed. Dewing 1914: 191). Later Arab writers elevate the numbers of men sent to Yemen to 70,000 men under Aryat (Guillaume 1955: 20, after Ibn Ishaq). Tabari (Zotenberg 1958: 182) agrees with this figure, mentioning that Dhu Nuwas (Yusuf Asar) had 5000 men at San`a; he then says that the najashi sent another army with 100,000 men under Abreha. After Abreha’s rebellion the najashi sent another 4000 with Aryat’s second mission, and on its failure began to assemble yet another army to punish Abreha. The numbers of men in these armies, swelling as the story develops, are certainly highly exaggerated, and only Procopius’ information seems credible; though of course there is always the standard explanation that the lower figures represent the real fighting strength, and the higher the whole mass of non-combatant dependents. The inscription of Yusuf Asar Yathar (Rodinson 1969) claims that he took 11,000 prisoners, but even if the figure is a true one, many of these must have been from Arabs fighting against the king on the side of the najashi.