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In 1910, archaeologist John Garstang’s team was digging at Meroë, the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Kush in Sudan, when they found a larger-than-life bronze head. Its eyes, made of glass and stone, were still in place. It was a portrait of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. It is now one of the best-known objects in the British Museum, where it has been since 1911.

How a Roman emperor’s head got to Sudan

Statues of Augustus stood all over Roman Egypt. Around 25 B.C., during the war between Rome and Kush, Kushite forces raided Syene and the frontier towns and carried statues of the emperor south. Strabo says Rome later recovered some of them. This one stayed in Kush.

Buried on purpose

The head was not lost or thrown away. It was carefully buried beneath the steps leading into a small temple at Meroë, often described as a shrine to victory. Anyone entering would walk over the face of the Roman emperor. Most scholars read it as a deliberate message: a trophy of victory and a humiliation of the enemy, placed where it would be trampled for as long as the temple stood. Being buried also protected it, which is why it survived in such good condition.

In the series

Episode 4 of Kandake imagines the moment. Rome offers to return Nyala if Kush gives back Caesar’s statues. The queen refuses: “Caesar wants his face back? Then every Kushite will walk on it.” The exchange is invented, but the burial under the temple steps is real.

See it today

The Meroë Head is on display at the British Museum in London (museum number 1911,0901.1). It is one of the finest portraits of Augustus to survive anywhere, and it survived because an African kingdom chose to bury it in triumph.

The Kingdom of Kush shared many gods with Egypt, including Amun and Isis. But Kush also had gods of its own, and the most striking was Apedemak, a war god shown with the body of a man and the head of a lion.

Who was Apedemak?

Apedemak was a god of war and victory, and a protector of the king and queen. Kushite rulers prayed to him before battle and thanked him after it. He was also linked to fertility and the land. His lion head made sense in Kush, where lions were the ultimate symbol of royal strength.

Where to see him today

Apedemak’s best-known temple is the Lion Temple at Naqa, in Sudan, built in the 1st century A.D. by King Natakamani and Queen Amanitore. Its walls show the royal couple with the lion god, and one famous carving shows Apedemak as a snake with a lion’s head. Another major temple to him stands at Musawwarat es-Sufra, not far away. Both are part of the “Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroë”, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the series

In Episode 6 of Kandake, after the queen loses an eye in battle, the priestess tells her: “Apedemak took your eye, my Queen, so that you could see with his.” The queen’s new power is pure fantasy. Apedemak, and the devotion of Kush’s rulers to him, are real.

Why he matters

Apedemak is a reminder that Kush was not a copy of Egypt. It had its own language (Meroitic), its own writing, its own architecture and its own gods. Its rulers, including warrior queens like Amanirenas, stood under the protection of a lion.

Most stories about Rome are about Rome winning. The war between Rome and the Kingdom of Kush is different. It lasted only a few years, around 25 to 21 B.C., but it ended with Augustus making concessions to an African kingdom he had never conquered.

Why it started

After Rome took Egypt in 30 B.C., its new frontier ran up against Kush at the First Cataract of the Nile, near Syene (Aswan). Rome pushed into the borderland known as Lower Nubia and expected tribute. Ancient writers say the Kushites resented Roman tax collectors. When much of the Roman garrison left Egypt for a campaign in Arabia, Kush saw its chance.

The raid on Syene

Kushite forces attacked Syene, Elephantine and Philae, defeated the Roman cohorts left behind, took prisoners and pulled down statues of Augustus. This is the moment Episode 2 of Kandake dramatizes.

Rome strikes back

Gaius Petronius, the prefect of Egypt, gathered an army and marched south. According to Strabo, he defeated the Kushites near Pselchis (Dakka), took the fortress of Primis (Qasr Ibrim) and pushed on to Napata, an old royal city of Kush, which he destroyed. Many captives were taken. Then he turned back, leaving a garrison at Primis rather than marching on Meroë, the real capital.

Kush strikes again

The war was not over. Kushite forces, led by the queen, advanced on Primis. Petronius got there first and held it. Both sides now had reasons to stop: Rome had stretched its supply lines down the Nile, and Kush had lost Napata.

The peace of Samos

Kushite envoys travelled to Augustus on the island of Samos around 21 to 20 B.C. Strabo reports that they obtained everything they asked for and that Augustus remitted the tribute. Rome kept a frontier zone in Lower Nubia, but Kush kept its independence, and the two powers traded peacefully for a long time afterwards.

Why it matters

The war shows Kush as a serious military and diplomatic power, able to raid Roman Egypt, survive a counterattack and negotiate on equal terms with the most powerful man in the Mediterranean. It also left behind one of the most famous objects in the British Museum: the bronze head of Augustus that Kush buried at Meroë.

Around 25 B.C., the Roman Empire was at the height of its confidence. Augustus had just made himself master of the Mediterranean, and Egypt was his personal possession. Then, from the south, an army from the Kingdom of Kush crossed the frontier, sacked Roman towns and carried away statues of the emperor himself. Leading Kush was a queen: Amanirenas.

Kush, Rome’s southern neighbour

Kush was one of Africa’s great ancient kingdoms, along the Nile in what is now Sudan. Its kings had once ruled Egypt as pharaohs, and by the time of Augustus its capital was Meroë, a city of pyramids, temples and iron furnaces. Kush traded gold, ivory and incense north into Egypt and had dealt with Greek and Roman rulers for centuries.

What “Kandake” means

Greek and Roman writers called the queens of Kush “Candace”, as if it were a name. In fact it comes from the Meroitic title kandake (also written kentake), used for royal women, often the queen mother. Several powerful kandakes ruled or co-ruled Kush. Amanirenas is the one remembered for taking on Rome.

The war

When the Roman prefect of Egypt took part of the army east on a campaign into Arabia, Kush struck. Kushite forces attacked Syene (modern Aswan), Elephantine and Philae on Egypt’s southern frontier, took captives and pulled down statues of Augustus. One of those statues, a bronze head of the emperor, would turn up again almost two thousand years later.

Rome hit back. The new prefect, Gaius Petronius, marched south, pushed through Pselchis and Primis (Qasr Ibrim) and sacked Napata, an old royal city of Kush. But he did not reach Meroë, and the war did not end there. The Kushites attacked again, and Petronius had to rush back to defend the Roman garrison at Primis.

A queen who negotiated as hard as she fought

In the end, Kush sent ambassadors to Augustus, who was on the Greek island of Samos. The Greek geographer Strabo, writing within living memory of the war, says the envoys got everything they asked for, and that Augustus even cancelled the tribute Rome had imposed. For a kingdom that had attacked Roman territory, it was a remarkable result. Rome’s frontier settled near Primis, and peace between Rome and Kush lasted for generations.

The one-eyed queen

Strabo describes the queen who led Kush as a masculine woman who had lost one of her eyes. Most historians identify her with Amanirenas, whose name appears in Meroitic inscriptions alongside her son, Prince Akinidad. We don’t know how she lost the eye. Hookline’s series imagines it happening in battle.

What is real in Kandake, and what isn’t

• Real: Amanirenas, Prince Akinidad, Gaius Petronius, the attack on Syene, the stolen statues of Augustus, the fall of Napata, the one-eyed queen, the lion god Apedemak.
• Imagined: Nyala and her mother, the Roman officer Lucius, the demand for exactly one hundred children, and the queen’s supernatural sight. Rome really did take Kushite captives, but these characters are fictional.

Amanirenas is still a symbol of resistance in Sudan today. Her story is one of the oldest records we have of an African ruler facing down a European empire, and coming away with better terms than she started with.