Kingdom of Kush

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2020

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Along the banks of the River Nile, directly south of ancient Egypt and hundreds of miles away from the Mediterranean, there was a flourishing kingdom. The Kingdom of Kush. The Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Nabataeans, Libyans, Romans, and not to mention countless African kingdoms - the Kushite domain boasted a remarkable history with all these ancient civilisations throughout its long history. Its existence spanned centuries; its cities were bustling centres for inter-continental trade; its art and architecture continues to amaze visitors to this day.

I was delighted to be joined by Luke Pepera (@LukePepera), a historian, archaeologist and anthropologist with a passion for African history. In this podcast he shines a light on the Kingdom of Kush's history, particularly focusing on the ancient kingdom's often-overlooked interactions with Imperial Rome. He explains how the death of Cleopatra and the demise of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt paved the way for a major conflict between the Kushites and Romans, where the Kushite warrior queen Amanirenas led her armies against the Emperor Augustus' legions. Nevertheless, despite this hostile beginning, over the following centuries relations between the Kushites and Romans improved, with both kingdoms co-existing in relative harmony until the former's demise in the mid 4th century. This was a fascinating chat and I hope you enjoy.

Luke has recently starred in two History Hit documentaries covering African history: 'The Kingdom of Benin' and 'Africa: Written Out of History'.

Notes: Cornelius Gallus' campaign in Arabia Felix was against the Arabians, not the Assyrians!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Today we are talking about one of the most extraordinary kingdoms of ancient Africa.
0:08.0	The Kingdom of Kush, a kingdom that lasted for centuries and had interactions with the
0:13.7	Pharaohs of Egypt, the Ptolemaic dynasty, that Hellenistic dynasty, that also later ruled
0:19.0	Egypt, and of course the power that then superseded the Ptolemy's, the Romans.
0:25.2	Now joining me to talk through the history of the Kingdom of Kush, particularly focusing
0:29.2	on their interactions with imperial Rome is Luke Pepperer. Luke is a brilliant archaeologist,
0:36.9	anthropologist and historian, and he writes all about the history of Africa. He especially
0:41.7	focuses on Africa and the Middle Ages, but he also has a great interest in ancient Africa,
0:47.2	particularly the Kingdom of Kush. So it was fantastic to have him on the show to talk
0:51.8	through all things, the Kingdom of Kush. Here's Luke.
1:00.2	Luke, great to have you on the show. Thank you. Great to be here. Thank you.
1:05.2	Now the Kingdom of Kush and the Kingdom of Kush and the Romans, but the Kingdom of Kush in particular,
1:10.3	this is an astonishing ancient African kingdom that had contacts with the Egyptians, the Persians,
1:16.5	the Greeks, as I mentioned the Romans, and many other ancient civilizations.
1:21.2	Yes, no, I mean indeed it. I think it's particularly where it's located. Obviously it's just
1:27.3	south of Egypt, and because of that has quite intense contact with Egypt during its lifetime.
1:33.3	In fact, it only really flourishes when Egypt goes through its periods of decline and then
1:39.2	Kush itself becomes less important as Egyptian rulers in particular either unify or become stronger
1:46.9	and consolidate their power and push further into Kush. And then obviously also the time period
1:51.6	is really interesting. As we will see later on the formation or the beginning of the Roman Empire
1:58.8	actually coincides with one of Kush's peak points when Kush is at its most powerful, most culturally
2:07.4	important and most economically important with trade. And because of the Roman connection as well,
	...

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