The Untold Story Of Aksum

By Asa Tyler&

Jimmy Raines

The Untold Story of Aksum

The Aksumite Empire was located in the area that is modern-day Ethiopia. It was a trade hub between the countries around the Mediterranean Sea and India. This empire even had access to the Persian Gulf via overland routes. Because of using the strong monsoon winds to cross the Arabian Sea, the connection between southern India and Egypt was one of the main trade routes for goods. The Kingdom of Aksum was strategically located to benefit, as it was not a Kingdom with a military force. It was such a powerful kingdom that by the late 3rd century it had even begun minting its own currency. In the empire of Aksum a man and a women are advisers to the king, Ezana in 600 A.D. The main thing that The man and woman do is to tell the king ideas, but he takes full credit for the good ideas and blams them for the bad ideas. The man's name is Demissie and he writes tablets for the king.

The Untold Story of Aksum

The Untold Story of Aksum

His daily life includes writing laws and making scrolls on daily inventions and other peoples activities. The woman's name is Abeba and she is an architect and she follows the king's diagrams and builds all of the empire's statues, buildings and large monuments, including the Stele. The Aksum empire is based on trade and not very worried about the military. They were involved in the trade of goods from India, the Mediterranean, and the Roman empire. Their religion was polytheistic and the main god was Astar but later Aksum was converted to Christianity under the reign of Ezana. Although the Aksumites were linked to both the Church in Alexandria and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, they were not closely ruled by either. They had their own form of Christianity, fairly tolerant and loosely bound to the Coptic Church. As a result of some intelligent trades, Aksum became very rich in ivory, gold, silver, animals, and food.

The Untold Story of Aksum

The Untold Story of Aksum Since, Aksum had no military, they traded for money and King Ezana had realized that people were slowly, but surely taking all of the land. They gained most of their land under the reign of King Zoscales. When Zoscales was very greedy he used military to gain the Arabian Penninsula. Anyway, Ezana had to come up with a plan to keep the empire. King Ezana was going to cut off the other people after first raising the prices. Demissie wrote a new price sheet for the goods of Aksum. He and Abeba had the worst job, to go to the town square and give the news to all the merchants. Abeba and Demissie passed all of the merchants. The butchers were cutting as fast as they could and once they got the meat they needed, they sold the fur to the seamstresses for seven pounds of gold a hide. They used the gold to buy more animals from foreigners. The black smiths sold pots and pans to people who prepared food for one pound of gold per pan and two pounds for pots. They used the money to buy more metal from foreigners. Abeba and Demissie arrived in the middle of the market and got every one's attention.

The Untold Story of Aksum

The Untold Story of Aksum

Demissie got on top of a table and said, "All of you merchants and salesmen, the king, Ezana, has ordered all of you to raise your prices to foreigners by three times what it was. Anyone that disobeys this decree will be punished. He will have a meeting tomorrow here about this decree." Demissie and Abeba left before everyone began to fight about the decree. On the way back to the palace Demissie said, "I believe that this decree will not work because if we raise our prices they will raise theirs. Eventually both of us will have a cold war stand off and neither of us will get what we need and both groups will die. They will probably win because they can live without gold, silver, and ivory, but can't live without food. Abeba said, "I believe that if that happened we would win, because we have more allies than enemies. The allies we have possess militaries and they can help us take over our enemies."

The Untold Story of Aksum

The Untold Story of Aksum

At the meeting all the towns people gathered with numerous amounts of questions to ask king Ezana. King Ezana said, "I have sent a new law out that all merchants must raise their prices by three times what it was. This is because other forces outside of us are buying us off with supplies we need and they earn land from it." A man in the crowd said,"Will we have to feed the slaves that work in the fields less because of the increase in the price of goods?" The only slaves that lived and worked on fields. Ezana said, "I don't understand why you would think of doing that?" The man said, "Once we increase our prices they will increase theirs and we will both wind up destroying each other." King Ezana said, "If that does happen than we shall move the civilization to a new land that is isolated from any other empire." The man said, "How will we get supplies that we don't have that we need." Ezana said, "We will move to a land that has everything we need."

The Untold Story of Aksum

The Untold Story of Aksum

After the meeting Ezana went back to his home with Demissie and Abeba. When they were in his home Demissie said, "I have grown quite fond of both of you and I hope that if things get tough that we can stand together and say we made it." Ezana said, "You two are the most loyal subjects I have ever had." Abeba said, "You guys have been my most best friends." After a few months of increasing prices both of the groups have completely cut each other off. The people off Aksum have almost no food and have had to increase prices on everything because of the shortage. The knight games had no funds, so the jousters had no armor and the other knights got injuries, some died. The king, Ezana, has just ordered everyone to pack all their belongings and move north bound. Once they got to settle stop and thought no one was around their same enemies attacked. After a short fight the only two people that were left were Demissie and Abeba. After about ten years on their own the got married, but died soon after. The legacy of Aksum lies with those two people.

Web sites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aksumite_Empire http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=37430160 http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/ca/books/bkf3/writing/03_aksum.pdf http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Images/corregio-jesus-christ-christianity.jpghttp://www.sacred-destinations.com/ethiopia/images/axum/resized/stele-cc-martha-de-jong.jpghttp://ninjaradio.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/scroll1.jpghttp://www.1worldtours.com/Aswan_market-1.jpghttp://yeschinatour.com/static/photologue/photos/cache/ancient-tea-horse-road-03_leading.jpghttp://img68.imageshack.us/img68/2027/crusaders01td8.jpghttp://www.ldsces.org/inst_Manuals/ot-in-1/images/e-00.gif

The Untold Story of Aksum

The real history of Aksum is, King Zoscales was the first king of Aksum and most of Aksum's land was conquered in the reign of King Zoscales. In his reign Aksum gained the Arabian Penninsula, Later King Ezana came into power and converted the national religon to Christianity.During the reign of Ezana Aksum was over powered by other countries because they thought they had trade allies that were really enemies with them.The enemies isolated them from all other empiers and ran them into the mountains were they soon starved to death because of no money and not enough food.

The Untold Story of Aksum

THE REAL END

By: Jimmy Raines&

Asa Tyler