Culture
When King Ezana converted to Christianity late in the fourth century, he declared that his whole country would become a Christian state. In fact, the Axum empire would be the first state in the world to become a Christian state. The Axum kingdom enriched itself with Greek culture, due to the heavy trade with Greece. As well as having contact with Greece, the Axum Kingdom had much contact with the Roman Empire. One Axum legend states that a member of the Axum Empire travelled to Rome and the people in Rome treated him with great honour and respect. As Christianity spread throughout the Kingdom, so did Christian philosophy. Some of the texts from the Bible, including the Song of Songs, the Proverbs and the Book of Wisdom were used instead of the teachings of Plato and Aristotle. As well, the teachings of Virgil, Seneca and Cicero were completely unknown to the Axum people.
Greek and South Arabian scripts were used until the Axum kingdom developed their own system of writing, the Ge’ez around the fifth century. Part of the culture of the Kingdom of Axum was that the Axumites created a writing system for their Ge’ez language that contained vowel marks in each letter and was written left to right. The Axumites replaced Greek with Ge’ez for writing church services, records and manuscripts. One of the most famous manuscripts was the Christian Bible which had taken more than 200 years to translate the Bible into Ge’ez.
The culture of the Kingdom of Axum continued due to the invention of the writing system. Ideas and history was recorded for the future generations. As well, the Christian Bible was translated into Ge’ez which allowed the people of the Kingdom of Axum to learn more about their faith.
Greek and South Arabian scripts were used until the Axum kingdom developed their own system of writing, the Ge’ez around the fifth century. Part of the culture of the Kingdom of Axum was that the Axumites created a writing system for their Ge’ez language that contained vowel marks in each letter and was written left to right. The Axumites replaced Greek with Ge’ez for writing church services, records and manuscripts. One of the most famous manuscripts was the Christian Bible which had taken more than 200 years to translate the Bible into Ge’ez.
The culture of the Kingdom of Axum continued due to the invention of the writing system. Ideas and history was recorded for the future generations. As well, the Christian Bible was translated into Ge’ez which allowed the people of the Kingdom of Axum to learn more about their faith.