Gaius Petronius or Publius Petronius (c. 75 BC – after 20 BC) was the second and then fourth Prefect of Roman Aegyptus.
History of Gaius Petronius
Petronius led a campaign into present-day central Sudan against the Kingdom of Kush at Meroë, whose queen Imanarenat had previously attacked Roman Egypt. Failing to acquire permanent gains, he razed the city of Napata to the ground and retreated to the north.
In 25 BC, the Romans were planning a campaign against both Nubia (Meroe) and Arabia – Augustus bragged about this in his Res Gestae “two armies were led at about the same time into Aethiopia, and Arabia called Felix”. Before the Romans tried anything, the Nubians attacked the Thebaid and the Roman garrison at Syene. They enslaved inhabitants and pulled down Augustus’ statues. The prefect of Egypt, Petronius led 10,000 infantry against 30,000 Nubians, chasing them back to Nubia. He then sacked the seat of the Nubian queen – queen Candace (actually Queen Amanirenas, with the title of “candace”) known from Nubian inscriptions. He enslaved the inhabitants (sending 1,000 to Augustus, presumably for the games) and set up a Roman garrison nearby. However, after the change in imperial policy later in Octavian Augustus, the Romans gave up their ambitions to conquer Meroe. They instead treated it as a “client state”. Strabo talks about the Nubian ambassadors making a treaty with Augustus.
— Paul Clammer
Indeed, Strabo describes a war with the Romans in the 1st century BC. After the initial victories of Kandake (or “Candace”) Amanirenas against Roman Egypt, the Kushites of northern Nubia were defeated, and Napata was sacked.
Remarkably, the destruction of the capital of Napata was not a devastating blow to the Kushites and did not frighten Candace enough to prevent her from engaging in combat with the Roman military again.
Indeed, it seems that Gaius Petronius’ attack might have had a revitalizing influence on the kingdom. Three years later, in 22 BC, a sizeable Kushite force moved northward, intending to attack Qasr Ibrim. Alerted to the advance, Petronius again marched south and managed to reach Qasr Ibrim and bolster its defences before the invading Kushites arrived.
Although the ancient sources do not describe the ensuing battle, we know that at some point, the Kushites sent ambassadors to negotiate a peace settlement with Petronius and possibly accept a status like the “Client State” of Rome.
After other years of fighting, however, Petronius was in no mood to deal further with the Kushites after the end of the second campaign. The Kushites negotiated a peace treaty on favourable terms, and trade between the two nations increased.
