In 24 BC, shortly after Cleopatra and Mark Anthony committed suicide and Egypt came under Roman domination, the kingdom of Meroe invaded Lower Nubia. In retaliation the emperor Augustus sent an army that defeated the Meroitic forces and drove them back to their kingdom. it seems highly probable that the Meroitic queen (kandake) Amanishakheto played a key role in this episode.
Amanishakheto was the daughter of a queen and the wife of a brother whom she survived. Her successor was her daughter, Amanitore, who is mentioned in the Bible (Acts 8:27)
This remarkable woman must have possessed vast wealth and power, considering the pyramid where she lay buried and the treasures that surrounded her in her death. In 1832 the pyramid was razed to the ground by the italian doctor Giuseppe Ferlini, then working in Meroe as a treasure hunter. inside Amanishakheto's grave he discovered an amazing quantity of golden artifacts such as armlets, necklaces. shield-rings and signet rings.
