Sheba

QUEEN OF SHEBA AND BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP 103
theological formula known as the Henoticon, which, avoiding the mention
of the word “nature”, not only incited the Monophysites but also angered
the Roman popes. The result was a thirty-five year breach between the
patriarchs of Constantinople and Rome, and the Constantinople mob’s
successful demand that Zeno be succeeded by a Chalcedonian emperor,
Anastasius (A.D. 491-518).
Anastasius was succeeded in A.D. 518 by Justin, who was controlled
by his own nephew, Justinian, who succeeded Justin in A.D. 527.
Justinian’s wife, Theodora, who ruled jointly as empress, was sympathetic
to the Monophysite cause and personally supported a Monophysite
monastery, a policy that discouraged her husband Justinian from meddling
with the issue until Jacob Baradaeus, appointed Bishop of Edessa by the
Monophysite patriarch of Alexandria, began a Monophysite resurgence in
the eastern provinces. Justinian’s efforts to seek a solution again incited the
Roman pope, whom he had earlier placated. Justinian died in A.D. 565
without resolving the Monophysite issue. His successor, his nephew the
Emperor Justin II, had been brought up as a Monophysite, but in A.D. 571,
afflicted by an escalating mental illness, he began widespread persecutions
of the Monophysites that continued until his death in October A.D. 578.
This cost the empire support from the eastern provinces, which fell quickly
to the Persians when war broke out. The Persians captured Jerusalem in
A.D. 614, when they overran Syria and Palestine. Egypt and Libya
followed in A.D. 619. The Byzantines fought back to recover territory in
Anatolia and Armenia, destroying the main Zoroastrian shrine.
Nevertheless, the mutual exhaustion of the Byzantines and Persians made
them both vulnerable to the Islamic onslaught from Arabia. In such
circumstances Monophysitism seemed irrelevant.
Monophysitism was certainly not regarded as irrelevant when the
Caleb Cycle of the Kebra Nagast was written. It was regarded as the means
whereby Aksum would rule the world. The process had already been
underway before Nicaea. The expansion of the Roman Empire brought
increased Red Sea trade, and the Aksumites became more involved in the
affairs of southern Arabia. The Aksumite king Gdrt (Gadarat) sent troops
ca. A.D. 220-230 to occupy parts of southern Arabia to control trade and to
counter the power of the Himyarites. At first Aksum was allied with Sabaea,
but later alienated it when it became more powerful. In A.D. 267-8, the
Aksumites invaded Himyar to seize control of the incense trade. They were
repulsed and by A.D. 295 had been pushed back to small coastal enclaves.