In the aftermath of their invasion of the South Arabian kingdom of Ḥimyar in 525 CE, the Aksumites of Ethiopia erected a series of inscriptions in Gəʿəz documenting the invasion. Although these inscriptions survive in very fragmentary condition, enough is preserved to indicate that the Aksumites presented their victorious campaign in religious terms, often quoting passages from the Bible. This manner of presentation provides insight into how the Aksumites conceived of themselves and their military venture in Ḥimyar, an undertaking that, while motivated by strategic concerns, had strong religious overtones in that it pitted Christian Aksumites against Ḥimyarite Jews. At the same time, the Aksumites took pains to emphasize their Ethiopian identity in this corpus of inscriptions, as evidenced by the fact that the inscriptions in question were composed in Gəʿəz, the Ethiosemitic lingua franca of Aksum, rather than in the local Sabaic language. That these inscriptions may have been erected as parts of symbolic stone thrones, as were similar Aksumite inscriptions erected elsewhere, would also have served to emphasize the Ethiopian identity of Ḥimyar’s conquerors. Thus, to the extent that the Aksumites identified with the Israelites, they saw themselves as an Israel in a Christian, Ethiopian guise.

A common feature of ancient Near Eastern written tradition is the curse formula, i.e. a threat issued against an individual or group of individuals who might commit some infraction, be it the violation of a treaty, an armed rebellion against an overlord, or the removal and/ or destruction of an inscription or other monument. Typically, curse formulae invoke a divine force or forces as the agent(s) that would, if need be, carry out the punishment of anyone guilty of committing any of the aforementioned infractions. Although curse formulae from various ancient civilizations have been the subject of multiple studies over the years, one civilization that has been overlooked is the kingdom of Aksum that dominated northern Ethiopia from around the turn of the Common Era to the seventh century. This article seeks to rectify this situation by systematically presenting and analysing all known curse formulae in Aksumite inscriptions and pointing out analogies with other ancient societies in which curse formulae are attested, as well as, where relevant, ethnographic analogies with modern societies. Aksumite curse formulae are limited to royal inscriptions and are concerned exclusively with the destruction of monuments erected by kings. Their thematic content, however, sheds light on concepts of crime and collective guilt in Aksumite society more broadly.