(), a queen of that portion of Aethiopia which had
Meroe for its metropolis. In B. C. 22, she invaded Egypt, being
encouraged by supposing that the unsuccessful expedition of Aelius Gallus against Arabia, in
B. C. 24, had weakened the Romans. She advanced into the Thebaid,
ravaging the country, and attacked and captured the Roman garrisons at Elephantine, Syene, and
Philae; but Petronius, who had succeeded Gallus in the government of the province, compelled
her to retreat, and defeated her with great loss in her own territory near the town of
Pselcha. This place he took, and also Premnis and Nabata, in the latter of which the son of
the queen commanded. After he had withdrawn, Candace attacked the garrison he had left in
Premnis; but Petronius hastily returned, and again defeated her. On this she sent ambassadors
to Augustus, who was then at Samos, and who received them favourably, and even remitted the
tribute which had been imposed on their country. Strabo, who tells us that Candace was a woman
of a manly spirit, also favours us with the information that she was blind of
one eye. (Strab. xvii. pp. 819-821; D. C. 53.29, 54.5.) Her name seems to have been common to all the queens of
Aethiopia (Plin. Nat. 6.29; J. AJ
8.6.5; Acts, 8.27); and it appears from Eusebius (Hist. Eccl.
2.1.10), that it was customary for the Aethiopians to be governed by women, though Oecumenius
thinks (Coomm. in Acts, l.c.), that Candace was only the common name of
the queen-mothers, the nation regarding the sun alone as their father and king, and their
princes as the sun's children.