Candace of Meroe

Kandake, kadake or kentake, often Latinised as Candace, was the Meroitic language term for "queen" or possibly "royal woman". Contemporary Greek and Roman sources treat it as a title. Several ruling queens of the ancient Kingdom of Kush, with its capital at Meroë, bore the title, although it may have been a general title for women of the royal family. It is often taken to mean "queen-mother" or "mother of the reigning king", but although this was the common status of ruling kandakes, the term itself did not have this specific meaning. The name Candace is derived from the way the word is used in the New Testament.

Bas-reliefs dated to about 170 B.C. reveal kentakes Shanakdakheto, dressed in armor and wielding a spear in battle. She did not rule as queen regent or queen mother, but as a fully independent ruler. Her husband was her consort. In bas-reliefs found in the ruins of building projects she commissioned, Shanakdakheto is portrayed both alone as well as with her husband and son, who would inherit the throne by her death.

Pliny writes that the "Queen of the Ethiopians" bore the title Candace, and indicates that the Ethiopians had conquered ancient Syria and the Mediterranean.

In 25 BC the kandake Amanirenas, as reported by Strabo, attacked the city of Syene, today's Aswan, in territory of the Roman Empire; Emperor Augustus destroyed the city of Napata in retaliation.

Four African queens were known to the Greco-Roman world as the "Candaces": Amanishakhete, Amanirenas, Nawidemak, and Malegereabar.

In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, a treasury official of "Candace, queen of the Ethiopians", returning from a trip to Jerusalem, met with Philip the Evangelist:

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