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An excerpt from page 33 of the book Introduction to East Africa, published 2025, reads as follows:
The First Axumite Empire, or the Old Axumite Empire, was an East African multicultural and multiethnic empire that was structured under the Muqamaher, or 'close to Maher', a quasi-absolute autocratic monarch that began circa 400 BCE. Although legitimate kings are only beginning with Ag'azi I, as per the 'Adot Stele' (see p. 34), it appears as though Axum had existed since the collapse of D'mt to the north. One of the most prosperous empires of Africa during the Classical Period, Axum established large trade routes and golden Axumite figurines have been seen as far north as Turkey during the late Seleucid era, and their presence has been registered up to the northern coast of Oman through trade and satraps.
Following the death of Naktarob III, the second-to-last ruler of Axum, the empire fell into disarray and civil war, dissolving soon after the murder of the child-king Adot III sometime around 75-80 BCE. Axum had a capital with an estimated population between 1.2 and 1.6 million people, and one of the most well organized bureaucratic apparatus of the age. Collapsing into nothing, major cities such as Adulis, with an estimated million people, and Handoga with 540,000, completely disappeared.
It would only be sometime during the 1st century of the Common Era that a second Axumite Empire would appear, under Zoskales, holder of the ruined city of Adulis.

Description

An excerpt from page 33 of the book Introduction to East Africa, published 2025, reads as follows:
The First Axumite Empire, or the Old Axumite Empire, was an East African multicultural and multiethnic empire that was structured under the Muqamaher, or 'close to Maher', a quasi-absolute autocratic monarch that began circa 400 BCE. Although legitimate kings are only beginning with Ag'azi I, as per the 'Adot Stele' (see p. 34), it appears as though Axum had existed since the collapse of D'mt to the north. One of the most prosperous empires of Africa during the Classical Period, Axum established large trade routes and golden Axumite figurines have been seen as far north as Turkey during the late Seleucid era, and their presence has been registered up to the northern coast of Oman through trade and satraps.
Following the death of Naktarob III, the second-to-last ruler of Axum, the empire fell into disarray and civil war, dissolving soon after the murder of the child-king Adot III sometime around 75-80 BCE. Axum had a capital with an estimated population between 1.2 and 1.6 million people, and one of the most well organized bureaucratic apparatus of the age. Collapsing into nothing, major cities such as Adulis, with an estimated million people, and Handoga with 540,000, completely disappeared.
It would only be sometime during the 1st century of the Common Era that a second Axumite Empire would appear, under Zoskales, holder of the ruined city of Adulis.