CANDACE, kăn’ də sĭ (Κανδάκη, G2833). The title of the queen of Ethiopia, whose treasurer was baptized between Jerusalem and Gaza by Philip the evangelist (Acts 8:26, 27). By Ethiopia is meant the kingdom of Nubia in the N Sudan, whose capital was Meroë. Classical writers refer to several queens of Meroë in the 1st cent. b.c. and the 1st cent. a.d. who had the title Candace, e.g. Strabo XVII. 1. 54; Cassius Dio LIV. 5. 4-6; Pliny, Natural History VI. 35. 186. The form in which this title is written with the names of queens in Meroitic inscrs. is Kadake. The Candace of Acts 8:27 was prob. Amantitere, who ruled about a.d. 25-41. She and her husband built or added to several Nubian temples, and her pyramid and tomb have been discovered in Meroë.

Bibliography A. Grohmann, “Kandake,” Pauly’s Realencyclopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, N.B. X (1919), cols. 158, 159; S. Lösch, “Der Kämmerer der Kõnigin Kandake (Apg. 8:27),” Theologische Quartalschrift, CXI (1930), 447-519; E. Ullendorff, “Candace (Acts 8:27) and The Queen of Sheba,” New Testament Studies, II (1955), 53-55; D. Dunham, The Royal Cemeteries of Kush, IV Royal Tombs of Meroë and Barkal (1957).