Candace

Candace (Greek Kandake, meaning "prince of servants" or possibly a dynastic title) was the title — not a personal name — given to the queens of Meroe (Upper Nubia/Ethiopia), much as "Pharaoh" was the title of the Egyptian rulers. The Candace appears in Acts 8:27 when Philip the Evangelist encounters an Ethiopian court official, the "treasurer" (eunuch) of the Candace of Ethiopia, returning from Jerusalem in his chariot while reading the book of Isaiah. Philip explains the passage of Isaiah 53:7–8 to him, and the official believes and is baptized at a pool of water by the roadside. This narrative is significant as one of the earliest conversions of a person of African descent and represents the gospel's geographical and ethnic expansion toward the ends of the earth, fulfilling Acts 1:8. The title Candace is attested in classical writers including Strabo and Pliny, confirming it as a recognized dynastic title of Nubian queens during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.