CANDACE. — I. A fabulous queen of India in the time of Alexander the Great, who, according to tradition, received and deceived him during his expedition into India, so that he made peace with her and left the country undisturbed.
II. In Acts 8:27 mention is made of the treasurer of Queen C. (Κανδάκη) of Ethiopia. From the accounts of ancient writers (Strabo, Pliny, Cassius Dio, etc.) it may be inferred that at that time women were ruling in Ethiopia.
Strabo relates (XVII, 8.20) that the generals of Queen C., against whom the prefect of Egypt Petronius waged war, were captured by him and led to Alexandria. Pliny (Natural History, VI, 186) reports that the expedition sent by Nero to explore Ethiopia stated that a woman named C. was ruling there; this name, however, seems to be not a proper name but rather a common title borne by all the queens. In the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the temple of the lion-god at Naga, beside the names of the queen is the title Katake, a word very close to C., since in Ethiopian proper names the letter n is either omitted or added. Historically and chronologically certain is only the existence of the Queen C. against whom Petronius waged war about the year 23, and of the C. of the Acts, who lived in the time of Tiberius and perhaps also of Nero.