Menelik I, was the claimed first Emperor of Ethiopia. According to Kebra Nagast, a 14th-century national epic, in the 10th century BC he is said to have inaugurated the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia, so named because Menelik I was the son of the biblical King Solomon of ancient Israel and of Makeda, the Queen of Sheba. According to the medieval Ethiopian book, the Kebra Nagast, translated into Geʽez in 1321 CE, his name was Bäynä Ləḥkəm (from Arabic: ابن الحكيم, Ibn Al-Hakim, "Son of the Wise.
He was conceived when his father Solomon tricked his visiting mother, the Queen of Sheba, into sleeping with him. His mother raised him as a Jew in her homeland and he only traveled to Jerusalem to meet his father for the first time when he was in his twenties. While his father begged Menelik to stay and rule over Israel, Menelik told him that he wanted to return home. Thus, Solomon sent many Israelites with him, to aid him in ruling according to biblical standards; which were aggrieved at being exiled forever. One recount is that King Solomon gave his Ark of the Covenant to his son as a gift, while another states Solomon attemped to regain the ark but was unable to due to its supernatural properties aiding Menelik. Upon the death of his mother, or upon her abdication in his favor, Menelik was crowned King of Ethiopia.
According to one Ethiopian tradition, Menelik was born at Mai-Bela near the village of Addi-Shmagle, located north west of Asmara,
In Ethioipia today, few figures are as revered as Menelik II (1844-1913), the second-to-last reigning monarch of Ethiopia. Like Menelik I of the 10th century BC, the legendary son of King Solomon from whom he took his regal name, Menelik II traced his descent to the Solomonic line of kings. But it is his role in the history of Ethiopia for which Menelik II is most revered to this day, for it was he who defeated a European nation – Italy – on the field of battle, to defend Ethiopian independence.
Menelik II was crowned King of Kings and Emperor of Ethiopia on November 3, 1889, with the additional royal sobriquet of “the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah.” The coronation, which took place in the great Entotto Mariam Church in Addis Ababa, was captured for posterity by the Italian artist Pio Joris (1843-1921) and subsequently reproduced in chromolithograph images, today exceedingly rare. In the painting below, the artist depicted the entire royal entourage in gorgeous color and detail. On the left and right, we see the two leaders of the Ethiopian Orthodox faith: the Archbishop of Alexandria and the Bishop of Ethiopia; the two lions of Judah, traditional symbol of the Solomonic line of kingship; and the “negarit” drums* and the drummers. On the left we see the lesser king and princes congratulating the Emperor, and flanking the Emperor are the various ministers of his cabinet. Among those present during the coronation in the Entotto Mariam Church are Ras Dargie, uncle of Menelik; Dejazmach Dereso, General of the king; Tekle Haimanot, King of Gojjam; Ras Mikael, governor of eastern and parts of southern Wollo; and Ras Mengesha-Atikim, governor of Damot, Agawmeder, Qwarra and adjacent areas.
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