During the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

, the governor of Roman Egypt ''(praefectus Aegypti)'' was a

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...

who administered the

Roman province of Egypt , conventional_long_name = Roman Egypt , common_name = Egypt , subdivision = Province , nation = the Roman Empire , era = Late antiquity , capital = Alexandria , title_leader = Praefectus Augustalis , image_map = Roman E ...

with the delegated authority ''(

imperium In ancient Rome, ''imperium'' was a form of authority held by a citizen to control a military or governmental entity. It is distinct from '' auctoritas'' and '' potestas'', different and generally inferior types of power in the Roman Republic a ...

)'' of the

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

. Egypt was established as a Roman province in consequence of the

Battle of Actium The Battle of Actium was a naval battle fought between a maritime fleet of Octavian led by Marcus Agrippa and the combined fleets of both Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII Philopator. The battle took place on 2 September 31 BC in the Ionian Sea, ...

, where Cleopatra as the last independent ruler of Egypt and her Roman ally

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the au ...

were defeated by Octavian, the adopted heir of the assassinated Roman dictator Julius Caesar. Octavian then rose to supreme power with the title Augustus, ending the era of the Roman Republic and installing himself as ''princeps'', the so-called "leading citizen" of Rome who in fact acted as an Autocracy, autocratic ruler. Although Roman senator, senators continued to serve as Roman governor, governors of most other provinces (the senatorial provinces), especially those annexed under the Republic, the role of Egypt during the civil war with Antony and its strategic and economic importance prompted Augustus to ensure that no rival could secure ''Aegyptus'' as an asset. He thus established Egypt as an imperial province, to be governed by a prefect he appointed from men of the equestrian order. As Egypt was a special imperial domain, a rich and strategic granary, where the Emperor enjoyed an almost Pharaoh, pharaonic position unlike any other province or diocese, its head was styled uniquely ''Praefectus Augustalis'', indicating that he governed in the personal name of the emperor, the "Augustus". The ''praefectus Aegypti'' was considered to hold the highest ranking equestrian post during the early empire. Later, the post would fall second to that of the praetorian command, but its position remained highly prestigious. A prefect of Egypt usually held the office for three or four years.Alan K. Bowman, ''Egypt After the Pharaohs 332 BC-AD 642: From Alexander to the Arab Conquest'' (University of California Press, 1986, 1996), p. 66. An equestrian appointed to the office received no specialized training, and seems to have been chosen for his tres militiae, military experience and knowledge of Roman law and administration. Any knowledge he might have of Egypt and its arcane traditions of politics and bureaucracy—which Philo of Alexandria described as "intricate and diversified, hardly grasped even by those who have made a business of studying them from their earliest years"—was incidental to his record of Roman service and the emperor's favor.

Prefects during the Principate

Unless otherwise noted, governors from 30 BC to AD 299 are taken from Guido Bastianini
a al 299^p"">"Lista dei prefetti d'Egitto dal 30^a al 299^p"
''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'', 17 (1975), pp. 263-321, 323-328

Later Roman Diocese (330 – 395)

Prefects of the province of Egypt. Names and dates taken from the ''Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'', vol. 1, pp. 1084–1085.

First Byzantine Period (395 – 616)

Names and dates taken from John Stewart's ''African States and Rulers'' (2006). Titles: #Prefect (395 - 539) #Duke, Dux (539 - 616)

Sassanian Occupation

Second Byzantine Period (628-642)

Prefects during the Principate

Later Roman Diocese (330 – 395)

First Byzantine Period (395 – 616)

Sassanian Occupation

Second Byzantine Period (628-642)

References

Further reading