, conventional_long_name = Roman Egypt
, common_name = Egypt
, subdivision =
Province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...
, nation = 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 Mediterr ...
, era =
Late antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
, capital =
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, title_leader = Praefectus Augustalis
, image_map = Roman Empire - Aegyptus (125 AD).svg
, image_map_caption = Province of Aegyptus in AD 125
, year_start = 30 BC
, event_start = Conquest of
Ptolemaic Kingdom
, event1 = Formation of the
Diocese
In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...
, date_event1 = 390
, year_end = 641
, event_end =
Muslim conquest
The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests ( ar, الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, ), also referred to as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. He esta ...
, life_span = 30 BC – 641 AD
, stat_year1 = 1st century AD
, stat_pop1 = .
, today =
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, p1 = Ptolemaic Kingdom
, flag_p1 = Ptolemaic-Empire 200bc.jpg
, s1 = Sasanian Egypt
, flag_s1 = Derafsh Kaviani flag of the late Sassanid Empire.svg
, s2 = Rashidun Caliphate
, flag_s2 = Mohammad adil-Rashidun-empire-at-its-peak-close.PNG
, demonym=
Egypt ( ; ) was a subdivision of 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 Mediterr ...
from Rome's invasion of the
Ptolemaic Egyptian Kingdom after the
battle of Alexandria in 30 BC to its loss by the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
to the
Islamic conquests
The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests ( ar, الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, ), also referred to as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. He estab ...
in AD 641. The province encompassed most of modern-day
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
except for the
Sinai
Sinai commonly refers to:
* Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
* Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
* Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God
Sinai may also refer to:
* Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...
, and was bordered by the provinces of
Crete and Cyrenaica
Crete and Cyrenaica ( la, Provincia Creta et Cyrenaica, Ancient Greek ) was a senatorial province of the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire, established in 67 BC. It comprised the island of Crete and the region of Cyrenaica in present-day L ...
to the west and
Judea
Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Hebrew language#Modern Hebrew, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian vocalization, Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous L ...
, later
Arabia Petraea
Arabia Petraea or Petrea, also known as Rome's Arabian Province ( la, Provincia Arabia; ar, العربية البترائية; grc, Ἐπαρχία Πετραίας Ἀραβίας) or simply Arabia, was a frontier province of the Roman Empi ...
, to the East. Egypt came to serve as a major producer of
grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
for the empire and had a highly developed urban economy. Aegyptus was by far the wealthiest Eastern Roman province, and by far the wealthiest Roman province outside of
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. The population of Roman Egypt is unknown, although estimates vary from .
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, its capital, was the largest
port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...
and second largest city of the Roman Empire.
After the
Assassination of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, was assassinated by a group of senators on the Ides of March (15 March) of 44 BC during a meeting of the Senate at the Curia of Pompey of the Theatre of Pompey in Rome where the senators stabbed Caesar 23 ti ...
in 44 BC, the
Ptolemaic Kingdom (), which had ruled Egypt since the
Wars of Alexander the Great
The wars of Alexander the Great were a series of conquests that were carried out by Alexander III of Macedon from 336 BC to 323 BC. They began with battles against the Achaemenid Persian Empire, then under the rule of Darius III of Persia. ...
brought an end to
Achaemenid Egypt
The history of Persian Egypt is divided into two eras following the Achaemenid conquest of Egypt punctuated by an interval of independence:
** Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt (525–404 BC), also known as the First Egyptian Satrapy.
** Thirty-fi ...
(the
Thirty-first Dynasty), took the side of
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 autoc ...
in the
last war of the Roman Republic
The War of Actium (32–30 BC) was the last civil war of the Roman Republic, fought between Mark Antony (assisted by Cleopatra and by extension Ptolemaic Egypt) and Octavian. In 32 BC, Octavian convinced the Roman Senate to declare war on the E ...
, against the eventual victor Octavian, who as
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
became the first
Roman emperor in 27 BC, having defeated Mark Antony and the
pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...
,
Cleopatra VII
Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...
, at the naval
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, nea ...
.
After the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, the
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...
annexed the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.
Augustus and many subsequent emperors ruled Egypt as the
Roman pharaoh
The Roman pharaohs, rarely referred to as ancient Egypt's Thirty-fourth Dynasty, were the Roman emperors in their capacity as rulers of Egypt, especially in Egyptology. After Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 30 BC, the people and ...
s.
The Ptolemaic institutions were dismantled, and though some bureaucratic elements were maintained the government administration was wholly reformed along with the social structure.
The Graeco-Egyptian legal system of the
Hellenistic period
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...
continued in use, but within the bounds of
Roman law
Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...
.
The
tetradrachm
The tetradrachm ( grc-gre, τετράδραχμον, tetrádrachmon) was a large silver coin that originated in Ancient Greece. It was nominally equivalent to four Greek drachma, drachmae. Over time the tetradrachm effectively became the standard ...
coinage minted at the Ptolemaic capital of Alexandria continued to be the currency of an increasingly monetized economy, but its value was made equal to the Roman ''
denarius
The denarius (, dēnāriī ) was the standard Roman silver coin from its introduction in the Second Punic War to the reign of Gordian III (AD 238–244), when it was gradually replaced by the antoninianus. It continued to be minted in very ...
.
'' The priesthoods of the
Ancient Egyptian deities
Ancient Egyptian deities are the God (male deity), gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Egypt. The beliefs and rituals surrounding these gods formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion, which emerged sometime in prehistoric Egypt, prehist ...
and
Hellenistic religion
The concept of Hellenistic religion as the late form of Ancient Greek religion covers any of the various systems of beliefs and practices of the people who lived under the influence of ancient Greek culture during the Hellenistic period and the ...
s of Egypt kept most of their
temples
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
and privileges, and in turn the priests also served the
Roman imperial cult
The Roman imperial cult identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned authority (''auctoritas'') of the Roman State. Its framework was based on Roman and Greek precedents, and was formulated during the early ...
of the
deified
Apotheosis (, ), also called divinization or deification (), is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and, commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity. The term has ...
emperors and their families.
From the 1st century BC, the
Roman governor
A Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire.
The generic term in Roman legal language was '' Rector provinciae ...
of Egypt was appointed by the emperor for a multi-year term and given the rank of
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 ...
().
Both the governor and the major officials were of
equestrian rank (rather than of
senatorial
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...
rank).
Three
Roman legions
The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period of ...
garrisoned Egypt in the early
Roman imperial period
The Roman imperial period is the expansion of political and cultural influence of the Roman Empire. The period begins with the reign of Augustus (), and it is taken to end variously between the late 3rd and the late 4th century, with the beginning ...
, with the garrison later reduced to two, alongside ''
auxilia
The (, lit. "auxiliaries") were introduced as non-citizen troops attached to the citizen legions by Augustus after his reorganisation of the Imperial Roman army from 30 BC. By the 2nd century, the Auxilia contained the same number of inf ...
'' formations of the
Roman army
The Roman army (Latin: ) was the armed forces deployed by the Romans throughout the duration of Ancient Rome, from the Roman Kingdom (c. 500 BC) to the Roman Republic (500–31 BC) and the Roman Empire (31 BC–395 AD), and its medieval contin ...
.
Augustus introduced land reforms that enabled wider entitlement to private ownership of land (previously rare under the Ptolemaic
cleruchy
A cleruchy (, ''klēroukhia'') in Classical Greece, was a specialized type of colony established by Athens. The term comes from the Greek word , ''klērouchos'', literally "lot-holder".
History
Normally, Greek colonies were politically independent ...
system of allotments under royal ownership) and the local administration reformed into a Roman
liturgical
Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
system, in which land-owners were required to serve in local government.
The status of Egypt's cities were increased, particularly the major towns of each ''
nome'' (administrative region), known as a
''mētropolis'' ().
The ''mētropoleis'' were governed by magistrates drawn from the liturgy system; these magistrates, as in other Roman cities, practised
euergetism
Euergetism (or evergetism, from the Greek , "do good deeds") was the ancient practice of high-status and wealthy individuals in society distributing part of their wealth to the community. This practice was also part of the patron-client relatio ...
and built public buildings. In 200/201, the emperor
Septimius Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa (Roman province), Africa. As a young man he advanced thro ...
() allowed to each metropolis, and to the city of Alexandria, a
''boulē'' (a Hellenistic town council).
The
Antonine Plague struck in the latter 2nd century, but Roman Egypt recovered by the 3rd century.
Having escaped much of the
Crisis of the Third Century
The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis (AD 235–284), was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed. The crisis ended due to the military victories of Aurelian and with the ascensi ...
, Roman Egypt fell under the control of the breakaway
Palmyrene Empire
The Palmyrene Empire was a short-lived breakaway state from the Roman Empire resulting from the Crisis of the Third Century. Named after its capital city, Palmyra, it encompassed the Roman provinces of Syria Palaestina, Arabia Petraea, and Egypt, ...
after the
invasion of Egypt by
Zenobia
Septimia Zenobia (Palmyrene Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; AD 240 – c. 274) was a third-century queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria. Many legends surround her ancestry; she was probably not a commoner and she married the ruler of the city, ...
in 269.
The emperor
Aurelian
Aurelian ( la, Lucius Domitius Aurelianus; 9 September 214 October 275) was a Roman emperor, who reigned during the Crisis of the Third Century, from 270 to 275. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited t ...
() successfully besieged Alexandria and recovered Egypt, as did
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
() in his 297–298 campaign against the usurpers
Domitius Domitianus
Lucius Domitius Domitianus or, rarely, Domitian III, was a Roman usurper against Diocletian, who seized power for a short time in Egypt.
History
Nothing is known of the background and family of Domitianus. He may have served as prefect of Egyp ...
and
Achilleus
In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's ''Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, k ...
.
The inhabitants of Roman Egypt were divided by social class along ethnic and cultural lines.
Roman citizens
Citizenship in ancient Rome (Latin: ''civitas'') was a privileged political and legal status afforded to free individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance. Citizenship in Ancient Rome was complex and based upon many different laws, t ...
and citizens of Alexandria were exempted from the
poll tax
A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources.
Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments fr ...
paid by the other inhabitants, the "Egyptians", and had other defined legal distinctions.
Egyptians legally resident in the metropolis of the ''nomoi'' paid a reduced poll tax and had more privileges than other Egyptians, and within these ''mētropoleis'' there were the Hellenic socio-political élite, who as an urban, land-owning aristocracy dominated Egypt by the 2nd and throughout the 3rd centuries through their large private estates.
Most inhabitants were peasants, many working as tenant-farmers for high rents in kind, cultivating sacred land belonging to temples or public land formerly belonging to the Egyptian monarchy.
The division between the rural life of the villages, where the
Egyptian language
The Egyptian language or Ancient Egyptian ( ) is a dead language, dead Afroasiatic languages, Afro-Asiatic language that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large Text corpus, corpus of surviving texts which were made acces ...
was spoken, and the metropolis, where the citizens spoke
Koine Greek
Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...
and frequented the Hellenistic ''
gymnasia'', was the most significant cultural division in Roman Egypt, and was not dissolved by the ''
Constitutio Antoniniana
The ''Constitutio Antoniniana'' (Latin for: "Constitution r Edictof Antoninus") (also called the Edict of Caracalla or the Antonine Constitution) was an edict issued in AD 212, by the Roman Emperor Caracalla. It declared that all free men in t ...
'' of 212, which made all free Egyptians Roman citizens.
There was considerable social mobility however, accompanying mass urbanization, and participation in the monetized economy and literacy in Greek by the peasant population was widespread.
In
Late Antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
, the administrative and economic reforms of
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
() coincided with the
Christianization of the Roman Empire
The growth of Christianity from its obscure origin 40 AD, with fewer than 1,000 followers, to being the majority religion of the entire Roman Empire by AD 350, has been examined through a wide variety of historiographical approaches.
Unt ...
, especially the growth of
Christianity in Egypt
Christianity is the second largest religion in Egypt. The history of Egyptian Christianity dates to the Roman era as Alexandria was an early center of Christianity.
Demographics
The vast majority of Egyptian Christians are Copts who belong t ...
.
After
Constantine the Great
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
gained control of Egypt from his erstwhile co-''augustus''
Licinius
Valerius Licinianus Licinius (c. 265 – 325) was Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the Edict of Milan, AD 313, that granted official toleration to C ...
(), the emperors promoted Christianity.
The latest stage of Egyptian language,
Coptic
Coptic may refer to:
Afro-Asia
* Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya
* Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century
* Coptic alphabet ...
, emerged as literary language among the Christians of Roman Egypt.
Under Diocletian the frontier was moved downriver to the
First Cataract
The Cataracts of the Nile are shallow lengths (or whitewater rapids) of the Nile river, between Khartoum and Aswan, where the surface of the water is broken by many small boulders and stones jutting out of the river bed, as well as many rocky ...
of the
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...
at Syene (
Aswan
Aswan (, also ; ar, أسوان, ʾAswān ; cop, Ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate.
Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the ...
), withdrawing from the
Dodekaschoinos
The Triakontaschoinos ( el, Τριακοντάσχοινος, "Land of the Thirty '' Schoinoi''"), Latinized as Triacontaschoenus, was a geographical and administrative term used in the Greco-Roman world for the part of Lower Nubia between the Fi ...
region.
This southern frontier was largely peaceful for many centuries, as attested by serving military documents from the late 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries from garrisons at Syene,
Philae
; ar, فيلة; cop, ⲡⲓⲗⲁⲕ
, alternate_name =
, image = File:File, Asuán, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 93.jpg
, alt =
, caption = The temple of Isis from Philae at its current location on Agilkia Island in Lake Nasse ...
, and
Elephantine
Elephantine ( ; ; arz, جزيرة الفنتين; el, Ἐλεφαντίνη ''Elephantíne''; , ) is an island on the Nile, forming part of the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt. The archaeological sites on the island were inscribed on the UNESCO ...
.
These soldiers of the
Late Roman army
In modern scholarship, the "late" period of the Roman army begins with the accession of the Emperor Diocletian in AD 284, and ends in 480 with the death of Julius Nepos, being roughly coterminous with the Dominate. During the period 395–476, ...
were likely ''
limitanei
The ''līmitāneī'' (Latin, also called ''rīpēnsēs''), meaning respectively "the soldiers in frontier districts" (from the Latin phrase līmēs, meaning a military district of a frontier province) or "the soldiers on the riverbank" (from the ...
'', but regular units also served in Egypt, including the ''Scythae Iustiniani'' of
Justinian the Great
Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...
(), known to have been stationed in the
Thebaid
The Thebaid or Thebais ( grc-gre, Θηβαΐς, ''Thēbaïs'') was a region in ancient Egypt, comprising the 13 southernmost nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos to Aswan.
Pharaonic history
The Thebaid acquired its name from its proximity to ...
. Constantine's currency reforms, including the introduction of the gold ''
solidus
Solidus (Latin for "solid") may refer to:
* Solidus (coin), a Roman coin of nearly solid gold
* Solidus (punctuation), or slash, a punctuation mark
* Solidus (chemistry), the line on a phase diagram below which a substance is completely solid
* S ...
'', stabilized the economy and ensured Roman Egypt remained a monetized system, even in the
rural economy
Rural economics is the study of rural economies. Rural economies include both agricultural and non-agricultural industries, so rural economics has broader concerns than agricultural economics which focus more on food systems. Rural developmen ...
.
The trend towards private ownership of land became more pronounced in the 5th century and peaked in the 6th century, with large estates built up from many individual plots.
Some large estates were owned by Christian churches, and smaller land-holders included those who were themselves both tenant farmers on larger estates and landlords of tenant-farmers working their own land.
The
First Plague Pandemic
The first plague pandemic was the first historically recorded Old World pandemic of plague, the contagious disease caused by the bacterium ''Yersinia pestis''. Also called the early medieval pandemic, it began with the Plague of Justinian in 541 ...
arrived in the
Mediterranean Basin
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and w ...
with the emergence of the
Justinianic Plague at
Pelusium
Pelusium ( Ancient Egyptian: ; cop, /, romanized: , or , romanized: ; grc, Πηλουσιον, Pēlousion; la, Pēlūsium; Arabic: ; Egyptian Arabic: ) was an important city in the eastern extremes of Egypt's Nile Delta, 30 km to ...
in Roman Egypt in 541.
Egypt ceased to be a part of the Roman Empire in 641, when it became part of the
Rashidun Caliphate
The Rashidun Caliphate ( ar, اَلْخِلَافَةُ ٱلرَّاشِدَةُ, al-Khilāfah ar-Rāšidah) was the first caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was ruled by the first four successive caliphs of Muhammad after his ...
following the
Muslim conquest of Egypt
The Muslim conquest of Egypt, led by the army of 'Amr ibn al-'As, took place between 639 and 646 AD and was overseen by the Rashidun Caliphate. It ended the seven-century-long period of Roman Egypt, Roman reign over Egypt that began in 30 BC. ...
.
Roman government in Egypt
As Rome overtook the Ptolemaic system in place for areas of Egypt, they made many changes. The effect of the Roman conquest was at first to strengthen the position of the Greeks and of
Hellenism against Egyptian influences. Some of the previous offices and names of offices under the Hellenistic Ptolemaic rule were kept, some were changed, and some names would have remained but the function and administration would have changed.
The
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
introduced important changes in the administrative system, aimed at achieving a high level of efficiency and maximizing
revenue
In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business.
Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...
. The duties of the prefect of Aegyptus combined responsibility for military security through command of the
legion
Legion may refer to:
Military
* Roman legion, the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army
* Spanish Legion, an elite military unit within the Spanish Army
* Legion of the United States, a reorganization of the United States Army from 179 ...
s and
cohorts, for the organization of finance and taxation, and for the administration of justice.
![Emperador romano como faraón (26519131170)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Emperador_romano_como_fara%C3%B3n_%2826519131170%29.jpg)
The Egyptian provinces of the Ptolemaic Kingdom remained wholly under Roman rule until the administrative reforms of the ''
augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
''
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
().
In these first three centuries of Roman Egypt, the whole country came under the central Roman control of single governor, officially called in and more usually referred to as the or the .
The double title of the governor as prefect "of Alexandria and Egypt" reflects the distinctions between
Upper and Lower Egypt
In Egyptian history, the Upper and Lower Egypt period (also known as The Two Lands) was the final stage of prehistoric Egypt and directly preceded the unification of the realm. The conception of Egypt as the Two Lands was an example of the duali ...
and Alexandria, since Alexandria, outside the
Nile Delta
The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Po ...
, was not within the then-prevailing traditional geographic boundaries of Egypt.
Roman Egypt was the only
Roman province
The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...
whose governor was of
equestrian rank in the Roman social order; all others were of the senatorial class and served as
Roman senators
The Roman Senate ( la, Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in ...
, including former
Roman consuls
A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...
, but the prefect of Egypt had more or less equivalent civil and military powers (''
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 an ...
'') to a
proconsul
A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority.
In the Roman Republic, military command, or ' ...
, since a
Roman law
Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...
(a ) granted him "proconsular ''imperium''" ().
Unlike in senatorially-governed provinces, the prefect was responsible for the collection of certain taxes and for the organization of the all-important grain shipments from Egypt (including the
''annona'').
Because of these financial responsibilities, the governor's administration had to be closely controlled and organized.
The governorship of Egypt was the second-highest office available to the
equestrian class
The ''equites'' (; literally "horse-" or "cavalrymen", though sometimes referred to as "knights" in English) constituted the second of the property-based classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the senatorial class. A member of the equestrian o ...
on the ''
cursus honorum
The ''cursus honorum'' (; , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices') was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The '' ...
'' (after that of the
praetorian prefect
The praetorian prefect ( la, praefectus praetorio, el, ) was a high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders be ...
(), the commander of the imperial
Praetorian Guard
The Praetorian Guard (Latin: ''cohortēs praetōriae'') was a unit of the Imperial Roman army that served as personal bodyguards and intelligence agents for the Roman emperors. During the Roman Republic, the Praetorian Guard were an escort fo ...
) and one of the highest-paid, receiving an annual salary of 200,000 ''
sesterces
The ''sestertius'' (plural ''sestertii''), or sesterce (plural sesterces), was an ancient Roman coin. During the Roman Republic it was a small, silver coin issued only on rare occasions. During the Roman Empire it was a large brass coin.
The na ...
'' (a "ducenarian" post).
The prefect was appointed at the emperor's discretion; officially the governors' status and responsibilities mirrored those of the ''augustus'' himself: his fairness () and his foresight ().
From the early 2nd century, service as the governor of Egypt was frequently the penultimate stage in the career of a praetorian prefect.
![Portrait of family of Septimius Severus - Altes Museum - Berlin - Germany 2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Portrait_of_family_of_Septimius_Severus_-_Altes_Museum_-_Berlin_-_Germany_2017.jpg)
The governor's powers as prefect, which included the rights to make
edicts
An edict is a decree or announcement of a law, often associated with monarchism, but it can be under any official authority. Synonyms include "dictum" and "pronouncement".
''Edict'' derives from the Latin edictum.
Notable edicts
* Telepinu Pro ...
() and, as the supreme judicial authority, to order
capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
(), expired as soon as his successor arrived in the provincial capital at Alexandria, who then also took up overall command of the
Roman legions
The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period of ...
of the Egyptian garrison.
(Initially, three legions were stationed in Egypt, with only two from the reign of
Tiberius
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...
().)
The official duties of the ''praefectus Aegypti'' are well known because enough records survive to reconstruct a mostly complete official calendar (''
fasti
In ancient Rome, the ''fasti'' (Latin plural) were chronological or calendar-based lists, or other diachronic records or plans of official and religiously sanctioned events. After Rome's decline, the word ''fasti'' continued to be used for simil ...
'') of the governors' engagements.
Yearly in
Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, ...
, and once every two years in
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south.
In ancient ...
, the ''praefectus Aegypti'' held a ''conventus'' (), during which legal trials were conducted and administrative officials' practices were examined, usually between January (''
Ianuarius
''Ianuarius'', fully ''Mensis Ianuarius'' ("month of Janus"), was the first month of the ancient Roman calendar, from which the Julian and Gregorian month of January derived. It was followed by '' Februarius'' (" February"). In the calendars ...
'') and April (''
Aprilis
''Aprilis'' or ''mensis Aprilis'' (April) was the second month of the ancient Roman calendar, following '' Martius'' (March) and preceding '' Maius'' (May). On the oldest Roman calendar that had begun with March, ''Aprilis'' was the second of ten ...
'') in the
Roman calendar
The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. The term often includes the Julian calendar established by the reforms of the Roman dictator, dictator Julius Caesar and Roman emperor, emperor Augustus in the ...
.
Evidence exists of more than 60 edicts issued by the Roman governors of Egypt.
To the government at Alexandria besides the prefect of Egypt, the Roman emperors appointed several other subordinate
procurators for the province, all of equestrian rank and, at least from the reign of
Commodus
Commodus (; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was a Roman emperor who ruled from 177 to 192. He served jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 176 until the latter's death in 180, and thereafter he reigned alone until his assassination. ...
() of similar, "ducenarian" salary bracket.
The administrator of the ''
Idios Logos'', responsible for special revenues like the proceeds of ''
bona caduca
Bona may refer to: Places
* The former name of Annaba, a city in northeastern Algeria
* Bona (Hum), medieval settlement of the Principality of Hum, located in today's Blagaj, Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Bona (Lena), Burkina Faso
* Bona (Safané), ...
'' property, and the ''
iuridicus'' (), the senior legal official, were both imperially appointed.
From the reign of
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
(), the financial powers of the prefect and the control of the
Egyptian temples
Egyptian temples were built for the official worship of the gods and in commemoration of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt and regions under Egyptian control. Temples were seen as houses for the gods or kings to whom they were dedicated. Within the ...
and priesthoods was devolved to other procurators, a ''
dioiketes ''Dioikētēs'' ( gr, διοικητής), often Latinized as ''dioecetes'', is a term applied to a variety of administrative officials.
Origin and history during Antiquity
The term derives from διοίκησις (''dioikēsis''), literally "hous ...
'' (), the chief financial officer, and an ''archiereus'' ().
A procurator could deputize as the prefect's representative where necessary.
![Himation Statue Greek Orator Roman-Egypt](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Himation_Statue_Greek_Orator_Roman-Egypt.png)
Procurators were also appointed from among the
freedmen
A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), abolitionism, emancipation (gra ...
(
manumitted
Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that ...
slaves) of the
imperial household, including the powerful , responsible for state property in the province.
Other procurators were responsible for
revenue farming of
state monopolies (the ), oversight of farm lands (the ), of the warehouses of Alexandria (the ), and of exports and emigration (the ).
These roles are poorly attested, with often the only surviving information beyond the names of the offices is a few names of the incumbents. In general, the central provincial administration of Egypt is no better-known than the Roman governments of other provinces, since, unlike in the rest of Egypt, the conditions for the preservation of official
papyri
Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a d ...
were very unfavourable at Alexandria.
Local government in the
hinterland
Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated ...
() outside Alexandria was divided into traditional regions known as
''nomoi''.
To each ''nome'' the prefect appointed a ''
strategos
''Strategos'', plural ''strategoi'', Linguistic Latinisation, Latinized ''strategus'', ( el, στρατηγός, pl. στρατηγοί; Doric Greek: στραταγός, ''stratagos''; meaning "army leader") is used in Greek language, Greek to ...
'' (); the ''strategoi'' were civilian administrators, without military functions, who performed much of the government of the country in the prefect's name and were themselves drawn from the Egyptian upper classes.
The ''strategoi'' in each of the ''mētropoleis'' were the senior local officials, served as intermediaries between the prefect and the villages, and were legally responsible for the administration and their own conduct while in office for several years.
Each ''strategos'' was supplemented by a royal
scribe
A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing.
The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...
().
These scribes were responsible for their ''nome''
's financial affairs, including administration of all property, land, land revenues, and temples, and what remains of their record-keeping is unparalleled in the ancient world for its completeness and complexity.
The royal scribes could act as proxy for the , but each reported directly to Alexandria, where dedicated financial secretaries – appointed for each individual ''nome'' – oversaw the accounts: an and a .
The was responsible for general financial affairs while the likely dealt with matters relating to the ''Idios Logos''.
![Bronze youth BM Br828 n5](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Bronze_youth_BM_Br828_n5.jpg)
The ''nomoi'' were grouped traditionally into those of Upper and Lower Egypt, the two divisions each being known as an "
epistrategy" after the chief officer, the ''epistrategos'' (), each of whom was also a Roman procurator. Soon after the Roman annexation, a new epistrategy was formed, encompassing the area just south of
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
and the
Faiyum
Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop, ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...
region and named "the
Heptanomia and the Arsinoite nome".
In the Nile Delta however, power was wielded by two of the ''epistrategoi''.
The ''epistrategos''
's role was mainly to mediate between the prefect in Alexandria and the ''strategoi'' in the ''mētropoleis'', and they had few specific administrative duties, performing a more general function.
Their salary was sexagenarian – 60,000 sesterces annually.
Each village or ''kome'' () was served by a village scribe (), whose term, possibly paid, was usually held for three years.
Each, to avoid conflicts of interest, was appointed to a community away from their home village, as they were required to inform the ''strategoi'' and ''epistrategoi'' of the names of persons due to perform unpaid public service as part of the
liturgy
Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
system.
They were required to be literate and had various duties as official clerks.
Other local officials drawn from the liturgy system served for a year in their home ''kome''; they included the ''practor'' (), who collected certain taxes, as well as security officers, granary officials (), public cattle drivers (), and cargo supervisors ().
Other liturgical officials were responsible for other specific aspects of the economy: a suite of officials was each responsible for arranging supplies of particular necessity in the course of the prefect's official tours.
The liturgy system extended to most aspects of Roman administration by the reign of
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...
(), though constant efforts were made by people eligible for such duties to escape their imposition.
![MC - Pharao](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/MC_-_Pharao.jpg)
The reforms of the early 4th century had established the basis for another 250 years of comparative prosperity in Aegyptus, at a cost of perhaps greater rigidity and more oppressive state control. Aegyptus was subdivided for administrative purposes into a number of smaller provinces, and separate civil and military officials were established; the
praeses
''Praeses'' (Latin ''praesides'') is a Latin word meaning "placed before" or "at the head". In antiquity, notably under the Roman Dominate, it was used to refer to Roman governors; it continues to see some use for various modern positions.
...
and the
dux
''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, '' ...
. The province was under the supervision of the count of the Orient (i.e. the vicar) of the diocese headquartered in Antioch in Syria.
Emperor Justinian
Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized '' renova ...
abolished the
Diocese of Egypt
The Diocese of Egypt ( la, Dioecesis Aegypti; el, Διοίκησις Αἰγύπτου) was a diocese of the later Roman Empire (from 395 the Eastern Roman Empire), incorporating the provinces of Egypt and Cyrenaica. Its capital was at Alexandr ...
in 538 and re-combined civil and military power in the hands of the ''
dux
''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, '' ...
'' with a civil deputy (''
praeses
''Praeses'' (Latin ''praesides'') is a Latin word meaning "placed before" or "at the head". In antiquity, notably under the Roman Dominate, it was used to refer to Roman governors; it continues to see some use for various modern positions.
...
'') as a counterweight to the power of the church authorities. All pretense of local
autonomy
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...
had by then vanished. The presence of the soldiery was more noticeable, its power and influence more pervasive in the routine of town and village life.
Military
The
Roman army
The Roman army (Latin: ) was the armed forces deployed by the Romans throughout the duration of Ancient Rome, from the Roman Kingdom (c. 500 BC) to the Roman Republic (500–31 BC) and the Roman Empire (31 BC–395 AD), and its medieval contin ...
was among the most homogenous Roman structures, and the organization of the army in Egypt differed little from its organization elsewhere in the Roman Empire. The
Roman legions
The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period of ...
were recruited from
Roman citizens
Citizenship in ancient Rome (Latin: ''civitas'') was a privileged political and legal status afforded to free individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance. Citizenship in Ancient Rome was complex and based upon many different laws, t ...
and the
Roman ''auxilia'' recruited from the non-citizen subjects.
Egypt was unique in that its garrison was commanded by the ''praefectus Aegypti'', an official of the equestrian order, rather than, as in other provinces, a governor of the senatorial class.
This distinction was stipulated in a law promulgated by Augustus, and, because it was unthinkable that an equestrian should command a senator, the commanders of the legions in Egypt were themselves, uniquely, of equestrian rank.
As a result of these strictures, the governor was rendered unable to build up a rival power base (as Mark Antony had been able to do), while the military ''
legati'' commanding the legions were career soldiers, formerly
centurion
A centurion (; la, centurio , . la, centuriones, label=none; grc-gre, κεντυρίων, kentyríōn, or ) was a position in the Roman army during classical antiquity, nominally the commander of a century (), a military unit of around 80 ...
s with the senior rank of ''
primus pilus
The ''primus pilus'' or ''primipilus'' was the senior centurion of the first cohort in a Roman legion, a formation of five double-strength centuries of 160 men, was called the ''primus pilus''; he was a career soldier and advisor to the le ...
'', rather than politicians whose military experience was limited to youthful service as a
military tribune
A military tribune (Latin ''tribunus militum'', "tribune of the soldiers") was an officer of the Roman army who ranked below the legate and above the centurion. Young men of Equestrian rank often served as military tribune as a stepping stone to ...
.
Beneath the ''praefectus Aegypti'', the overall commander of legions and ''auxilia'' stationed in Egypt was styled in , from the , or as .
Collectively, these forces were known as the .
The Roman garrison was concentrated at Nicopolis, a district of Alexandria, rather than at the strategic heart of the country around
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
and
Egyptian Babylon.
Alexandria was the Mediterranean's second city in the early Roman empire, the cultural capital of the Greek East and rival to Rome under Antony and Cleopatra.
Because only a few papyri are preserved from the area, little more is known about the legionaries' everyday life than is known from other provinces of the empire, and little evidence exists of the military practices of the prefect and his officers.
Most papyri have been found in
Middle Egypt
Middle Egypt () is the section of land between Lower Egypt (the Nile Delta) and Upper Egypt, stretching upstream from Asyut in the south to Memphis in the north. At the time, Ancient Egypt was divided into Lower and Upper Egypt, though Middle ...
's villages, and the texts are primarily concerned with local affairs, rarely giving space to high politics and military matters.
Not much is known about the military encampments of the
Roman imperial period
The Roman imperial period is the expansion of political and cultural influence of the Roman Empire. The period begins with the reign of Augustus (), and it is taken to end variously between the late 3rd and the late 4th century, with the beginning ...
, since many are underwater or have been built over and because
Egyptian archaeology
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...
has traditionally taken little interest in Roman sites.
Because they supply a record of soldiers' service history, six bronze
Roman military diploma
A Roman military diploma was a document inscribed in bronze certifying that the holder was honourably discharged from the Roman armed forces and/or had received the grant of Roman citizenship from the emperor as reward for service.
The diploma ...
s dating between 83 and 206 are the main source of documentary evidence for the ''
auxilia
The (, lit. "auxiliaries") were introduced as non-citizen troops attached to the citizen legions by Augustus after his reorganisation of the Imperial Roman army from 30 BC. By the 2nd century, the Auxilia contained the same number of inf ...
'' in Egypt; these inscribed certificates rewarded 25 or 26 years of military service in the ''auxilia'' with Roman citizenship and the right of ''
conubium''.
That the army was more Greek-speaking than in other provinces is certain.
The heart of the Army of Egypt was the Nicopolis garrison at Alexandria, with at least one legion permanently stationed there, along with a strong force of ''auxilia'' cavalry.
These troops would both guard the residence of the against uprisings among the Alexandrians and were poised to march quickly to any point at the prefect's command.
At Alexandria too was the , the provincial fleet of the
Roman Navy
The naval forces of the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman state ( la, Classis, lit=fleet) were instrumental in the Roman conquest of the Mediterranean Basin, but it never enjoyed the prestige of the Roman legions. Throughout their history, the Romans re ...
in Egypt.
In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, there were around 8,000 soldiers at Alexandria, a fraction of the
megalopolis
A megalopolis () or a supercity, also called a megaregion, is a group of metropolitan areas which are perceived as a continuous urban area through common systems of transport, economy, resources, ecology, and so on. They are integrated enoug ...
's huge population.
Initially, the legionary garrison of Roman Egypt consisted of three legions: the ''
Legio III Cyrenaica'', the ''
Legio XXII Deiotariana
Legio XXII Deiotariana ("Deiotarus' Twenty-Second Legion") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army, founded ca. 48 BC and disbanded during the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136. Its cognomen comes from Deiotarus, a Celtic king of Galatia. Its emb ...
'', and one other legion.
The station and identity of this third legion is not known for sure, and it is not known precisely when it was withdrawn from Egypt, though it was certainly before 23 AD, during the reign of
Tiberius
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...
().
In the reign of Tiberius's step-father and predecessor Augustus, the legions had been stationed at Nicopolis and at Egyptian Babylon, and perhaps at
Thebes.
After August 119, the ''III Cyrenaica'' was ordered out of Egypt; the ''XXII Deiotariana'' was transferred sometime afterwards, and before 127/8, the
''Legio II Traiana'' arrived, to remain as the main component of the Army of Egypt for two centuries.
After some fluctuations in the size and positions of the ''auxilia'' garrison in the early decades of Roman Egypt, relating to the conquest and pacification of the country, the ''auxilia'' contingent was mostly stable during the
Principate
The Principate is the name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the so-called Dominate.
...
, increasing somewhat towards the end of the 2nd century, and with some individual formations remaining in Egypt for centuries at a time.
Three or four
''alae'' of cavalry were stationed in Egypt, each ''ala'' numbering around 500 horsemen.
There were between seven and ten
''cohortes'' of ''auxilia'' infantry, each ''cohors'' about 500 hundred strong, although some were ''
cohortes equitatae'' – mixed units of 600 men, with infantry and cavalry in a roughly 4:1 ratio.
Besides the ''auxilia'' stationed at Alexandria, at least three detachments permanently garrisoned the southern border, on the Nile's
First Cataract
The Cataracts of the Nile are shallow lengths (or whitewater rapids) of the Nile river, between Khartoum and Aswan, where the surface of the water is broken by many small boulders and stones jutting out of the river bed, as well as many rocky ...
around
Philae
; ar, فيلة; cop, ⲡⲓⲗⲁⲕ
, alternate_name =
, image = File:File, Asuán, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 93.jpg
, alt =
, caption = The temple of Isis from Philae at its current location on Agilkia Island in Lake Nasse ...
and Syene (
Aswan
Aswan (, also ; ar, أسوان, ʾAswān ; cop, Ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate.
Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the ...
), protecting Egypt from enemies to the south and guarding against rebellion in the
Thebaid
The Thebaid or Thebais ( grc-gre, Θηβαΐς, ''Thēbaïs'') was a region in ancient Egypt, comprising the 13 southernmost nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos to Aswan.
Pharaonic history
The Thebaid acquired its name from its proximity to ...
.
Besides the main garrison at Alexandrian Nicopolis and the southern border force, the disposition of the rest of the Army of Egypt is not clear, though many soldiers are known to have been stationed at various outposts (), including those defending roads and remote natural resources from attack.
Roman detachments, ''centuriones'', and ''
beneficiarii'' maintained order in the Nile Valley, but about their duties little is known, as little evidence survives, though they were, in addition to the ''strategoi'' of the ''nomoi'', the prime local representatives of the Roman state.
Archaeological work led by
Hélène Cuvigny has revealed many ''
ostraca
An ostracon (Greek language, Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeology, archaeological or epigraphy, epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer ...
'' (inscribed ceramic fragments) which give unprecedently detailed information on the lives of soldiers stationed in the
Eastern Desert
The Eastern Desert (Archaically known as Arabia or the Arabian Desert) is the part of the Sahara desert that is located east of the Nile river. It spans of North-Eastern Africa and is bordered by the Nile river to the west and the Red Sea and ...
along the
Coptos
Qift ( arz, قفط ; cop, Ⲕⲉϥⲧ, link=no ''Keft'' or ''Kebto''; Egyptian Gebtu; grc, Κόπτος, link=no ''Coptos'' / ''Koptos''; Roman Justinianopolis) is a small town in the Qena Governorate of Egypt about north of Luxor, situated und ...
–
Myos Hormos
Myos Hormos ( gr, Μυὸς Ὅρμος "Mouse's Haven") was a Red Sea port constructed by the Ptolemies around the 3rd century BC. Following excavations carried out recently by David Peacock and Lucy Blue of the University of Southampton, it is ...
road and at the imperial granite quarry at ''
Mons Claudianus
Mons Claudianus was a Roman quarry in the eastern desert of Egypt. It consisted of a garrison, a quarrying site, and civilian and workers' quarters. Granodiorite was mined for the Roman Empire where it was used as a building material. Mons Claud ...
''.
Another Roman outpost, known from an inscription, existed on
Farasan, the chief island of the
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
's
Farasan Islands
The Farasan Islands ( ar, جزر فرسان; transliterated: ) are a small group of coral islands approximately 40 km off the coast of Jizan in the Red Sea, belonging to Saudi Arabia.
The government provides free ferry rides twice a day to ...
off the west coast of the
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
.
As in other provinces, many of the Roman soldiers in Egypt were recruited locally, not only among the non-citizen ''auxilia'', but among the legionaries as well, who were required to have Roman citizenship.
An increasing proportion of the Army of Egypt was of local origin in the reign of the
Flavian dynasty
The Flavian dynasty ruled the Roman Empire between AD 69 and 96, encompassing the reigns of Vespasian (69–79), and his two sons Titus (79–81) and Domitian (81–96). The Flavians rose to power during the civil war of 69, known as ...
, with an even higher proportion – as many as three quarters of legionaries – under the
Severan dynasty
The Severan dynasty was a Ancient Rome, Roman imperial dynasty that ruled the Roman Empire between 193 and 235, during the Roman imperial period (chronology), Roman imperial period. The dynasty was founded by the emperor Septimius Severus (), w ...
.
Of these, around one third were themselves the offspring () of soldiers, raised in the ''
canabae
A (plural ) was the Latin term for a hut or hovel and was later (from the time of Hadrian) used typically to mean a town that emerged as a civilian settlement () in the vicinity of a Roman legionary fortress ().
A settlement that grew up outs ...
'' settlements surrounding the army's base at Nicopolis, while only about one eighth were Alexandrian citizens.
Egyptians were given Roman-style Latin names on joining the army; unlike in other provinces, indigenous names are nearly unknown among the local soldiers of the Army of Egypt.
One of the surviving military diplomas lists the soldier's birthplace as
Coptos
Qift ( arz, قفط ; cop, Ⲕⲉϥⲧ, link=no ''Keft'' or ''Kebto''; Egyptian Gebtu; grc, Κόπτος, link=no ''Coptos'' / ''Koptos''; Roman Justinianopolis) is a small town in the Qena Governorate of Egypt about north of Luxor, situated und ...
, while others demonstrate that soldiers and centurions from elsewhere retired to Egypt: ''auxilia'' veterans from
Chios
Chios (; el, Χίος, Chíos , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greek island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is notable for its exports of mastic ...
and
Hippo Regius
Hippo Regius (also known as Hippo or Hippone) is the ancient name of the modern city of Annaba, Algeria. It historically served as an important city for the Phoenicians, Berbers, Romans, and Vandals. Hippo was the capital city of the Vandal King ...
(or
Hippos
A hippo or hippopotamus is either of two species of large African mammal which live mainly in and near water:
* Hippopotamus
* Pygmy hippopotamus
Hippo or Hippos may also refer to:
Toponymy
* The ancient city of Hippo Regius (modern Annaba, Al ...
) are named.
Evidence from the 2nd century suggests most ''auxilia'' came from Egypt, with others drawn from the provinces of
''Africa'' and
''Syria'', and from Roman
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
.
''Auxilia'' from the Balkans, who served throughout the Roman army, also served in Egypt: many
Dacian names are known from ''ostraca'' in the Trajanic period, perhaps connected with the recruitment of
Dacians
The Dacians (; la, Daci ; grc-gre, Δάκοι, Δάοι, Δάκαι) were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. They are often consid ...
during and after
Trajan's Dacian Wars
The Dacian Wars (101–102, 105–106) were two military campaigns fought between the Roman Empire and Dacia during Emperor Trajan's rule. The conflicts were triggered by the constant Dacian threat on the Danubian province of Moesia and also by ...
; they are predominantly cavalrymen's names, with some infantrymen's.
Thracians
The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European languages, Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. ...
, common in the army in other Roman provinces, were also present, and an auxiliary diploma from the Egyptian garrison has been found in
Thracia
Thracia or Thrace ( ''Thrakē'') is the ancient name given to the southeastern Balkan region, the land inhabited by the Thracians. Thrace was ruled by the Odrysian kingdom during the Classical and Hellenistic eras, and briefly by the Greek ...
.
Two ''auxilia'' diplomas connect Army of Egypt veterans with Syria, including one naming
Apamea
Apamea or Apameia ( grc, Απάμεια) is the name of several Hellenistic cities in western Asia, after Apama, the Sogdian wife of Seleucus I Nicator, several of which are also former bishoprics and Catholic titular see.
Places called Apamea in ...
.
Large numbers of recruits mustered in Asia Minor may have supplemented the garrison after the
Kitos War
The Kitos War (115–117; he, מרד הגלויות, mered ha-galuyot, or ''mered ha-tfutzot''; "rebellion of the diaspora" la, Tumultus Iudaicus) was one of the major Jewish–Roman wars (66–136). The rebellions erupted in 115, when most ...
against a Jewish uprising in Egypt and Syria.
Society
The social structure in Aegyptus under the Romans was both unique and complicated. On the one hand, the Romans continued to use many of the same organizational tactics that were in place under the leaders of the Ptolemaic period. At the same time, the Romans saw the Greeks in Aegyptus as “Egyptians”, an idea that both the native Egyptians and Greeks would have rejected.
To further compound the whole situation, Jews, who themselves were very Hellenized overall, had their own communities, separate from both Greeks and native Egyptians.
![Mumie med portræt (ÆIN 1425)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Mumie_med_portr%C3%A6t_%28%C3%86IN_1425%29.jpg)
The Romans began a system of social hierarchy that revolved around ethnicity and place of residence. Other than Roman citizens, a Greek citizen of one of the Greek cities had the highest status, and a rural Egyptian would be in the lowest class. In between those classes was the metropolite, who was almost certainly of Hellenic origin. Gaining citizenship and moving up in ranks was very difficult and there were not many available options for ascendancy.
One of the routes that many followed to ascend to another caste was through enlistment in the army. Although only Roman citizens could serve in the legions, many Greeks found their way in. The native Egyptians could join the auxiliary forces and attain citizenship upon discharge. The different groups had different rates of taxation based on their social class. The Greeks were exempt from the
poll tax
A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources.
Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments fr ...
, while Hellenized inhabitants of the nome capitals were taxed at a lower rate than the native Egyptians, who could not enter the army, and paid the full poll tax.
The social structure in Aegyptus is very closely linked to the governing administration. Elements of centralized rule that were derived from the Ptolemaic period lasted into the 4th century. One element in particular was the appointment of
strategoi
''Strategos'', plural ''strategoi'', Latinized ''strategus'', ( el, στρατηγός, pl. στρατηγοί; Doric Greek: στραταγός, ''stratagos''; meaning "army leader") is used in Greek to mean military general. In the Hellenist ...
to govern the ‘
nomes’, the traditional administrative divisions of Egypt.
Boulai
In cities of ancient Greece, the boule ( el, βουλή, ''boulē''; plural βουλαί, ''boulai'') was a council of over 500 citizens (βουλευταί, ''bouleutai'') appointed to run daily affairs of the city. Originally a council of nobles ...
, or town councils, in Egypt were only formally constituted by
Septimius Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa (Roman province), Africa. As a young man he advanced thro ...
. It was only under
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
later in the 3rd century that these boulai and their officers acquired important administrative responsibilities for their nomes. The Augustan takeover introduced a system of compulsory public service, which was based on ''poros'' (property or income qualification), which was wholly based on social status and power. The Romans also introduced the poll tax which was similar to tax rates that the Ptolemies levied, but the Romans gave special low rates to citizens of ''mētropoleis''. The city of
Oxyrhynchus
Oxyrhynchus (; grc-gre, Ὀξύρρυγχος, Oxýrrhynchos, sharp-nosed; ancient Egyptian ''Pr-Medjed''; cop, or , ''Pemdje''; ar, البهنسا, ''Al-Bahnasa'') is a city in Middle Egypt located about 160 km south-southwest of Cairo ...
had many papyri remains that contain much information on the subject of social structure in these cities. This city, along with Alexandria, shows the diverse set-up of various institutions that the Romans continued to use after their takeover of Egypt.
Just as under the Ptolemies, Alexandria and its citizens had their own special designations. The capital city enjoyed a higher status and more privileges than the rest of Egypt. Just as it was under the Ptolemies, the primary way of becoming a citizen of Roman Alexandria was through showing when registering for a
deme
In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and ear ...
that both parents were Alexandrian citizens. Alexandrians were the only Egyptians that could obtain Roman citizenship.
![Bust of Roman Nobleman, ca](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Bust_of_Roman_Nobleman%2C_ca._30_B.C.E.%E2%80%93_50_C.E.%2C_54.51.jpg)
If a common Egyptian wanted to become a Roman citizen he would first have to become an Alexandrian citizen. The Augustan period in Egypt saw the creation of urban communities with “
Hellenic” landowning elites. These landowning elites were put in a position of privilege and power and had more self-administration than the Egyptian population. Within the citizenry, there were gymnasiums that Greek citizens could enter if they showed that both parents were members of the gymnasium based on a list that was compiled by the government in 4–5 AD.
The candidate for the gymnasium would then be let into the
ephebus. There was also the council of elders known as the
gerousia
The Gerousia (γερουσία) was the council of elders in ancient Sparta. Sometimes called Spartan senate in the literature, it was made up of the two Spartan kings, plus 28 men over the age of sixty, known as gerontes. The Gerousia was a pr ...
. This council of elders did not have a boulai to answer to. All of this Greek organization was a vital part of the metropolis and the Greek institutions provided an elite group of citizens. The Romans looked to these elites to provide municipal officers and well-educated administrators.
These elites also paid lower poll-taxes than the local native Egyptians,
fellahin
A fellah ( ar, فَلَّاح ; feminine ; plural ''fellaheen'' or ''fellahin'', , ) is a peasant, usually a farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa. The word derives from the Arabic word for "ploughman" or "tiller". ...
.
It is well documented that Alexandrians in particular were exempted from paying poll-taxes, and were able to enjoy lower tax-rates on land.
Egyptian landholders paid about 3 times more than the elites per aroura of land in tax-rates, and about 4-5 times more than Alexandrians per aroura of land in tax-rates.
These privileges even extended to corporal punishments. Romans were protected from this type of punishment while native Egyptians were whipped. Alexandrians, on the other hand, had the privilege of merely being beaten with a rod. Although Alexandria enjoyed the greatest status of the Greek cities in Egypt, it is clear that the other Greek cities, such as Antinoöpolis, enjoyed privileges very similar to the ones seen in Alexandria; for instance, like Alexandrians, Antinoöpolites were exempted from paying poll-taxes. All of these changes amounted to the Greeks being treated as an ally in Egypt and the native Egyptians were treated as a conquered race.
The ''Gnomon of the Idios Logos'' shows the connection between law and status. It lays out the revenues it deals with, mainly fines and confiscation of property, to which only a few groups were apt. The Gnomon also confirms that a freed slave takes his former master's social status. The ''Gnomon'' demonstrates the social controls that the Romans had in place through monetary means based on status and property.
File:Egyptian - Mummy Portrait of a Man - Walters 323.jpg, Mummy portrait from er-Rubayat (Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The museum's collection was amassed ...
)
File:Clevelandart 1971.137.jpg, 1st-century mummy portrait from Hawara
Hawara is an archaeological site of Ancient Egypt, south of the site of Crocodilopolis ('Arsinoë', also known as 'Medinet al-Faiyum') at the entrance to the depression of the Fayyum oasis. It is the site of a pyramid built by the Pharaoh Amene ...
(Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...
)
File:Mummy portrait of a girl from er-Rubayat - København NCG AEIN 682.jpg, 1st/2nd-century mummy portrait from er-Rubayat (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek ("ny" means "new" in Danish; "Glyptotek" comes from the Greek root ''glyphein'', to carve, and ''theke'', storing place), commonly known simply as Glyptoteket, is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collection ...
)
File:Mummy portrait of a bearded young man from er-Rubayat - København NCG AEIN 681.jpg, 2nd century mummy portrait from er-Rubayat (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek ("ny" means "new" in Danish; "Glyptotek" comes from the Greek root ''glyphein'', to carve, and ''theke'', storing place), commonly known simply as Glyptoteket, is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collection ...
)
File:Mummy portrait of a young man from er-Rubayat - København NCG AEIN 680.jpg, 2nd-century mummy portrait from er-Rubayat (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek ("ny" means "new" in Danish; "Glyptotek" comes from the Greek root ''glyphein'', to carve, and ''theke'', storing place), commonly known simply as Glyptoteket, is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collection ...
)
File:Mummy portrait of a woman from er-Rubayat - København NCG AEIN 683.jpg, 2nd-century mummy portrait from er-Rubayat (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek ("ny" means "new" in Danish; "Glyptotek" comes from the Greek root ''glyphein'', to carve, and ''theke'', storing place), commonly known simply as Glyptoteket, is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collection ...
)
File:Mummy portrait of a bearded man from er-Rubayat - København NCG AEIN 684.jpg, 2nd-century mummy portrait from er-Rubayat (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek ("ny" means "new" in Danish; "Glyptotek" comes from the Greek root ''glyphein'', to carve, and ''theke'', storing place), commonly known simply as Glyptoteket, is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collection ...
)
File:Egyptian - Mummy Portrait of a Bearded Man - Walters 326.jpg, 2nd-century mummy portrait from er-Rubayat (Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The museum's collection was amassed ...
)
File:01XX Mummy portrait of a young man anagoria.JPG, Mummy portrait ( Antikensammlung Berlin)
File:Egyptian - Female Portrait Mask - Walters 325.jpg, 2nd-century mummy portrait from er-Rubayat (Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The museum's collection was amassed ...
)
File:Retrato (26765250006).jpg, 2nd-century mummy portrait from Faiyum
Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop, ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...
(Galerie Cybèle, Paris)
File:Mummy portrait of a woman from er-Rubayat - Berlin AS 31161-34 (01).jpg, 2nd-century mummy portrait from er-Rubayat ( Antikensammlung Berlin)
File:Boy with a Floral Garland in His Hair - Google Art Project.jpg, 3rd-century mummy portrait from er-Rubayat (Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
)
File:Mummy Portrait of a Boy - Google Art Project.jpg, 2nd-century mummy portrait (Getty Villa
The Getty Villa is at the easterly end of the Malibu coast in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. One of two campuses of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Villa is an educational center and museum dedi ...
)
File:Fayum-Man-Gold-Crown.jpg, 2nd-century mummy portrait (Pushkin Museum
The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (russian: Музей изобразительных искусств имени А. С. Пушкина, abbreviated as ) is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just oppo ...
)
File:Portrait of a Woman - Google Art Project.jpg, 2nd-century mummy portrait (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of Asian art.
In 2007, ''Time'' magaz ...
)
File:Mummy portrait of a young man from Hawara - København NCG AEIN 1473.jpg, 2nd–4th-century mummy portrait from Hawara
Hawara is an archaeological site of Ancient Egypt, south of the site of Crocodilopolis ('Arsinoë', also known as 'Medinet al-Faiyum') at the entrance to the depression of the Fayyum oasis. It is the site of a pyramid built by the Pharaoh Amene ...
(Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek ("ny" means "new" in Danish; "Glyptotek" comes from the Greek root ''glyphein'', to carve, and ''theke'', storing place), commonly known simply as Glyptoteket, is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collection ...
)
File:Egyptian - Mummy Portrait of a Woman from Fayum, Egypt - Walters 324.jpg, 2nd/3rd-century mummy portrait from er-Rubayat (Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The museum's collection was amassed ...
)
File:Fayum mummy portrait (c. 150) - Harvard Art Museums 1924.80.jpg, 2nd-century mummy portrait (Harvard Art Museums
The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...
)
File:Unknown - Mummy Portrait of a Bearded Man - 74.AP.11.jpg, 2nd-century mummy portrait probably from er-Rubayat (Getty Villa
The Getty Villa is at the easterly end of the Malibu coast in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. One of two campuses of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Villa is an educational center and museum dedi ...
)
Economy
![Periplous of the Erythraean Sea](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Periplous_of_the_Erythraean_Sea.svg)
The economic resources that this imperial government existed to exploit had not changed since the
Ptolemaic period, but the development of a much more complex and sophisticated
taxation system
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
was a hallmark of Roman rule. Taxes in both cash and kind were assessed on land, and a bewildering variety of small taxes in cash, as well as customs dues and the like, was collected by appointed officials.
A massive amount of Aegyptus' grain was shipped downriver (north) both to feed the population of
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
and for export to the Roman capital. There were frequent complaints of oppression and extortion from the taxpayers.
For land management and tenure, the Ptolemaic state had retained much of the categorization of land as under the earlier pharaohs, but the Roman Empire introduced a distinction between private and public lands – the earlier system had categorized little land as private property – and a complex arrangement was developed consisting of dozens of types of land-holding.
Land's status was determined by the hydrological, juridical, and function of the property, as well as by the three main categories of ownership held over from the Ptolemaic system: the sacred property belonging to the temples (); the royal land () belonging to the state and forming most of its revenue; and the "gifted land" (; ) leased out under the
cleruchy
A cleruchy (, ''klēroukhia'') in Classical Greece, was a specialized type of colony established by Athens. The term comes from the Greek word , ''klērouchos'', literally "lot-holder".
History
Normally, Greek colonies were politically independent ...
system.
The Roman government had actively encouraged the
privatization
Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
of land and the increase of private enterprise in manufacture, commerce, and trade, and low tax rates favored private owners and entrepreneurs. The poorer people gained their livelihood as tenants of state-owned land or of property belonging to the emperor or to wealthy private landlords, and they were relatively much more heavily burdened by rentals, which tended to remain at a fairly high level.
Overall, the degree of monetization and complexity in the economy, even at the
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
level, was intense. Goods were moved around and exchanged through the medium of coin on a large scale and, in the towns and the larger villages, a high level of industrial and commercial activity developed in close conjunction with the exploitation of the predominant agricultural base. The volume of trade, both internal and external, reached its peak in the 1st and 2nd centuries.
![Huvishka with seated god Serapis (](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Huvishka_with_seated_god_Serapis_%28%22Sarapo%22%29.jpg)
By the end of the 3rd century, major problems were evident. A series of debasements of the imperial currency had undermined confidence in the coinage, and even the government itself was contributing to this by demanding more and more irregular tax payments in kind, which it channelled directly to the main consumers, the army personnel. Local administration by the
councils
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...
was careless, recalcitrant, and inefficient; the evident need for firm and purposeful reform had to be squarely faced in the reigns of
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
and
Constantine I
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
.
There are numerous indications of
Roman trade with India
Indo-Roman trade relations (see also the spice trade and incense road) was trade between the Indian subcontinent and the Roman Empire in Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. Trade through the overland caravan routes via Asia Minor and the Midd ...
during the period, particularly between Roman Egypt and the Indian subcontinent.
Kushan Empire
The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...
ruler
Huvishka
Huvishka (Kushan: Οοηϸκι, ''Ooēški'', Brahmi: ', '; Kharosthi: 𐨱𐨂𐨬𐨅𐨮𐨿𐨐 ', ') was the emperor of the Kushan Empire from the death of Kanishka (assumed on the best evidence available to be in 150 CE) until the successio ...
(150–180 CE) incorporated in his coins the Hellenistic-Egyptian god
Serapis
Serapis or Sarapis is a Graeco-Egyptian deity. The cult of Serapis was promoted during the third century BC on the orders of Greek Pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt as a means to unify the Greeks and Egyptians in his r ...
(under the name ''ϹΑΡΑΠΟ'', "Sarapo").
Since Serapis was the supreme deity of the pantheon of
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, this coin suggests that Huvishka had as strong orientation towards Roman Egypt, which may have been an important markets for the products coming from the Kushan Empire.
Architecture
![Trajan on the Roman Mammisi at Dendera, Egypt](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Trajan_on_the_Roman_Mammisi_at_Dendera%2C_Egypt.jpg)
In the administrative provincial capitals of the ''nomoi'', the ''mētropoleis'' mostly inherited from the Pharaonic and Ptolemaic period, Roman public buildings were erected by the governing ''strategos'' and the local
gymnasiarch
Gymnasiarch ( la, gymnasiarchus, from el, γυμνασίαρχος, ''gymnasiarchos''), which derives from Greek γυμνάσιον (''gymnasion'', gymnasium) + ἄρχειν, ''archein'', to lead, was the name of an official of ancient Greece
...
.
In most cases, these have not survived and evidence of them is rare, but it is probable that most were built in the
classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...
of the Graeco-Roman world, employing the
classical orders
An order in architecture is a certain assemblage of parts subject to uniform established proportions, regulated by the office that each part has to perform.
Coming down to the present from Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman civilization, the arch ...
in stone buildings.
Prominent remains include two
Roman theatres at
Pelusium
Pelusium ( Ancient Egyptian: ; cop, /, romanized: , or , romanized: ; grc, Πηλουσιον, Pēlousion; la, Pēlūsium; Arabic: ; Egyptian Arabic: ) was an important city in the eastern extremes of Egypt's Nile Delta, 30 km to ...
, a temple of Serapis and a
tetrastyle
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
at Diospolis Magna at
Thebes, and, at
Philae
; ar, فيلة; cop, ⲡⲓⲗⲁⲕ
, alternate_name =
, image = File:File, Asuán, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 93.jpg
, alt =
, caption = The temple of Isis from Philae at its current location on Agilkia Island in Lake Nasse ...
, a
triumphal arch
A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crow ...
and temples dedicated to the worship of the emperor Augustus and the goddess
Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Roma, Queensland, a town
** Roma Airport
** Roma Courthouse
** Electoral district of Roma, defunct
** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council
*Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
, the personification of Rome.
Besides a few individual stone blocks in some ''mētropoleis'', substantial remains of Roman architecture are known in particular from three of the ''mētropoleis'' –
Heracleopolis Magna
Heracleopolis Magna ( grc-gre, Μεγάλη Ἡρακλέους πόλις, ''Megálē Herakléous pólis'') and Heracleopolis (, ''Herakleópolis'') and Herakleoupolis (), is the Roman name of the capital of the 20th nome of ancient Upper Eg ...
,
Oxyrhynchus
Oxyrhynchus (; grc-gre, Ὀξύρρυγχος, Oxýrrhynchos, sharp-nosed; ancient Egyptian ''Pr-Medjed''; cop, or , ''Pemdje''; ar, البهنسا, ''Al-Bahnasa'') is a city in Middle Egypt located about 160 km south-southwest of Cairo ...
, and
Hermopolis Magna
Hermopolis ( grc, Ἑρμούπολις ''Hermoúpolis'' "the City of Hermes", also ''Hermopolis Magna'', ''Hermoû pólis megálẽ'', egy, ḫmnw , Egyptological pronunciation: "Khemenu"; cop, Ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛ ''Shmun''; ar, الأشموني ...
– as well as from
Antinoöpolis
Antinoöpolis (also Antinoopolis, Antinoë, Antinopolis; grc, Ἀντινόου πόλις; cop, ⲁⲛⲧⲓⲛⲱⲟⲩ ''Antinow''; ar, الشيخ عبادة, modern ''Sheikh 'Ibada'' or ''Sheik Abāda'') was a city founded at an older Egyp ...
, a city founded by the emperor
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
().
All these were sacred cities dedicated to particular deities.
The ruins of these cities were first methodically surveyed and sketched by intellectuals attached to
Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, eventually published in the ''
Description de l'Égypte
The ''Description de l'Égypte'' ( en, Description of Egypt) was a series of publications, appearing first in 1809 and continuing until the final volume appeared in 1829, which aimed to comprehensively catalog all known aspects of ancient and m ...
'' series.
Illustrations produced by
Edme-François Jomard
Edme-François Jomard (; 1777 – September 22, 1862) was a French cartographer, engineer, and archaeologist. He edited the ''Description de L'Égypte'' and was a member of the Institut d'Egypte established by Napoleon. He supervised the educa ...
and
Vivant Denon
Dominique Vivant, Baron Denon (4 January 1747 – 27 April 1825) was a French artist, writer, diplomat, author, and archaeologist. Denon was a diplomat for France under Louis XV and Louis XVI. He was appointed as the first Director of the Louvre ...
form much of the evidence of these remains, because since the 19th century many of the ruins have themselves disappeared.
South of Thebes, the ''mētropoleis'' may have been largely without classical buildings, but near Antinoöpolis the classical influence may have been stronger.
Most ''mētropoleis'' were probably built on the classical
Hippodamian grid employed by the Hellenistic ''polis'', as at Alexandria, with the typical Roman pattern of the ''
Cardo
A cardo (plural ''cardines'') was a north–south street in Ancient Roman cities and military camps as an integral component of city planning. The cardo maximus, or most often the ''cardo'', was the main or central north–south-oriented street ...
'' (north–south) and ''
Decumanus Maximus
In Roman urban planning, a decumanus was an east–west-oriented road in a Roman city or castrum (military camp). The main decumanus of a particular city was the Decumanus Maximus, or most often simply "the Decumanus". In the rectangular street gr ...
'' (east–west) thoroughfares meeting at their centres, as at
Athribis
Athribis ( ar, أتريب; Greek: , from the original Egyptian ''Hut-heryib'', cop, Ⲁⲑⲣⲏⲃⲓ) was an ancient city in Lower Egypt. It is located in present-day Tell Atrib, just northeast of Benha on the hill of Kom Sidi Yusuf. The to ...
and Antinoöpolis.
Vivant Denon made sketches of ruins at Oxyrhynchus, and Edme-François Jomard wrote a description; together with some historical photographs and the few surviving remains, these are the best evidence for the classical architecture of the city, which was dedicated to the
''medjed'', a sacred species of ''
Mormyrus
''Mormyrus'' is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Mormyridae.
Species
There are currently 22 recognized species in this genus:
* '' Mormyrus bernhardi'' Pellegrin 1926 (Bernhard's elephant-snout fish)
* '' Mormyrus caballus'' Boul ...
'' fish.
Two groups of buildings survive at Heracleopolis Magna, sacred to
Heracles
Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...
/
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Gr ...
, which is otherwise known from Jomard's work, which also forms the mainstay of knowledge about the architecture of Antinoöpolis, founded by Hadrian in honour of his deified lover
Antinous
Antinous, also called Antinoös, (; grc-gre, Ἀντίνοος; 27 November – before 30 October 130) was a Greek youth from Bithynia and a favourite and probable lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Following his premature death before his ...
.
The Napoleonic-era evidence is also important for documenting Hermopolis Magna, where more buildings survive and which was dedicated to the worship of
Thoth
Thoth (; from grc-koi, Θώθ ''Thṓth'', borrowed from cop, Ⲑⲱⲟⲩⲧ ''Thōout'', Egyptian: ', the reflex of " eis like the Ibis") is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a ...
, equated with
Hermes
Hermes (; grc-gre, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orato ...
/
Mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
.
The oldest known remains of
church architecture
Church architecture refers to the architecture of buildings of churches, convents, seminaries etc. It has evolved over the two thousand years of the Christian religion, partly by innovation and partly by borrowing other architectural styles as ...
in Egypt are at the Roman village of
Kellis
Ancient Kellis, now known as Ismant el-Kharab (Ismant the ruined), was a village in Upper Egypt during the Hellenistic Period, Roman Period, and Byzantine period. It was located about east-southeast of present-day Ismant in the Dakhleh Oasis, an ...
; following the
house church
A house church or home church is a label used to describe a group of Christians who regularly gather for worship in private homes. The group may be part of a larger Christian body, such as a parish, but some have been independent groups that see ...
of the early 4th century, a three-
aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...
d,
apse
In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...
d
basilica
In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...
church was built in the Constantinian period, with ''
pastaphoria'' on either side, while a third church was accompanied by a Christian cemetery.
All these churches were built on an east-west axis, with the liturgical focus at the east, and the ''pastaphoria'' (side-rooms) were a common mark of churches in the country.
Churches were built quickly after the victory of Constantine over Licinius, and in the 4th century even towns like
‘Ain el-Gedida in the
Dakhla Oasis
Dakhla Oasis (Egyptian Arabic: , , "''the inner oasis"''), is one of the seven oases of Egypt's Western Desert. Dakhla Oasis lies in the New Valley Governorate, 350 km (220 mi.) from the Nile and between the oases of Farafra and Khar ...
had their own churches.
The earliest known monumental basilica of which remains survive is that at Antinoöpolis; a five-aisled, apsed basilica facing east and set in a cemetery is long and wide.
![Red Monastery Sohag Egypt Sanctuary North apse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Red_Monastery_Sohag_Egypt_Sanctuary_North_apse.jpg)
In the late 4th century, monastic churches differed from the other churches by building rectangular sanctuaries – rather than semi-circular ones – at their east ends where the
altar
An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...
stood, and in place of the apse was an aedicula or niche embellished with an arch and columns in applied in plaster.
In the 5th century, regional styles of monumental church basilica with ''pastaphoria'' emerged: on the coast of the Mediterranean and throughout the northern part of the country the churches were basilicas of three or five aisles, but in Middle Egypt and Upper Egypt the basilicas were often given a colonnade all the way around the structure, forming a continuous
ambulatory
The ambulatory ( la, ambulatorium, ‘walking place’) is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11th ...
by the addition of a transverse fourth aisle to the west of the other three.
In eastern Egypt, the columns and colonnade were emphasized, and the sanctuary distinguished with a
triumphal arch
A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crow ...
in front of it.
A transept plan was adopted only in urban environments like
Abu Mena
Abu Mena (also spelled ''Abu Mina'' ; ar, أبو مينا ) was a town, monastery complex and Christian pilgrimage centre in Late Antique Egypt, about southwest of Alexandria, near New Borg El Arab city. Its remains were designated a W ...
and
Marea
MAREA is a 6,600 km (4,000 mile) long transatlantic communications cable connecting the United States with Spain. Owned and funded by Microsoft and Meta Platforms, but constructed and operated by Telxius, a subsidiary of the Spanish telecom c ...
in the western Nile Delta.
In the middle 5th century, the Great Basilica, one of the largest churches in Egypt, was built at Hermopolis Magna at the central crossroads of the city.
Unusually, the three-aisled transept basilica had semicircular extensions on the north and south walls.
At the Coptic
White Monastery
The Coptic White Monastery (), also The Monastery of Abba Shenouda () and The Athribian Monastery () is a Coptic Orthodox monastery named after Saint Shenouda the Archimandrite. It is located near the Upper Egyptian cities of Tahta and Sohag, a ...
at
Sohag
Sohag ( , ), also spelled as ''Sawhāj'', ''Suhag'' and ''Suhaj'', is a city on the west bank of the Nile in Egypt. It has been the capital of Sohag Governorate since 1960, before which the capital was Girga and the name of the governorate was ...
, the 5th-century church was built with a
triconch
A tetraconch, from the Greek for "four shells", is a building, usually a church or other religious building, with four apses, one in each direction, usually of equal size. The basic ground plan of the building is therefore a Greek cross. They are m ...
apse, an unusual design also found at Sohag's Dayr Anbā Bishoi; in the
Wadi El Natrun
Wadi El Natrun (Arabic: "Valley of Natron"; Coptic: , "measure of the hearts") is a depression in northern Egypt that is located below sea level and below the Nile River level. The valley contains several alkaline lakes, natron-rich salt dep ...
at Dayr as-Suyrān; in the Dakhla Oasis in the Western Desert at Dayr Abū Mattā, and at Dendera.
The tomb-chapel of the White Monastery's founder,
Shenoute
Shenoute of Atripe, also known as Shenoute the Great or Saint Shenoute the Archimandrite ( Coptic: ; (347-465 or 348-466) was the abbot of the White Monastery in Egypt. He is considered a saint by the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and is one of ...
, was also built with this triconch plan and was the first instance of a monastic founder's tomb built in a monastery.
Some of the White Monastery's limestone ashlars were ''spolia''; the stones were likely taken from the pharaonic buildings at
Upper Egyptian Athribis nearby.
The main church's interior is a three-aisled basilica with an
ambon
Ambon may refer to:
Places
* Ambon Island, an island in Indonesia
** Ambon, Maluku, a city on Ambon Island, the capital of Maluku province
** Governorate of Ambon, a colony of the Dutch East India Company from 1605 to 1796
* Ambon, Morbihan, a c ...
and seat, and the usual Egyptian western transverse aisle, but its exterior resembles an Egyptian temple, with
cavetto cornices on the roof.
Unusually for the Coptic churches, the White Monastery's church has two narthexes, perhaps to accommodate worshippers from outside the monastic community.
The affiliated
Red Monastery
The Red Monastery () or The Monastery of Apa Psoi () is a Coptic Orthodox monastery named after an Egyptian saint called Psoi () or Pishoy () (who is not to be confused with the famous Saint Pishoy). It is located near the Upper Egyptian city of ...
nearby preserves the most extensive painted decoration from Late Antiquity anywhere and is probably representative of the period's Egyptian churches' interior decoration.
Besides the main monumental basilica at Antinoöpolis, there were two other cruciform churches built there in the later 5th century.
Religion
Imperial cult
![Egipto Hadrianeum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Egipto_Hadrianeum.JPG)
The worship of Egypt's rulers was interrupted entirely by the fall of the
Ptolemaic dynasty
The Ptolemaic dynasty (; grc, Πτολεμαῖοι, ''Ptolemaioi''), sometimes referred to as the Lagid dynasty (Λαγίδαι, ''Lagidae;'' after Ptolemy I's father, Lagus), was a Macedonian Greek royal dynasty which ruled the Ptolemaic ...
, who together with their predecessor
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
had been worshipped with an Egypto-Hellenistic
ruler cult.
After the Roman conquest of Egypt, Augustus instituted a new Roman imperial cult in Egypt.
Formally, the "Roman people" () were now collectively the ruler of Egypt; emperors were never crowned pharaoh in person in the traditional way, and there is no evidence that the emperors were systematically incorporated into the traditional pantheons worshipped by the traditional priesthoods.
Instead, the image of Augustus was identified with
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D ...
''Eleutherios'' (), and modelled on the example of Alexander the Great, who was said to have "liberated" Egypt from the old pharaohs.
Nevertheless, in 27 BC there was at Memphis, as was traditional, a high priest of Ptah appointed under Augustus's authority as the senior celebrant of the Egyptian ruler cult and referred to as a "priest of Caesar".
Augustus had been honoured with a cult in Egypt before his death, and there is evidence that Nero was worshipped while still living, as was Hadrian in particular.
While alive however, the emperor was usually honoured with offerings to the various gods "for his health" (); usually, only after the emperor's death was he deified and worshipped as a god.
A letter of Claudius written to the Alexandrians in 41 AD rejects the offer of a cult of himself, permitting only divine honours such as statues and reserving cult worship for the deified Augustus.
For juridical purposes, the imperial oath recalling Ptolemaic precedent had to be sworn in the name or "fortune" (''
tyche
Tyche (; Ancient Greek: Τύχη ''Túkhē'', 'Luck', , ; Roman equivalent: Fortuna) was the presiding tutelary deity who governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny. In Classical Greek mythology, she is the daughter of Aphrodite a ...
'') of the emperor: "I swear by Caesar Imperator, son of God, Zeus ''Eleutherios'', Augustus".
The official cult was superintended by the ''
archiereus
''Archiereus'' ( grc, ἀρχιερεύς, Russian, ''arkhierei'') is a Greek term for diocesan bishop, when considered as the culmination of the priesthood. It is used in the liturgical books of the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Cathol ...
'' for Alexandria and All Egypt (), who was procurator in charge of Egypt's temples and responsible for the worship of the imperial deities and of Serapis throughout the country.
As with the ''praefectus Aegypti'', the ''archiereus'' of Alexandria and All Egypt was a Roman citizen and probably appointed from the
equestrian class
The ''equites'' (; literally "horse-" or "cavalrymen", though sometimes referred to as "knights" in English) constituted the second of the property-based classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the senatorial class. A member of the equestrian o ...
.
The official cult in Egypt differed from that in other provinces; the goddess
Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Roma, Queensland, a town
** Roma Airport
** Roma Courthouse
** Electoral district of Roma, defunct
** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council
*Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
, closely associated with the
Roman Senate
The Roman Senate ( la, Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in ...
, was not introduced by Augustus, since as an imperial province Egypt lay beyond the reach of the Senate's powers (''
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 an ...
'').
The ''archiereus'' for Alexandria and All Egypt was appointed by the emperor.
The high priest's full title ("high priest of the gods ''Augusti'' and the Great Serapis and the one who is responsible for the temples of Egypt and the whole country") indicates that the cult of Serapis was closely connected with the worship of the emperors and that both were overseen by the same Roman official.
![New Wing, Vatican Museums (25497052238) (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/New_Wing%2C_Vatican_Museums_%2825497052238%29_%28cropped%29.jpg)
An ''archiereus'' existed in each of the ''nomoi''; drawn from the local elite through the
liturgy
Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
system, these high priests were responsible for the maintenance of the imperial temples and cults in their ''mētropoleis''.
These officials, in place since the mid-1st century AD at latest, was each known as the "high priest of the Lords ''Augusti'' and all the gods" () or the "high priest of the city" (), and was responsible mainly for the organization of the imperial cult, since the traditional local cults already had their own priesthoods.
Though imposed by the Roman state and overseen from the provincial capital, the imperial cult was locally organized, though direct imperial control is also attested for the cult at Alexandria.
Throughout Egypt, sacrificial
altars
An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paganism, ...
dedicated to the worship of the deified emperor Augustus () were set up in dedicated temples (''sebasteia'' or ''caesarea'').
Each ''sebasteion'' or ''caesareum'' had administrative functions as well as organizing the local cult of the emperor.
Nevertheless, there is scant evidence that the worship of the emperors was common in private settings, and the Alexandrians were frequently hostile to the emperors themselves.
The form of the imperial cult established in the reign of Augustus, which may have been largely focused on the deified first emperor himself, continued until the reign of Constantine the Great.
The widow of the emperor Trajan, the ''
augusta''
Plotina
Pompeia Plotina (died 121/122) was Roman empress from 98 to 117 as the wife of Trajan. She was renowned for her interest in philosophy, and her virtue, dignity and simplicity. She was particularly devoted to the Epicurean philosophical school in ...
, was deified after her death by Hadrian.
At Dendera, in a temple dedicated to
Aphrodite
Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...
, the late empress was identified with the Egyptian goddess
Hathor
Hathor ( egy, ḥwt-ḥr, lit=House of Horus, grc, Ἁθώρ , cop, ϩⲁⲑⲱⲣ, Meroitic: ) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky ...
, the first instance of a member of the imperial family – besides the emperor himself – being integrated into the Egyptian pantheon.
Unlike the royal cult of the Ptolemaic dynasty, whose festivals were celebrated according to the
Egyptian calendar
The ancient Egyptian calendar – a civil calendar – was a solar calendar with a 365-day year. The year consisted of three seasons of 120 days each, plus an intercalary month of five epagomenal days treated as outside of the year proper. Eac ...
, the imperial cult days, such as the emperors' birthdays (), fell according to the
Roman calendar
The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. The term often includes the Julian calendar established by the reforms of the Roman dictator, dictator Julius Caesar and Roman emperor, emperor Augustus in the ...
.
Cult of Serapis and Isis
![Serapis en su trono (26865464995)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Serapis_en_su_trono_%2826865464995%29.jpg)
Serapis was a
syncretic
Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thu ...
god of abundance and the afterlife which united Hellenistic and Egyptian features and which had been instituted by
Ptolemy I ''Soter'' () at the beginning of the Ptolemaic period, possibly related to the cult of
Osiris
Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...
-
Apis.
Serapis assumed the role of Osiris in the Egyptian pantheon as god of the afterlife and regeneration, the husband of the fertility goddess Isis, and the father of the child Horus, known to the Hellenistic world as
Harpocrates
Harpocrates ( grc, Ἁρποκράτης, Phoenician: 𐤇𐤓𐤐𐤊𐤓𐤈, romanized: ḥrpkrṭ, ''harpokrates'') was the god of silence, secrets and confidentiality in the Hellenistic religion developed in Ptolemaic Alexandria (and also ...
.
Emperors were sometimes depicted as Serapis, with their portraits bearing Serapis's distinguishing features, who, unlike most native Egyptian gods but in common with Osiris, was never depicted in animal or part-animal form.
Caracalla took the title "Philosarapis" to indicate his devotion to the cult.
Serapis was distinguished by his Greek-style clothes, long hair, and beard, as well as by his flat-topped crown, known as a
''calathus''.
The
Mysteries of Isis
The mysteries of Isis were religious initiation rites performed in the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis in the Greco-Roman world. They were modeled on other mystery rites, particularly the Eleusinian mysteries in honor of the Greek goddesses D ...
, a mystery cult developed outside Egypt and reimported to the country from Roman territories elsewhere, were increasingly celebrated, and Isis was the supreme female deity and creator-goddess in the pantheon, incorporating the Ptolemaic queen-worship tradition.
As Isis , she was an image of motherhood, feeding her infant Harpocrates; as Isis , she was a goddess of magic and mysteries.
In Roman Egypt, the cult was superintended by the ''archiereus'' for Alexandria and All Egypt.
Temples of Serapis (
serapea) were found throughout Egypt, with the oldest serapeum at
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
and the greatest the
Serapeum of Alexandria
The Serapeum of Alexandria in the Ptolemaic Kingdom was an ancient Greek temple built by Ptolemy III Euergetes (reigned 246–222 BC) and dedicated to Serapis, who was made the protector of Alexandria. There are also signs of Harpocrates. I ...
.
The holy family of Serapis, Isis, and Harpocrates was worshipped throughout the empire; by the 4th century, the cult had become, behind Christianity, the most popular religion in the Roman world.
Temples
The imperially-appointed ''archiereus'' for Alexandria and All Egypt was responsible for the administrative management of the temples, beyond those of the imperial cult, dedicated to Graeco-Roman deities and the
ancient Egyptian gods.
He controlled access to the priesthoods of the Egyptian cults: the ritual
circumcision
Circumcision is a surgical procedure, procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin ...
of candidates was subject to his approval and he mediated disputes involving temples, wielding some judicial powers.
As sponsors of temple cults, emperors appeared in traditional pharaonic regalia on carved temple reliefs.
Similarly, Egyptian gods were sometimes shown wearing Roman military garb, particularly Anubis and Horus.
The history of Egyptian temples in Roman times can be studied particularly well in some settlements at the edges of the
Faiyum
Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop, ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...
: Archaeological evidence, along with lots of written sources on the daily life of the priests, are available from Bakchias,
Narmouthis,
Soknopaiou Nesos
Soknopaiou Nesos ( grc, Σοκνοπαίου Νῆσος) was an ancient settlement in the Faiyum Oasis (''Egypt''), located a few kilometers north of Lake Qarun (known in antiquity as Lake Moeris).
The settlement - known nowadays as Dimeh es-Seba ...
,
Tebtunis
Tebtunis was a city and later town in Lower Egypt. The settlement was founded in approximately 1800 BCE by the Twelfth Dynasty king Amenemhat III. It was located in what is now the village of Tell Umm el-Baragat in the Faiyum Governorate. In Teb ...
, and Theadelphia. For instance, temples can be seen supporting each other by asking colleagues to assist when there was a shortage of staff, but also competing with each other for spheres of influence. When temples came into conflict with authorities, then mainly with lower administrative officials, who belonged to the local population themselves; the Roman procurators intervened in these conflicts, if at all, then in a moderating manner.
![Horus_horseman_Louvre_E4850](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Horus_horseman_Louvre_E4850.jpg)
The
Julio-Claudian emperors
, native_name_lang=Latin, coat of arms=Great_Cameo_of_France-removebg.png, image_size=260px, caption=Great Cameo of France, The Great Cameo of France depicting emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius and Nero, type=Ancient Rome, Ancient Roman dynasty ...
Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero all sponsored religious monuments and institutions at Coptos and
Dendera
Dendera ( ar, دَنْدَرة ''Dandarah''; grc, Τεντυρις or Τεντυρα; Bohairic cop, ⲛⲓⲧⲉⲛⲧⲱⲣⲓ, translit=Nitentōri; Sahidic cop, ⲛⲓⲧⲛⲧⲱⲣⲉ, translit=Nitntōre), also spelled ''Denderah'', ancient ...
.
Tiberius is known to have patronized monuments at
Armant
Armant ( ar, أرْمَنْت; egy, jwn.w-n-mnṯ.w or ''jwn.w-šmꜥ.w''; Bohairic: ; Sahidic: ), also known as Hermonthis ( grc, Ἕρμωνθις), is a town located about south of Thebes. It was an important Middle Kingdom town, which was ...
,
Aswan
Aswan (, also ; ar, أسوان, ʾAswān ; cop, Ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate.
Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the ...
,
Athribis
Athribis ( ar, أتريب; Greek: , from the original Egyptian ''Hut-heryib'', cop, Ⲁⲑⲣⲏⲃⲓ) was an ancient city in Lower Egypt. It is located in present-day Tell Atrib, just northeast of Benha on the hill of Kom Sidi Yusuf. The to ...
,
Debod
The Temple of Debod ( es, Templo de Debod) is an ancient Egyptian temple that was dismantled as part of the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia and rebuilt in the center of Madrid, Spain, in Parque de la Montaña, Madrid, a squa ...
,
Diospolis Parva
Hu () is the modern name of an Egyptian town on the Nile, which in more ancient times was the capital of the 7th Nome of Upper Egypt.
The nome was referred to as ''Sesheshet'' (Sistrum). The main city was referred to as Hu(t)-sekhem, which ...
,
Edfu
Edfu ( egy, bḥdt, ar, إدفو , ; also spelt Idfu, or in modern French as Edfou) is an Egyptian city, located on the west bank of the Nile River between Esna and Aswan, with a population of approximately sixty thousand people. Edfu is the site ...
,
Karnak
The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (, which was originally derived from ar, خورنق ''Khurnaq'' "fortified village"), comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Construct ...
,
Kom Ombo
Kom Ombo (Egyptian Arabic: ; Coptic: ; Ancient Greek: or ; or Latin: and is an agricultural town in Egypt famous for the Temple of Kom Ombo. It was originally an Egyptian city called Nubt, meaning City of Gold (not to be confused with the ...
,
Luxor
Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''.
Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...
,
Philae
; ar, فيلة; cop, ⲡⲓⲗⲁⲕ
, alternate_name =
, image = File:File, Asuán, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 93.jpg
, alt =
, caption = The temple of Isis from Philae at its current location on Agilkia Island in Lake Nasse ...
and at the
Temple of Shenhur.
Claudius's patronage is recorded at Aswan, Athribis,
Esna
Esna ( ar, إسنا , egy, jwny.t or ; cop, or ''Snē'' from ''tꜣ-snt''; grc-koi, Λατόπολις ''Latópolis'' or (''Pólis Látōn'') or (''Lattōn''); Latin: ''Lato''), is a city of Egypt. It is located on the west bank of ...
, Kom Ombo, and at Philae.
Nero is recorded as having sponsored Egyptian elites at the
Dakhla Oasis
Dakhla Oasis (Egyptian Arabic: , , "''the inner oasis"''), is one of the seven oases of Egypt's Western Desert. Dakhla Oasis lies in the New Valley Governorate, 350 km (220 mi.) from the Nile and between the oases of Farafra and Khar ...
in the
Western Desert, and at
Karanis
Karanis ( grc-koi, Καρανίς), located in what is now Kom Oshim, was an agricultural town in the Ptolemaic Kingdom, and Roman Egypt located in the northeast corner of the Faiyum. It was roughly 60 hectares in size and its peak population is ...
and
Akoris, as well as at Aswan and Kom Ombo.
During the short reigns of
Galba
Galba (; born Servius Sulpicius Galba; 24 December 3 BC – 15 January AD 69) was the sixth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 68 to 69. After his adoption by his stepmother, and before becoming emperor, he was known as Livius Ocella Sulpicius Ga ...
and of the contestants in the
Year of the Four Emperors
The Year of the Four Emperors, AD 69, was the first civil war of the Roman Empire, during which four emperors ruled in succession: Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian. It is considered an important interval, marking the transition from the ...
after the fall of Nero, images of both
Otho
Marcus Otho (; born Marcus Salvius Otho; 28 April 32 – 16 April 69) was the seventh Roman emperor, ruling for three months from 15 January to 16 April 69. He was the second emperor of the Year of the Four Emperors.
A member of a noble Etru ...
and Galba were carved in reliefs at
Medinet Habu, a Pharaonic temple dating from the
Eighteenth Dynasty, but no monuments to
Vitellius
Aulus Vitellius (; ; 24 September 1520 December 69) was Roman emperor for eight months, from 19 April to 20 December AD 69. Vitellius was proclaimed emperor following the quick succession of the previous emperors Galba and Otho, in a year of ci ...
are known.
The
Flavian emperors
The Flavian dynasty ruled the Roman Empire between AD 69 and 96, encompassing the reigns of Vespasian (69–79), and his two sons Titus (79–81) and Domitian (81–96). The Flavians rose to power during the civil war of 69, known as ...
Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian are all known to have been responsible for works at Esna.
Both Vespasian and his older son Titus sponsored work at the Dakhla Oasis, with Vespasian also the sponsor of work at Medinet Habu.
Vespasian and his younger son Domitian were both credited with patronage of works at Kom Ombo and
Silsila
Silsila ( ar, سِلْسِلَة) is an Arabic word meaning ''chain'', ''link'', ''connection'' often used in various senses of lineage. In particular, it may be translated as "spiritual genealogy" where one Sufi Master transfers his ''khil ...
, and Domitian's sponsorship was also recorded at
Akhmim
Akhmim ( ar, أخميم, ; Akhmimic , ; Sahidic/Bohairic cop, ) is a city in the Sohag Governorate of Upper Egypt. Referred to by the ancient Greeks as Khemmis or Chemmis ( grc, Χέμμις) and Panopolis ( grc, Πανὸς πόλις and Π ...
, Armant, Dendera, and Philae.
185 scenes in many temples show Domitian, concentrated in the oases and in Upper Egypt; his name was in some places removed as a result of his ''
damnatio memoriae
is a modern Latin phrase meaning "condemnation of memory", indicating that a person is to be excluded from official accounts. Depending on the extent, it can be a case of historical negationism. There are and have been many routes to , includi ...
''.
After Domitian's assassination, the emperor
Nerva
Nerva (; originally Marcus Cocceius Nerva; 8 November 30 – 27 January 98) was Roman emperor from 96 to 98. Nerva became emperor when aged almost 66, after a lifetime of imperial service under Nero and the succeeding rulers of the Flavian dy ...
's patronage of Egyptian temples is recorded only at Esna.
Nerva's adoptive heir
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...
continued to lend imperial sponsorship to Egyptian cults, with his patronage recorded at Dendera, Esna,
Gebelein
Gebelein (Egyptian Arabic: , Two Mountains; Egyptian: Inerty or Per-Hathor; Ancient Greek: or ; Latin: ''Pathyris'' or ''Aphroditopolis'') was a town in Egypt. It is located on the Nile, about 40 km south of Thebes, in the New Valley Go ...
,
Kalabsha
New Kalabsha is a promontory located near Aswan in Egypt.
Created during the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, it houses several important temples, structures, and other remains that have been relocated here from the site ...
, Kom Ombo, Medinet Habu, and Philae.
During
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
's tour of Egypt in 130–131, the emperor founded the new Hellenistic ''
polis
''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...
'' of Antinoöpolis at the point where
Antinous
Antinous, also called Antinoös, (; grc-gre, Ἀντίνοος; 27 November – before 30 October 130) was a Greek youth from Bithynia and a favourite and probable lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Following his premature death before his ...
drowned in the Nile and instituted a cult of Antinous as
Osiris
Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...
, to whom a death by drowning was sacrosanct.
Hadrian commissioned the
Barberini obelisk to commemorate his late lover's funeral rites, including the Egyptian
opening of the mouth ceremony
The opening of the mouth ceremony (or ritual) was an ancient Egyptian ritual described in funerary texts such as the Pyramid Texts.
''PeseshKaf'' is an instrument used for this ritual, ''psš'' (“an instrument for Opening of the mouth”) + '' ...
; the obelisk was erected in Rome and the cult of Antinous was propagated throughout the provinces.
Hadrian also sponsored building work at Philae, and both he and his successor
Antoninus Pius
Antoninus Pius (Latin: ''Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius''; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty.
Born into a senatoria ...
sponsored work at Armant, Dendera, and Esna.
The reign of Antoninus Pius – also patron of building works at Coptos,
Medamud
Medamud (, from ) was a settlement in ancient Egypt. Its present-day territory is located about 8 km east-north from Luxor.
The Temple of Montu was located here. It was excavated by Fernand Bisson de la Roque in 1925, who identified sev ...
, Medinet Habu, and
Tod – saw the last substantial building work on Egyptian temples.
After those of Antoninus Pius found at Medinet Habu,
Deir el-Shelwit
Deir el-Shelwit (Arabic: دير الشلويط – Dayr aš-Šalwīṭ, French: ''Deir Chelouit''Christiane M. Zivie: ''Le temple du Deir Chelouit'', Cairo, IFAO, 1992.) is an ancient Egyptian temple to Isis from the Greco-Roman period. It sta ...
, and Dendera, no further imperial cartouches are known from the regions of Thebes and the western oases.
From the reign of Marcus Aurelius, who is recorded as having rededicated an offering to Hathor originally made by
Ptolemy VIII ''Physcon'', the rate of new temple building and decoration slackened.
Commodus was recorded as Pharaonic sponsor of temples at Armant, Esna, Kom Ombo and Philae, the last emperor to be widely honoured in this way in surviving monuments; a general lack of resources and the political turbulence after Commodus's assassination was probably responsible.
The name of his successor
Pertinax
Publius Helvius Pertinax (; 1 August 126 – 28 March 193) was Roman emperor for the first three months of 193. He succeeded Commodus to become the first emperor during the tumultuous Year of the Five Emperors.
Born the son of a freed slave ...
() is recorded at the Temple of Tutu at
Kellis
Ancient Kellis, now known as Ismant el-Kharab (Ismant the ruined), was a village in Upper Egypt during the Hellenistic Period, Roman Period, and Byzantine period. It was located about east-southeast of present-day Ismant in the Dakhleh Oasis, an ...
. After inscriptions of Commodus, Greek inscriptions are no longer found in the temples of the Faiyum.
It is possible that the reform of Septimius Severus at the turn of the 3rd century aggravated the decline of the Egyptian temples; the ''mētropoleis'' now given administrative control over the temples of their ''nomoi'' did not prioritize their upkeep.
![Copper alloy statues](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Copper_alloy_statues.jpg)
With a carved relief at Esna, Septimius Severus was commemorated, together with his son and co-''augustus''
Caracalla
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname "Caracalla" () was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor S ...
, his wife
Julia Domna
Julia Domna (; – 217 AD) was Roman empress from 193 to 211 as the wife of Emperor Septimius Severus. She was the first empress of the Severan dynasty. Domna was born in Emesa (present-day Homs) in Roman Syria to an Arab family of priests of ...
the ''augusta'', and their younger son
Geta
Geta may refer to:
Places
*Geta (woreda), a woreda in Ethiopia's Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region
*Geta, Åland, a municipality in Finland
*Geta, Nepal, a town in Attariya Municipality, Kailali District, Seti Zone, Nepal
*Get ...
, on the occasion of the imperial tour of Egypt in 199–200.
Caracalla's own titles are recorded at Philae, Ombos, in Middle Egypt, and in the Delta.
After he murdered his brother and co-''augustus'' Geta, his image was removed from their father's monument relief at Esna as part of the ''damnatio memoriae'' imposed by Caracalla.
Caracalla's successor was
Macrinus
Marcus Opellius Macrinus (; – June 218) was Roman emperor from April 217 to June 218, reigning jointly with his young son Diadumenianus. As a member of the equestrian class, he became the first emperor who did not hail from the senatori ...
, whose patronage is recorded only at Kom Ombo; evidence of his successor
Elagabalus
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, 204 – 11/12 March 222), better known by his nickname "Elagabalus" (, ), was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short reign was conspicuous for s ...
in Egypt has not survived, and neither is the patronage of
Severus Alexander
Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander (1 October 208 – 21/22 March 235) was a Roman emperor, who reigned from 222 until 235. He was the last emperor from the Severan dynasty. He succeeded his slain cousin Elagabalus in 222. Alexander himself was ...
recorded.
Monumental temple-building and decoration among the Egyptian cults ceased altogether in the early 3rd century.
After
Philip the Arab
Philip the Arab ( la, Marcus Julius Philippus "Arabs"; 204 – September 249) was Roman emperor from 244 to 249. He was born in Aurantis, Arabia, in a city situated in modern-day Syria. After the death of Gordian III in February 244, Philip ...
's
cartouche
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the fea ...
was added to the temple wall at Esna, his successor
Decius
Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius ( 201 ADJune 251 AD), sometimes translated as Trajan Decius or Decius, was the emperor of the Roman Empire from 249 to 251.
A distinguished politician during the reign of Philip the Arab, Decius was procla ...
's cartouche was carved into it, the last known instance of this long-established practice of usurping pharaohs' erasure of their predecessors' dynastic legacy.
Philip the Arab's reign saw the last Roman inscription found in the Temple of Kalabsha; at some time thereafter the site was abandoned by the Romans.
At
Tahta
Tahta ( ar, طهطا / , ALA-LC: ''Ṭahṭā''; ; , ) is a city in the Sohag Governorate of Upper Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the Nile in an area known for its agricultural richness. Tahta had a population of 85,528 in the 2017 ce ...
in
Middle Egypt
Middle Egypt () is the section of land between Lower Egypt (the Nile Delta) and Upper Egypt, stretching upstream from Asyut in the south to Memphis in the north. At the time, Ancient Egypt was divided into Lower and Upper Egypt, though Middle ...
, the cartouche of
Maximinus Daza
Galerius Valerius Maximinus, born as Daza (20 November 270 – July 313), was Roman emperor from 310 to 313 CE. He became embroiled in the Civil wars of the Tetrarchy between rival claimants for control of the empire, in which he was defeated ...
was added to a since-ruined temple, along with other additions; he is the last Roman emperor known to have been recorded in official hieroglyphic script.
The last
Buchis bull
In Egyptian mythology, Buchis (, ) (also spelt Bakh and Bakha) was the deification of the kꜣ ("power, life-force", Egyptological pronunciation ''ka'') of the war god Montu as a sacred bull that was worshipped in the region of Hermonthis.
In ...
of
Hermonthis
Armant ( ar, أرْمَنْت; egy, jwn.w-n-mnṯ.w or ''jwn.w-šmꜥ.w''; Bohairic: ; Sahidic: ), also known as Hermonthis ( grc, Ἕρμωνθις), is a town located about south of Thebes. It was an important Middle Kingdom town, which was ...
(
Armant
Armant ( ar, أرْمَنْت; egy, jwn.w-n-mnṯ.w or ''jwn.w-šmꜥ.w''; Bohairic: ; Sahidic: ), also known as Hermonthis ( grc, Ἕρμωνθις), is a town located about south of Thebes. It was an important Middle Kingdom town, which was ...
) was born in the reign of
Licinius
Valerius Licinianus Licinius (c. 265 – 325) was Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the Edict of Milan, AD 313, that granted official toleration to C ...
and died in the reign of
Constantius II
Constantius II (Latin: ''Flavius Julius Constantius''; grc-gre, Κωνστάντιος; 7 August 317 – 3 November 361) was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germani ...
; the cartouche on its funerary ''stela'', dedicated in 340, is the last of all.
Under the
Theodosian dynasty
The Theodosian dynasty was a Roman imperial family that produced five Roman emperors during Late Antiquity, reigning over the Roman Empire from 379 to 457. The dynasty's patriarch was Theodosius the Elder, whose son Theodosius the Great was made ...
, during the joint reigns of
Theodosius the Great
Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...
and his sons
Arcadius
Arcadius ( grc-gre, Ἀρκάδιος ; 377 – 1 May 408) was Roman emperor from 383 to 408. He was the eldest son of the ''Augustus'' Theodosius I () and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and the brother of Honorius (). Arcadius ruled the ea ...
and
Honorius, an inscription at Philae's Temple of
Harendotes commemorated the birthday of Osiris in the 110th ''
anno Diocletiani'' (24 August 394), the latest hieroglyphic inscription to be dated securely.
Caligula allowed the worship of Egyptian gods in Rome, which had been formally forbidden since Augustus's reign.
In Rome, and at Beneventum (
Benevento
Benevento (, , ; la, Beneventum) is a city and ''comune'' of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino (or Beneventano) and the ...
), Domitian established new temples to the Egyptian gods Isis and Serapis.
A general "
Egyptomania
Egyptomania refers to a period of renewed interest in the culture of ancient Egypt sparked by Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign in the 19th century. Napoleon was accompanied by many scientists and scholars during this Campaign, which led to a large ...
" followed Hadrian's tour of the country, and
Hadrian's Villa
Hadrian's Villa ( it, Villa Adriana) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site comprising the ruins and archaeological remains of a large villa complex built c. AD 120 by Roman Emperor Hadrian at Tivoli outside Rome. The site is owned by the Republic of ...
at Tibur (
Tivoli) included an Egyptian-themed area known as the Canopus.
Hadrian may have been advised on religious matters by Pancrates, a poet and priest of Egypt.
Christianity
The authors of the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
do not record any missions of the
apostles to Alexandria or any
epistles to the Egyptians, though Egyptian and Alexandrian Jews in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
are mentioned in the ''
Book of Acts
The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...
''.
( and .) An Alexandrian Jew,
Apollos
Apollos ( grc-gre, Ἀπολλώς) was a 1st-century Alexandrian Jewish Christian mentioned several times in the New Testament. A contemporary and colleague of Paul the Apostle, he played an important role in the early development of the ch ...
, is recorded in the ''Book of Acts'' as speaking in the synagogue at
Ephesus
Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in t ...
, and because of an interpolation to current by the 5th-century – e.g. in the ''
Codex Bezae
The Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis, designated by siglum D or 05 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 5 (in the von Soden of New Testament manuscript), is a codex of the New Testament dating from the 5th century writ ...
'' – which suggested Apollos had been converted to Christianity in Egypt (), Christianity's arrival has been dated to the 1st century, but there is no sure evidence of this, as Apollos may have been converted elsewhere.
The
pseudepigraphical
Pseudepigrapha (also anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past.Bauckham, Richard; "Pseu ...
''
Secret Gospel of Mark
The Secret Gospel of Mark or the Mystic Gospel of Mark ( grc-x-biblical, τοῦ Μάρκου τὸ μυστικὸν εὐαγγέλιον, tou Markou to mystikon euangelion), also the Longer Gospel of Mark, is a putative longer and secret or my ...
'', of dubious authenticity, is the first text to claim
Mark the Apostle
Mark the Evangelist ( la, Marcus; grc-gre, Μᾶρκος, Mârkos; arc, ܡܪܩܘܣ, translit=Marqōs; Ge'ez: ማርቆስ; ), also known as Saint Mark, is the person who is traditionally ascribed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark. Accor ...
visited Egypt.
The 3rd-century
Sextus Julius Africanus
Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 160 – c. 240; Greek: Σέξτος Ἰούλιος ὁ Ἀφρικανός or ὁ Λίβυς) was a Christian traveler and historian of the late second and early third centuries. He is important chiefly because o ...
's chronology was probably the source of the 4th-century bishop
Eusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christia ...
's narrative of Mark's arrival in Egypt, which conflicts with that of the ''Secret Gospel of Mark'' and is the earliest history of Alexandrian Christianity, including the names of the ten bishops who supposedly succeeded Mark before the late 2nd-century episcopate of
Julian of Alexandria.
The drive to connect Alexandria with the lives of New Testament characters was part of a desire to establish continuity and
apostolic succession
Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bish ...
with the churches supposed to have been founded by
Saint Peter
Saint Peter; he, שמעון בר יונה, Šimʿōn bar Yōnāh; ar, سِمعَان بُطرُس, translit=Simʿa̅n Buṭrus; grc-gre, Πέτρος, Petros; cop, Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ, Petros; lat, Petrus; ar, شمعون الصفـا, Sham'un ...
and the other apostles.
Christianity probably arrived in Egypt among the Hellenized Alexandrian Jews, from Palestine's communities of Jewish Christians.
![P](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/P._Oxy._LX_4009.jpg)
The earliest evidence of Christianity in Egypt is a letter written in the first half of the 3rd century and mentioning the gymnasiarch and the
''boulē'' (thereby indicating the author and recipient were of the upper class) uses the Christian ''
nomina sacra
In Christian scribal practice, nomina sacra (singular: ''nomen sacrum'' from Latin ''sacred name'') is the abbreviation of several frequently occurring divine names or titles, especially in Greek manuscripts of the Bible. A nomen sacrum consists ...
'' and the , drawn from the
Pauline epistles
The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest extan ...
.
Another papyrus from the same period records the names of candidates for liturgy service "supervision of the water-tower and fountains of the metropolis" of Arsinoë (
Faiyum
Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop, ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...
); among the names is one "Antonios Dioscoros son of Origen, Alexandrian", against whose name is noted in .
With Alexandrian citizenship and a Roman
''nomen'', Antonios () was likely of higher social status than the other candidates on the list, and is the first named Egyptian Christian for which evidence exists.
In the ''Chora'' beyond Alexandria, there is no evidence at all for Christianity in the 2nd century, excepting some ambiguous letters, besides some papyrus fragments of scriptures among the
Oxyrhynchus Papyri
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient rubbish dump near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt (, mo ...
and among the papyri found at
Antinoöpolis
Antinoöpolis (also Antinoopolis, Antinoë, Antinopolis; grc, Ἀντινόου πόλις; cop, ⲁⲛⲧⲓⲛⲱⲟⲩ ''Antinow''; ar, الشيخ عبادة, modern ''Sheikh 'Ibada'' or ''Sheik Abāda'') was a city founded at an older Egyp ...
and Hipponon (Qarara) in the Heracleopolite ''nome'' around
Heracleopolis Magna
Heracleopolis Magna ( grc-gre, Μεγάλη Ἡρακλέους πόλις, ''Megálē Herakléous pólis'') and Heracleopolis (, ''Herakleópolis'') and Herakleoupolis (), is the Roman name of the capital of the 20th nome of ancient Upper Eg ...
.
Many of these are in the form of
codices
The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...
rather than scrolls, the codex being preferred by Christian scribes.
Among the 2nd-century New Testament papyri are
Rylands Library Papyrus P52
The Rylands Library Papyrus P52, also known as the St John's fragment and with an accession reference of Papyrus Rylands Greek 457, is a fragment from a papyrus codex, measuring only at its widest (about the size of a credit card), and conserved ...
and
Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 3523 – fragments of the ''Gospel of John'' –, and
Oxyrhynchus Papyrus LXIV 4404 a fragment of the ''
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and for ...
''.
It is not known whether these indicate a Christian presence outside the capital in the 2nd century, whether these papyri, dated subjectively by
palaeography
Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") ...
, are as old as has been proposed, or whether they were in Egypt when newly made or arrived in later times as already old books.
Bishops often named their successors (e.g. Peter, his brother, by Athanasius in 373) or the succession was effected by imposing the hands of a deceased bishop on the one chosen to follow him. By 200 it is clear that Alexandria was one of the great Christian centres. The Christian
apologist
Apologetics (from Greek , "speaking in defense") is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and ...
s
Clement of Alexandria
Titus Flavius Clemens, also known as Clement of Alexandria ( grc , Κλήμης ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; – ), was a Christian theologian and philosopher who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Among his pupils were Origen and ...
and
Origen
Origen of Alexandria, ''Ōrigénēs''; Origen's Greek name ''Ōrigénēs'' () probably means "child of Horus" (from , "Horus", and , "born"). ( 185 – 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an Early Christianity, early Christian scholar, ...
both lived part or all of their lives in that city, where they wrote, taught, and debated. With the
Edict of Milan
The Edict of Milan ( la, Edictum Mediolanense; el, Διάταγμα τῶν Μεδιολάνων, ''Diatagma tōn Mediolanōn'') was the February 313 AD agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire. Frend, W. H. C. ( ...
in 313,
Constantine I
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
ended the persecution of Christians. Over the course of the 5th century, paganism was suppressed and lost its following, as the poet
Palladas
Palladas ( grc-gre, Παλλαδᾶς; fl. 4th century AD) was a Greek poet, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. All that is known about this poet has been deduced from his 151 epigrams preserved in the ''Greek Anthology'' (''Anthologia graeca''); anot ...
pointedly noted. It lingered underground for many decades: the final edict against paganism was issued in 435, but graffiti at
Philae
; ar, فيلة; cop, ⲡⲓⲗⲁⲕ
, alternate_name =
, image = File:File, Asuán, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 93.jpg
, alt =
, caption = The temple of Isis from Philae at its current location on Agilkia Island in Lake Nasse ...
in Upper Egypt proves worship of
Isis
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
persisted at its temples into the 6th century. Many Egyptian Jews also became Christians, but many others refused to do so, leaving them as the only sizable religious minority in a Christian country.
No sooner had the Egyptian Church achieved freedom and supremacy than it became subject to a
schism
A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...
and prolonged conflict which at times descended into civil war. Alexandria became the centre of the first great split in the Christian world, between the
Arians
Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God t ...
, named for the Alexandrian priest
Arius
Arius (; grc-koi, Ἄρειος, ; 250 or 256 – 336) was a Cyrenaic presbyter, ascetic, and priest best known for the doctrine of Arianism. His teachings about the nature of the Godhead in Christianity, which emphasized God the Father's un ...
, and their opponents, represented by
Athanasius
Athanasius I of Alexandria, ; cop, ⲡⲓⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲁⲑⲁⲛⲁⲥⲓⲟⲩ ⲡⲓⲁⲡⲟⲥⲧⲟⲗⲓⲕⲟⲥ or Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ ⲁⲑⲁⲛⲁⲥⲓⲟⲩ ⲁ̅; (c. 296–298 – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, ...
, who became Archbishop of Alexandria in 326 after the
First Council of Nicaea
The First Council of Nicaea (; grc, Νίκαια ) was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325.
This ecumenical council was the first effort ...
rejected Arius's views. The Arian controversy caused years of riots and rebellions throughout most of the 4th century. In the course of one of these, the great
temple of Serapis, the stronghold of paganism, was destroyed. Athanasius was alternately expelled from Alexandria and reinstated as its Archbishop between five and seven times.
![Philae Temple of Isis coptic cross 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Philae_Temple_of_Isis_coptic_cross_1.JPG)
Patristic authorship was dominated by Egyptian contributions: Athanasius, Didymus the Blind and Cyril, and the power of the Alexandrian see embodied in Athanasius, Theophilus, his nephew, Cyril and shortly by Dioscuros.
Egypt had an ancient tradition of religious speculation, enabling a variety of controversial religious views to thrive there. Not only did Arianism flourish, but other doctrines, such as
Gnosticism
Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people ...
and
Manichaeism
Manichaeism (;
in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...
, either native or imported, found many followers. Another religious development in Egypt was the
monasticism
Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important role ...
of the
Desert Fathers
The Desert Fathers or Desert Monks were early Christian hermits and ascetics, who lived primarily in the Scetes desert of the Roman province of Egypt
, conventional_long_name = Roman Egypt
, common_name = Egypt
, subdivision = Province
, na ...
, who renounced the material world in order to live a life of poverty in devotion to the Church.
Egyptian Christians took up monasticism with such enthusiasm that the Emperor
Valens
Valens ( grc-gre, Ουάλης, Ouálēs; 328 – 9 August 378) was Roman emperor from 364 to 378. Following a largely unremarkable military career, he was named co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, who gave him the eastern half of ...
had to restrict the number of men who could become monks. Egypt exported monasticism to the rest of the Christian world. Another development of this period was the development of
Coptic
Coptic may refer to:
Afro-Asia
* Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya
* Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century
* Coptic alphabet ...
, a form of the Ancient Egyptian language written with the Greek alphabet supplemented by several signs to represent sounds present in Egyptian which were not present in Greek. It was invented to ensure the correct pronunciation of magical words and names in pagan texts, the so-called
Greek Magical Papyri
The Greek Magical Papyri (Latin: ''Papyri Graecae Magicae'', abbreviated ''PGM'') is the name given by scholars to a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, written mostly in ancient Greek (but also in Old Coptic, Demotic, etc.), which each cont ...
. Coptic was soon adopted by early Christians to spread the word of the gospel to native Egyptians and it became the liturgical language of Egyptian Christianity and remains so to this day.
Christianity eventually spread out west to the Berbers. The Coptic Church was established in Egypt. Since Christianity blended with local traditions, it never truly united the people against Arabian forces in the seventh and eight centuries. Later on in the seventh and eighth centuries, Christianity spread out to Nubia.
The
fall of the Western Empire in the 5th century further isolated the Egyptian Romans from Rome's culture and hastened the growth of Christianity. The success of Christianity led to a virtual abandonment of pharaonic traditions: with the disappearance of the Egyptian priests and priestesses who officiated at the temples, no-one could read the
hieroglyphs
A hieroglyph (Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatonis ...
of Pharaonic Egypt, and its temples were converted to churches or abandoned to the desert.
Cyril
Cyril (also Cyrillus or Cyryl) is a masculine given name. It is derived from the Greek name Κύριλλος (''Kýrillos''), meaning 'lordly, masterful', which in turn derives from Greek κυριος (''kýrios'') 'lord'. There are various varian ...
, the
patriarch of Alexandria
The Patriarch of Alexandria is the archbishop of Alexandria, Egypt. Historically, this office has included the designation "pope" (etymologically "Father", like "Abbot").
The Alexandrian episcopate was revered as one of the three major episco ...
, convinced the city's governor to expel the Jews from the city in 415 with the aid of the mob, in response to the Jews' alleged night-time massacre of many Christians. The murder of the philosopher
Hypatia
Hypatia, Koine pronunciation (born 350–370; died 415 AD) was a neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, then part of the Eastern Roman Empire. She was a prominent thinker in Alexandria wher ...
in March 415 marked a dramatic turn in classical Hellenic culture in Egypt but philosophy thrived in sixth century Alexandria. Another schism in the Church produced prolonged disturbances and may have alienated Egypt from the Empire. The countless
papyrus
Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...
finds mark the continuance of Greek culture and institutions at various levels.
The new religious controversy was over the
Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...
's human and divine nature. The issue was whether he had two natures, human and divine, or a combined one (
hypostatic union
''Hypostatic union'' (from the Greek: ''hypóstasis'', "sediment, foundation, substance, subsistence") is a technical term in Christian theology employed in mainstream Christology to describe the union of Christ's humanity and divinity in one h ...
from his humanity and divinity). In an intensely religious age, it was enough to divide an empire. The
Miaphysite
Miaphysitism is the Christology, Christological doctrine that holds Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, the "Incarnation (Christianity), Incarnate Logos (Christianity), Word, is fully divine and fully human, in one 'nature' (''physis'')." It is a posi ...
controversy arose after the
First Council of Constantinople
The First Council of Constantinople ( la, Concilium Constantinopolitanum; grc-gre, Σύνοδος τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως) was a council of Christian bishops convened in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in AD 381 b ...
in 381 and continued until well after the
Council of Chalcedon
The Council of Chalcedon (; la, Concilium Chalcedonense), ''Synodos tēs Chalkēdonos'' was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bith ...
in 451, which ruled in favour of the position that Christ was "one person in two natures" as opposed to Monophysitism (a single nature).
Monophysite belief was not held by the 'miaphysites' as they stated that Jesus was out of two natures in one nature called, the "Incarnate Logos of God". Many of the 'miaphysites' claimed that they were misunderstood, that there was really no difference between their position be the Chalcedonian position, and that the Council of Chalcedon ruled against them because of political motivations alone. The Church of Alexandria split from the Churches of Rome and Constantinople over this issue, creating what would become the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, which remains a major force in Egyptian religious life today.
[ See drop-down essay on "Islamic Conquest and the Ottoman Empire"] Egypt and Syria remained hotbeds of Miaphysite sentiment, and organised resistance to the Chalcedonian view was not suppressed until the 570s.
History
Early Roman Egypt (30 BC–4th century)
The province was established in 30 BC after Octavian (the future
Roman emperor Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
) defeated his rival
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 autoc ...
, deposed Pharaoh
Cleopatra
Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...
, and annexed the
Ptolemaic Kingdom to 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 Mediterr ...
.
![Stele di philae](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Stele_di_philae.jpg)
The first prefect of Aegyptus,
Gaius Cornelius Gallus
Gaius Cornelius Gallus (c. 70 – 26 BC) was a Roman poet, orator and politician.
Birthplace
The identity of Gallus' purported birthplace, '' Forum Iulii'', is still uncertain, and it is based on the epithet "Foroiuliensis" that Jerome gave to h ...
, brought Upper Egypt under Roman control by force of arms, and established a
protectorate
A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over m ...
over the southern frontier district, which had been abandoned by the later Ptolemies.
The second prefect,
Aelius Gallus, made an unsuccessful expedition to conquer
Arabia Petraea
Arabia Petraea or Petrea, also known as Rome's Arabian Province ( la, Provincia Arabia; ar, العربية البترائية; grc, Ἐπαρχία Πετραίας Ἀραβίας) or simply Arabia, was a frontier province of the Roman Empi ...
and even
Arabia Felix
Arabia Felix (literally: Fertile/Happy Arabia; also Ancient Greek: Εὐδαίμων Ἀραβία, ''Eudaemon Arabia'') was the Latin name previously used by geographers to describe South Arabia, or what is now Yemen.
Etymology
The term Arabia ...
. The
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
coast of Aegyptus was not brought under Roman control until the reign of
Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusu ...
. The third prefect,
Gaius Petronius
Gaius Petronius or Publius Petronius (c. 75 BC – after 20 BC) was the second and then fourth Prefect of Roman Aegyptus.
History
Petronius led a campaign into present-day central Sudan against the Kingdom of Kush at Meroë, whose Kandake ...
, cleared the neglected canals for irrigation, stimulating a revival of agriculture. Petronius even led a campaign into present-day central
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
against the
Kingdom of Kush
The Kingdom of Kush (; Egyptian language, Egyptian: 𓎡𓄿𓈙𓈉 ''kꜣš'', Akkadian language, Assyrian: ''Kûsi'', in LXX grc, Κυς and Κυσι ; cop, ''Ecōš''; he, כּוּשׁ ''Kūš'') was an ancient kingdom in Nubia, ce ...
at
Meroe, whose
queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
Imanarenat had previously attacked Roman Egypt. Failing to acquire permanent gains, in 22 BC he razed the city of
Napata
Napata (Old Egyptian ''Npt'', ''Npy''; Meroitic language, Meroitic ''Napa''; grc, Νάπατα and Ναπάται) was a city of ancient Kingdom of Kush, Kush at the fourth cataract of the Nile. It is located approximately 1.5 kilometers from ...
to the ground and retreated to the north.
The reigns of
Tiberius
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...
,
Caligula
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), better known by his nickname Caligula (), was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the popular Roman general Germanicu ...
, and
Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusu ...
were mainly peaceful in Egypt, with intermittent civil strife between Greeks and Jews in Alexandria.
According to the Latin historian
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his t ...
, Germanicus visited Egypt without the permission of Tiberius and caused a rift with his uncle, the emperor.
Claudius refused Alexandrian demands for self-government under their own senate, and attempted to quell the unrest between Alexandrian Greek and Jews.
Under Nero, perhaps influenced by Chaeremon of Alexandria – an Egyptian priest and the emperor's Stoicism, Stoic tutor – an expedition to Meroë was undertaken, though possible plans for an invasion of the southern kingdom was forestalled by the military demands of the First Jewish–Roman War, a revolt in Judaea.
The first ''praefectus Aegypti'' of Alexandrian origin was Tiberius Julius Alexander, who was governor through the
Year of the Four Emperors
The Year of the Four Emperors, AD 69, was the first civil war of the Roman Empire, during which four emperors ruled in succession: Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian. It is considered an important interval, marking the transition from the ...
and who eventually proclaimed the general Vespasian, victor in the Jewish War, emperor at Alexandria in July 69 AD.
This prefect was himself of Hellenized Jewish descent and related to Philo of Alexandria.
The importance of the Egyptian grain harvest () to Rome helped Vespasian assert control over the whole empire.
From the reign of Nero onward, Aegyptus enjoyed an era of prosperity which lasted a century. Much trouble was caused by religious conflicts between the Greeks and the Jews, particularly in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, which after the destruction of
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
in 70 became the world centre of Jewish religion and culture.
Vespasian was the first emperor since Augustus to appear in Egypt.
At Alexandria he was hailed as pharaoh; recalling the welcome of
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
at the Oracle of Zeus-Ammon of the Siwa Oasis, Vespasian was proclaimed the son of the creator-deity Amun (Zeus-Ammon), in the style of the ancient pharaohs, and an incarnation of Serapis in the manner of the Ptolemies.
As Pharaonic precedent demanded, Vespasian demonstrated his divine election by the traditional methods of spitting on and trampling a blind and crippled man, thereby miraculously healing him.
(This Egyptian tradition of healing is related to the healing the man blind from birth, one of the Miracles of Jesus, miracles of Jesus of Nazareth.)
In 114, during the reign of
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...
(), unrest among the Jews of Alexandria broke out after the coming of a Messiah in Judaism, Messiah was announced at Cyrene, Libya, Cyrene.
The uprising that year was defeated, but between 115 and 117 a revolt continued in the countryside in the absence of the armies away on Trajan's Parthian campaign.
This
Kitos War
The Kitos War (115–117; he, מרד הגלויות, mered ha-galuyot, or ''mered ha-tfutzot''; "rebellion of the diaspora" la, Tumultus Iudaicus) was one of the major Jewish–Roman wars (66–136). The rebellions erupted in 115, when most ...
meant that the Greeks and the Egyptian peasants took up arms in the fight against the Jews, which culminated in their defeat and the effective destruction of the Alexandrian Jewish community, which did not recover until the 3rd century.
The city of Oxyrhynchus, by contrast, celebrated their survival of the rebellion with annual festivals for at least eighty years.
In the reign of Trajan's successor
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
(), an Egyptian revolt was instigated on the occasion of a new Apis bull's identification in 122; this rebellion was soon suppressed.
Hadrian himself toured Egypt with his court for eight to ten months in 130–131, embarking on a Nile cruise, hunting lions in the desert, and making the dawn visit to the Colossi of Memnon.
Hadrian founded the city of
Antinoöpolis
Antinoöpolis (also Antinoopolis, Antinoë, Antinopolis; grc, Ἀντινόου πόλις; cop, ⲁⲛⲧⲓⲛⲱⲟⲩ ''Antinow''; ar, الشيخ عبادة, modern ''Sheikh 'Ibada'' or ''Sheik Abāda'') was a city founded at an older Egyp ...
where his lover
Antinous
Antinous, also called Antinoös, (; grc-gre, Ἀντίνοος; 27 November – before 30 October 130) was a Greek youth from Bithynia and a favourite and probable lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Following his premature death before his ...
drowned in the river; the ''polis'' joined the other three ''poleis'' as a city with Hellenic citizenship rights, and he commissioned the ''Via Hadriana'', connecting Antinoöpolis with Berenice Troglodytica, on the Red Sea.
In 139, at the start of the reign of
Antoninus Pius
Antoninus Pius (Latin: ''Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius''; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty.
Born into a senatoria ...
(), the Sothic cycle came to its end, meaning that for the first time in 1,460 years, the heliacal rising of Sirius coincided with the
Egyptian calendar
The ancient Egyptian calendar – a civil calendar – was a solar calendar with a 365-day year. The year consisted of three seasons of 120 days each, plus an intercalary month of five epagomenal days treated as outside of the year proper. Eac ...
's New Year.
The emperor's coinage commemorated the good fortune this was expected to portend with images of the millennial Phoenix (mythology), phoenix.
At some time during his reign, Antoninus Pius visited Alexandria and had new gates and a new hippodrome built, but in 153, a riot in Alexandria killed the
The destructive
Antonine Plague epidemic affected Egypt from 165 to 180; evidence of mass graves from that time has been discovered by archaeological excavation in the Valley of the Queens.
A revolt of the native Ancient Egyptians, Egyptians from 171 was suppressed only in 175, after much fighting.
This "Bucolic War", named for the native "herdsmen" () was led by one Isidorus and had defeated the Roman garrison of Egypt.
Control was re-established by Avidius Cassius, the governor of Roman Syria and son of an erstwhile ''praefectus Aegypti'', who then declared himself emperor in 175, being acknowledged by his own armies and the Army of Egypt amid rumours that the emperor Marcus Aurelius () was dead.
On the emperor's approach, Cassius was deposed and killed after three months' rule, and the clemency of Marcus Aurelius restored peace as he visited Alexandria in 176.
Marcus Aurelius's successor
Commodus
Commodus (; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was a Roman emperor who ruled from 177 to 192. He served jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 176 until the latter's death in 180, and thereafter he reigned alone until his assassination. ...
() overturned his adoptive father's pardon of Avidius Cassius's family by having them all murdered at the beginning of his reign.
After Commodus's own murder,
Pertinax
Publius Helvius Pertinax (; 1 August 126 – 28 March 193) was Roman emperor for the first three months of 193. He succeeded Commodus to become the first emperor during the tumultuous Year of the Five Emperors.
Born the son of a freed slave ...
was appointed emperor on 1 January 193, but this was only officially noticed in Egypt in early March, shortly before Pertinax's murder; news of this did not become known in parts of Egypt until late May.
Pescennius Niger (), who had commanded a garrison at Aswan and the army in Syria, was recognized as the reigning emperor of Egypt by June 193, with Egypt ignoring the claims made in the brief reign of Didius Julianus at Rome.
Following Hadrian's route, Septimius Severus made a tour of Egypt in 199–200, visiting the Colossi of Memnon and ordering the statues repaired, which resulted in the natural "singing" phenomenon reported by visitors to the Colossi for centuries ceasing to be heard.
A series of administrative reforms, probably intended to improve revenue collection, included a new
''boulē'' (a local council or senate) for Alexandria, and for the ''mētropolis'' of each ''nome'', instituted in 200/201.
Caracalla
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname "Caracalla" () was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor S ...
() granted Roman citizenship to all Egyptians, in common with the other provincials, with the 212 ''
Constitutio Antoniniana
The ''Constitutio Antoniniana'' (Latin for: "Constitution r Edictof Antoninus") (also called the Edict of Caracalla or the Antonine Constitution) was an edict issued in AD 212, by the Roman Emperor Caracalla. It declared that all free men in t ...
''. As a consequence, many Egyptians adopted the emperor's ''nomen gentilicium'', "Aurelius" (after his imperial predecessor Marcus Aurelius) as their name according to Roman naming conventions, though citizenship's entitlements were less valuable than in past centuries and carried a tax burden.
Caracalla murdered his brother and co-''augustus'' Geta not long after their father's death, claiming self-defence and imposing a ''damnatio memoriae''; this excuse and other defects of the emperor's character were mocked by the Alexandrians as he approached Egypt in 215, angering Caracalla.
The emperor massacred Alexandria's welcoming delegation and allowed his army to sack the city; afterwards, he barred Egyptians from entering the place (except where for religious or trade reasons) and increased its security.
Macrinus
Marcus Opellius Macrinus (; – June 218) was Roman emperor from April 217 to June 218, reigning jointly with his young son Diadumenianus. As a member of the equestrian class, he became the first emperor who did not hail from the senatori ...
(), having assassinated Caracalla, assumed power and dispatched a new ''praefectus Aegypti'' and, breaking precedent, a senator to govern Egypt. When the deaths of Macrinus and his co-''augustus'' Diadumenian () after the Battle of Antioch (218), Battle of Antioch were announced in Alexandria, the Alexandrians rose up, killed the senator, and forced out the prefect.
The victor in the civil war was
Elagabalus
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, 204 – 11/12 March 222), better known by his nickname "Elagabalus" (, ), was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short reign was conspicuous for s ...
(), himself succeeded by
Severus Alexander
Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander (1 October 208 – 21/22 March 235) was a Roman emperor, who reigned from 222 until 235. He was the last emperor from the Severan dynasty. He succeeded his slain cousin Elagabalus in 222. Alexander himself was ...
() after the former's murder, but even though Severus Alexander may have visited Alexandria, neither emperor is much recorded in Egyptian sources.
After Decius died, Trebonianus Gallus () was recognized as emperor; in 253 an embassy from Meroë to the Romans is attested from a ''graffito'' carved at Philae.
Both Trebonianus Gallus and Aemilianus () had coins issued in their names at Alexandria.
During the reigns of Valerian (emperor), Valerian () and his son Gallienus (), the empire's instability was compounded by the Valerianic Persecution and the unprecedented total defeat and capture of Valerian by the Sasanian Empire's Shapur I () at the 260 Battle of Edessa.
After this humiliation, the army Acclamatio, acclaimed the brothers Quietus and Macrianus Minor, Macrianus () ''augusti''; they were the acknowledged emperors in Egypt.
When they were overthrown, the Alexandrians acclaimed Lucius Mussius Aemilianus, the ''praefectus Aegypti'' as their new emperor.
He enjoyed successes against the Blemmyes attacking the Thebaid, but by August 262 Alexandria was devastated and had lost two thirds of its inhabitants amid street fighting between the loyalists of Aemilianus and Gallienus; Aemilianus was defeated.
There was a series of revolts, both military and civilian, through the 3rd century. Under
Decius
Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius ( 201 ADJune 251 AD), sometimes translated as Trajan Decius or Decius, was the emperor of the Roman Empire from 249 to 251.
A distinguished politician during the reign of Philip the Arab, Decius was procla ...
, in 250, the Christians again suffered from persecution, but their religion continued to spread. The prefect of Aegyptus in 260, Mussius Aemilianus, first supported the Macriani (disambiguation), Macriani, Gallienus usurpers, usurpers during the rule of Gallienus, and later, in 261, became a Roman usurper, usurper himself, but was defeated by Gallienus.
During the existence of the break-away
Palmyrene Empire
The Palmyrene Empire was a short-lived breakaway state from the Roman Empire resulting from the Crisis of the Third Century. Named after its capital city, Palmyra, it encompassed the Roman provinces of Syria Palaestina, Arabia Petraea, and Egypt, ...
, Egypt came under the rule of
Zenobia
Septimia Zenobia (Palmyrene Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; AD 240 – c. 274) was a third-century queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria. Many legends surround her ancestry; she was probably not a commoner and she married the ruler of the city, ...
.
Under her control, the Palmyrene state went to war with Rome, holding Egypt against
Aurelian
Aurelian ( la, Lucius Domitius Aurelianus; 9 September 214 October 275) was a Roman emperor, who reigned during the Crisis of the Third Century, from 270 to 275. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited t ...
(); his forces, led by his eventual successor Probus (emperor), Probus (), captured Egypt by the end of 271.
In 272 however, both Alexandria and Palmyra were again in revolt, at the instigation of Firmus, an Alexandrian with connections to the Blemmyes.
Aurelian besieged Alexandria and Firmus killed himself.
The reign of Aurelian's successor Marcus Claudius Tacitus () left no known surviving mark on Egypt, and his brother Florianus () was overthrown by Probus with the support of the Army of Egypt.
The Blemmyes attacked Coptos and Ptolemais with incursions into Upper Egypt; Probus defeated them.
Later Roman Egypt (4th–7th centuries)
Coptos revolted in 293 and was destroyed by the ''augustus''
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
's ''Caesar (title), caesar'' (junior co-emperor) and future successor, Galerius ().
Diocletian's reforms subdivided the empire into more numerous late Roman provinces; these were grouped into thirteen Roman dioceses, and these into four praetorian prefectures.
The old province of Aegyptus was divided, with the
Thebaid
The Thebaid or Thebais ( grc-gre, Θηβαΐς, ''Thēbaïs'') was a region in ancient Egypt, comprising the 13 southernmost nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos to Aswan.
Pharaonic history
The Thebaid acquired its name from its proximity to ...
becoming its own province. Financial and tax reforms were implemented in Egypt in 297, and Egyptian currency was brought into line with the rest of the empire's monetary reforms.
The role of the ''praefectus Aegypti'' was divided between a ''
praeses
''Praeses'' (Latin ''praesides'') is a Latin word meaning "placed before" or "at the head". In antiquity, notably under the Roman Dominate, it was used to refer to Roman governors; it continues to see some use for various modern positions.
...
'' – a civilian governor – and a military ''
dux
''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, '' ...
''.
In 297,
Domitius Domitianus
Lucius Domitius Domitianus or, rarely, Domitian III, was a Roman usurper against Diocletian, who seized power for a short time in Egypt.
History
Nothing is known of the background and family of Domitianus. He may have served as prefect of Egyp ...
led a revolt and made himself emperor, assisted by
Achilleus
In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's ''Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, k ...
.
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
captured Alexandria from them after an eight-month siege and "Pompey's Pillar (column), Pompey's Pillar" was erected in his honour in the Serapeum of Alexandria.
Diocletian then travelled through Egypt as far as
Philae
; ar, فيلة; cop, ⲡⲓⲗⲁⲕ
, alternate_name =
, image = File:File, Asuán, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 93.jpg
, alt =
, caption = The temple of Isis from Philae at its current location on Agilkia Island in Lake Nasse ...
, where new gates were constructed for the occasion.
Diocletian is also known to have visited Panopolis in 298.
He ceded the
Dodekaschoinos
The Triakontaschoinos ( el, Τριακοντάσχοινος, "Land of the Thirty '' Schoinoi''"), Latinized as Triacontaschoenus, was a geographical and administrative term used in the Greco-Roman world for the part of Lower Nubia between the Fi ...
, upstream of the
First Cataract
The Cataracts of the Nile are shallow lengths (or whitewater rapids) of the Nile river, between Khartoum and Aswan, where the surface of the water is broken by many small boulders and stones jutting out of the river bed, as well as many rocky ...
in Lower Nubia, to the Noba people, who were subsidized by the Romans to defend the frontier, now at Syene (Aswan), from attack by the Blemmyes.
Diocletian's second visit to Egypt, in 302, involved distributions of bread to the Alexandrians and actions taken against adherents of
Manichaeism
Manichaeism (;
in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...
; the following year, Diocletian instituted the Diocletianic Persecution against Christianity.
The persecution was remembered as particularly intense under Satrius Arrianus and Sossianus Hierocles, the ''praefecti'' between 304 and 307 and in 310 respectively.
The Edict of Serdica published by Galerius, the senior emperor in 311, ended the Diocletianic Persecution.
![Roman - Pendant with Portrait of Alexander the Great - Walters 57526](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Roman_-_Pendant_with_Portrait_of_Alexander_the_Great_-_Walters_57526.jpg)
In 313, having defeated their rivals, the co-''augusti''
Licinius
Valerius Licinianus Licinius (c. 265 – 325) was Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the Edict of Milan, AD 313, that granted official toleration to C ...
() and
Constantine the Great
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
() issued their
Edict of Milan
The Edict of Milan ( la, Edictum Mediolanense; el, Διάταγμα τῶν Μεδιολάνων, ''Diatagma tōn Mediolanōn'') was the February 313 AD agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire. Frend, W. H. C. ( ...
, giving Christianity official recognition among the Romans' other religions.
The tax system was reformed, and new fifteen-year cycles (back-dated to 312) of indictions were instituted for revenue purposes.
The former soldier Pachomius the Great was baptized into Christianity in 313.
Constantine may have planned a visit to Egypt in 325, since preparations were made for an imperial reception at Oxyrhynchus, but these plans would have been forestalled by the convocation of the Christian
First Council of Nicaea
The First Council of Nicaea (; grc, Νίκαια ) was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325.
This ecumenical council was the first effort ...
.
The Nicene Creed united most of the Christian Church against the Arianism promoted by the Egyptian bishop
Arius
Arius (; grc-koi, Ἄρειος, ; 250 or 256 – 336) was a Cyrenaic presbyter, ascetic, and priest best known for the doctrine of Arianism. His teachings about the nature of the Godhead in Christianity, which emphasized God the Father's un ...
and in favour of the doctrines of another Egyptian bishop, Athanasius of Alexandria.
In 330, the Christian monastic Macarius of Egypt established his monastery at Scetis (
Wadi El Natrun
Wadi El Natrun (Arabic: "Valley of Natron"; Coptic: , "measure of the hearts") is a depression in northern Egypt that is located below sea level and below the Nile River level. The valley contains several alkaline lakes, natron-rich salt dep ...
) in the Nitrian Desert.
On 24 February 391, the emperor
Theodosius the Great
Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...
(), in the names of himself and his co-''augusti'' (his brother-in-law Valentinian II () and his own son
Arcadius
Arcadius ( grc-gre, Ἀρκάδιος ; 377 – 1 May 408) was Roman emperor from 383 to 408. He was the eldest son of the ''Augustus'' Theodosius I () and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and the brother of Honorius (). Arcadius ruled the ea ...
()) banned sacrifices and worship at temples throughout the empire in a decree addressed to Rome's ''praefectus urbi''.
On 16 June, writing to the ''praefectus augustalis'' and the ''comes Aegypti'', Theodosius and his imperial colleagues reissued the ban on temple worship and sacrifices for Alexandria and Egypt specifically.
![Alexandrian World Chronicle - 6v](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Alexandrian_World_Chronicle_-_6v.jpg)
Unrest was fomented against the pagan inhabitants by the bishop, Pope Theophilus I of Alexandria, Theophilus of Alexandria, who provoked riots by attempting to convert a temple into a church and staging the discovery of Christian relics.
These were processed through the streets and the pagans were forced to take refuge in the Serapeum of Alexandria, Serapeum, with the philosopher Olympius at their head.
The Christian mob loyal to Theophilus sacked the Serapeum, and ultimately it was rededicated as a church to John the Baptist.
The Serapeum of Canopus, Egypt, Canopus (Abu Qir) was looted at the same time, becoming first a monastery and then a church dedicated to Cyrus and John.
Ammonius Grammaticus – a priest of Thoth – and the Alexandrian poet Claudian both subsequently fled Egypt, for Constantinople and Rome respectively.
Arcadius' son and successor Theodosius II's long reign () saw the unrest generated by the bishop Cyril of Alexandria; he was opposed to the doctrines of Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, in relation to the title Mother of God (''Theotokos'').
The faction of Cyril, aided by
Shenoute
Shenoute of Atripe, also known as Shenoute the Great or Saint Shenoute the Archimandrite ( Coptic: ; (347-465 or 348-466) was the abbot of the White Monastery in Egypt. He is considered a saint by the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and is one of ...
, prevailed, and Nestorius, having been denounced at the 431 Council of Ephesus, was banished in 435 to the Kharga Oasis in the Western Desert.
The see of Alexandria's bishop reached the zenith of its influence in 449, when under Dioscorus I () it successfully defended the doctrines of Eutyches at the Second Council of Ephesus against the positions of Dioscorus' rival bishops, Pope Leo I, Leo I of Rome and Flavian of Constantinople.
The Blemmyes continued to attack Roman Egypt, though they were romanticized by pagans for their resistance to the Christians. Olympiodorus of Thebes wrote a positive account of them after a visit in .
In 451, the emperor Marcian () arrived at a peace treaty with the Blemmyes which allowed them the use of the temple at Philae annually and permitted them to use (and return) the temples' cult statues for oracular purposes.
Marcian however, convened the 451
Council of Chalcedon
The Council of Chalcedon (; la, Concilium Chalcedonense), ''Synodos tēs Chalkēdonos'' was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bith ...
, overturning the conclusions of the Second Council of Ephesus, condemning Dioscorus and sending him into exile.
The resultant, and lasting, schism between the Coptic Church and the state church of the Roman Empire dates from this time.
Proterius of Alexandria, Proterius was appointed bishop in Dioscorus' stead.
When the Alexandrians heard of the accession of Marcian's successor Leo I the Thracian, Leo I, they tore apart the hated Proterius and replaced him with their own nomination, Pope Timothy II of Alexandria, Timothy II, whose election was not recognized by either Leo or his successor and son-in-law Zeno (emperor), Zeno.
When Leo's brother-in-law Basiliscus seized Zeno's throne in 475, his monophysitism enabled a thaw in relations between Alexandria and the eastern imperial capital, but Zeno's recovery of Constantinople the following year resumed the hostility.
Zeno's attempt to repair relations between Rome, Constantinople and Alexandria resulted in his own excommunication by the bishop of Rome, Pope Felix III, Felix III, and beginning the Acacian schism.
![Carmagnola 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Carmagnola_1.jpg)
The Sasanian Empire invaded the Nile Delta in the reign of Anastasius I Dicorus, Anastasius I (), though the Sasanian army retreated after they failed to capture Alexandria or make significant gains.
In the early 6th century and in the reign of Justin I (), the Blemmyes again made attacks on Upper Egypt.
Justin's successor Justinian I () and his wife, the ''augusta'' Theodora (wife of Justinian I), Theodora, both sought to convert the Noba to Christianity; envoys of Justinian promoted dyophysitism but the Noba were persuaded to adopt the monophysitism of the Coptic Church by emissaries of the empress.
Newly converted, they assisted the Roman army in its conquest of the pagan Blemmyes, and the general Narses was in 543 sent to confiscate the cult statues of Philae (which were sent to Constantinople), close the temple, and suppress its priesthood by imprisonment.
In 577, during the retirement of Justinian's successor Justin II () and the start of Tiberius II Constantine's reign (), the defences at Philae had to be rebuilt to repel attacks by the Blemmyes.
![NE 565ad](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/NE_565ad.jpg)
The reign of
Constantine the Great
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
also saw the founding of Constantinople as a new capital for the Roman Empire, and in the course of the 4th century, the Empire was divided in two, with Egypt finding itself in the Eastern Empire with its capital at Constantinople. Latin, never well established in Egypt, would play a declining role with Greek continuing to be the dominant language of government and scholarship. During the 5th and 6th centuries the Eastern Roman Empire, known historiographically as the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
, gradually transformed itself into a thoroughly Christian state whose culture differed significantly from its pagan past.
The Eastern Empire became increasingly "oriental" in style as its links with the old Græco-Roman world faded. The Greek system of local government by citizens had now entirely disappeared. Offices, with new Greek-Byzantine names, were almost hereditary in the wealthy land-owning families. Alexandria, the second city of the empire, continued to be a centre of religious controversy and violence.
Egypt nevertheless continued to be an important economic center for the Empire supplying much of its agriculture and manufacturing needs as well as continuing to be an important center of scholarship. It would supply the needs of the Byzantine Empire and the Mediterranean as a whole. The reign of Justinian I, Justinian (527–565) saw the Empire recapture Rome and much of
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
from the barbarians, but these successes left the empire's eastern flank exposed. The Empire's "Breadbasket, bread basket" now lacked protection.
Episcopal sees
Ancient episcopal sees of the Roman province of Aegyptus Primus (I) listed in the ''Annuario Pontificio'' as titular sees,
[''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), "Sedi titolari", pp. 819-1013] suffragans of the Patriarchate of Alexandria are enumerated in the following. The list here, however, does not cover other provinces such as Augustamnica, Arcadia and Thebais.
Ancient episcopal sees of the Roman province of Aegyptus Secundus (II) listed in the ''Annuario Pontificio'' as titular sees :
[
]
Sassanian Persian invasion (619 AD)
The Sasanian conquest of Egypt, beginning in AD 618 or 619, was one of the last Sassanid Empire, Sassanid triumphs in the Roman-Persian Wars against Byzantine Empire, Roman Empire. From 619 to 628, Sasanian Egypt, they incorporated Egypt once again within their territories, the previous longer time being under the Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt, Achaemenids. Khosrow II Parvêz had begun Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, this war on the pretext of retaliation for the assassination of Emperor Maurice (emperor), Maurice (582–602) and had achieved a series of early successes, culminating in the conquests of Siege of Jerusalem (614), Jerusalem (614) and Siege of Alexandria (619), Alexandria (619).
A Byzantine counteroffensive launched by Emperor Heraclius in the spring of 622 shifted the advantage, and the war was brought to an end by the fall of Khosrow on 25 February 628. The Egyptians had no love of the emperor in Constantinople and put up little resistance. Khosrow's son and successor, Kavadh II Šêrôe (Šêrôy), who reigned until September, concluded a peace treaty returning territories conquered by the Sassanids to the Eastern Roman Empire.
The Sassanian conquest allowed Miaphysitism to resurface in the open in Egypt, and when imperial rule was restored by Emperor Heraclius in 629, the Miaphysites were persecuted and their patriarch expelled. Egypt was thus in a state of both religious and political alienation from the Empire when a new invader appeared.
Arab Islamic conquest (639–646 AD)
An army of 4,000 Arabs led by Amr Ibn Al-Aas was sent by the Caliph Umar, successor to Muhammad, to spread Islamic rule to the west. Arabs crossed into Egypt from Palestine in December 639, and advanced rapidly into the Nile Delta
The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Po ...
. The Imperial garrisons retreated into the walled towns, where they successfully held out for a year or more.
The Arabs sent for reinforcements, and in April 641 they Siege of Alexandria (641), besieged and captured Alexandria. The Byzantines assembled a fleet with the aim of recapturing Egypt, and won back Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
in 645. The Muslims retook the city in 646, completing the Muslim conquest of Egypt
The Muslim conquest of Egypt, led by the army of 'Amr ibn al-'As, took place between 639 and 646 AD and was overseen by the Rashidun Caliphate. It ended the seven-century-long period of Roman Egypt, Roman reign over Egypt that began in 30 BC. ...
. 40,000 civilians were evacuated to Constantinople with the imperial fleet. Thus ended 975 years of Greco-Roman rule over Egypt.
Gallery
File:Mummy Mask of a Man, early 1st century C.E.,72.57.jpg, Mummy Mask of a Man, early 1st century AD, 72.57, Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
File:Vaso canopo (26797992031).jpg, Canopic jar from the 3rd or 4th century (National Archaeological Museum, Florence)
File:FuneraryMasksRomanEgypt.jpg, Death mask, Funerary masks uncovered in Faiyum
Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop, ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...
, 1st century.
File:Egitto, horus imperatore, II sec dc..JPG, 2nd-century statuette of Horus as Roman general (Louvre)
File:Egitto, horus legionario, I sec. ac-IV dc ca..JPG, 1st–4th-century statuette of Horus as a Roman soldier (Louvre)
File:Figure of Isis-Aphrodite MET DT6643.jpg, 2nd-century statuette of Isis–Aphrodite (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
File:Basso egitto, iside-afrodite, II sec dc ca..JPG, 2nd-century statuette of Isis–Aphrodite from Lower Egypt (Louvre)
File:Egitto, iside che allatta arpocrate, I sec ac.-IV dc ca..JPG, 1st–4th-century statuette of Isis ''lactans'' (Louvre)
File:Musee Pio Clementino-Isis lactans.jpg, Isis ''lactans'': the mother goddess suckles Harpocrates
Harpocrates ( grc, Ἁρποκράτης, Phoenician: 𐤇𐤓𐤐𐤊𐤓𐤈, romanized: ḥrpkrṭ, ''harpokrates'') was the god of silence, secrets and confidentiality in the Hellenistic religion developed in Ptolemaic Alexandria (and also ...
(Pio-Clementino Museum)
File:Anubis, Anzio, Villa Pamphili, 1st-2nd century AD, Pario marble - Museo Gregoriano Egizio - Vatican Museums - DSC00818.jpg, 1st/2nd-century Parian marble statue of Anubis (Gregorian Egyptian Museum)
File:Floor mosaic with Anubis, from a domus in Ariminum (Rimini), end 2nd - early 3rd century, Museo della Città, Rimini, Italy (19716812562).jpg, 2nd/3rd-century mosaic of Anubis from Ariminum (Museo della Città, Rimini)
File:Luxor Museum Koptischer Grabstein 01.jpg, 6th- or 7th-century Christian sandstone grave stela (Luxor Museum)
File:Luxor Museum Frühchristliche Stele 01.jpg, 6th- or 7th-century Christian sandstone stela (Luxor Museum)
File:Luxor Museum Relief 01.jpg, 6th- or 7th-century Christian sandstone relief (Luxor Museum)
File:As-Hadrian-Aegyptus-RIC 0839,As.jpg, Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
coin celebrating Aegyptus Province, struck c. 135. In the obverse, Egypt is personified as a reclining woman holding the sistrum of Hathor
Hathor ( egy, ḥwt-ḥr, lit=House of Horus, grc, Ἁθώρ , cop, ϩⲁⲑⲱⲣ, Meroitic: ) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky ...
. Her left elbow rests on a basket of grain, while an ibis stands on the column at her feet.
File:Denarius-Zenobia-s3290.jpg, Zenobia
Septimia Zenobia (Palmyrene Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; AD 240 – c. 274) was a third-century queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria. Many legends surround her ancestry; she was probably not a commoner and she married the ruler of the city, ...
coin reporting her title as queen of Egypt (''Augusta (honorific), Augusta''), and showing her diademed and draped bust on a crescent. The obverse shows a standing figure of Ivno Regina (Juno (mythology), Juno) holding a patera in her right hand and a sceptre in her left hand, with a peacock at her feet and a brilliant star on the left.
See also
* Egyptian Arabic
* Roman pharaoh
The Roman pharaohs, rarely referred to as ancient Egypt's Thirty-fourth Dynasty, were the Roman emperors in their capacity as rulers of Egypt, especially in Egyptology. After Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 30 BC, the people and ...
References
Further reading
* Angold, Michael. 2001. ''Byzantium : the bridge from antiquity to the Middle Ages''. 1st US Edition. New York : St. Martin's Press
* Bowman, Alan Keir. 1996. ''Egypt After the Pharaohs: 332 BC–AD 642; From Alexander to the Arab Conquest''. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press
* Bowman, Alan K. and Dominic Rathbone. “Cities and Administration in Roman Egypt.” ''The Journal of Roman Studies'' 82 (1992): 107–127. Database on-line. JSTOR, GALILEO; accessed October 27, 2008
* Chauveau, Michel. 2000. ''Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra: History and Society under the Ptolemies''. Translated by David Lorton. Ithaca: Cornell University Press
* El-Abbadi, M.A.H. “The Gerousia in Roman Egypt.” ''The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology'' 50 (December 1964): 164–169. Database on-line. JSTOR, GALILEO; accessed October 27, 2008.
* Ellis, Simon P. 1992. ''Graeco-Roman Egypt''. Shire Egyptology 17, ser. ed. Barbara G. Adams. Aylesbury: Shire Publications Ltd.
* Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on the Western Regions according to the ''Hou Hanshu''." 2nd Draft Edition
* Hill, John E. 2004. ''The Peoples of the West from the Weilue'' 魏略 ''by Yu Huan'' 魚豢'': A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE'' Draft annotated English translation
* Hölbl, Günther. 2001. ''A History of the Ptolemaic Empire''. Translated by Tina Saavedra. London: Routledge Ltd.
* Lloyd, Alan Brian. 2000. "The Ptolemaic Period (332–30 BC)". In ''The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt'', edited by Ian Shaw. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 395–421
* Peacock, David. 2000. "The Roman Period (30 BC–AD 311)". In ''The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt'', edited by Ian Shaw. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 422–445
* Riggs, Christina, ed. (2012). ''The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt''. Oxford University Press. .
*Jane Rowlandson, Rowlandson, Jane. 1996. ''Landowners and Tenants in Roman Egypt: The social relations of agriculture in the Oxyrhynchite nome''. Oxford University Press
*Jane Rowlandson, Rowlandson, Jane. 1998. (ed) ''Women and Society in Greek and Roman Egypt: A Sourcebook.'' Cambridge University Press.
*Sippel, Benjamin. 2020. ''Gottesdiener und Kamelzüchter: Das Alltags- und Sozialleben der Sobek-Priester im kaiserzeitlichen Fayum''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (Philippika 144). .
External links
Detailed Map of Aegyptus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roman Egypt
Roman Egypt,
New Testament places
Provinces of the Roman Empire, Egypt
Provinces of the Byzantine Empire, Egypt
Late Roman provinces
States and territories established in the 1st century BC
30 BC
1st-century BC establishments in Roman Egypt, *
1st-century BC establishments in Egypt
States and territories disestablished in the 7th century
640s disestablishments in the Byzantine Empire
641 disestablishments
7th-century disestablishments in Egypt