Ptolemies and Greek Rule of Egypt (330-30 B.C.) | Middle East And North Africa

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GREEK RULE OF ANCIENT EGYPT (330-30 B.C.)

Ptolemaic Empire in 300 BC
The Greco-Roman Period in Egypt (332 B.C. to A.D. 395) began when the Persians were defeated by Alexander the Great in the early fourth century B.C. When Alexander died his kingdom was divided. One of generals, Ptolemy took over Egypt. His descendants ruled Egypt until the death of Cleopatra (Cleopatra VII) in 30 B.C.. Cleopatra was the only Ptolemy who learned to speak Egyptian.

Prior to Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt, the region was controlled by the ancient Persians. After Alexander died in 323 B.C., Ptolemy and his descendants ruled Egypt for nearly 300 years, until the death of Cleopatra. Although the 18th dynasty of the Ancient Egypt was the longest of the dynasties delineated by Manetho, the periods of Greek and Roman rule were longer. Neither the Ptolemaic or Roman rulers are considered to be part of a numbered ancient Egyptian dynasty. [Source Live Science]

The Ptolemic period was a time of great learning. In Egypt, Greek physicians taught the study of human anatomy. In Babylon Greek physicists developed a method to electroplate silver to copper. The Ptolemies brought Greek culture to Egypt and made Alexandria the center of Greek culture. Greek was the language of the court and the bureaucracy. Most of the nobility was made up of Greeks, few of whom bothered to learn the Egyptian language. The Ptolemies didn't trust the local Egyptians so they recruited native Greeks to be soldiers, bureaucrats, administrators. They also encouraged thousands of Greeks to pack up their bags and abandon their homeland in favor of Egypt.

Chip Brown wrote in National Geographic, "The dynasty's greatest legacy was Alexandria itself, with its hundred-foot-wide main avenue, its gleaming limestone colonnades, its harborside palaces and temples overseen by a towering lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, on the island of Pharos. Alexandria soon became the largest, most sophisticated city on the planet. It was a teeming cosmopolitan mix of Egyptians, Greeks, Jews, Romans, Nubians, and other peoples. The best and brightest of the Mediterranean world came to study at the Mouseion, the world's first academy, and at the great Alexandria library. [Source: Chip Brown, National Geographic, July 2011]

Websites on Ancient Greece: House of Ptolemy houseofptolemy.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Hellenistic World sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Greeks bbc.co.uk/history/; Canadian Museum of History historymuseum.ca; Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; ; Gutenberg.org gutenberg.org; British Museum ancientgreece.co.uk; Illustrated Greek History, Dr. Janice Siegel, Department of Classics, Hampden–Sydney College, Virginia hsc.edu/drjclassics ; The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization pbs.org/empires/thegreeks ; Oxford Classical Art Research Center: The Beazley Archive beazley.ox.ac.uk ; Ancient-Greek.org ancientgreece.com; Metropolitan Museum of Art metmuseum.org/about-the-met/curatorial-departments/greek-and-roman-art; The Ancient City of Athens stoa.org/athens; The Internet Classics Archive kchanson.com ; Cambridge Classics External Gateway to Humanities Resources web.archive.org/web; Ancient Greek Sites on the Web from Medea showgate.com/medea ; Greek History Course from Reed web.archive.org; Classics FAQ MIT rtfm.mit.edu; 11th Brittanica: History of Ancient Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ;Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu;Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu

Ptolemies

Ptolemy I was a Macedonian. His successors were the the royal family of Egypt. The Macedonian-Greek dynasty (the Ptolemies) he founded ruled Egypt for more than 300 years. There were 15 Ptolemic leaders and they ruled from 332 B.C. to 30 B.C. from Alexandria. Cleopatra was the last of the Ptolemies. When she died in 30 B.C., Romans took over territory formally controlled by the Ptolemies.

The Ptolemaic rulers were Greeks who respected some of Egypt's social and religious traditions while fashioning a Hellenistic monarchy for themselves. Chip Brown wrote in National Geographic, “The Ptolemies of Macedonia are one of history's most flamboyant dynasties, famous not only for wealth and wisdom but also for bloody rivalries and the sort of "family values" that modern-day exponents of the phrase would surely disavow, seeing as they included incest and fratricide. [Source: Chip Brown, National Geographic, July 2011]

"The Ptolemies' talent for intrigue was exceeded only by their flair for pageantry. If descriptions of the first dynastic festival of the Ptolemies around 280 B.C. are accurate, the party would cost millions of dollars today. The parade was a phantasmagoria of music, incense, blizzards of doves, camels laden with cinnamon, elephants in golden slippers, bulls with gilded horns. Among the floats was a 15-foot Dionysus pouring a libation from a golden goblet."

The Ptolemies maintained a formidable empire for more than two centuries and exercised great power in the eastern Mediterranean. The Jewish population was large—perhaps as much as a seventh of the total population—and even the Palestinian Jews looked to the Alexandrian Jews for guidance. [Source: Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., Columbia University Press]

In 2021, Archaeology magazine reported: Underwater exploration at Thonis-Heracleion located a rare Ptolemaic-era military galley. The 80-foot-long vessel is only the second of its kind found. It was moored next to the city’s temple of Amun when a 2nd-century B.C. earthquake caused the structure’s stone blocks to collapse onto the ship and sink it. The city was one of the most important Mediterranean ports in Egypt before a series of apocalyptic earthquakes plunged it entirely into the sea.[Source: Archaeology magazine November, 2021]

How the Ptolemies Came to Power

Cleopatra was a Greek Ptolemy
Chip Brown wrote in National Geographic, "The Ptolemies came to power after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, who in a caffeinated burst of activity beginning in 332 B.C. swept through Lower Egypt, displaced the hated Persian occupiers, and was hailed by the Egyptians as a divine liberator. He was recognized as pharaoh in the capital, Memphis. Along a strip of land between the Mediterranean and Lake Mareotis he laid out a blueprint for Alexandria, which would serve as Egypt's capital for nearly a thousand years. [Source: Chip Brown, National Geographic, July 2011]

According to Minnesota State University, Mankato: “In 332 B.C., Egypt was organized as a province of the new Macedonian Empire. Alexander’s arrival was seen as a deliverer from Persian rule and he was accepted as a Pharaoh. He, however, did not stay long before returning to the battlefield in his campaign against the Persians. In 323 B.C., Alexander died suddenly and Ptolemy Lagus became the satrap of Egypt a short time later. [Source: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com +]

After Alexander's death of malarial fever in Babylon in 323 B.C., the Macedonian commander in Egypt, Ptolemy, who was the son of Lagos, one of Alexander's seven bodyguards, managed to secure for himself the satrapy (provincial governorship) of Egypt. In 306 B.C., Antigonus, citing the principle that the empire Alexander created should remain unified, took the royal title. In reaction, his rivals for power, Ptolemy of Egypt, Cassander of Macedonia, and Seleucus of Syria, countered by declaring themselves kings of their respective dominions. Thus came into existence the three great monarchies that were to dominate the Hellenistic world until, one by one, they were absorbed into the Roman Empire.[Source: Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Egypt: A Country Study, Library of Congress, 1990]

Egypt Under Ptolemaic Rule

The Ptolemies were able to control the trade routes of the Mediterranean and the Nile Valley. During their rule Egypt prospered as more efficient agriculture was introduced and trade flourished. Ptolemic policy was generally more liberal than that of Greece or Rome. The population grew dramatically and ordinary people could enjoy pleasures once reserved for the pharaohs. The Greeks introduced coinage, which encouraged trade and the accumulation and wider distribution of wealth.

The early Ptolemies were hardheaded administrators and business people, anxious to make the state that they created stable, wealthy, and influential. The Ptolemies had their eyes directed outward to the eastern Mediterranean world in which they sought to play a part. Egypt was their basis of power, their granary, and the source of their wealth. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Egypt: A Country Study, Library of Congress, 1990]

According to Minnesota State University, Mankato: “Under the rule of Ptolemy I Egypt assumed a new appearance with the administration being organized along Greek lines and Greek becoming the official language. This ideal stemmed into the arts and military. These affected age-old Egyptian traditions and conventions in the arts. It created an effective and efficient fighting machine in the military using Macedonian structure. In the early first century B.C. internal control slackened and in 30 B.C. with the death of Cleopatra VII and of Caesarion the Ptolemaic Dynasty ended and Egypt became a Roman province.[Source: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com +]

Rulers from the Greek and Ptolemaic Periods: After Alexander the Great

Macedonian Period (332–304 B.C.)
Alexander the Great (332–323 B.C.)
Philip Arrhidaeus (323–316 B.C.)
Alexander IV (316–304 B.C.)
[Source (Department of Egyptian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2002]

Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was created under the Ptolemies in Alexandria

Ptolemaic Period ( 304–30 B.C.)
Ptolemy I Soter I (304–284 B.C.)
Ptolemy II Philadelphos (285–246 B.C.
Arsinoe II (278–270 B.C.)
Ptolemy III Euergetes I (246–221 B.C.)
Berenike II (246–221 B.C.)
Ptolemy IV Philopator (222–205 B.C.)
Ptolemy V Epiphanes (205–180 B.C.)
Harwennefer (205–199 B.C.)
Ankhwennefer (199–186 B.C.)

Cleopatra I (194–176 B.C.)
Ptolemy VI Philometor (180–145 B.C.)
Cleopatra II (175–115 B.C.)
Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II (170–116 B.C.)
Harsiese ((ca. 130 B.C.)
Ptolemy VII Neos Philopator (145–144 B.C.)
Cleopatra III (142–101 B.C.)
Ptolemy IX Soter II (116–80 B.C.)
Ptolemy X Alexander I (107–88 B.C.)
Ptolemy XI Alexander II (80–80 B.C.)
Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos (80–51 B.C.)
Cleopatra IV Berenike III ((ca. 79 B.C.)
Berenike IV (58–55 B.C.)
Ptolemy XIII (51–47 B.C.)
Cleopatra VII (51–30 B.C.)
Ptolemy XIV (47–44 B.C.)
Ptolemy XV (44–30 B.C.)

Roman Period (30 B.C.–364 A.D.)
Augustus (30–14 B.C.)
Byzantine Period
364–476 A.D.

Alexander the Great in Egypt

The Persian occupation of Egypt ended when Alexander the Great defeated the Persians at the Battle of Issus (near presentday Iskenderun in Turkey) in November 333 B.C. The Egyptians, who despised the monotheistic Persians and chafed under Persian rule, welcomed Alexander as a deliverer. In the autumn of 332 B.C., Alexander entered Memphis, where, like a true Hellene, he paid homage to the native gods and was apparently accepted without question as king of Egypt. Also like a true Hellene, he celebrated the occasion with competitive games and a drama and music festival at which some of the leading artists of Greece were present. From Memphis, Alexander marched down the western arm of the Nile and founded the city of Alexandria. Then he went to the oasis of Siwa (present-day Siwah) to consult the oracle at the Temple of Amun, the Egyptian god whom the Greeks identified with their own Zeus. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Egypt: A Country Study, Library of Congress, 1990]

Alexander III, King of Macedonia, was the first king to be called "the Great". The son of Philip II and Olympias, Alexander was born in 356 B.C. He was taught by Aristotle and had a love for the works of Homer. Alexander became the King of Macedonia in 336 B.C. upon his father’s death. He took up his father’s war of aggression against Persia, adopting his slogan of a "Hellenic Crusade" against the barbarians. He defeated the small force defending Anatolia, proclaiming freedom for the Greek Cities, while keeping them under tight control. After a campaign through the Anatolian highlands (to impress the tribesmen), he met and defeated the Persian army under Darius III at Issue (near modern Iskenderun, Turkey). He occupied Syria and after a long siege of Tyre, Phoenicia, Alexander then entered Egypt, where he was accepted as pharaoh. He died in June 323 B.C. [Source: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com +]

Alexander received a hero's welcome in Egypt, an unhappy vassal of Persia for nearly 200 years. In Memphis, the Egyptian capital, Alexander was recognized as a pharaoh. Hieroglyphics of Alexander's adventures adorn temples in Luxor. Perhaps the greatest achievement of Alexander's military campaign was the founding of Alexandria. Arrian wrote that "he himself designed the general layout of the new town, indicating the position of the market square, the number of temples...and the precise limits of its outer defenses." After Alexander died, Alexandria grew into the center of Hellenistic Greece and was the greatest city for 300 years in Europe and the Mediterranean.

In 331 B.C., Alexander the Great trekked 300 miles across the Sahara desert for no military reason to Siwa Oasis (near Libyan border), where he met with the oracle at the Zeus-Amum temple and asked questions about his future and divinity. The oracle greeted Alexander as the son of Amun-Re and gave him the favorable omens he wanted for an invasion of Asia. The 24-year-old Alexander arrived at Siwa by camel. He asked the oracle whether was the son of Zeus. He never revealed the answer to that question.

Although Alexander the Great died at Babylon, he was eventually reburied in Alexandria. Ancient writers often mention Alexander's tomb, but archaeologists have never found it or the tombs of any of the Ptolemaic rulers.

Alexandria

Alexandria was the greatest intellectual center of its time and today is Egypt's second largest city and the country's largest port. In the time of the ancient Egyptians it wasn’t even built yet. But in the Greco-Roman era it was one of the greatest cities of antiquity. Regarded as the greatest intellectual center in the world, it was home to the great Alexandria Library and the Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The library held approximately half a million scrolls.

Chip Brown wrote in National Geographic, "The Ptolemaic dynasty's greatest legacy was Alexandria itself, with its hundred-foot-wide main avenue, its gleaming limestone colonnades, its harborside palaces and temples overseen by a towering lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, on the island of Pharos. Alexandria soon became the largest, most sophisticated city on the planet. It was a teeming cosmopolitan mix of Egyptians, Greeks, Jews, Romans, Nubians, and other peoples. The best and brightest of the Mediterranean world came to study at the Mouseion, the world's first academy, and at the great Alexandria library. [Source: Chip Brown, National Geographic, July 2011]

It was in Alexandria, “18 centuries before the Copernican revolution, that Aristarchus posited a heliocentric solar system and Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth. Alexandria was where the Hebrew Bible was first translated into Greek and where the poet Sotades the Obscene discovered the limits of artistic freedom when he unwisely scribbled some scurrilous verse about Ptolemy II's incestuous marriage to his sister. He was deep-sixed in a lead-lined chest.”

Book: “Alexandria & the Sea: Maritime origins and Underwater Explorations” by Kimberly Williams

Ptolemic Rulers

Ptolemy II

The Ptolemic leaders have been characterized as wicked, self-indulgent hedonists who basked in luxury, bragged about their lineage and neglected their subjects. They were so obsessed about their bloodline they tended to marry their brothers and sisters. Problems caused by inbreeding are thought have been dealt with by infanticide and weak sons being propped up by the sister-wives who served as co-regents. The inbreeding is thought to be behind the fleshy bodies, prominent cheekbones and hawkish noses found on Ptolemies depicted on Roman coins.

The golden age of Hellenistic Greece occurred under the rule of Ptolemy II (309-246 B.C.), also known as Philadelphus (lover of his sister). Like ancient pharaohs he married his sister to solidify his power, an idea that horrified his Greek subjects. Ptolemy II Piladelphus Ptolemy II constructed the famous lighthouse on the island of Pharos, off Alexandria, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. He expanded the Alexandria Library. Eratosthenes measured the Earth’s circumference under his reign, The Ptolemies also built botanical and zoological gardens for rare species.

Cleopatra I (193-167 B.C.) was the first Ptolemic queen (she is not be confused with the famous great-great-granddaughter Cleopatra VI). She ruled ably and ruthlessly. There other queens. Some of them were Selucids (Greeks from Syria).

Famed Cleopatra was actually Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator. The last pharaoh of Egypt, she was the daughter of Ptolemy XII. Cleopatra is Greek for “glory to her race.” Her attempts to maintain Egypt’s independence and renew its glory were doomed. All the great civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean world were now submitting to the indisputable power of Rome. Some African-American groups claim that Cleopatra was a black woman. There is this little evidence to back this up. However Ptolemy XII had a mysterious concubine who could have been black and could have given birth to Cleopatra although it is very unlikely. (See Separate article on Cleopatra).

Ptolemy XII was as known the “Flute Player” because of his musical talent and his ability to charms the ladies — and the boys — with his playing and his taste for things he liked to stick in his mouth. Cleopatra’s great-grand father was known as Ptolemy Physkon (“Potbelly”). He reportedly paraded around in flimsy robes to show off his flab (at that time regarded as sign of wealth).

Art and Culture Under the Ptolemies

Under the early Ptolemies, the culture was exclusively Greek. Greek was the language of the court, the army, and the administration. The Ptolemies founded the university, the museum, and the library at Alexandria and built the lighthouse at Pharos. A canal to the Red Sea was opened, and Greek sailors explored new trade routes. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Egypt: A Country Study, Library of Congress, 1990]

Whereas many Egyptians adopted Greek speech, dress, and much of Greek culture, the Greeks also borrowed much from the Egyptians, particularly in religion. In this way, a mixed culture was formed along with a hybrid art that combined Egyptian themes with elements of Hellenistic culture. Examples of this are the grandiose temples built by the Ptolemies at Edfu (present-day Idfu) and Dendera (present-day Dandarah).*

According to Minnesota State University, Mankato: “Under the Ptolemaic Period they also pursued commerce and built new ports and contacts with Asia. The construction of the library of Alexandria was a memorial to their enthusiastic patrons of learning. Like most educated people the Mediterranean after the conquest of Alexander, the Ptolemies, spoke a 'universal' (koine) form of Greek; originally they came with Alexander from Macedonia, in the north of Greece, which like most regions of that country, had a distinct dialect. [Source: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com +]

Religion Under the Ptolemies

Religiously the Ptolemies introduced a long line of gods into there existing religious structure without losing the traditions. The chief god of Egypt was Serapis, an amalgam of older Greek and Egyptian deities. He had a shaggy beard and remained popular well into the Roman era. It wasn’t until Christians appeared on the scene in large numbers in the A.D. 4th century that his images were widely smashed and destroyed.

Brett McClain wrote: Cosmogonies of Late Period and Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt are founded upon those of the earlier “classic” ages, incorporating old texts and themes but elaborating them to form new compositions, synthesizing elements of the major Heliopolitan, Memphite, and Hermopolitan theologies with texts and rituals more specific to the deities of local cult centers, as well as newly developed theological concepts. It is essential when considering the Egyptian cosmogonical systems current during the Late and Ptolemaic and Roman Periods to keep in mind that, as with other elements of religious thought, they were the result of a steady and continuous process of development extending back to the times of the earliest religious writings. [Source: Brett McClain, University of Chicago, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2011, escholarship.org ]

The evidence for cosmogonical beliefs in Ptolemaic and Roman times originating from sites in the Faiyum is a case in point. On the one hand the heavy colonization of that province under the Ptolemies and the resulting foundation of new temple complexes led to the composition of cosmogonical treatises emphasizing preferentially Faiyumic elements.

The salient features in the development of cosmogonical thought in the Late and Ptolemaic Periods were the redaction of elaborate texts recording the creation myths particular to regional cult centers and their widespread adaptation, especially for use as part of the decoration in the great temples constructed under Ptolemaic patronage, a process which continued with the creation of even more sophisticated compositions for the monuments constructed under Roman domination. These texts are heavily infused with earlier cosmological material of many sorts — mortuary literature, ritual and magical texts, and fragments of old myths of Heliopolitan, Memphite, or Hermopolitan origin, compiled together, expanded, and adapted to suit the needs of local religious establishments. They are nevertheless unprecedented in their number, length, and elaboration, and in the degree to which mythical elements of varied origin are syncretized; they also contain much new material, written specifically for the regions to which the texts applied.

“Acknowledging the primacy of the local deity, the priests of each temple incorporated a multitude of heterogeneous textual and iconographic sources, some quite ancient, into compositions in which various origin myths functioned interdependently to actualize the shrine’s function as a simulacrum of the created world.

Ptolemaic-Egyptian Temples

Edfu temple

The temple of Kalabsha near Aswan and the Dakka temple farther south date to the Ptolemic and Roman periods around 1,000 years after the heyday of the pharaohs. Respecting the culture of the country they were occupying, the Ptolemaic and Roman overlords closely mimicked the ancient styles and honored the old gods — with a few improvements. Greek-trained craftsmen carved familiar Egyptian deities in the contemporary bas-relief style with more detail, yielding beautiful wall carvings.

Dendara (near Cairo) is the home of the Temple of Hathor, dedicated to the cow-headed goddess of healing. One of the best preserved temples in Egypt, it was built in the first century B.C. by the Ptolemaic Greeks and is famous for a ceiling painting, with astronomical symbols, and its great Hypostyle Hall. It even has a roof. The temple incorporates both Greek and Egyptian architectural styles. The 24 massive papyrus pillars in the main hall are capped with images of Hathor and decorated with hieroglyphics and Egyptian symbols. The stone ceiling features an Egyptian version of the star-lit sky, with goddess Nut, who, Egyptians believed, spanned the sky with her body and swallowed the sun each night and gave birth to it each morning. One of one of the walls is a famous picture of Cleopatra and Caesarian, her son from Julius Caesar.

Edfu (80 miles north of Aswan) is the home of the Temple of Horus, a huge and exquisite Ptolemaic Greek temple built to honor the falcon-headed son of Orisis. Regarded as the largest best-preserved ancient temples in Egypt, it took over 200 years to build and was finally finished by Cleopatra’s father. Rediscovered in 1869, it features wonderful reliefs of Ptolemy XIII pulling the hair of his enemies like a pharaoh; depictions of the Feats of the Beautiful Meeting, the annual reunion between Horus and his wife Hathor; and a particularly fine ceiling relief of the goddess Nut in the New Year Chapel. There is also a Nilometer, a Court of Offerings and a huge pylon (massive gate) at the entrance. In the 19th century , Flaubert wrote it “served as the public latrine for the entire town. Flaubert liked the town’s dancers who did a kind of striptease called the bee.”

Kom-Ombo (30 miles north of Aswan) is the home the unique Temple of Sobek and Horus, a Ptolemaic Greek temple dedicated to a local crocodile god (Sobek) and a local sky god (Horus). Located in a spectacular setting, a dune overlooking the Nile and surrounded by sugar cane fields, the temple was built in a mirror-like fashion — one side dedicated to Horus, the other to Sobek — so neither god would be offended. The are two courts, two colonnades, and two sanctuaries.

The Temple of Sobek and Horus is famous for its halls and entrances. Sculpted wall reliefs include one showing ancient surgical instruments, bone saws and dental tools. Worth checking out are the hieroglyphic-inscribed pillars. A number of crocodiles mummies have been found in the area of the Chapel of Harthor. There are some Old Kingdom tombs near Kom-Ombo village.

Brett McClain wrote: At Dendara, the cosmogonical texts are primarily concerned with the birth of Hathor, considered to be both the daughter of Nun-Irta and herself a demiurge. Certain texts indicate that Hathor is engendered by sacred exudations that come from the eye of Ra as he emerges from the lotus (thus adapting the Hermopolitan cosmogony), combining with the sand of the primordial mound to form her being; the birth of Isis is described in her shrine behind the main temple in parallel terms. The texts also record the genesis of the siblings of Isis (Osiris, the Elder Horus, Seth, and Nephthys), all the children of Nut according to the Heliopolitan theogony, in their respective home-cities. The child-god of the Dendara triad, Harsomtus, also assumes a demiurgic role, being identified with both Ra and Tatenen in some of the temple’s inscriptions. In the temple of Kom Ombo, texts expounding the mythical origins of the city reflect the Heliopolitan cosmogony, but identify Haroeris with Shu, and Sobek with Geb, as the progenitors of Osiris. At Philae there are few cosmogonical references, although Horus-son-of-Isis is praised as creator of the gods. In addition to such treatises, the decorative schemes of many late temples also include ritual scenes in which principles of the various cosmogonical systems — the Memphite, the Heliopolitan, and the Hermopolitan — play a role. [Source: Brett McClain, University of Chicago, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2011, escholarship.org ]

Romans Take Over Egypt

After Cleopatra's death, the Roman emperor Augustus (Octavian) incorporated Egypt into the Roman Empire as a province. Cleopatra (Cleopatra VII) was the last ruler of the Ptolemaic line.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “Rome's rule over Egypt officially began with the arrival of Octavian (later called Augustus) in 30 B.C., following his defeat of Marc Antony and Cleopatra in the battle at Actium. Augustus, who presented himself to the people of Egypt as the successor to the pharaohs, dismantled the Ptolemaic monarchy and annexed the country as his personal estate. He appointed a prefect (governor) for a limited term, which effectively depoliticized the country, neutralized rivalries for its control among powerful Romans, and undermined any possible focus for local sentiments. [Source: Departments of Egyptian Art and Greek and Roman Art,Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2000, metmuseum.org \^/]

For almost a decade, Egypt was garrisoned with Roman legions and auxiliary units until conditions became stable. All business was transacted according to the principles and procedures of Roman law, and local administration was converted to a liturgic system in which ownership of property brought an obligation of public service. New structures of government formalized the privileges associated with "Greek" background.

Roman Rule Over Egypt

Egypt proved to be a great and rich province for Augustus, who organized the country not so much as a Roman Province but as the emperor's own special domain land. In Egypt, the Emperor was considered the successor of the ancient Pharaohs; his deputy - the prefect - ruled the country with an authority permitted to few other governors. Wheat and barley were exported to Rome and the rest of the empire. The worship of Egyptian gods and the building of Egyptian-style temples continued under the Romans. See Romans

While Roman emperors rarely visited Egypt, surviving artwork shows that they were nevertheless regarded as pharaohs. According to Live Science: One excavated carving shows the emperor Claudius (reign A.D. 41 to 54) dressed as a pharaoh, Live Science reported. The carving has hieroglyphic inscriptions saying that Claudius is the "Son of Ra, Lord of the Crowns," and "King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Lord of the Two Lands." Neither the Ptolemaic or Roman rulers are considered to be part of a numbered dynasty.[Source: Owen Jarus, Live Science June 2, 2023]

While the Western Roman Empire fell in A.D. 476, the Eastern Roman Empire (often called the Byzantine Empire), based at Constantinople, continued on and controlled Egypt until A.D. 646, when the Rashidun Caliphate captured it. The Rashidun Caliphate was based in Arabia and formed after the death of Muhammed. Neither the Ptolemaic or Roman rulers are considered to be part of a numbered ancient Egyptian dynasty. [Source Live Science]

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: ““For the first century following the Roman conquest, Egypt functioned in the Mediterranean world as an active and prosperous Roman province. The value of Egypt to the Romans was considerable, as revenues from the country were almost equal to those from Gaul and more than twelve times those from Judaea. Its wealth was largely agricultural: Egyptian grain supplied the city of Rome. The country also produced papyrus, glass, and various finely crafted minor arts that were exported to the rest of the Roman empire. Its deserts yielded a variety of minerals, ores, and fine stones such as porphyry and granite, which were brought to Rome to be used for sculpture and architectural elements. Trade with central Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and India flourished along the Nile, desert routes, and sea routes from the Red Sea port of Berenike. Goods and cultural influences flowed from Egypt to Rome through Alexandria, which Diodorus of Sicily described as "the first city of the civilized world" in the first century B.C. Its great library and community of writers, philosophers, and scientists were known throughout the ancient world. \^/ [Source: Departments of Egyptian Art and Greek and Roman Art,Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2000, metmuseum.org \^/]

“The conquest of Egypt and its incorporation into the Roman empire inaugurated a new fascination with its ancient culture. Obelisks and Egyptian-style architecture and sculpture were installed in Roman fora. The cult of Isis, the Egyptian mother goddess, had an immense impact throughout the empire. Likewise, changes were noticeable in Egyptian artistic and religious forms, as Egyptian gods were increasingly represented in classicizing style. Egyptian funerary arts evolved in a new and creative direction: traditional idealized images gave way to ones accessorized with contemporary Greco-Roman coiffures and dress as influenced by fashions of the imperial court at Rome, and even panel portraits were painted in the illusionistic Greco-Roman style. By the second century A.D., the economic and social changes in the country emerged more forcefully, gradually evolving as part of a larger pattern of change in the Roman empire that culminates in the Byzantine period.” \^/

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Tour Egypt, Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com; Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated July 2024