Uprising of the Bukolen
The uprising of the Bukolen (Greek Βουκόλοι, Boukoloi , "cattle herders") was an uprising in Lower Egypt in the years around 166/67 to 172 AD. The Bukolen were probably a pastoral people who lived in the swamps south of Alexandria, and up to repeatedly caused unrest in the time of Diocletian .
The Marcus Aurelius uprising is mentioned by several ancient authors, with Cassius Dio providing the most extensive description. The leader of the uprising was a priest named Isidorus. The Bucoles disguised themselves as women and went to a Roman centurion and promised him money. When he was with them, he was struck down. One of the centurions' companions was killed and its entrails allegedly eaten. Many rural Egyptians quickly joined the revolt. There was an open battle in which the Romans were defeated. Avidius Cassius , who had come to Egypt from Syria to suppress the uprising, was able to prevent the capture of Alexandria and finally defeat the Bucoles.
The background to the revolt is unknown. The bucoli were usually referred to as robbers in ancient novels dating to a later period.
swell
- Cassius Dio: Roman History 71.4 .
- Historia Augusta , Marcus Antoninus 21.2 ; Avidius Cassius 6.7 .
literature
- Richard Alston: The Revolt of the Boukoloi: Geography, History and Myth . In: Keith Hopwood (Ed.): Organized Crime in the Ancient World . Duckworth, London 1999. pp. 129-153.
- David Frankfurter: Religion in Roman Egypt, Assimilation and Resistance . Princeton 1998, ISBN 0-691-07054-7 , pp. 207-208.
Individual evidence
- ^ Cassius Dio: Roman History 71.4.
- ↑ Achilles Tatius : Leucippe and Clitophon , 3.9; 4.17-18; Heliodoros : Ethiopika , 1.5-6; 2.42.1