Egypt in Greco-Roman times

The Ancient Egypt
Timeline
Prehistory :	before 4000 BC Chr.
Predynastic time :	approx. 4000-3032 BC BC 0. Dynasty
Early Dynastic Period :	approx. 3032-2707 BC Chr. 1st-2nd Dynasty
Old Empire :	approx. 2707-2216 BC Chr. 3rd to 6th Dynasty
First intermediate time :	approx. 2216-2137 BC Chr. 7th to 11th Dynasty
Middle Kingdom :	approx. 2137–1781 BC Chr. 11 to 12th Dynasty
Second split time :	approx. 1648–1550 BC BC 13th to 17th Dynasty
New Kingdom :	approx. 1550-1070 BC Chr. 18 to 20 Dynasty
Third intermediate time :	approx. 1070–664 BC BC 21st to 25th Dynasty
Late period :	approx. 664-332 BC Chr. 26 to 31 Dynasty
Greco-Roman time :	332 BC Chr. To 395 AD
Data based on Stan Hendrickx and Jürgen von Beckerath
Summary
History of Ancient Egypt
Further information
Portal Egyptology

The Greco-Roman times in ancient Egypt began with the seizure of power by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. And ended with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire . Maximinus Daia was the last Roman emperor whose stay in Egypt is definitely documented. After the final division of the Roman Empire in 395, Egypt fell to Eastern Rome and remained one of the most important and richest areas of the empire. The subsequent Eastern Roman-Byzantine phase of Egypt then finally ended in 642 with the conquest by the Islamic Arabs .

The conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great

After Alexander the Great at Issus (333 BC) the Persian King Dareios III. defeated, he moved to Tire to conquer that city after six months of siege. He then turned south, conquered Gaza after a two-month siege and then moved on to Egypt to take Pelusion without a fight and move on towards Heliopolis and Memphis . The Egyptian population welcomed the Macedonians in a friendly manner everywhere, since they probably thought that only the hated Persians would be expelled, but not that the Macedonians would take their place. The Persian satrap Mazakes handed over the rulership of Egypt to Alexander (332 BC) before Memphis, with 8000 talents and the inventory of the royal residence.

A short time later Alexander was crowned Pharaoh by the high priests of Ptah in Memphis according to the Egyptian rite and took the "first name" "the beloved of Re , the chosen of Amun ". He wanted to rule the country as pharaoh and not, like the Persian Cambyses II , as a foreign ruler . He also expressed his Egyptian-friendly sentiment through a “splendid sacrifice” for Apis , the holy bull of Memphis, also to stand out from Cambyses, who is said to have rioted against Apis, and from the Persians as a whole.

Then Alexander had a gymnastic and a musical agón organized for his soldiers, probably also as a victory celebration, to which the most famous athletes and artists of Greece had been invited to Memphis. After the festivities, he also took possession of the other parts of Egypt.

The founding of the port city of Alexandria in the western Nile Delta “at the beginning of 331 BC. Chr. ”Still remembers his campaign today . "The king himself drafted a plan sketch and determined where the agora was to be laid out, where the streets should run, how many temples for which gods [...] were to be built and where the (80 stádia long) city wall was to be built." Alexandria was conceived as a Greek city with a democratic dimension. But not only did this happen at Alexander's instigation, but also the reconstruction and restoration of the temples destroyed by the Persians was commissioned by him.

The inhabitants of Alexandria probably established a cult of the founder-hero (ἥρως κτίστης héros ktístes), yes of the founder-god (θέος κτίστης théos ktístes) while the king was still alive .

The Greco-Macedonian kings

Since Alexander the Great withdrew from Egypt with his army relatively quickly, he appointed an administrator ( satrap ) like the Persians . The banker Kleomenes was the first to be entrusted with this office.

Head of Ptolemy (only the face and the hairline are antique, Louvre Ma 849)

When Alexander the Great on June 10, 323 BC Chr. Died in Babylon , the question of succession arose. Even before his death, he had given his signet ring to Perdiccas , giving him “certain regulatory functions” “in the period immediately after the king's death”. Some factions advocated a united kingdom under a governor as guardian for the minor heirs (perdiccas), others, like Ptolemy , for appointing the deceased's leading comrades-in-arms to a committee in which all important decisions should be made.

Philip Arrhidaios (Philip III), Alexander's half-brother, and the expected son of Roxane were elected kings, and Perdiccas was given custody of them. Philippos Arrhidaios was born in 317 BC. Poisoned. After him, Alexander IV is on the lists of kings until 305 BC. Chr., Although this already 311 BC. Was murdered together with his mother Roxane by Kassander, who had held both of them hostage for a long time.

Perdiccas could not decide which general was to take control of which satrapy. He had to consult with the Macedonian nobles. In the " Imperial Order of Babylon " 323 BC. The satrapies were given to the individual generals in the 3rd century BC, with Ptolemy being appointed satrap for Egypt.

"The decisive impetus for the clashes of the following years [the Diadoch wars ] was provided by the tension between the idea of ​​maintaining the centrally ruled empire and the efforts of some Diadochi to govern their own area completely independently and possibly to expand territorially."

The Ptolemies

→ Main article : Ptolemies

Expansion of the Egyptian Empire under the Ptolemies

The satrap Ptolemaios , a former high military man in his army, seized Alexander's body and dragged him to the sanctuary in Siwa to have him buried there. Since the completion of the tomb took too long, Ptolemy buried Alexander in a crypt in Alexandria.

Perdiccas , the bearer of Alexander's signet ring and leader of the army, advanced into Egypt with a large force. Ptolemy was able to repel him at Memphis . With his two allies Lysimachus and Kassander , Ptolemy went to war shortly afterwards against Antigonus I Monophthalmos , the successor to the murdered Perdiccas. At Gaza he could 312 BC. Defeated the army of the son of Antigonus and was confirmed as an Egyptian satrap in a peace treaty .

Ptolemy I ruled from 305 BC. With the nickname Soter ("the savior"). When he learned of the machinations of his predecessor Cleomenes, had the temple looted and did not pay the army pay, he had him arrested and sentenced to death.

The construction of the famous library of Alexandria begun under Ptolemy I and the construction of the lighthouse , which was one of the seven wonders of the world , were completed under Ptolemy II .

The greatest expansion among the Ptolemies was Egypt under Ptolemy III. Euergetes , who from 246 to 221 BC Ruled.

After the violent death of Ptolemy IV Philopator , his underage son Ptolemy V Epiphanes succeeded him. Egypt paid for this internal weakness of power with the loss of Syria and bases in Asia Minor .

Cleopatra VII , Caesar and their son Caesarion on the back wall of the temple of Dendera

The internal struggles among the Ptolemies' relatives for power in Egypt dragged on through all the following generations. Cleopatra VII was the last Ptolemaic on the pharaonic throne. Even she was not spared from the internal feuds . When she took over the affairs of state at the age of seventeen in 51 BC. By her father Ptolemy XII. Neos Dionysus took over, she did so on the condition that her younger brother Ptolemy XIII. to have to take to man.

During the Roman civil wars , Egypt once again played an important role, when first the defeated general Gnaeus Pompeius was murdered while fleeing on landing in Alexandria, and then his victorious rival Julius Caesar intervened in the Egyptian dispute to decide him in favor of Cleopatra. After Caesar's death, the Egyptian queen also won the heart of his successor, Mark Antony . After the fleets of Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BC BC in the battle of Actium by Octavian, the later Emperor Augustus , Egypt fell to the Roman Empire in the following year .

The Roman emperors

30 BC The Roman troops under Octavian took the Egyptian city of Alexandria , the center of power of the Ptolemies . Octavian (from 27 BC Augustus ) annexed it as a new Roman province .

Aegyptus held a special position among the Roman provinces for a long time because of its great wealth. It was subsequently the granary of the Roman Empire and was directly subordinate to the emperor, who administered the province via the praefectus Aegypti . The starting point was Augustus, who saw Egypt as his personal property. He alone gave the Roman senators and members of the imperial family permission to enter the country.

Egypt in Greco-Roman times

The Roman emperors were also celebrated by the population as pharaohs and called themselves again Pharaoh of Egypt . On many temples that were built or restored during these times, there are reliefs and sculptures of them in the typical Egyptian costume during the execution of rituals. A mixture of Roman and ancient Egyptian elements can be observed in the cult of the dead. The best example are the mummy portraits painted in Roman style . In everyday culture, however, forms and styles from the Hellenistic-Roman world were adopted in all areas. Material culture becomes largely Roman in the first century AD.

The first prefect in Egypt was Cornelius Gallus . Shortly after his appointment, he moved in 29 BC. BC to Upper Egypt to put down a rebellion there. Further south, he then repulsed the advancing Ethiopians . After falling out of favor with Augustus , Gallus killed himself in 26 BC. Chr.

During the reign of Emperor Caligula , 37 to 41, a guerrilla war broke out in Alexandria between the Hellenic and Jewish populations.

Kiosk of Trajan from the island of Philae (. Century 1-2)

In 69 Vespasian , who was proconsul of the province of Africa at the time, was proclaimed Roman emperor after the death of Vitellius in Alexandria. His son Titus went from Egypt with his army to Palestine to fight the Jewish uprising , and 70 destroyed the city of Jerusalem .

During a visit to Egypt by the emperor Hadrian , his adolescent lover Antinous drowned in the Nile. Hadrian raised him to god and founded the city of Antinoupolis in his honor .

Avidius Cassius threw down an uprising of the cattle herders (Bukolier) in the Nile Delta near Alexandria in 173. In 175 he was proclaimed emperor by the Egyptian legions after a false report of Mark Aurel's death had spread. Avidius Cassius was then murdered in Syria.

Towards the end of the 2nd century many Christian communities had already formed in the Nile Delta , but Emperor Septimius Severus forbade conversion to the Christian faith in 204 by edict . The same emperor also carried out a comprehensive administrative reform in Egypt, which broke with many Hellenistic traditions.

When Emperor Caracalla visited Alexandria in the winter of 215, Alexandrian artists wrote a satire on the death of his brother Geta through Caracalla's alleged self-defense . Caracalla's soldiers then slaughtered thousands of innocent residents of the city, including the Egyptian governor, and raged in Alexandria for days.

After Marcus Opellius Macrinus had Caracalla murdered in April 217, he was immediately recognized by the Egyptians as emperor.

Under Emperor Decius , who ruled Rome from 249 to 251, considerable persecution of Christians began throughout the country, which lasted into the reign of Valerian . These 260 were only discontinued under Emperor Gallienus .

In 268 Lower Egypt was occupied by the army of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra . Upper Egypt was partly taken by the Blemmyern , a Nubian tribe. In 270 the Roman general Probus succeeded in reintegrating Egypt into the Roman Empire. He was proclaimed Roman emperor in 276 and led a successful campaign against the Blemmyes in 279, which, however, still posed a threat afterwards.

Roman frescoes in the Luxor Temple (early 4th century?)

When a revolt broke out in Upper Egypt in 292 and Alexandria rose against the Romans two years later, Emperor Diocletian recaptured the country in 295. The last but most violent persecution of Christians took place during his reign.

Maximinus Daia was the last Roman emperor recorded in Egypt . He ruled until 313.

Under Constantine the Great (emperor from 306 to 337) the Egyptian administration was reorganized. Egypt became a diocese and divided into the six provinces of Egypt , Augustamnica , Heptanomis (later Arcadia ), Thebais , Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt . Under Julian there were violent clashes between pagans and Christians.

Theodosius I introduced the Christian religion as the state religion . In 395 the Roman Empire was divided, and Egypt fell to the Eastern Roman Empire under Emperor Arcadius . Thus the Greco-Roman period passed into the Byzantine period .

See also

• History of Ancient Egypt
• List of prefects of Egypt

literature

(sorted chronologically)

• Günther Hölbl : History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, ideology and religious culture from Alexander the great to the Roman conquest. Revised reprint of the 1st edition (1994), Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-534-17675-8 .
• Maria Theresia Derchain-Urtel : Epigraphic studies on the Greco-Roman period in Egypt. (= Egypt and Old Testament 43 ), Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04173-0 .
• Günther Hölbl: Ancient Egypt in the Roman Empire. The Roman Pharaoh and his temples. (= Special volumes of the ancient world; Zabern's illustrated books on archeology . ) 3 volumes, von Zabern, Mainz 2000–2005, ISBN 978-3-8053-3396-2 .
  • Volume 1: Roman politics and ancient Egyptian ideology from Augustus to Diocletian, temple building in Upper Egypt. 2000, ISBN 3-8053-2392-1 .
  • Volume 2: The Temples of Roman Nubia. Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-8053-3376-5 .
  • Volume 3: Sanctuaries and Religious Life in the Egyptian Deserts and Oases. Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-8053-3512-1 .
• Werner Huss : Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC Chr.Beck , Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47154-4 .
• Katja Lembke : Egypt's late bloom. The Romans on the Nile . (= Special volume of the ancient world ) by Zabern, Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-8053-3276-9 .
• Fabian Reiter: The nomarchs of the Arsinoites. A contribution to the tax system in Roman Egypt (= treatises of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences. Special series Papyrologica Coloniensia. Vol. 31; also dissertation, University of Heidelberg 2003). Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-506-72893-8 .
• Stefan Pfeiffer : The Roman Emperor and the land on the Nile. Emperor worship and imperial cult in Alexandria and Egypt from Augustus to Caracalla (30 BC – 217 AD) (= Historia individual writings, volume 212; also habilitation thesis, University of Trier 2007). Steine, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-515-09650-8 .
• Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Antiquity , 2007ff.
• Christina Riggs (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt (= Oxford handbooks. ). 1st edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-957145-1 .

Web links

Commons : Greco-Roman Period  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ W. Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC. Chr. Munich 2001, p. 56f .; - G. Hölbl: History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, ideology and religious culture from Alexander the great to the Roman conquest. Darmstadt 1994, p. 9: Hölbl gives 7 months of siege
2. ^ W. Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC. Chr. Munich 2001, p. 57f.
3. ^ W. Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC. Chr. Munich 2001, p. 58.
4. ^ W. Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC. Chr. Munich 2001, p. 58f .; - G. Hölbl: History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, ideology and religious culture from Alexander the great to the Roman conquest. Darmstadt 1994, pp. 9, 11.
5. ^ W. Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC. Chr. Munich 2001, p. 59; - G. Hölbl: History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, ideology and religious culture from Alexander the great to the Roman conquest. Darmstadt 1994, p. 9.
6. ^ W. Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC. Chr. Munich 2001, p. 65.
7. ^ W. Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC. Chr. Munich 2001, p. 63; - G. Hölbl: History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, ideology and religious culture from Alexander the great to the Roman conquest. Darmstadt 1994, p. 10.
8. ^ W. Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC. Chr. München 2001, pp. 65–67: […] an organization of citizenship in five phylaí, 60 démoi and 720 phrátai. In addition to the Greek citizens, Greek non-citizens also lived in the city [...] (cf. note 40).
9. ^ W. Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC. Chr. Munich 2001, p. 69.
10. ^ W. Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC. Chr. Munich 2001, p. 81; - G. Hölbl: History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, ideology and religious culture from Alexander the great to the Roman conquest. Darmstadt 1994, p. 12.
11. ^ W. Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC. Chr. Munich 2001, p. 82; - similar to G. Hölbl: History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, ideology and religious culture from Alexander the great to the Roman conquest. Darmstadt 1994, p. 13: according to Hölbl, Ptolemy’s proposal was “to divide the empire into loosely connected satrapic states” and he describes it as “historically very far-sighted”
12. ^ W. Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC. Chr. Munich 2001, p. 83ff .; - G. Hölbl: History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, ideology and religious culture from Alexander the great to the Roman conquest. Darmstadt 1994, p. 13: Roxane gave birth to a son named Alexander (IV.) And proclaimed co-king
13. ^ W. Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC. Chr. Munich 2001, p. 83ff .; - G. Hölbl: History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, ideology and religious culture from Alexander the great to the Roman conquest. Darmstadt 1994, p. 13.
14. ^ W. Huss: Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC. Chr. Munich 2001, p. 86ff .; Huss lists all the satrapies there with the appointed satraps; - G. Hölbl: History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, ideology and religious culture from Alexander the great to the Roman conquest. Darmstadt 1994, p. 13f .: names only the "most important" satraps
15. ↑ G. Hölbl: History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, ideology and religious culture from Alexander the great to the Roman conquest. Darmstadt 1994, p. 14.