Presentation of the department
The Hellenistic period started when Alexander the Great
entered Egypt in 332 BCE. After the death of Alexander in 323 BCE, Egypt
was ruled by Ptolemy I, one of his army generals, then by Ptolemy’s
descendants, for about 300 years. This period ended with the death of
Cleopatra, the last Ptolemic queen, during 30 BCE. Cleopatra and Marcus
Antonius were defeated by the Roman General Octavian who added Egypt to
the Roman Empire. Egypt remained under the Roman rule until the Arab
conquest in 641 CE.
The largest collection in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Antiquities Museum dates back to the Greco-Roman period. It reflects the Greek and Roman religious concepts, and part of it represents some aspects of the daily life.
The largest collection in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Antiquities Museum dates back to the Greco-Roman period. It reflects the Greek and Roman religious concepts, and part of it represents some aspects of the daily life.
The Greek Period in Egypt
When Alexander the Great entered Egypt in 332 BCE he met with little
resistance from the occupying Persian administration. Persians were
hated by the native Egyptians for contemning the Egyptian religion and
traditions, and also because of the violence that was exerted to assume
control over them, Alexander was therefore welcomed by the Egyptians.
Alexander showed respect and esteem to the Egyptian gods. He visited
the Oracle of Amon at the Siwa Oasis, renowned in the Greek world, and
it disclosed the information that Alexander was the son of Amon.
It is certain that he initiated the foundation of the great city which was to bear his name on the site of the Rhakotis village. Alexander left in 331 BCE, Egypt was only part of the Empire which Alexander had conquered from the Persian king.
It is certain that he initiated the foundation of the great city which was to bear his name on the site of the Rhakotis village. Alexander left in 331 BCE, Egypt was only part of the Empire which Alexander had conquered from the Persian king.
When Alexander died in 323, his Generals divided up the Empire.
Perdicas, the holder of Alexander’s royal seal, failed to take Egypt,
but Ptolemy, son of Lagos, did. Egypt was ruled by Ptolemy’s descendants
for three centuries that ended by the suicide of Cleopatra VII in
August 30 BCE.
The character of the Ptolemaic monarchy in Egypt set a style for
other Hellenistic kingdoms. This style emerged from the Greco-Macedonian
political awareness of the need to dominate Egypt and its resources and
its people, and at the same time to turn the power of Egypt towards the
context of a Mediterranean world to compose a large empire.
The last century of Ptolemaic rule is usually depicted as a rather
gloomy stalemate; a period of decline in which the kings were merely
puppets of Rome.
The last and most famous of the Ptolemaic rulers, was Cleopatra VII,
she intended to revive of the Ptolemaic Dynasty through the Roman
Generals. The first victim of her charm was Julius Caesar, one of the
greatest Roman leaders. After he left Egypt, Cleopatra was pregnant with
a son whom she named Caesar then to be known as Ptolemy Caesarion.
Following Julius Caesar’s death, came Marcus Antonius, and let us not
ignore Cleopatra’s ambitions to make Marcus Antonius help restore the
great imperialist days of her ancestors. Marcus Antonius helped
Cleopatra set a temporary stability which was ravaged by the Roman
leader Octavian or Augustus, when they met at the naval battle at
Actium, in western Greece, in September 31 BCE. It proved to be the
swan-song of the once great Ptolemaic navy, and the once great Ptolemaic
kingdom.
Antonius and Cleopatra fled to Alexandria, and ten months later
Alexandria was conquered, and Cleopatra died on 12 August, her son
Caesarion too. Then Rome was declared as an Empire and Egypt as a Roman
state.
Rome
Early references which are depended on in the study of Roman history
indicate that the Roman army came to Italy as part of a migration from
the city of Troy. The leader of that migration was 'Aeneas', one of the
heroes of Troy.
The story goes that two of Aeneas's grandchildren from the union
between his son and the goddess Aphrodite (Greek goddess of beauty) were
Romulus and Remus. They were by the river when the current grabbed
them. They hung on to some fig tree branches that were floating on the
water and were saved by a suckling she-wolf who suckled them with her
own litter. They were eventually found by a shepherd who brought them
up until they grew strong. He took them afterwards to the temple god.
The priests at the temple prophesied that one of these boys would
become the founder of a city which would become eternal near the mouth
of the river Tiber. The two brothers fought each other and Romulus
killed his brother Remus and founded the city of Rome around 753 B.C.
The Roman Era in Egypt
While Hellenistic kingdoms fell one after the other into the hands of
the Romans, Egypt managed to remain independent of Rome until 30B.C.,
after the naval Battle of Actium, when Octavius annexed Egypt after the
death of Antony and Cleopatra, thus ending the Ptolemaic Dynasty which
lasted three centuries in Egypt.
30 B.C. is considered the end of the Republican era and the beginning
of the Imperial era in Rome, when the title of Princeps replaced that
of Consul. This title was given to Emperor Augustus in 23 B.C.
Emperor Augustus (the great-nephew of Julius Caesar) was the first
Roman Emperor. He minted a commemorative coin on the annexation of
Egypt which carried the image of a crocodile, the most famous Nilotic
creature. He wrote the words 'Aegypto Capta, meaning the capturing of
Egypt, as its capture had always been an economic ambition of Rome.
Rome imposed heavy financial taxes on Egypt and taxes in the form of
shipping Egyptian agricultural produce gratis.
Egypt was famous then for its production of papyrus and glass which
were also shipped to the entire Roman empire, along with stones and
minerals, such as porphyry and granite to be used in Rome in sculpture
and in architecture.
The Romans continued their policy of building temples and new cities
and Egypt during the Roman era was more open to the rest of the world
than heretofore. Greek was still the official language alongside Latin.
Many emperors reigned from 30B.C. to 396 A.D. By 300-400 A.D. most Egyptians embraced Christianity.