Aegyptus
Aegyptus, known today as Egypt, has a rich history marked by the succession of twenty-six dynasties and periods of foreign domination, including Persian rule. Following the conquests of Alexander the Great, who founded Alexandria, the Ptolemaic dynasty emerged, ruling for nearly three centuries and significantly benefiting from the fertile Nile Valley. However, internal strife and external pressures led to increasing Roman influence, culminating in the annexation of Egypt after Cleopatra VII's defeat. Under Roman control, Egypt was a unique province managed by a prefect directly accountable to the emperor, rather than a traditional senatorial governor. The province played a crucial role in supplying grain to Rome and saw various rebellions and usurpations, reflected in its diverse coinage. Over time, Egypt was divided into smaller provinces, contributing to its administration and cultural developments. Notably, the region became a center for early Christian monasticism, affecting religious practices significantly.
Subject Terms
Aegyptus
Aigyptos (Egypt)
After twenty-six dynasties of independent kings had been succeeded by two periods of Persian domination (525–404, 343–332), Alexander the Great occupied Egypt, visiting the traditional capital Memphis but founding the new city of Alexandria which became the capital of the country, although retaining, with its Greek character, a distinct mode of existence. After his death the house of Ptolemy I Soter ruled Egypt for nearly three hundred years. The Ptolemies derived vast wealth from the fertility of the Nile valley and from their elaborately organized kingdom, and controlled an empire of substantial but fluctuating size, in competition with the Seleucids and other Hellenistic powers. During the later part of the period internal weaknesses caused the country to fall increasingly under Roman domination, and Cleopatra VII's attempt to revive its fortunes by association first with Julius Caesar and then Mark Antony eventually failed and terminated in her suicide (30). This was followed by the Roman annexation of Egypt, though it became (owing to its vast and diversified resources, and its importance to the Italian grain supply) a province of a special kind, controlled not by a senatorial governor but by a prefect of equestrian rank, personally dependent on the emperor. (For the southern frontier of the province, seeAethiopia.) In AD 69 it was an invitation from the prefect of Egypt, Tiberius Julius Alexander, that prompted Vespasian to make his successful bid for the purple. Avidius Cassius, after quelling a revolt against Marcus Aurelius (172), included Egypt among the territories which he rebelliously controlled for three months (175); and the abundant and hugely varied provincial coinage, issued at Alexandria, reflects the temporary seizure of the country by subsequent usurpers from time to time, including the prefects Mussius Aemilianus (c 260) and Domitius Domitianus (295–7). During the later empire the country was subdivided into the provinces of Aegyptus Jovia, Augustamnica, Arcadia and the Lower and Upper Thebaid. This last-named area became the birthplace of monasticism, producing Paul of Thebes who fled to the desert in 250, Saint Antony who gathered his followers near Mount Quolzoum, and Saint Pachomius who established a monastery at Tabennisi, an island in the upper Nile (c 320). See alsoAlexandria, Antinoopolis, Arsinoe, Memphis, Naucratis, Nile, Oxyrhynchus, Pelusium, Ptolemais, Syene, Tabennisi, Tentyra, Thebes. For the earliest period, seeNaucratis.