After Cleopatra's death in 30 BC, Octavian, soon to be the emperor Augustus, made Egypt part of the Roman Empire. But it was not an ordinary province. For more than six centuries, Egypt was ruled by Rome and then by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.
Key idea
Rome ruled Egypt as a special province: governed by a prefect appointed by the emperor, with Roman senators forbidden to enter without permission. Egypt's grain fed the city of Rome. Egyptian temples, gods and writing went on for centuries.
Why it works
Whoever held Egypt held a vast supply of grain and a fortune in taxes. Augustus did not want a rival senator to take Egypt and starve Rome, so he kept it under his personal control, ruled by a prefect of the equestrian class (a rank below the senators). Grain ships sailed every year from Alexandria to Italy.
Life in Roman Egypt
- Papyri: the rubbish mounds of Oxyrhynchus and other towns held huge numbers of Greek documents: tax receipts, letters, contracts, school exercises and lost works of literature.
- Portraits: mummies from the Faiyum and elsewhere had painted portraits on wood placed over the face, in a Greco-Roman style.
- Temples: emperors appear on temple walls as pharaohs, with their names in cartouches; the temple at Dendera was finished under Rome.
- Citizens: in AD 212 the emperor Caracalla made nearly all free people of the empire, Egyptians included, Roman citizens.
The old culture continues
Hieroglyphs were carved, though by fewer and fewer priests. The last known hieroglyphic inscription, at Philae, dates from AD 394. Demotic was written until the 5th century AD. Over the same centuries, Christianity spread, and Egyptians began writing their language in a new alphabet, Coptic.
Worked example: Counting across BC and AD
How many years passed between Egypt becoming Roman (30 BC) and the last known hieroglyphic inscription (AD 394)?
- There is no year 0, so from 30 BC to AD 394 is 30 + 394 − 1 years.
- 30 + 394 = 424; 424 − 1 = 423.
Answer: 423 years. Egyptian writing outlived Cleopatra by more than four centuries.
Common mistake
Thinking Egyptian culture ended with the Romans. Temples were still built and hieroglyphs carved for centuries; Roman emperors appear on temple walls as pharaohs.