Roman and Byzantine Egypt (30 bce– 642 ce)

Question 1

Egypt as a province of Rome

Answer 1

• In the first decade of Roman rule the spirit of Augustan imperialism looked farther afield, attempting expansion to the east and to the south.
• Egypt achieved its greatest prosperity under the shadow of the Roman peace, which, in effect, depoliticized it.
• The only extended period during the turbulent 3rd century ce in which Egypt was lost to the central imperial authority was 270–272, when it fell into the hands of the ruling dynasty of the Syrian city of Palmyra.
• Internal threats to security were not uncommon but normally were dissipated without major damage to imperial control.

Question 2

Administration and economy under Rome

Answer 2

• The Romans introduced important changes in the administrative system, aimed at achieving a high level of efficiency and maximizing revenue.
• introduced colleges of magistrates and officials who were to be responsible for running the internal affairs of their own communities on a theoretically autonomous basis and, at the same time, were to guarantee the collection and payment of tax quotas to the central government
• economic resources that this administration existed to exploit had not changed since the Ptolemaic period, but the development of a much more complex and sophisticated taxation system was a hallmark of Roman rule
• Goods were moved around and exchanged through the medium of coin on a large scale and, in the towns and the larger villages, a high level of industrial and commercial activity developed in close conjunction with the exploitation of the predominant agricultural base.

Question 3

Society, religion, and culture

Answer 3

• continued to develop as a spectacularly beautiful city and to foster Greek culture and intellectual pursuits, though the great days of Ptolemaic court patronage of literary figures had passed
• Outside the Greek ambience of Alexandria, traditional Egyptian religious institutions continued to flourish in the towns and villages, but the temples were reduced to financial dependence on a state subvention (syntaxis), and they became subject to stringent control by secular bureaucrats
• One development that did have an important effect on this religious amalgam, though it was not decisive until the 4th century, was the arrival of Christianity

Question 4

Egypt’s role in the Byzantine Empire

Answer 4

• Diocletian was the last reigning Roman emperor to visit Egypt, in 302 ce. Within about 10 years of his visit, the persecution of Christians ceased.
• Constantinople was established as an imperial capital and an eastern counterpart to Rome itself, thus undermining Alexandria’s traditional position as the first city of the Greek-speaking East. Second, it diverted the resources of Egypt away from Rome and the West
• The turbulent history of Egypt in the Byzantine period can largely be understood in terms of the struggles of the successive (or, after 570, coexisting) patriarchs of Alexandria to maintain their position both within their patriarchy and outside it in relation to Constantinople

Question 5

Byzantine government of Egypt

Answer 5

• The reforms of the early 4th century had established the basis for another 250 years of comparative prosperity in Egypt, at a cost of perhaps greater rigidity and more-oppressive state control

Question 6

The advance of Christianity

Answer 6

• By the mid-5th century Egypt’s landscape was dominated by the great churches, such as the magnificent church of St. Menas (Abū Mīna), south of Alexandria, and by the monasteries
• The economic and social power of the Christian church in the Nile River valley and delta is the outstanding development of the 5th and 6th centuries