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134-449: Osorkon Wsrkn in hieroglyphs Era : 3rd Intermediate Period (1069–664 BC) Osorkon (also Userken in older literature) was the name of many ancient Egyptians with Libyan ancestry. It could refers to: Osorkon the Elder : a pharaoh of

268-554: A deme that both parents were Alexandrian citizens. Alexandrians were the only Egyptians that could obtain Roman citizenship. If a common Egyptian wanted to become a Roman citizen he would first have to become an Alexandrian citizen. The Augustan period in Egypt saw the creation of urban communities with " Hellenic " landowning elites. These landowning elites were put in a position of privilege and power and had more self-administration than

402-442: A logogram defines the object of which it is an image. Logograms are therefore the most frequently used common nouns; they are always accompanied by a mute vertical stroke indicating their status as a logogram (the usage of a vertical stroke is further explained below); in theory, all hieroglyphs would have the ability to be used as logograms. Logograms can be accompanied by phonetic complements. Here are some examples: In some cases,

536-559: A pintail duck is read in Egyptian as sꜣ , derived from the main consonants of the Egyptian word for this duck: 's', 'ꜣ' and 't'. (Note that ꜣ or [REDACTED] , two half-rings opening to the left, sometimes replaced by the digit '3', is the Egyptian alef . ) It is also possible to use the hieroglyph of the pintail duck without a link to its meaning in order to represent the two phonemes s and ꜣ , independently of any vowels that could accompany these consonants, and in this way write

670-486: A proconsul , since a Roman law (a lex ) granted him "proconsular imperium " (Latin: imperium ad similitudinem proconsulis ). Unlike in senatorial provinces , the prefect was responsible for the collection of certain taxes and for the organization of the all-important grain shipments from Egypt (including the annona ). Because of these financial responsibilities, the governor's administration had to be closely controlled and organized. The governorship of Egypt

804-533: A Great Chief of the Ma, predecessor of Tefnakht [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Osorkon&oldid=768709426 " Category : Human name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Pages using

938-479: A cemetery is 60 metres (200 ft) long and 20 metres (66 ft) wide. In the late 4th century, monastic churches differed from the other churches by building rectangular sanctuaries – rather than semi-circular ones – at their east ends where the altar stood, and in place of the apse was an aedicula or niche embellished with an arch and columns in applied in plaster. In the 5th century, regional styles of monumental church basilica with pastaphoria emerged: on

1072-487: A city founded c.  130 by the emperor Hadrian ( r.  117–138 ). All these were sacred cities dedicated to particular deities. The ruins of these cities were first methodically surveyed and sketched by intellectuals attached to Napoleon's campaign in Egypt , eventually published in the Description de l'Égypte series. Illustrations produced by Edme-François Jomard and Vivant Denon form much of

1206-622: A little after Sumerian script , and, probably, [were] invented under the influence of the latter", and that it is "probable that the general idea of expressing words of a language in writing was brought to Egypt from Sumerian Mesopotamia ". Further, Egyptian writing appeared suddenly, while Mesopotamia had a long evolutionary history of the usage of signs—for agricultural and accounting purposes—in tokens dating as early back to c.  8000 BC . However, more recent scholars have held that "the evidence for such direct influence remains flimsy" and that "a very credible argument can also be made for

1340-418: A record of soldiers' service history, six bronze Roman military diplomas dating between 83 and 206 are the main source of documentary evidence for the auxilia in Egypt; these inscribed certificates rewarded 25 or 26 years of military service in the auxilia with Roman citizenship and the right of conubium . That the army was more Greek-speaking than in other provinces is certain. The heart of

1474-407: A rival power base (as Mark Antony had been able to do), while the military legati commanding the legions were career soldiers, formerly centurions with the senior rank of primus pilus , rather than politicians whose military experience was limited to youthful service as a military tribune . Beneath the praefectus Aegypti , the overall commander of legions and auxilia stationed in Egypt

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1608-402: A royal scribe ( βασιλικός γραμματεύς , basilikós grammateús , 'royal secretary'). These scribes were responsible for their nome 's financial affairs, including administration of all property, land, land revenues, and temples, and what remains of their record-keeping is unparalleled in the ancient world for its completeness and complexity. The royal scribes could act as proxy for

1742-479: A temple of Serapis and a tetrastyle at Diospolis Magna at Thebes , and, at Philae , a triumphal arch and temples dedicated to the worship of the emperor Augustus and the goddess Roma , the personification of Rome. Besides a few individual stone blocks in some mētropoleis , substantial remains of Roman architecture are known in particular from three of the mētropoleis – Heracleopolis Magna , Oxyrhynchus , and Hermopolis Magna – as well as from Antinoöpolis ,

1876-444: A time. Three or four alae of cavalry were stationed in Egypt, each ala numbering around 500 horsemen. There were between seven and ten cohortes of auxilia infantry, each cohors about 500 hundred strong, although some were cohortes equitatae – mixed units of 600 men, with infantry and cavalry in a roughly 4:1 ratio. Besides the auxilia stationed at Alexandria, at least three detachments permanently garrisoned

2010-415: A unique reading. For example, the symbol of "the seat" (or chair): Finally, it sometimes happens that the pronunciation of words might be changed because of their connection to Ancient Egyptian: in this case, it is not rare for writing to adopt a compromise in notation, the two readings being indicated jointly. For example, the adjective bnj , "sweet", became bnr . In Middle Egyptian, one can write: which

2144-486: Is added between consonants to aid in their pronunciation. For example, nfr "good" is typically written nefer . This does not reflect Egyptian vowels, which are obscure, but is merely a modern convention. Likewise, the ꜣ and ꜥ are commonly transliterated as a , as in Ra ( rꜥ ). Hieroglyphs are inscribed in rows of pictures arranged in horizontal lines or vertical columns. Both hieroglyph lines as well as signs contained in

2278-559: Is fully read as bnr , the j not being pronounced but retained in order to keep a written connection with the ancient word (in the same fashion as the English language words through , knife , or victuals , which are no longer pronounced the way they are written.) Besides a phonetic interpretation, characters can also be read for their meaning: in this instance, logograms are being spoken (or ideograms ) and semagrams (the latter are also called determinatives). A hieroglyph used as

2412-664: Is known from other provinces of the empire, and little evidence exists of the military practices of the prefect and his officers. Most papyri have been found in Middle Egypt 's villages, and the texts are primarily concerned with local affairs, rarely giving space to high politics and military matters. Not much is known about the military encampments of the Roman imperial period , since many are underwater or have been built over and because Egyptian archaeology has traditionally taken little interest in Roman sites. Because they supply

2546-443: Is not excluded, but probably reflects the reality." Hieroglyphs consist of three kinds of glyphs: phonetic glyphs, including single-consonant characters that function like an alphabet ; logographs , representing morphemes ; and determinatives , which narrow down the meaning of logographic or phonetic words. As writing developed and became more widespread among the Egyptian people, simplified glyph forms developed, resulting in

2680-581: Is not known precisely when it was withdrawn from Egypt, though it was certainly before 23 AD, during the reign of Tiberius ( r.  14–37 ). In the reign of Tiberius's step-father and predecessor Augustus, the legions had been stationed at Nicopolis and at Egyptian Babylon, and perhaps at Thebes . After August 119, the III Cyrenaica was ordered out of Egypt; the XXII Deiotariana was transferred sometime afterwards, and before 127/8,

2814-627: The Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache , contains 1.5–1.7 million words. The word hieroglyph comes from the Greek adjective ἱερογλυφικός ( hieroglyphikos ), a compound of ἱερός ( hierós 'sacred') and γλύφω ( glýphō '(Ι) carve, engrave'; see glyph ) meaning sacred carving. The glyphs themselves, since the Ptolemaic period , were called τὰ ἱερογλυφικὰ [γράμματα] ( tà hieroglyphikà [grámmata] ) "the sacred engraved letters",

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2948-527: The strategoi , but each reported directly to Alexandria, where dedicated financial secretaries – appointed for each individual nome – oversaw the accounts: an eklogistes and a graphon ton nomon . The eklogistes was responsible for general financial affairs while the graphon ton nomon likely dealt with matters relating to the Idios Logos . In 200/201, the emperor Septimius Severus ( r.  193–211 ) granted each metropolis, and

3082-721: The Constitutio Antoniniana gave Roman citizenship to all free Egyptians. The Antonine Plague struck in the late 2nd century, but Roman Egypt recovered by the 3rd century. Having escaped much of the Crisis of the Third Century , Roman Egypt fell under the control of the breakaway Palmyrene Empire after an invasion of Egypt by Zenobia in 269. The emperor Aurelian ( r.  270–275 ) successfully besieged Alexandria and recovered Egypt. The usurpers Domitius Domitianus and Achilleus took control of

3216-460: The Idios Logos , responsible for special revenues like the proceeds of bona caduca property, and the iuridicus (Koinē Greek: δικαιοδότης , romanized:  dikaiodotes , lit.   'giver of laws'), the senior legal official, were both imperially appointed. From the reign of Hadrian ( r.  117–138 ), the financial powers of the prefect and the control of

3350-656: The Legio II Traiana arrived, to remain as the main component of the Army of Egypt for two centuries. After some fluctuations in the size and positions of the auxilia garrison in the early decades of Roman Egypt, relating to the conquest and pacification of the country, the auxilia contingent was mostly stable during the Principate , increasing somewhat towards the end of the 2nd century, and with some individual formations remaining in Egypt for centuries at

3484-571: The canabae settlements surrounding the army's base at Nicopolis, while only about one eighth were Alexandrian citizens. Egyptians were given Roman-style Latin names on joining the army; unlike in other provinces, indigenous names are nearly unknown among the local soldiers of the Army of Egypt. One of the surviving military diplomas lists the soldier's birthplace as Coptos , while others demonstrate that soldiers and centurions from elsewhere retired to Egypt: auxilia veterans from Chios and Hippo Regius (or Hippos ) are named. Evidence from

3618-532: The demos '), and cargo supervisors ( ἐπίπλοοι , epiploöi ). Other liturgical officials were responsible for other specific aspects of the economy: a suite of officials was each responsible for arranging supplies of particular necessity in the course of the prefect's official tours. The liturgy system extended to most aspects of Roman administration by the reign of Trajan ( r.  98–117 ), though constant efforts were made by people eligible for such duties to escape their imposition. The reforms of

3752-504: The /θ/ sound was lost. A few uniliterals first appear in Middle Egyptian texts. Besides the uniliteral glyphs, there are also the biliteral and triliteral signs, to represent a specific sequence of two or three consonants, consonants and vowels, and a few as vowel combinations only, in the language. Egyptian writing is often redundant: in fact, it happens very frequently that a word is followed by several characters writing

3886-660: The 21st Dynasty Osorkon I : a pharaoh of the 22nd Dynasty Osorkon II : a pharaoh of the 22nd Dynasty Osorkon III : a pharaoh of the 23rd Dynasty in Upper Egypt Osorkon IV : a pharaoh of the 22nd or 23rd Dynasty in Lower Egypt Osorkon A: a High Priest of Ptah in Memphis during the 22nd Dynasty Osorkon B: a Theban High Priest of Amun and prince, now believed to be Osorkon III (see above) in his early career Osorkon C :

4020-580: The Coptos – Myos Hormos road and at the imperial granite quarry at Mons Claudianus . Another Roman outpost, known from an inscription, existed on Farasan , the chief island of the Red Sea 's Farasan Islands off the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula . As in other provinces, many of the Roman soldiers in Egypt were recruited locally, not only among the non-citizen auxilia , but among

4154-578: The Egyptian language (which evolved from the Demotic Egyptian of the Late and Ptolemaic periods to Coptic under Roman rule). In each metropolis, the citizens spoke Koine Greek and followed a Hellenistic culture. However there was considerable social mobility, increasing urbanization, and both the rural and urban population were involved in trade and had high literacy rates. In AD 212,

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4288-468: The Egyptian temples and priesthoods was devolved to other procurators, a dioiketes ( διοικητής ), the chief financial officer, and an archiereus ( ἀρχιερεύς , 'archpriest'). A procurator could deputize as the prefect's representative where necessary. Procurators were also appointed from among the freedmen ( manumitted slaves) of the imperial household , including the powerful procurator usiacus , responsible for state property in

4422-883: The Mediterranean Basin with the emergence of the Justinianic Plague at Pelusium in Roman Egypt in 541. Egypt was conquered by the Sasanian Empire in 618, who ruled the territory for a decade , but it was returned to the Eastern Roman Empire by the defection of the governor in 628. Egypt permanently ceased to be a part of the Roman Empire in 641, when it became part of the Rashidun Caliphate following

4556-674: The Muslim conquest of Egypt . The Ptolemaic Kingdom ( r.  305–30 BC , the Thirty-first Dynasty ) had ruled Egypt since the Wars of Alexander the Great that overthrew Achaemenid Egypt . The Ptolemaic pharaoh Cleopatra VII sided with Julius Caesar during Caesar's Civil War (49–45 BC) and Caesar's subsequent Roman dictatorship . After Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, Cleopatra aligned Egypt with Mark Antony ,

4690-942: The Narmer Palette ( c.  31st century BC ). The first full sentence written in mature hieroglyphs so far discovered was found on a seal impression in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen at Umm el-Qa'ab, which dates from the Second Dynasty (28th or 27th century BC). Around 800 hieroglyphs are known to date back to the Old Kingdom , Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom Eras. By the Greco-Roman period, there were more than 5,000. Scholars have long debated whether hieroglyphs were "original", developed independently of any other script, or derivative. Original scripts are very rare. Previously, scholars like Geoffrey Sampson argued that Egyptian hieroglyphs "came into existence

4824-439: The Ptolemaic period , but the development of a much more complex and sophisticated taxation system was a hallmark of Roman rule. Taxes in both cash and kind were assessed on land, and a bewildering variety of small taxes in cash, as well as customs dues and the like, was collected by appointed officials. A massive amount of Aegyptus' grain was shipped downriver (north) both to feed the population of Alexandria and for export to

4958-409: The Roman calendar . Evidence exists of more than 60 edicts issued by the Roman governors of Egypt. To the government at Alexandria besides the prefect of Egypt, the Roman emperors appointed several other subordinate procurators for the province, all of equestrian rank and, at least from the reign of Commodus ( r.  176–192 ) of similar, "ducenarian" salary bracket. The administrator of

5092-465: The Roman period , extending into the 4th century AD. During the 5th century, the permanent closing of pagan temples across Roman Egypt ultimately resulted in the ability to read and write hieroglyphs being forgotten. Despite attempts at decipherment, the nature of the script remained unknown throughout the Middle Ages and the early modern period . The decipherment of hieroglyphic writing

5226-619: The Thebaid by Justinian the Great ( r.  527–565 ). Constantine introduced the gold solidus coin , which stabilized the economy. The trend towards private ownership of land became more pronounced in the 5th century and peaked in the 6th century, with large estates built up from many individual plots. Some large estates were owned by Christian churches, and smaller land-holders included those who were themselves both tenant farmers on larger estates and landlords of tenant-farmers working their own land. The First Plague Pandemic arrived in

5360-536: The augustus himself: his fairness ( aequitas , 'equality') and his foresight ( providentia , 'providence'). From the early 2nd century, service as the governor of Egypt was frequently the penultimate stage in the career of a praetorian prefect. The governor's powers as prefect, which included the rights to make edicts ( ius edicendi ) and, as the supreme judicial authority, to order capital punishment ( ius gladii , 'right of swords '), expired as soon as his successor arrived in

5494-610: The deified emperors and their families. As Rome overtook the Ptolemaic system in place for areas of Egypt, they made many changes. The effect of the Roman conquest was at first to strengthen the position of the Greeks and of Hellenism against Egyptian influences. Some of the previous offices and names of offices under the Hellenistic Ptolemaic rule were kept, some were changed, and some names would have remained but

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5628-432: The hieratic (priestly) and demotic (popular) scripts. These variants were also more suited than hieroglyphs for use on papyrus . Hieroglyphic writing was not, however, eclipsed, but existed alongside the other forms, especially in monumental and other formal writing. The Rosetta Stone contains three parallel scripts – hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. Hieroglyphs continued to be used under Persian rule (intermittent in

5762-489: The "goose" hieroglyph ( zꜣ ) representing the word for "son". A half-dozen Demotic glyphs are still in use, added to the Greek alphabet when writing Coptic . Knowledge of the hieroglyphs had been lost completely in the medieval period. Early attempts at decipherment were made by some such as Dhul-Nun al-Misri and Ibn Wahshiyya (9th and 10th century, respectively). All medieval and early modern attempts were hampered by

5896-618: The "myth of allegorical hieroglyphs" was ascendant. Monumental use of hieroglyphs ceased after the closing of all non-Christian temples in 391 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I ; the last known inscription is from Philae , known as the Graffito of Esmet-Akhom , from 394. The Hieroglyphica of Horapollo (c. 5th century) appears to retain some genuine knowledge about the writing system. It offers an explanation of close to 200 signs. Some are identified correctly, such as

6030-634: The 28th century BC ( Second Dynasty ). Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs developed into a mature writing system used for monumental inscription in the classical language of the Middle Kingdom period; during this period, the system used about 900 distinct signs. The use of this writing system continued through the New Kingdom and Late Period , and on into the Persian and Ptolemaic periods. Late survivals of hieroglyphic use are found well into

6164-665: The 2nd century suggests most auxilia came from Egypt, with others drawn from the provinces of Africa and Syria , and from Roman Asia Minor . Auxilia from the Balkans, who served throughout the Roman army, also served in Egypt: many Dacian names are known from ostraca in the Trajanic period, perhaps connected with the recruitment of Dacians during and after Trajan's Dacian Wars ; they are predominantly cavalrymen's names, with some infantrymen's. Thracians , common in

6298-421: The 6th and 5th centuries BCE), and after Alexander the Great 's conquest of Egypt, during the ensuing Ptolemaic and Roman periods. It appears that the misleading quality of comments from Greek and Roman writers about hieroglyphs came about, at least in part, as a response to the changed political situation. Some believed that hieroglyphs may have functioned as a way to distinguish 'true Egyptians ' from some of

6432-594: The Army of Egypt was the Nicopolis garrison at Alexandria, with at least one legion permanently stationed there, along with a strong force of auxilia cavalry. These troops would both guard the residence of the praefectus Aegypti against uprisings among the Alexandrians and were poised to march quickly to any point at the prefect's command. At Alexandria too was the Classis Alexandrina ,

6566-641: The Christians of Roman Egypt. Under Diocletian the frontier was moved downriver to the First Cataract of the Nile at Syene ( Aswan ), withdrawing from the Dodekaschoinos region. This southern frontier was largely peaceful for many centuries, likely garrisoned by limitanei of the late Roman army . Regular units also served in Egypt, including Scythians known to have been stationed in

6700-483: The East. Egypt was conquered by Roman forces in 30 BC and became a province of the new Roman Empire upon its formation in 27 BC. Egypt came to serve as a major producer of grain for the empire and had a highly developed urban economy. It was by far the wealthiest Roman province outside of Italy . The population of Roman Egypt is unknown, although estimates vary from 4 to 8 million . Alexandria , its capital,

6834-459: The Egyptian monarchy. The division between the rural life of the villages, where the Egyptian language was spoken, and the metropolis, where the citizens spoke Koine Greek and frequented the Hellenistic gymnasia , was the most significant cultural division in Roman Egypt, and was not dissolved by the Constitutio Antoniniana of 212, which made all free Egyptians Roman citizens. There

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6968-451: The Egyptian population. Within the citizenry, there were gymnasiums that Greek citizens could enter if they showed that both parents were members of the gymnasium based on a list that was compiled by the government in 4–5 AD. The candidate for the gymnasium would then be let into the ephebus . There was also the council of elders known as the gerousia . This council of elders did not have a boulai to answer to. All of this Greek organization

7102-537: The Greek cities in Egypt, it is clear that the other Greek cities, such as Antinoöpolis, enjoyed privileges very similar to the ones seen in Alexandria; for instance, like Alexandrians, Antinoöpolites were exempted from paying poll-taxes. All of these changes amounted to the Greeks being treated as an ally in Egypt and the native Egyptians were treated as a conquered race. The Gnomon of the Idios Logos shows

7236-482: The Greek counterpart to the Egyptian expression of mdw.w-nṯr "god's words". Greek ἱερόγλυφος meant "a carver of hieroglyphs". In English, hieroglyph as a noun is recorded from 1590, originally short for nominalized hieroglyphic (1580s, with a plural hieroglyphics ), from adjectival use ( hieroglyphic character ). The Nag Hammadi texts written in Sahidic Coptic call the hieroglyphs "writings of

7370-612: The Hellenistic-Egyptian god Serapis (under the name ϹΑΡΑΠΟ , "Sarapo"). Since Serapis was the supreme deity of the pantheon of Alexandria in Egypt , this coin suggests that Huvishka had as strong orientation towards Roman Egypt, which may have been an important market for the products coming from the Kushan Empire. In the administrative provincial capitals of the nomoi , the mētropoleis mostly inherited from

7504-565: The Latin: praefectus Aegypti , lit.   'prefect of Egypt' or the Koinē Greek : ἔπαρχος Αἰγύπτου , romanized:  eparchos Aigyptou , lit.   ' Eparch of Egypt'. The double title of the governor as prefect "of Alexandria and Egypt" reflects the distinctions between Upper and Lower Egypt and Alexandria, since Alexandria, outside the Nile Delta ,

7638-542: The Nile Valley, but about their duties little is known, as little evidence survives, though they were, in addition to the strategoi of the nomoi , the prime local representatives of the Roman state. Archaeological work led by Hélène Cuvigny has revealed many ostraca (inscribed ceramic fragments) which give unprecedently detailed information on the lives of soldiers stationed in the Eastern Desert along

7772-534: The Pharaonic and Ptolemaic period, Roman public buildings were erected by the governing strategos and the local gymnasiarch . In most cases, these have not survived and evidence of them is rare, but it is probable that most were built in the classical architecture of the Graeco-Roman world, employing the classical orders in stone buildings. Prominent remains include two Roman theatres at Pelusium ,

7906-469: The Ptolemaic cleruchy system of allotments under royal ownership) and the local administration reformed into a Roman liturgical system, in which land-owners were required to serve in local government. The priesthoods of the Ancient Egyptian deities and Hellenistic religions of Egypt kept most of their temples and privileges, and in turn the priests also served the Roman imperial cult of

8040-548: The Ptolemaic Kingdom remained wholly under Roman rule until the administrative reforms of the augustus Diocletian ( r.  284–305 ). In these first three centuries of Roman Egypt, the whole country came under the central Roman control of single governor, officially called in Latin : praefectus Alexandreae et Aegypti , lit.   'prefect of Alexandria and Egypt' and more usually referred to as

8174-524: The Roman triumvir who controlled the eastern Mediterranean. In the last war of the Roman Republic (32–30 BC), Antony (with Cleopatra's support) fought against Octavian . The decisive naval Battle of Actium was won by Octavian, who then invaded Egypt. Following the Battle of Alexandria the defeated Antony and Cleopatra killed themselves. The Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt ceased to exist; Egypt

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8308-406: The Roman capital. There were frequent complaints of oppression and extortion from the taxpayers. For land management and tenure, the Ptolemaic state had retained much of the categorization of land as under the earlier pharaohs, but the Roman Empire introduced a distinction between private and public lands – the earlier system had categorized little land as private property – and a complex arrangement

8442-781: The Romans was both unique and complicated. On the one hand, the Romans continued to use many of the same organizational tactics that were in place under the leaders of the Ptolemaic period. At the same time, the Romans saw the Greeks in Aegyptus as "Egyptians", an idea that both the native Egyptians and Greeks would have rejected. To further compound the whole situation, Jews, who themselves were very Hellenized overall, had their own communities, separate from both Greeks and native Egyptians. Most inhabitants were peasants, many working as tenant-farmers for high rents in kind, cultivating sacred land belonging to temples or public land formerly belonging to

8576-541: The WikiHiero extension Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Egyptian hieroglyphs The use of hieroglyphic writing arose from proto-literate symbol systems in the Early Bronze Age c.  the 33rd century BC ( Naqada III ), with the first decipherable sentence written in the Egyptian language dating to

8710-618: The army in other Roman provinces, were also present, and an auxiliary diploma from the Egyptian garrison has been found in Thracia . Two auxilia diplomas connect Army of Egypt veterans with Syria, including one naming Apamea . Large numbers of recruits mustered in Asia Minor may have supplemented the garrison after the Diaspora Revolt , a Jewish uprising in Egypt, Libya and Cyprus. The social structure in Aegyptus under

8844-449: The auxiliary forces and attain citizenship upon discharge. The different groups had different rates of taxation based on their social class. Roman citizens and citizens of Alexandria were exempted from the poll tax . Hellenized inhabitants of the nome capitals paid a low rate of poll tax, while native Egyptians paid a higher rate. Native Egyptians were barred from serving in the army, and there were other defined legal distinctions between

8978-400: The city of Alexandria, a boulē (a Hellenistic town council). The nomoi were grouped traditionally into those of Upper and Lower Egypt, the two divisions each being known as an " epistrategy " after the chief officer, the epistrategos ( ἐπιστράτηγος , epistratēgós , 'over-general'), each of whom was also a Roman procurator. Soon after the Roman annexation, a new epistrategy

9112-489: The city, which was dedicated to the medjed , a sacred species of Mormyrus fish. Two groups of buildings survive at Heracleopolis Magna, sacred to Heracles / Hercules , which is otherwise known from Jomard's work, which also forms the mainstay of knowledge about the architecture of Antinoöpolis, founded by Hadrian in honour of his deified lover Antinous . The Napoleonic-era evidence is also important for documenting Hermopolis Magna, where more buildings survive and which

9246-438: The classes. Within the mētropoleis there was a Hellenic socio-political élite, an urban land-owning aristocracy that dominated Egypt by the 2nd and throughout the 3rd centuries through their large private estates. The social structure in Aegyptus is very closely linked to the governing administration. Elements of centralized rule that were derived from the Ptolemaic period lasted into the 4th century. One element in particular

9380-476: The classical notion that the Mesopotamian symbol system predates the Egyptian one. A date of c.  3400 BCE for the earliest Abydos glyphs challenges the hypothesis of diffusion from Mesopotamia to Egypt, pointing to an independent development of writing in Egypt. Rosalie David has argued that the debate is moot since "If Egypt did adopt the idea of writing from elsewhere, it was presumably only

9514-546: The coast of the Mediterranean and throughout the northern part of the country the churches were basilicas of three or five aisles, but in Middle Egypt and Upper Egypt the basilicas were often given a colonnade all the way around the structure, forming a continuous ambulatory by the addition of a transverse fourth aisle to the west of the other three. In eastern Egypt, the columns and colonnade were emphasized, and

9648-444: The concept which was taken over, since the forms of the hieroglyphs are entirely Egyptian in origin and reflect the distinctive flora, fauna and images of Egypt's own landscape." Egyptian scholar Gamal Mokhtar argued further that the inventory of hieroglyphic symbols derived from "fauna and flora used in the signs [which] are essentially African" and in "regards to writing, we have seen that a purely Nilotic, hence African origin not only

9782-467: The connection between law and status. It lays out the revenues it deals with, mainly fines and confiscation of property, to which only a few groups were apt. The Gnomon also confirms that a freed slave takes his former master's social status. The Gnomon demonstrates the social controls that the Romans had in place through monetary means based on status and property. The economic resources that this imperial government existed to exploit had not changed since

9916-675: The count of the Orient (i.e. the vicar) of the diocese headquartered in Antioch in Syria. Emperor Justinian abolished the Diocese of Egypt in 538 and re-combined civil and military power in the hands of the dux with a civil deputy ( praeses ) as a counterweight to the power of the church authorities. All pretense of local autonomy had by then vanished. The presence of the soldiery was more noticeable, its power and influence more pervasive in

10050-478: The diverse set-up of various institutions that the Romans continued to use after their takeover of Egypt. Just as under the Ptolemies, Alexandria and its citizens had their own special designations. The capital city enjoyed a higher status and more privileges than the rest of Egypt. Just as it was under the Ptolemies, the primary way of becoming a citizen of Roman Alexandria was through showing when registering for

10184-400: The early 4th century had established the basis for another 250 years of comparative prosperity in Aegyptus, at a cost of perhaps greater rigidity and more oppressive state control. Aegyptus was subdivided for administrative purposes into a number of smaller provinces, and separate civil and military officials were established; the praeses and the dux . The province was under the supervision of

10318-404: The elites per aroura of land in tax-rates, and about 4–5 times more than Alexandrians per aroura of land in tax-rates. These privileges even extended to corporal punishments. Romans were protected from this type of punishment while native Egyptians were whipped. Alexandrians, on the other hand, had the privilege of merely being beaten with a rod. Although Alexandria enjoyed the greatest status of

10452-478: The emperor or to wealthy private landlords, and they were relatively much more heavily burdened by rentals, which tended to remain at a fairly high level. Overall, the degree of monetization and complexity in the economy, even at the village level, was intense. 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

10586-404: The equestrian order, rather than, as in other provinces, a governor of the senatorial class. This distinction was stipulated in a law promulgated by Augustus, and, because it was unthinkable that an equestrian should command a senator, the commanders of the legions in Egypt were themselves, uniquely, of equestrian rank. As a result of these strictures, the governor was rendered unable to build up

10720-403: The evidence of these remains, because since the 19th century many of the ruins have themselves disappeared. South of Thebes, the mētropoleis may have been largely without classical buildings, but near Antinoöpolis the classical influence may have been stronger. Most mētropoleis were probably built on the classical Hippodamian grid employed by the Hellenistic polis , as at Alexandria, with

10854-451: The exploitation of the predominant agricultural base. The volume of trade, both internal and external, reached its peak in the 1st and 2nd centuries. By the end of the 3rd century, major problems were evident. A series of debasements of the imperial currency had undermined confidence in the coinage, and even the government itself was contributing to this by demanding more and more irregular tax payments in kind, which it channelled directly to

10988-477: The first person pronoun I . Phonograms formed with one consonant are called uniliteral signs; with two consonants, biliteral signs; with three, triliteral signs. Twenty-four uniliteral signs make up the so-called hieroglyphic alphabet. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing does not normally indicate vowels, unlike cuneiform , and for that reason has been labelled by some as an abjad , i.e., an alphabet without vowels. Thus, hieroglyphic writing representing

11122-454: The foreign conquerors. Another reason may be the refusal to tackle a foreign culture on its own terms, which characterized Greco-Roman approaches to Egyptian culture generally. Having learned that hieroglyphs were sacred writing, Greco-Roman authors imagined the complex but rational system as an allegorical, even magical, system transmitting secret, mystical knowledge. By the 4th century CE, few Egyptians were capable of reading hieroglyphs, and

11256-442: The function and administration would have changed. The Romans introduced important changes in the administrative system, aimed at achieving a high level of efficiency and maximizing revenue . The duties of the prefect of Aegyptus combined responsibility for military security through command of the legions and cohorts , for the organization of finance and taxation, and for the administration of justice. The Egyptian provinces of

11390-425: The fundamental assumption that hieroglyphs recorded ideas and not the sounds of the language. As no bilingual texts were available, any such symbolic 'translation' could be proposed without the possibility of verification. It was not until Athanasius Kircher in the mid 17th century that scholars began to think the hieroglyphs might also represent sounds. Kircher was familiar with Coptic, and thought that it might be

11524-401: The government of the country in the prefect's name and were themselves drawn from the Egyptian upper classes. The strategoi in each of the mētropoleis were the senior local officials, served as intermediaries between the prefect and the villages, and were legally responsible for the administration and their own conduct while in office for several years. Each strategos was supplemented by

11658-529: The governors' engagements. Yearly in Lower Egypt , and once every two years in Upper Egypt , the praefectus Aegypti held a conventus (Koinē Greek: διαλογισμός , romanized:  dialogismos , lit.   'dialogue'), during which legal trials were conducted and administrative officials' practices were examined, usually between January ( Ianuarius ) and April ( Aprilis ) in

11792-422: The independent development of writing in Egypt..." While there are many instances of early Egypt-Mesopotamia relations , the lack of direct evidence for the transfer of writing means that "no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt". Since the 1990s, the above-mentioned discoveries of glyphs at Abydos , dated to between 3400 and 3200 BCE, have shed further doubt on

11926-504: The key to deciphering the hieroglyphs, but was held back by a belief in the mystical nature of the symbols. The breakthrough in decipherment came only with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone by Napoleon 's troops in 1799 (during Napoleon's Egyptian invasion ). As the stone presented a hieroglyphic and a demotic version of the same text in parallel with a Greek translation, plenty of material for falsifiable studies in translation

12060-550: The left, they almost always must be read from left to right, and vice versa. As in many ancient writing systems, words are not separated by blanks or punctuation marks. However, certain hieroglyphs appear particularly common only at the end of words, making it possible to readily distinguish words. The Egyptian hieroglyphic script contained 24 uniliterals (symbols that stood for single consonants, much like letters in English). It would have been possible to write all Egyptian words in

12194-533: The legionaries as well, who were required to have Roman citizenship. An increasing proportion of the Army of Egypt was of local origin in the reign of the Flavian dynasty , with an even higher proportion – as many as three quarters of legionaries – under the Severan dynasty . Of these, around one third were themselves the offspring (Latin: castrenses , lit.   'camp-men') of soldiers, raised in

12328-629: The lines are read with upper content having precedence over content below. The lines or columns, and the individual inscriptions within them, read from left to right in rare instances only and for particular reasons at that; ordinarily however, they read from right to left–the Egyptians' preferred direction of writing (although, for convenience, modern texts are often normalized into left-to-right order). The direction toward which asymmetrical hieroglyphs face indicate their proper reading order. For example, when human and animal hieroglyphs face or look toward

12462-551: The little vertical stroke will be explained further on under Logograms:  – the character sꜣ as used in the word sꜣw , "keep, watch" As in the Arabic script, not all vowels were written in Egyptian hieroglyphs; it is debatable whether vowels were written at all. Possibly, as with Arabic, the semivowels /w/ and /j/ (as in English W and Y) could double as the vowels /u/ and /i/ . In modern transcriptions, an e

12596-499: The liturgical focus at the east, and the pastaphoria (side-rooms) were a common mark of churches in the country. Churches were built quickly after the victory of Constantine over Licinius, and in the 4th century even towns like ‘Ain el-Gedida in the Dakhla Oasis had their own churches. The earliest known monumental basilica of which remains survive is that at Antinoöpolis; a five-aisled, apsed basilica facing east and set in

12730-453: The lowest class. In between those classes was the metropolite, who was almost certainly of Hellenic origin. Gaining citizenship and moving up in ranks was very difficult and there were not many available options for ascendancy. One of the routes that many followed to ascend to another caste was through enlistment in the army. Although only Roman citizens could serve in the legions, many Greeks found their way in. The native Egyptians could join

12864-534: The magicians, soothsayers" ( Coptic : ϩⲉⲛⲥϩⲁⲓ̈ ⲛ̄ⲥⲁϩ ⲡⲣⲁⲛ︦ϣ︦ ). Hieroglyphs may have emerged from the preliterate artistic traditions of Egypt. For example, symbols on Gerzean pottery from c.  4000 BC have been argued to resemble hieroglyphic writing. Proto-writing systems developed in the second half of the 4th millennium BC, such as the clay labels of a Predynastic ruler called " Scorpion I " ( Naqada IIIA period, c.  33rd century BC ) recovered at Abydos (modern Umm el-Qa'ab ) in 1998 or

12998-514: The main consumers, the army personnel. Local administration by the councils was careless, recalcitrant, and inefficient; the evident need for firm and purposeful reform had to be squarely faced in the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine I . There are numerous indications of Roman trade with India during the period, particularly between Roman Egypt and the Indian subcontinent. Kushan Empire ruler Huvishka (150–180 CE) incorporated in his coins

13132-436: The manner of these signs, but the Egyptians never did so and never simplified their complex writing into a true alphabet. Each uniliteral glyph once had a unique reading, but several of these fell together as Old Egyptian developed into Middle Egyptian . For example, the folded-cloth glyph (𓋴) seems to have been originally an /s/ and the door-bolt glyph (𓊃) a /θ/ sound, but these both came to be pronounced /s/ , as

13266-514: The meaning: "retort [chemistry]" and "retort [rhetoric]" would thus be distinguished. Egypt (Roman province) Roman Egypt was an imperial province of the Roman Empire from 30 BC to AD 641. The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai . It was bordered by the provinces of Crete and Cyrenaica to the west and Judaea , later Arabia Petraea , to

13400-572: The names of persons due to perform unpaid public service as part of the liturgy system. They were required to be literate and had various duties as official clerks. Other local officials drawn from the liturgy system served for a year in their home kome ; they included the practor ( πράκτωρ , práktōr , 'executor'), who collected certain taxes, as well as security officers, granary officials ( σιτολόγοι , sitologoi , 'grain collectors'), public cattle drivers ( δημόσιοι kτηνοτρόφοι , dēmósioi ktēnotróphoi , 'cattleherds of

13534-507: The only surviving information beyond the names of the offices is a few names of the incumbents. In general, the central provincial administration of Egypt is no better-known than the Roman governments of other provinces, since, unlike in the rest of Egypt, the conditions for the preservation of official papyri were very unfavourable at Alexandria. Local government in the hinterland (Koinē Greek: χώρα , romanized:  khṓrā , lit.   'countryside') outside Alexandria

13668-448: The order of signs if this would result in a more aesthetically pleasing appearance (good scribes attended to the artistic, and even religious, aspects of the hieroglyphs, and would not simply view them as a communication tool). Various examples of the use of phonetic complements can be seen below: Notably, phonetic complements were also used to allow the reader to differentiate between signs that are homophones , or which do not always have

13802-590: The province in opposition to emperor Diocletian ( r.  284–305 ), who recovered it in 297–298. Diocletian then introduced administrative and economic reforms. These coincided with the Christianization of the Roman Empire , especially the growth of Christianity in Egypt . After Constantine the Great gained control of Egypt in AD ;324, the emperors promoted Christianity. The Coptic language , derived from earlier forms of Egyptian, emerged among

13936-459: The province. Other procurators were responsible for revenue farming of state monopolies (the procurator ad Mercurium ), oversight of farm lands (the procurator episkepseos ), of the warehouses of Alexandria (the procurator Neaspoleos ), and of exports and emigration (the procurator Phari , 'procurator of the Pharos '). These roles are poorly attested, with often

14070-414: The provincial capital at Alexandria, who then also took up overall command of the Roman legions of the Egyptian garrison. (Initially, three legions were stationed in Egypt, with only two from the reign of Tiberius ( r.  14–37 AD ).) The official duties of the praefectus Aegypti are well known because enough records survive to reconstruct a mostly complete official calendar ( fasti ) of

14204-623: The provincial fleet of the Roman Navy in Egypt. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, there were around 8,000 soldiers at Alexandria, a fraction of the megalopolis 's huge population. Initially, the legionary garrison of Roman Egypt consisted of three legions: the Legio III Cyrenaica , the Legio XXII Deiotariana , and one other legion. The station and identity of this third legion is not known for sure, and it

14338-439: The routine of town and village life. The Roman army was among the most homogenous Roman structures, and the organization of the army in Egypt differed little from its organization elsewhere in the Roman Empire. The Roman legions were recruited from Roman citizens and the Roman auxilia recruited from the non-citizen subjects. Egypt was unique in that its garrison was commanded by the praefectus Aegypti , an official of

14472-401: The same sounds, in order to guide the reader. For example, the word nfr , "beautiful, good, perfect", was written with a unique triliteral that was read as nfr : However, it is considerably more common to add to that triliteral, the uniliterals for f and r . The word can thus be written as nfr+f+r , but one still reads it as merely nfr . The two alphabetic characters are adding clarity to

14606-480: The same text, the same phrase, I would almost say in the same word. Visually, hieroglyphs are all more or less figurative: they represent real or abstract elements, sometimes stylized and simplified, but all generally perfectly recognizable in form. However, the same sign can, according to context, be interpreted in diverse ways: as a phonogram ( phonetic reading), as a logogram , or as an ideogram ( semagram ; " determinative ") ( semantic reading). The determinative

14740-423: The semantic connection is indirect ( metonymic or metaphoric ): Determinatives or semagrams (semantic symbols specifying meaning) are placed at the end of a word. These mute characters serve to clarify what the word is about, as homophonic glyphs are common. If a similar procedure existed in English, words with the same spelling would be followed by an indicator that would not be read, but which would fine-tune

14874-623: The southern border, on the Nile's First Cataract around Philae and Syene ( Aswan ), protecting Egypt from enemies to the south and guarding against rebellion in the Thebaid . Besides the main garrison at Alexandrian Nicopolis and the southern border force, the disposition of the rest of the Army of Egypt is not clear, though many soldiers are known to have been stationed at various outposts ( praesidia ), including those defending roads and remote natural resources from attack. Roman detachments, centuriones , and beneficiarii maintained order in

15008-485: The spelling of the preceding triliteral hieroglyph. Redundant characters accompanying biliteral or triliteral signs are called phonetic complements (or complementaries). They can be placed in front of the sign (rarely), after the sign (as a general rule), or even framing it (appearing both before and after). Ancient Egyptian scribes consistently avoided leaving large areas of blank space in their writing and might add additional phonetic complements or sometimes even invert

15142-566: The state and forming most of its revenue; and the "gifted land" (Koinē Greek: γή εν δωρεά , romanized:  gḗ en dōreá , lit.   'land in gift'; Δωρεά , Dōreá , 'gifts') leased out under the cleruchy system. The Roman government had actively encouraged the privatization of land and the increase of private enterprise in manufacture, commerce, and trade, and low tax rates favored private owners and entrepreneurs. The poorer people gained their livelihood as tenants of state-owned land or of property belonging to

15276-456: The typical Roman pattern of the Cardo (north–south) and Decumanus Maximus (east–west) thoroughfares meeting at their centres, as at Athribis and Antinoöpolis. Vivant Denon made sketches of ruins at Oxyrhynchus, and Edme-François Jomard wrote a description; together with some historical photographs and the few surviving remains, these are the best evidence for the classical architecture of

15410-399: The word: sꜣ , "son"; or when complemented by other signs detailed below sꜣ , "keep, watch"; and sꜣṯ.w , "hard ground". For example:  – the characters sꜣ ;  – the same character used only in order to signify, according to the context, "pintail duck" or, with the appropriate determinative, "son", two words having the same or similar consonants; the meaning of

15544-474: Was a vital part of the metropolis and the Greek institutions provided an elite group of citizens. The Romans looked to these elites to provide municipal officers and well-educated administrators. These elites also paid lower poll-taxes than the local native Egyptians, fellahin . It is well documented that Alexandrians in particular were exempted from paying poll-taxes, and were able to enjoy lower tax-rates on land. Egyptian landholders paid about 3 times more than

15678-447: Was based on poros (property or income qualification), which was wholly based on social status and power. The Romans also introduced the poll tax which was similar to tax rates that the Ptolemies levied, but the Romans gave special low rates to citizens of mētropoleis . The city of Oxyrhynchus had many papyri remains that contain much information on the subject of social structure in these cities. This city, along with Alexandria, shows

15812-487: Was concentrated at Nicopolis, a district of Alexandria, rather than at the strategic heart of the country around Memphis and Egyptian Babylon . Alexandria was the Mediterranean's second city in the early Roman empire, the cultural capital of the Greek East and rival to Rome under Antony and Cleopatra. Because only a few papyri are preserved from the area, little more is known about the legionaries' everyday life than

15946-412: Was considerable social mobility however, accompanying mass urbanization, and participation in the monetized economy and literacy in Greek by the peasant population was widespread. The Romans began a system of social hierarchy that revolved around ethnicity and place of residence. Other than Roman citizens, a Greek citizen of one of the Greek cities had the highest status, and a rural Egyptian would be in

16080-533: Was dedicated to the worship of Thoth , equated with Hermes / Mercury . The oldest known remains of church architecture in Egypt are at the Roman village of Kellis ; following the house church of the early 4th century, a three- aisled , apsed basilica church was built in the Constantinian period, with pastaphoria on either side, while a third church was accompanied by a Christian cemetery. All these churches were built on an east-west axis, with

16214-474: Was developed consisting of dozens of types of land-holding. Land's status was determined by the hydrological, juridical, and function of the property, as well as by the three main categories of ownership held over from the Ptolemaic system: the sacred property belonging to the temples (Koinē Greek: Ἱερά γη , romanized:  Hierā́ gē , lit.   'holy land'); the royal land ( Βασιλική γη , Basilikḗ gē , 'royal land') belonging to

16348-482: Was divided into traditional regions known as nomoi . The mētropoleis were governed by magistrates drawn from the liturgy system; these magistrates, as in other Roman cities, practised euergetism and built public buildings. To each nome the prefect appointed a strategos (Koinē Greek: στρατηγός , romanized:  stratēgós , lit.   'general'); the strategoi were civilian administrators, without military functions, who performed much of

16482-581: Was finally accomplished in the 1820s by Jean-François Champollion , with the help of the Rosetta Stone . The entire Ancient Egyptian corpus , including both hieroglyphic and hieratic texts, is approximately 5 million words in length; if counting duplicates (such as the Book of the Dead and the Coffin Texts ) as separate, this figure is closer to 10 million. The most complete compendium of Ancient Egyptian,

16616-663: Was formed, encompassing the area just south of Memphis and the Faiyum region and named "the Heptanomia and the Arsinoite nome". In the Nile Delta however, power was wielded by two of the epistrategoi . The epistrategos 's role was mainly to mediate between the prefect in Alexandria and the strategoi in the mētropoleis , and they had few specific administrative duties, performing a more general function. Their salary

16750-431: Was not read as a phonetic constituent, but facilitated understanding by differentiating the word from its homophones. Most non- determinative hieroglyphic signs are phonograms , whose meaning is determined by pronunciation, independent of visual characteristics. This follows the rebus principle where, for example, the picture of an eye could stand not only for the English word eye , but also for its phonetic equivalent,

16884-484: Was not within the then-prevailing traditional geographic boundaries of Egypt. From the 1st century BC, the Roman governor of Egypt was appointed by the emperor for a multi-year term and given the rank of prefect ( Latin : praefectus ). Both the governor and the major officials were of equestrian rank (unlike other Roman provinces, which had governors of senatorial rank). The prefect of Egypt had more or less equivalent civil and military powers ( imperium ) to

17018-416: Was seized by Octavian as his personal possession. The legal status was settled in 27 BC, when Octavian was granted the honorific name of Augustus and Egypt became an imperial province of the newly established Roman empire . Augustus (and succeeding Roman emperors ) ruled Egypt as the Roman pharaoh . The Ptolemaic institutions were dismantled: the government administration was wholly reformed, as

17152-431: Was sexagenarian – 60,000 sesterces annually. Each village or kome ( κώμη , kṓmē ) was served by a village scribe ( κωμογραμματεύς , kōmogrammateús , 'secretary of the kome '), whose term, possibly paid, was usually held for three years. Each, to avoid conflicts of interest, was appointed to a community away from their home village, as they were required to inform the strategoi and epistrategoi of

17286-576: Was styled in Latin: praefectus stratopedarches , from the Greek: στρατοπεδάρχης , romanized:  stratopedárchēs , lit.   'camp commander', or as Latin: praefectus exercitu qui est in Aegypto , lit.   'prefect of the army in Egypt';. Collectively, these forces were known as the exercitus Aegyptiacus , 'Army of Egypt'. The Roman garrison

17420-421: Was suddenly available. In the early 19th century, scholars such as Silvestre de Sacy , Johan David Åkerblad , and Thomas Young studied the inscriptions on the stone, and were able to make some headway. Finally, Jean-François Champollion made the complete decipherment by the 1820s. In his Lettre à M. Dacier (1822), he wrote: It is a complex system, writing figurative, symbolic, and phonetic all at once, in

17554-443: Was the appointment of strategoi to govern the ' nomes ', the traditional administrative divisions of Egypt. Boulai , or town councils, in Egypt were only formally constituted by Septimius Severus . It was only under Diocletian later in the 3rd century that these boulai and their officers acquired important administrative responsibilities for their nomes. The Augustan takeover introduced a system of compulsory public service, which

17688-538: Was the largest port and second largest city of the Roman Empire. Three Roman legions garrisoned Egypt in the early Roman imperial period , with the garrison later reduced to two, alongside auxilia formations of the Roman army . The major town of each nome (administrative region) was known as a metropolis and granted additional privileges. The inhabitants of Roman Egypt were divided by social class along ethnic and cultural lines. Most inhabitants were peasant farmers, who lived in rural villages and spoke

17822-449: Was the second-highest office available to the equestrian class on the cursus honorum (after that of the praetorian prefect (Latin: praefectus praetorio ), the commander of the imperial Praetorian Guard ) and one of the highest-paid, receiving an annual salary of 200,000 sesterces (a "ducenarian" post). The prefect was appointed at the emperor's discretion; officially the governors' status and responsibilities mirrored those of

17956-566: Was the social structure, though some bureaucratic elements were maintained. The Graeco-Egyptian legal system of the Hellenistic period continued in use, but within the bounds of Roman law . The tetradrachm coinage minted at the Ptolemaic capital of Alexandria continued to be the currency of an increasingly monetized economy, but its value was made equal to the Roman denarius . Augustus introduced land reforms that enabled wider entitlement to private ownership of land (previously rare under

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