The Greco-Roman Period: From our Egyptian Museum to you!

Greco-Roman Period. Greco-Roman Period, 332 BCE to 642 CE. Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, yet the culture of ancient Egypt, its language, religion, art, and customs continue to flourish for many centuries. Very gradually it transformed itself into a new culture, that of Greco-Roman and Coptic Egypt. Alexander's general, Ptolemy, founded a new dynasty. These rulers always spoke Greek, not Egyptian, as their first language. Their capital and new international trading center was Alexandria, located at the western tip of the Delta. This became the intellectual, philosophical, scientific, cultural, and spiritual capital of the Mediterranean world during the time of the Ptolemaic Period. The Ptolemaic dynasty was responsible for a long period of prosperity and expansion abroad. Many remarkable agricultural and economic innovations occurred, including the increased number of yearly crop harvests from an average of two to three bumper crops per year. Many purely Greek settlements and trading cities were built that were connected by the Silk Road to Syria, Persia, India, China, and Japan. Egypt also increasingly experienced rebellion from the native Egyptians due to the hardships imposed on them from other cultures. Macedonian Greek rule ended with the self-inflicted death of the famous Cleopatra VII. After her death, Egypt officially became part of the Roman Empire. However, many Egyptians chose to adhere to their traditional ways for another 500 years. The history of Egypt did not end with Cleopatra. During the next 600 years, Egypt was the leading scientific, cultural, and religious province of the Roman Empire. It was ruled first from Rome and then from Constantinople. During this Roman and Byzantine period, Egyptian culture and language interacted with the Greco-Roman world and evolved into the form we call Coptic, a term from the same root as the word Egypt.