With the defeat of Mark Antony and the death of Queen Cleopatra in 30 BC, the Roman general Octavian took possession of Egypt. Octavian had himself proclaimed as Emperor and Egypt was established as a Roman province. Octavian (Augustus) appointed a military colleague named Gaius Cornelius Gallus as the first governor of the new territory. Cornelius Gallus was a general of equestrian rank, but he also had a reputation as a poet and literary prodigy. His admirers in Rome included Virgil and Ovid who expressed the view that Gallus could expect ‘literary fame that would extend as far as his military commands and endure longer’.12
When Gallus gained office in Egypt, he led a Roman army south to supress a revolt in the Thebaid district.13 After regaining order in Syene, Cornelius Gallus crossed the First Cataract to establish Roman authority in northern Nubia and lay claim to the nearby temple-site of Philae. He brought a local Nubian ruler under Roman control and in return for paying homage to the Empire, this dynast was given the title of Tyrannus (Tyrant) of the Triacontaschoenus. Cornelius Gallus also received representatives from the King of Meroe, whom he acknowledged as a political associate of the Roman Empire.
To celebrate his exploits Cornelius Gallus had a trilingual stelea erected in Philae in 29 BC. The inscription had a message recorded in Latin, Greek and
Egyptian hieroglyphics. In the Greek text, Cornelius Gallus was awarded the title of proxenia (political-associate) by ambassadors sent from Meroe.14 This arrangement suggests mutual obligations, with Gallus hosting representatives from Meroe and acting in their interest in affairs which involved the Empire.
The Latin inscription on the stelae offers a different interpretation of these political events. In the Latin text, Gallus claims that he had extended Roman authority further than the Ptolemaic rule by placing the King of Meroe under imperial protection. The Latin text explains that Cornelius Gallus ‘received ambassadors from the King of the Ethiopians and accepted that king into protection (tutelam)’. This was often the first stage for bringing an independent State under Roman dominance as a vassal kingdom. The Latin text also describes the Nubian dynast in different terms. In the Greek inscription he is simply a ruler (Tyrannus) installed in the Triacontaschoenus, but the Latin version presents him as an agent of the Empire. The text announces that Gallus ‘appointed a local governor for the district of Ethiopia known as Triacontaschoenus’.15
Gallus remained in office for just over two years, during which time he celebrated his exploits in grandiose acts that began to attract concern, then criticism in Rome. Dio describes how Cornelius Gallus ‘set up images of himself practically everywhere in Egypt and inscribed a list of his achievements even upon the very pyramids’. By Roman standards these displays were judged to be insolent and when Cornelius Gallus was accused of making disrespectful remarks about the Emperor, he was removed from office. Augustus formerly renounced their friendship and Cornelius Gallus was threatened by numerous law suits. He committed suicide rather than endure the forfeit of his family estates and lose what remained of his reputation.16 The death of Cornelius Gallus left the first political settlement between Rome and Meroe poorly defined and open to challenge.
World History
