The dilemma for the peoples and rulers of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt resided in a dilemma itself. We find ourselves looking at a geographic area (the Nile Valley) which is bordered on the east and west by remarkable desert regions. Life in the valley was considered a boon to the ancients because of the systematic life-giving renewal of the Nile’s yearly inundation separating fertile agricultural areas from the barren and desolate desert. Throughout Pharaonic times, the Egyptians faced the dilemma of how to interact with this potential paradise. In other chapters you will have investigated how the civilization of Egypt arose and produced the many monuments in stone. Temples were built and magnificent royal tombs were excavated in the hillsides.
The Egyptians living in the valley were the center of a new world order. Their thoughts literally defined how they were adapting to their geographic milieux. Theirs was an age of growth, adventure, rise, and fall. When the Egyptians reached the time period after the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 bc, they faced new challenges. The dilemma was: how would they react? For centuries the Egyptians knew of, and utilized, the trade potential along the Red Sea coast, but it was not until the Ptolemaic and Romans Periods that they systematically expanded upon their potential use of that area. The inundation may have flowed every year, but simply because the geography was the same does not mean that the Egypt which resided within those boundaries was the same as before. Climatically we know that the time period covered in this chapter was a comparatively wet phase in the eastern Mediterranean. Does that mean Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt were successful simply because of the weather?
Earlier studies have shown that the Egyptians were very cognizant of the happenings in the Greek world (see ch. 8). One only needs to see the close interactions between the Pharaohs and priestly families of the Twenty-eighth-Thirtieth Dynasties to see how life in Egypt had become entwined with the Greek experience before the rise of Alexander. Was the Egypt going into the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods one that was tied down to an overbearing past, or was it a dynamic culture? Or was it a new country with new people and new rules? Was it a homogenous society, or was it made up of a diverse population? In this chapter we will examine a series of dilemmas that confronted the Egyptians and their rulers. In many cases resolutions to those dilemmas were found, but not in all cases. The questions we must ask may not have answers but hopefully will allow for much thought. As historians can we second-guess with impunity the actions of the Ptolemaic kings or Roman emperors? Or should we sit back and wait respectfully for them to tell us their stories?
World History
