Until recently there was a dearth of books on Roman Egypt, a situation that is rapidly being rectified. The best overall introduction is undoubtedly Alan Bowman, Egypt after the Pharaohs (London, 1986). Other general works worth reading include Naphthali Lewis, Life in Egypt under Roman Rule (Oxford, 1983), and (. G. Mhne, A History of Egypt under Roman Rule (London, 1924). On the Romanization of Egypt, see Lewis ‘The Romanity of Egypt: A Growing Consensus’, Atti del XVII Congresso Intemazionale di Papirologia (Naples, 1984), 1077-84. The special place of papyri and ostraca is now discussed by Roger S. Bagnall, Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History (London, 1995). The administration of Roman Egypt is a complex issue, but good summaries will be found in the books by Bowman and Lewis cited above.
The role of the army is evaluated by R. Alston in Soldier and Society in Roman Egypt (London, 1995), but for a recent review of the army in the Eastern Desert see Valerie Maxfield, ‘Eastern Desert Forts and the Army in Egypt during the Principate’, in Donald Bailey (ed.), Proceedings of the British Museum Conference on Roman Egypt, published as JRA supplement 19 {1996), 9-19- Much of J. Lesquier, L’Armee romaine de I’Egypte d’Auguste a Diocletian (Cairo, 1918), is stiU valid.
The grain trade has been the subject of much debate, but a fundamental work is G. Rickman, ‘The Grain Supply under the Roman Empire’, in J. H. D’Arms and E. C. Kopff (eds.), The Seaborne Commerce of Ancient Rome: Studies in Archaeology and History (Rome, 1980), 261-76. For the
Appianus estate, see Dominic Rathbone, Economic Rationalism and Rural Society in Third Century ad Egypt (Cambridge, 1991).
Tbe stone resources of tbe Eastern Desert are discussed by David Peacock, Rome in the Desert: A Symbol of Power (Southampton, 1992), and in Peacock and Maxfield, Survey and Excavation at Mons Claudianus 1987-1993, i. The Topography and Quarries (Cairo, 1996). Tbe distribution of Mons Claudianus rock is discussed in Peacock et al, ‘Mons Claudianus and the Problem of the granito del foro: A Geological and Geochemical Approach’, Antiquity, 68 (1994), 209-30. For the site of Myos Hormos, see Peacock, ‘The Site of Myos Hormos; A View from Space’, JRA 6 (1993), 226-32. Desert routes are discussed by J.-C. Golvin and M. Redde, ‘Du Nil a la Mer Rouge: Documents anciens et nouveaux sur les routes du desert oriental d’Egypte’, Karthago, 21 (1987), 5-64; Steven Sidebotham et al., ‘Survey of the Abu Sha’ar-Nile Road’, AJA 95 (1991), 571-622, and R. Zitterkopf and S. Sidebotham, ‘Stations and Towers on the Quseir-Nile Road’, JEA 75 (1989), 155-89. On trade, see also L. Casson, The Periplus Maris Erythraei (Princeton, 1989), and Sidebotham, Roman Economic Policy in the Erythra Thalassa (Leiden, 1986).
Aspects of religion in Roman Egypt are covered in H. I. Bell, Cults and Creeds in Graeco-Roman Egypt (1953); David Frankfurter, Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance (Princeton, 1998), and R. Witt, Isis in the Graeco-Roman World (London, 1971). For Christianity and monasticism, see Colin Walters, Monastic Archaeology in Egypt (Warminster, 1974), and Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton, 1993). For mummy portraits, see Euphrosyne Doxiadis, The Mysterious Eayum Portraits (London, 1995); Susan Walker and Morris Bierbrier (eds.). Ancient Paces: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt (London, 1997), and Bierbrier (ed.). Portraits and Masks in Roman Egypt (London, 1997).
For pottery, see Jean-Yves Empereur, ‘Un atelier de Dressel 2-4 en Egypte au Ille siecle de notre ere’. Bulletin de Correspondence Hellenique, suppl. 13 (1986), 599-608, and Empereur and M. Picon, ‘A la recherche des fours d’amphores’. Bulletin de Correspondence Hellenique, suppl. 13 (1986), 103-24. For papyrological evidence, see H. Cockle, ‘Pottery Manufacture in Roman Egypt’, JRS 71 (1981), 87-97. For faience and glass manufacture, see Paul T. Nicholson, Egyptian Faience and Glass (Princes Risborough, 1993), and D. B. Harden, Roman Glass from Karanis (Ann Arbor, 1936).
The nature of society in Roman Egypt is discussed in both R. S. Bagnall and B. W. Frier, The Demography of Roman Egypt (Cambridge, 1994), and Dominic Montserrat, Sex and Society in Graeco-Roman Egypt (London, 1996).
World History
