ABSTRACT
Egypt, the site of an ancient stable civilization and from 323 bc the base of the kingdom of the Ptolemies, was much changed, almost entirely to the detriment of the majority of its inhabitants, by the advent of Roman rule. The Roman annexation of Egypt in 30 bc, some ten months after the battle of Actium, marked a decline in status, power and wealth from which the country was not to recover until well into the Byzantine period, and perhaps not even then. 1
