ABSTRACT
Roman Egypt was a multi-cultural society. Even before Alexander the Great ‘liberated’ Egypt from Persian rule (332 BC), there were pockets of Aramaic, Greek and Carian speakers in the Nile valley and Delta, as well as Nubian and other African influences especially in the south. And the military and civilian immigrants welcomed by the early Ptolemaic rulers over the following century included a diverse range of settlers not only from the cities of Old Greece, but also from areas of Ptolemaic overseas power such as Cyrenaica, Thrace and Syria-Phoenicia, including Judaea. The Jewish cultural impact on Alexandria is, of course, well known; but there was also a significant Jewish population in the chora (the rest of Egypt) until it was virtually obliterated in the Jewish revolt of AD 115-17. However, although all these settlers left some mark on their adopted country (the Thracian god Heron became an important deity in the Fayum; and the magical spells combine Egyptian, Greek, Semitic and other Near Eastern influences), it was the cultural encounter between the Egyptians and their new GraecoMacedonian rulers which had the most pervasive impact.1
