ABSTRACT

There were exceptions to the temple-cities of the first century, and even within the ‘temple-cities’ of the chora, there may have been individuals or groups who, for whatever reason, sought to stand apart from traditional temples. The most notable urban exceptions were probably the so-called Greek cities, places such as Ptolemais (Plaumann 1910), Naukratis, Paraetonium and Alexandria. Very little is known of the society and topography of Ptolemais or Naukratis, even though the latter has been the subject of extensive archaeological investigation (Petrie 1886; Gardner 1888; Hogarth 1898-9; 1905; Coulson and Leonard 1981; Coulson 1988; 1996), but Alexandria is one of the best-attested cities of the first century AD and indeed of the Roman and Byzantine periods in general.