Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule

In this book (ISBN 0 19814848 8), Naphtali Lewis describes life in Egypt under the Roman Empire. His many citations from papyri help the reader witness how life was for Egyptians and Romans during the Empire.

I found it very interesting when Lewis mentions how “When instances of brother-sister marriages first began to appear … they were greeted with great scepticism … doubt[ing] … that any society would really have countenanced such common violation of the incest taboo … a ‘universal’ of human society. May not, one argument ran, calling a wife ‘my sister’ have been the counterpart of … calling a friend ‘my brother’?” (p. 43) The refusal by people to seriously consider as real anything contrary to their beliefs, applying instead their way of thinking universally, can take place in many fields, history included. As in the above case, such attitudes “collapse completely in the face of … cumulative evidence … .”

But not everything in Egyptian society under Rome society was that different. Besides getting a glimpse at their daily life, Lewis also speaks of general attitudes. Many concern the social condition of women in Egypt. For example, in a matrimonial dispute, in 128 AD a judge passes sentence in favor of a woman, declaring that the wishes of a woman had to be taken into consideration. (p. 56–57) In another document a woman reminds the court that women with three children “are given the right to act independently and to negotiate without a male legal representative ….” (p. 63) Having read these personal accounts through the voice of women during Roman times makes me wonder about how their condition has changed in Egypt throughout the centuries.

Lewis also talks about the difficult relations between Romans, Greeks and Egyptians, not only political but cultural. An interesting story that I think revealed much about the Roman state of mind is when the Egyptians made sacrifices to crocodiles: it was a religious ritual that seemed to attract Roman tourists for very different reasons! (p. 90)

Concerning political difficulties, Lewis mentions how Roman troops killed many people in Alexandria in an attempt to stop riots. Emperor Caracalla reported to a worried Senate that “it was not important to know how many … had perished … .” (p. 202) As we know, this imperial attitude has been repeated continually throughout history.

Indeed, Lewis reminds us how history repeats itself in ways relevant to us. Commenting on attempts to control the flow of illegal aliens in this part of the Roman Empire Lewis writes:

“Who were the ‘illegals’ whom Caracalla denounced as … disturbers… ? While they doubtless included a certain number of shiftless drifters, many – possibly even most – were indeed country folk who had fled … . It is characterizing their flight as … a perverse desire to avoid their life of toil that Caracalla turned a blind eye to the reality. Throughout history most people … have generally been content to remain in their places of origin, where they felt they belonged, as long as the conditions of life were at all bearable. … To flee, abandoning one’s home – be it ever so humble – with no prospect of return, was a counsel of despair, a last resort to which men were driven … when they had lost all hope of being able to meet … inexorable demands …

Some … would make their way to Alexandria or some other large population centre, where they could hope to disappear with impunity into the ‘melting pot’.” (pp. 202–203)

(A priest of the Sun, from the book)