Foreign Records About Ancient Egypt: Greek and Roman Sources

When modern historians attempt to reconstruct the history of the Pharaonic civilization, they are mainly relying on the indigenous primary sources such as hieroglyphic inscriptions on the walls of ancient temples, royal stelae, papyri, and the texts concerning funerary practices. Those local Egyptian records were deliberately created to depict a specific theological or magical message and present an idealized picture of the world ruled by Ma’at. In order to create a comprehensive historical picture, the scholars analyzing the development of society in Ancient Egypt, its rituals and relationships with neighboring countries also refer to a large corpus of historical documents – the chronicles, reports, letters, and treatises written by foreign contemporaries of the Egyptians. Those include the works of classical Greek and Roman historians, geographers, generals, and merchants.

During nearly a millennium of the continuous Greek and Roman presence in Egypt, starting from the mid-5th century BC and the first Persian occupation of the country and the late Roman period, classical authors were describing the geography, history, societal and military organization of the Nile Valley. The best-known ancient Greek historians such as Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Plutarch, and Pliny the Elder traveled to Egypt, interviewed local priests, familiarized themselves with the inscriptions and the administrative practices of the country as a part of their journey to learn about the world’s cultures. Their accounts include numerous inaccuracies, misinterpretations, and hyperboles, but still provide a scholar with the possibility to understand the true nature of the Late Period, Ptolemaic, and Roman Egypt.

I. The Archaic & Classical Period: Herodotus and Early Greek Historians

The first known written account of Ancient Egypt was provided by the famous Greek historian and geographer Herodotus of Halicarnassus, who was living in Egypt in the early 5 th century BC and identified himself as a Persian during the First Persian occupation (the Twenty-seventh Dynasty). The second book of his famous History is primarily focused on Egypt, which Herodotus calls “the gift of the Nile.”

A. The Natural History of the Nile Valley

Herodotus was deeply fascinated by the natural history of the Nile valley and its differences from the landscape familiar to the Greeks. He describes in detail the patterns of the Nile’s periodic inundation and irrigation, the local vegetation, animals such as crocodiles and hippopotamus, and the peculiar mummification process applied to the animals and people. Next, the author describes the exotic social customs and traditions of the Ancient Egyptians, who were living in a land very different from Greece. For example, the Greek historian was impressed by the fact that female slaves were in far better conditions than male slaves in Egypt, and he even mentions the difference in the cleanliness standards of the streets in the two countries.

B. The Usefulness and Limits of Herodotus’s Research

A modern scholar interested in the early history of Egypt may find the account of the Herodotus’s investigation fascinating as he describes his own impressions of fair-skinned ordinary ancient Egyptians who often served as his tour guides and helped to communicate with local temple officials. Since the Greek historian could not read and understand Egyptian hieroglyphs, his descriptions are mostly based on the informal talks with the native priests and farmers. Therefore, while Herodotus’s History contains both genuine information provided by the truthful storytellers and a variety of fictions and rumors that were circulating among the local population in the fifth century BC, his account of the architectural peculiarities of the pyramids, the life of Egyptian social hierarchy, and a wide range of other subjects remains a valuable piece of historical information.

II. The Hellenistic Period: Manetho and Diodorus Siculus

Following the end of the Persian rule over Egypt and the completion of the Macedonian conquest of the Nile valley by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, the cultural and intellectual exchange between the native population and the newly arrived Greek rulers has increased significantly. The most notable contribution of the Early Hellenistic era to the study of Ancient Egypt includes the historical writings of Manetho, the priest from Sebennytos, who probably served under the reign of Ptolemy I or Ptolemy II. The author was writing the Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt) in Greek for the benefit of his Ptolemaic patrons, based on the detailed knowledge of the native religious practices, history of the country, and its system of hieroglyphic writing.

A. Manetho’s Aegyptiaca – the Lost History of Egypt

Manetho’s main contribution to the historical understanding of Egypt is based on the description of the country’s social and governmental history. Unfortunately, the original text of the Aegyptiaca was lost long ago, but the later Jewish and Christian scholars, including Josephus, Africanus, and Eusebius, have quoted extensively from Manetho’s work in their own writings concerning the history of Egypt. The Early Hellenistic author was the first to provide a continuous history of the country dating back to the mythical age of the gods and the creation of the world. He divided the entire history of Egypt into thirty-one continuous dynasties and described the evolution of the society, religion, and culture during the reign of each dynasty. His account of the division of Egypt into Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms serves as the basis for the modern historical classification of the Ancient Egyptian history.

B. Diodorus Siculus – the Universal Historian

Another important Greek historian of the Hellenistic period was Diodorus Siculus who visited Egypt between the 1 st and the 2 nd century BC and described the contemporary state of the country in the first book of his Bibliotheca historica (Library of History). Diodorus built the narrative of his work primarily upon the research conducted by his predecessors, including the lost History of the fifth-century BC Greek historian Hecataeus of Abdera, and later recited his findings in front of the local priests in Thebes and Memphis.

The later Roman writer compiled a detailed account of the administrative and legal practices of the Ancient Egyptian state, describing the organization of the royal court, the functioning of the local courts, the system of taxation, and the process of land distribution. In addition, Diodorus Siculus thoroughly described the architectural masterpieces of the ancient world, including the Ramesseion (the temple of Ramses II, also known as the Osymandias’s tomb), the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, and the Pyramids of Giza. A special chapter of his history is dedicated to the description of the Osirian mythology and the rites and rituals of the ancient Egyptian religion.

III. The Roman Period: Strabo, Plutarch, and Roman Administrators

Following the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, the territory of Ancient Egypt was annexed to the Roman Republic as the special province of the Roman Emperor. The writings of the Roman authors who ruled Egypt include both general observations and detailed descriptions of the local geography, economy, and society.

A. Strabo – the Greek Historian and the Roman Administrator

The famous Greek historian and geographer Strabo accompanied the Roman Prefect Aelius Gallus on his tour of Egypt around 25-24 BC and described the economic and administrative system of the Ptolemaic dynasty in the 16 th and 17 th books of his Geographica. Strabo describes the urban development of the Alexandria region better than any other Roman writer, providing the information about the city’s organization, the location of the royal palace, the Pharos Lighthouse, the Museum, and the Great Library. He documents the extensive efforts of the Roman governors to increase the yield of the Nile Valley farms in order to meet the growing demand for grain in the Roman marketplace.

Strabo’s account of the material and spiritual culture of the Ancient Egyptians shows the process of the decline of the ancient temples and their replacement by the Roman-endowed institutions of worship. According to Strabo’s observations, the cities of Heliopolis and other former centers of the ancient Egyptian culture were already in ruins at the beginning of the Roman administration.

B. Plutarch – the Mythology of the Osiris

Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride (On Isis and Osiris) is the unique work of the first century AD that provides the reader with a full-cycle mythological narration about the tragic death of Osiris and the revenge of his son Horus. While the original hieroglyphic tablets of the unknown author of the Osiris Myth only contain some hints and vague references to the plot, the later Greek writer described the story in detail, including the representation of the gods’ personalities as well as the manner in which the wife of Osiris, Isis, recovered the dismembered body of her husband following his cruel death.

IV. The Challenges of Using Greek & Roman Sources for Modern Historiography

When analyzing the writings of the ancient Greek and Roman historians, modern scholars are applying the principles of source criticism in order to identify potential biases, misinterpretations, and subjective assumptions. The first task of the researchers who study the chronicles written by the early classical authors about Ancient Egypt is to identify the presence of the so-called interpretatio graeca, the tendency to relate the gods and practices of the older culture to the gods and practices of the Hellenic or Roman pantheon. Thus, Amun is identified as Zeus, Hathor as Aphrodite, Ptah as Hephaestus, Osiris as Dionysus, and Thoth as Hermes – the Greek equivalent of the Egyptian Thoth. The main challenge the classical historians’ writings pose to the modern Egyptologists is to distinguish between the factual descriptions of the social and spiritual culture of the Ancient Egyptians and the unscientific and prejudiced comments made by the early classical authors.

V. Conclusion

Ancient Egyptian history and its culture were largely preserved thanks to the dedicated efforts of the ancient Greek and Roman historians, geographers, and authors. The chronicles, letters, and travel notes written by them in ancient Greece and Rome provide the modern scholars with the opportunity to compare the external and internal perception of the Pharaonic civilization. Herodotus, the first to describe the history and geography of Egypt, made a significant contribution to the understanding of the early Egyptian history. The later historians and astronomers of the Hellenistic period, including Manetho and Diodorus Siculus, described the organizational strengths of the ancient Egyptian society. Finally, the Roman period writers such as Strabo and Plutarch studied the cultural heritage and mythology of Ancient Egypt.