Were Roman emperors officially considered kings of Egypt?
Upvote:0
Emperors were treated and depicted as pharaohs for many reasons. The Egyptians did not know other forms of rulers, because they never had an emperor before. Augustus became emperor 3 years after Egypt was annexed.
Augustus wanted to be treated as pharaoh because he wanted a province not to rebel against him and he demanded a lot of grain from it.
Upvote:1
Dynastic list List of pharoahs - Wikipedia
The Dynastic list as mentioned elsewhere takes us to a Wikipedia page, and right at the bottom of that page we read that according to Von Beckerath (Citation 2) and "The Book of the Pharaohs" (Citation 110), the last Roman emperor to be conferred the title of pharaoh was Maximinus Daia 311–313 AD.
Dynastic list, Rome, Wikipedia
Cleopatra VII had affairs with Roman dictator Julius Caesar and Roman general Mark Antony, but it was not until after her suicide (after Mark Antony was defeated by Octavian, who would later be Emperor Augustus Caesar) that Egypt became a province of the Roman Republic in 30 BC. Subsequent Roman emperors were accorded the title of pharaoh, although exclusively while in Egypt.
The last Roman emperor to be conferred the title of pharaoh was Maximinus Daia (reigned 311–313 AD).[2][110]
Roman pharoah Roman pharoah - Wikipedia
As Wikipedia appears to be the source of choice for everyone else in the discussion, i will remain consistent and point to (Citation 2) "A ride in Egypt" to establish that the Roman pharoahs were initially officially recognised by the Egyptian people and the priesthood.
The Roman pharaohs,2 rarely referred to as ancient Egypt's Thirty-fourth Dynasty,[2][n 1] is the term sometimes used for the Roman emperors in their capacity as rulers of Egypt, especially in Egyptology. After Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 30 BC, the people and especially the priesthood of the country continued to recognize the Roman emperors as pharaohs, according them traditional pharaonic titularies and depicting them with traditional pharaonic garb, engaging in traditional pharaonic activities, in artwork and at temples throughout Egypt.
Decline
I understand the arguments against, and as written in Wikipedia "Most emperors probably cared little of the status accorded to them by the Egyptians, with emperors rarely visiting the province more than once in their lifetime. Their role as god-kings was only ever officially acknowledged by the Egyptians themselves. This was a sharp contrast to the preceding dynasty of pharaohs of Hellenistic Ptolemaic Kingdom, who had spent the majority of their lives in Egypt, ruling from Alexandria.". However there is little need for me to elaborate farther on this as it has already been well highlighted.
I think the best way to look at it, is that the Roman pharoah period was just the last stage in the decline of the pharoahship which perhaps debatably begins with the Bronze age collapse, and ending forever with the spread of Christianity.
Though Egypt continued to be a part of the Roman Empire until it was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate in 641 AD, the last Roman emperor to be conferred the title of pharaoh was Maximinus Daia (reigned 311–313 AD). By his time, the view of Romans as pharaohs had already been declining for some time due to Egypt being on the periphery of the Roman Empire (in contrast to the traditional pharaonic view of Egypt as the center of the world). The spread of Christianity throughout the empire in the 4th century, and the transformation of Egypt's capital Alexandria into a major Christian center, decisively ended the tradition, due to the new religion being incompatible with the traditional implications of being pharaoh.
Were Roman emperors officially considered kings of Egypt? According to Citation 2 of Roman pharoah, yes, some were officially recognised by the relevant Egyptian officials
Upvote:9
In 30 BC Cleopatra, Mark Anthony, and Caesarion (Ptolemy Caesar) famously met their deaths in the aftermath of the Battle of Actium at the dawn of the Roman Empire and the Augustan Age.
Ronald Syme (in The Roman Revolution) provides this account of the Ptolemaic dynasty's demise in Egypt:
The children of Cleopatra presented a more delicate problem [opposite the virtue of clemency]. "A multitude of Caesars is no good thing." That just observation sealed the fate of Ptolemy Caesar, whom many believed son of the Dictator [Julius Caesar]. Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene were reserved to walk in a Roman triumph. The boy is not heard of again -- he was probably suppressed. The girl was enlisted as an instrument of Roman imperial policy, being given in marriage to Juba, the prince of the Numidian royal stock who became King of Mauretania.
Such was the fate of Egypt's Queen and her children, crowned kinds and queens. The Roman imperator seized the heritage of the Ptolemies. He claimed, using official language to have added the land to the Empire of the Roman People: he treated Egypt as his own private and dynastic possession and governed it trough a viceroy, jealously excluding Roman senators. The first Prefect of Egypt was C. Cornelius Gallus, a Roman knight.
As you may expect, Syme includes references to primary sources, such as Res Gestae Divi Augusti.
Upvote:17
No, they were not. The Ptolemys were the last dynasty to rule Egypt directly in the old fashion. When the Romans took over, they just treated it as another province in the empire.
In 30 BC, following the death of Cleopatra VII, the Roman Empire declared that Egypt was a province (Aegyptus), and that it was to be governed by a prefect selected by the Emperor from the Equestrian and not a governor from the Senatorial order, to prevent interference by the Roman Senate. The main Roman interest in Egypt was always the reliable delivery of grain to the city of Rome.
The headdress is called nemes, and is only worn by Pharaohs, sort of like the symbolic function a crown would have to a European. The statue is simply a way of telling those who can't read that Augustus Caesar is their ruler. However, the Roman rulers never came to Egypt to carry out the ceremonial functions required of a proper Pharaoh. If you look over the dynastic lists, you'll see that they end in 30 BC with Cleopatra.
More post
- 📝 Was the Kingdom of Nri truly pacifistic?
- 📝 Was the German Empire responsible for the advancement of German technology?
- 📝 Did the Third Rome theory help make Michael Romanov tsar?
- 📝 Which factors led to the different casualty ratio betwen British and German forces during the Battle of Normandy?
- 📝 Two Successive Coups?
- 📝 Why did the USA ever test nukes on their own soil?
- 📝 Have Moscow and Beijing ever been cities under the same rule?
- 📝 Can you identify this possibly Austro-Hungarian military uniform from either WW1 or before?
- 📝 Did anyone in Spain support the return of Alfonso XIII?
- 📝 Who is the earliest recorded person?
- 📝 Why have North and South Korea stopped marching together at the Olympics?
- 📝 What is the oldest verifiably correctly translated written work?
- 📝 Identifying a ship in Sydney Harbour
- 📝 What was a cistern to the Babylonians?
- 📝 What was the range of medieval bombards?
- 📝 Why did the maple leaf become associated with Canada?
- 📝 How did Richard I sail through the strait of Gibraltar?
- 📝 Iranian casualties during the first world war (1917-1919)?
- 📝 What really happen to 100k people in Changban?
- 📝 How did the debt collection of Gregorius IX work?
- 📝 Which country traces its roots back to the oldest civilization?
- 📝 What "class" of soldiers were these soft targets?
- 📝 Do we know what ancient Roman music sounded like?
- 📝 How did Gothic differ from Baroque architecture?
- 📝 How did Belgium manage to maintain control over their colonies while they were occupied?
- 📝 Ancient Civilization in non-Egyption Africa?
- 📝 How can you see what rank a British redcoat is?
- 📝 Which port did Alexander board his ship from, while returning from the Indian campaign?
- 📝 How difficult would be to watch a p**n movie in US/UK before the WW II?
- 📝 Why did the "Ruthenians" break up into "Belarusians" and "Ukrainians?"
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Were Roman emperors officially considered kings of Egypt?
- 📝 Were Roman emperors in the first century AD shown as holding stars in their hands?
- 📝 Were the Hashemite kings of Iraq and Transjordan considered foreign?
- 📝 Which roman emperors were not born in Rome?
- 📝 How exactly were the titles of the Roman emperors passed on to their heirs
- 📝 What kings were considered to be divine by Ancient Egyptians, according to DIODORUS SICULUS?
- 📝 Why didn't Roman emperors have harems?
- 📝 Were Roman public roads built by private companies?
- 📝 Were Medieval Britons aware of the existence of the Roman Empire?
- 📝 What language(s) were spoken within the Holy Roman Empire?
- 📝 Why was the Roman Empire considered an empire rather than a kingdom (again)?
- 📝 In Antiquity, were Persian arrows considered superior to their Greek counterparts?
- 📝 Were Roman males ever named after their mothers?
- 📝 What documentary evidence is there that Roman crucifixion victims were completely nude?
- 📝 What were Greek and Roman sails made from?
- 📝 Were Roman gladiators ever enlisted into the military?
- 📝 What is the reason that not all roman emperors named a month after them?
- 📝 How rich were carpenters in Roman Galilee in the 1st century AD?
- 📝 Were there punishments in the Roman Empire for not believing in the official religion?
- 📝 Where were the western legions when the Roman empire fell?
- 📝 What were the conditions of joining or leaving the Holy Roman Empire?
- 📝 Were the lands of the Teutonic Knights part of the Holy Roman Empire?
- 📝 Were there any Roman villas in Britain which were used rather than destroyed after the Romans left?
- 📝 Were Roman marching songs still bawdy during principate/dominate?
- 📝 How were Roman Legions disarmed/disbanded before entering Italia?
- 📝 What were the rights of various classes of people in the Roman Republic?
- 📝 How alcoholic were ancient Greek and Roman wines, before and after dilution?
- 📝 Were there any Jewish members of the Roman Senate?
- 📝 What alternative locations were considered for the United Nations?
- 📝 How were the borders of the Holy Roman Empire established?