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Durham E-Theses The land and the social life of ancient Egypt as described in the classical authors of Greece and Rome between 70 B.C and A.D. 69 Ibrahim, Muhammad Abboudy How to cite: Ibrahim, Muhammad Abboudy (1968) The land and the social life of ancient Egypt as described in the classical authors of Greece and Rome between 70 B.C and A.D. 69, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/8023/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 This thesis considers the references to Egypt by Greek and Roman writers between 70 B.C. and A.D. 69 m so far as they made any substantial judgment on the geography, climate, population, laws, customs and religion and their accounts of the cities, towns and villages and of the social structure of Egyptian society. Passing references in authors, chiefly poets, are noted only m so far as they have a bearing on these main considerations. The important classical authors from the point of view of this thesis are Diodorus Siculus, Strabo and Dioscorides m Greek n and Pompoasius Mela and Pliny the Elder in Latin. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part One discusses the geography of Egypt and its chapters discuss position, extent and formation of the land (with an appendix on the Homeric statement about Pharos) surface relief, climate, deserts, oases, canals, flora and fauna and mineral resources. Part Two covers population, urban settlements, cities, towns and important villages, with special attention to the three ancient capitals - Memphis, m Thebes and Alexandria. * Part Three is concerned with Egyptian society and discusses the antiquity of the Egyptians, their physical characteristics, behaviour and manners and goes on to consider their religion m its mythical and more metaphysical aspects and their veneration of sacred animals. Finally the structure of Egyptian society is considered - the rulers (PharjJoPhs, kings, prefects) the land tenure, the division of society into classes with particular reference to priests, warriors and peasants. The last chapter, before the conclusion, deals with laws and customs including burial customs. M. A. Ibrahim, B.A. , P.G. Dip. Cairo Universxty of Durham The Land and the Social Lxfe of Ancient Egypt as described in the Classical Authors of Greece and Rome between 70 B.C. and A.D. 69. by MUHAMMAD ABBOUDY IBRAHIM, B.A. P.G.Dip.(Cairo) St. Cuthberts Society Thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D. December, 1968. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged TABLE OF CONTENTS. Map of Egypt Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 111 Part One The Geography of Egypt 1 Chapter I. Position and Extent. 2 Chapter II. The Origin and Character of the Land. 17 Appendix to Chapter II. Homer and the Island of Pharos. 25 Chapter III. Surface Relief. 38 Chapter IV. Climate. 75 Chapter V. Flora and Fauna. 85 Chapter VI. Mineral Resources. 139 Part Two Population and Urban Settlements of the Population 167 Chapter VII. Population and Towns. Chapter VIII. The Three Main Capital Cities. 221 Memphis 222 - Thebes 235 - Alexandria 260. Part Three The Egyptian Society 300 Chapter IX. The Egyptians. 301 Were they the most ancient people ? 301 Race and Physical characteristics 308 Manners and Behaviour 312 Chapter X. Religion. 324 Mythology 329 The Sacred Animals 379 Chapter XI. Peoples and Professions. 424 Pharaoh, King or Prefect. 424 Classes 457 Priests 483 Armed Forces 499 Peasants 523 Chapter XII. Laws and Customs. 541 Summary and Conclusion. 612 Bibliography. 638 5S f*1 3 (7 m * m cn ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. This thesis has been carried out under the supervision of Professor J.B. Skemp, thanks to whose unfailing advice, sympathy and encouragement I have been able to produce such a thesis. Thus my special gratitude and thanks are due to him as well as to Dr. D.Thomas, who assisted Professor Skemp in the supervision. Dr.Thomas's keen interest in my subject and his valuable suggestions have greatly helped me to carry out my work. But if the scrutiny and personal attention of both Professor Skemp and Dr.Thomas have helped me a great deal in my work, responsibility for the shortcomings in this thesis falls entirely on my shoulders. I received some initial guidance from Professor E.C. Woodcock and the late Mr.C.W.Holmes, but unfortunately Professor Woodcock was forced to retire early and Mr.Holmes died before my research was properly launched. My gratitude and thanks are also due to Professor G.B.Townend, the Head of the Department of Classics for his valuable help, especially in Latin translation. I also thank Professor Eric Birley, the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Head of the Department of Archaeology, who took a great interest in my research and who helped me with the interpretation of the evidence provided by Pliny the Elder. - 11 - I am also indebted to Professor Townend and Professor Skemp for providing me with facilities to work in the Department of Classics, a fact that helped me very much and which enabled me to gam a useful contact with the department. I also wish to thank Mrs. Sarah Stubbs, the Secretary of the Department of Engineering Science for her generous help in her undertaking to type a draft copy of a great part of my thesis without pay. My thanks are also due to Mrs.Isabel Williams for her help in her capacity as Secretary of the Department of Classics. During the period of my research I was financed by the people and the government of the United Arab Republic (Egypt), to whom I shall ever remain indebted, obliged and thankful. My thanks and gratitude are also due to all my friends, who lent me their support, particularly during the last phase of my research, when my scholarship was regretfully terminated. Muhammad Abboudy Ibrahim. Durham City, December 1968. - 1X1 - INTRODUCTION. In attempting to write a thesis on Egypt as seen by the Classical authors, I have found it quite impossible to include, within the time and scope limited to this work, all those Greeks and Romans, from Homer onwards, who referred to Egypt in one way or another. It is for this reason that I deemed it very necessary and proper to choose a limited period to cover in writing this thesis. Thus I have chosen the period which begins with the year 70 B.C. and ends with A.D. 69. The period extending from 70 B.C. to 30 B.C. falls within the rule of the Ptolemaic Dynasty and it is a period of civil wars and dynastic squabbles. Conditions in Egypt, political, economic and social during that period were generally bad. These factors led to the intervention of Rome in the internal affairs of the country and finally to its conquest (30 B.C.) and subsequently to the subjugation of its people. As for the period, which extends from the year 30 B.C. to A.D. 69, it falls within the Roman rule, and its main characteristics are stability in which the Egyptian people were kept very firmly under control. Besides this fake stability, there was on the whole economic prosperity, not for the benefit of the rightful people of Egypt, as one expects, but for the alien Romans. « IV - As I could not include all the Classical authors ab ovo usque ad mala, in other words from Homer to the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs (A.D. 640), I was not able also to discuss all the information imparted to us by the Classical authors of the period of our own choice. A phenomenon such as the rise of the Nile, which is in itself a very interesting topic for the ancients as it was discussed by practically all the major authors, is not discussed in this thesis, especially because the present writer has realised that this topic can be found discussed in greater detail by the French scholar Daniele Bonneau in a very recent book entitled 'La Crue du Nil*. I have also left undiscussed the history of the kings of Egypt and a few other topics. I have divided this thesis into three parts. Part one discusses the geography of Egypt. This part includes a chapter on the position and extent of Egypt both geographical and political; another on the origin and formation of the land and a relevant appendix, which is concerned with the Homeric statement regarding the Island of Pharos. A third chapter describes the surface relief : the fertile land - the Delta and the Nile valley within the Egyptian territory, the course of the Nile in its Egyptian reaches, the deserts, the oases, the lakes, marshes and lagoons, the Canal of Sesostris (otherwise the Nile - Gulf of Suez and Red Sea Canal), the trade routes and the sea coasts.