Opening the text

The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 2Mommsen, Theodor

History

The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 2

Name: The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 2
Author: Mommsen, Theodor

Mommsen, Theodor

Roman provinces -- Administration; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.

of a perhaps not less inevitable sowing; but the heritage of these
times is still at the present day a burden on mankind.




CHAPTER XII.

EGYPT.


[Sidenote: The annexation of Egypt.]

The two kingdoms of Egypt and Syria, which had so long striven and
vied with each other in every respect, fell nearly about the same time
without resistance into the power of the Romans. If these made no use
of the alleged or real testament of Alexander II. († 673) {81 B.C.}
and did not then annex the land, the last rulers of the Lagid house
were confessedly in the position of clients of Rome; the senate decided
in disputes as to the throne, and after the Roman governor of Syria,
Aulus Gabinius, had with his troops brought back the king Ptolemaeus
Auletes to Egypt (699; comp. iv. 160) {55. iv. 153.}, the Roman legions
did not again leave the land. Like the other client-kings, the rulers
of Egypt took part in the civil wars on the summons of the government
recognised by them or rather imposing itself on them; and, if it must
remain undecided what part Antonius in the fanciful eastern empire of
his dreams had destined for the native land of the wife whom he loved
too well (p. 25), at any rate the government of Antonius in Alexandria,
as well as the last struggle in the last civil war before the gates of
that city, belongs as little to the special history of Egypt as the
battle of Actium to that of Epirus. But doubtless this catastrophe, and
the death connected with it of the last prince of the Lagid house, gave
occasion for Augustus not to fill up again the vacant throne, but to
take the kingdom of Egypt under his own administration. This annexation
of the last portion of the coast of the Mediterranean to the sphere
of direct Roman administration, and the settlement, coincident with
it in point of time and of organic connection, of the new monarchy,
mark--as regards the constitution and administration of the huge empire
respectively--the turning-point, the end of the old and the beginning
of a new epoch.

[Sidenote: Egypt exclusively an imperial possession.]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 2Mommsen, Theodor

History

The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 2

Mommsen, Theodor

Roman provinces -- Administration; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.

of a perhaps not less inevitable sowing; but the heritage of these
times is still at the present day a burden on mankind.




CHAPTER XII.

EGYPT.


[Sidenote: The annexation of Egypt.]

The two kingdoms of Egypt and Syria, which had so long striven and
vied with each other in every respect, fell nearly about the same time
without resistance into the power of the Romans. If these made no use
of the alleged or real testament of Alexander II. († 673) {81 B.C.}
and did not then annex the land, the last rulers of the Lagid house
were confessedly in the position of clients of Rome; the senate decided
in disputes as to the throne, and after the Roman governor of Syria,
Aulus Gabinius, had with his troops brought back the king Ptolemaeus
Auletes to Egypt (699; comp. iv. 160) {55. iv. 153.}, the Roman legions
did not again leave the land. Like the other client-kings, the rulers
of Egypt took part in the civil wars on the summons of the government
recognised by them or rather imposing itself on them; and, if it must
remain undecided what part Antonius in the fanciful eastern empire of
his dreams had destined for the native land of the wife whom he loved
too well (p. 25), at any rate the government of Antonius in Alexandria,
as well as the last struggle in the last civil war before the gates of
that city, belongs as little to the special history of Egypt as the
battle of Actium to that of Epirus. But doubtless this catastrophe, and
the death connected with it of the last prince of the Lagid house, gave
occasion for Augustus not to fill up again the vacant throne, but to
take the kingdom of Egypt under his own administration. This annexation
of the last portion of the coast of the Mediterranean to the sphere
of direct Roman administration, and the settlement, coincident with
it in point of time and of organic connection, of the new monarchy,
mark--as regards the constitution and administration of the huge empire
respectively--the turning-point, the end of the old and the beginning
of a new epoch.

[Sidenote: Egypt exclusively an imperial possession.]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 2

The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 2

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