UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Egypt under Roman domination
Antinopolis to commemorate his favourite Antinous, who had voluntarily
drowned himself there to save his master - so it was said - from some
obscure danger announced by the oracles. The young martyr was deified
and identified with Osiris, well within the Egyptian tradition of apotheosis
by drowning. There were, however, also practical reasons for founding that
city, which was given the rank of a polis, or free city, and became a centre
friendly to Rome in the interior of Egypt and the starting-point of a
caravan route between the Red Sea and the Nile valley.
The economic situation of the peasants and smallholders, which is
documented in detail in papyri, nevertheless showed that the discrimination
in favour of the middle class which had been a principle of Roman
policy would bear bitter fruit. The humble folk became poor and unrest
began to stir. One of its firstsigns was the murder of the prefect at
Alexandria in the reign of Hadrian's successor, Antoninus Pius (138-61),
who had to go to Egypt to restore order. His son Marcus Aurelius, the
philosopher and philanthropist (161-80), faced a still more critical situation
when the boukoloi, the cattlemen of the Delta, broke out in a ferocious
revolt. It was headed by an Egyptian priest called Isidor and the rebels
were united by a mystical enthusiasm due, as some said, to the practice
of ritual cannibalism; but they fought heroically for their right to a less
miserable life and to racial recognition. The Alexandrians were this time
on the Roman side because they had privileges which the Egyptians had
not. The rebellion held out against the garrison forces. The general Avidius
Cassius had to bring his legions from Syria and even then could not beat
the cattlemen in battle until he had set them against each other. He was
the Avidius Cassius who, in 175, when rumours went about that the
emperor was dead, had himself proclaimed emperor by his troops in
Alexandria. This was the first attempt of its kind in Egypt and ended
without much trouble, since Marcus Aurelius pardoned the rash general.
The tension between Rome and Egypt went on growing in spite of the
reforms of Septimus Severus (193-211), who gave the Alexandrians back
their senate, boule, which signified autonomy and which Augustus had
dissolved. When Caracalla, his successor (211-17), visited Alexandria he
was so enraged by its citizens' jeers that he promptly ordered a general
massacre of its youths after he had assembled them on the pretext of wishing
to enrol them in the army. After the slaughter the troops left their quarters
in Nicopolis and stayed in the city to force it into submission.
These episodes of blood and violence partly offset the importance of
the emperor's best-known action which was the grant of the Antoninian
constitution in 212. This supreme document made citizens of all the
inhabitants of the empire and removed the barriers which until then had
separated Roman citizens from provincials. Until then, except for officials
from abroad, Roman citizens had been very rarely found in Egypt. They
were mostly Egyptians who had served in the Roman army, had gained
their citizenship on retirement after twenty or twenty-five years' service,
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