ured both Upper and Lower Egypt. It is remarkable that, while
the building and decoration of temples continued in the reigns of
Ptolemy Auletes and the later Ptolemies and Cleopatra, papyri of those
times whether Greek or Egyptian are scarcely to be found.

Christianity.

_The Roman Period._--In 30 B.C. Augustus took Egypt as the prize of
conquest. He treated it as a part of his personal domain, free from any
interference by the senate. In the main lines the Ptolemaic organization
was preserved, but Romans were gradually introduced into the highest
offices. On Egypt Rome depended for its supplies of corn; entrenched
there, a revolting general would be difficult to attack, and by simply
holding back the grain ships could threaten Rome with starvation. No
senator therefore was permitted to take office or even to set foot in
the country without the emperor's special leave, and by way of
precaution the highest position, that of prefect, was filled by a Roman
of equestrian rank only. As the representative of the emperor, this
officer assumed the place occupied by the king under the old order,
except that his power was limited by the right of appeal to Caesar. The
first prefect, Cornelius Gallus, tamed the natives of Upper Egypt to the
new yoke by force of arms, and meeting ambassadors from Ethiopia at
Philae, established a nominal protectorate of Rome over the frontier
district, which had been abandoned by the later Ptolemies. The third
prefect, Gaius Petronius, cleared the neglected canals for irrigation;
he also repelled an invasion of the Ethiopians and pursued them far up
the Nile, finally storming the capital of Napata. But no attempt was
made to hold Ethiopia. In succeeding reigns much trouble was caused by
jealousies and quarrels between the Greeks and the Jews, to whom
Augustus had granted privileges as valuable as those accorded to the
Greeks. Aiming at the spice trade, Aelius Gallus, the second prefect of
Egypt under Augustus, had made an unsuccessful expedition to conquer
Arabia Felix; the valuable Indian trade, however, was secured by
Claudius for Egypt at the expense of Arabia, and the Red Sea routes were
improved. Nero's reign especially marks the commencement of an era of
prosperity which lasted about a century. Under Vespasian the Jewish
temple at Leontopolis in the Delta, which Onias had founded in the reign
of Ptolemy Philometor, was closed; worse still, a great Jewish revolt
and massacre of the Greeks