History of the Romans in Egypt
The Ptolemies ruled the successors of Alexander the Great after his death and were able to establish a state in which they enjoyed all manifestations of independence until the year (31 BC), where Octavius was able to defeat Cleopatra VII and Antonius the Great in the position of Actium Navy in the same year and since that date became a Roman state The Ptolemaic state ended in Egypt.
Politics
During the period between 31 BC and 395 CE, Egypt remained under the Romanian state and Rome relied on consolidating its authority over Egypt by military force, which established barracks throughout the country.There was a garrison east of Alexandria, a garrison of Babylon, a garrison of Aswan and other garrisons. That spread throughout the country.
He was in charge of Egypt and not sent by the Emperor on his behalf and based in Alexandria dominates the administration of the country and financial affairs and is accountable directly to the Emperor and his term was short so as not to resign, and this made the governors do not care about the interests of the country but poured their interests on their personal interests and deprived the Egyptians from participating in The administration of their country, which made them strangers, in addition to preventing them from joining the army so as not to force them to regroup and resist the Romans in the future.
Faced with this unfair policy, the Egyptians saw that the Romans were another usurper who took power from the first usurper, the Ptolemies. Nothing changed, but the situation became worse, as was usually the case when the government passed from one Pharaonic family to another.
The Egyptians succumbed to this rule for a period and revolted in periods and the Roman garrisons eradicated these revolutions with violence. One of the most dangerous of these revolutions was during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius: (161_180 AD). The Egyptians were defeated by the Romanian teams and Alexandria would have fallen into the hands of the revolutionaries had it not been for the arrival of supplies to the Romans from Syria that wiped out this revolution.
Economy
For Rome, Egypt was the dairy cow, as management systems exploited wealth and extorted the money of Egyptians traders, farmers and industry until a large number of Egyptians abandoned their shops, farms and factories, which led to the depression of trade, the delay of agriculture and the decline of industry, lack of resources, poor production, neglected the irrigation system and the loss of security and many Looting, the Egyptians fled from the cruelty of corruption and corruption, and greed, has imposed many taxes are incalculable.There is an annual tax levied on the animal and arable land, and on gardens, and a monthly tax levied from merchants of various stores as well as trade passing from the Nile.
The owner of the factory was obliged to pay his tax before the goods came out of his factory, the crown tax on which the Egyptians were loathe to give money as a gift to buy the crown of the emperor when he ascended the throne or when he began to build a temple or statue of the emperor, a tax on ships and vehicles and the sale of land, and on public baths and markets. Home furniture, who did not pay these taxes, works in ridicule in digging canals and clearing them. In addition, the Egyptians had to supply Roman soldiers with wheat and barley for their food and fodder as they passed through the villages of Egypt. The Romans weighed heavily on the Egyptians with numerous exorbitant taxes, which included everything that made life unbearable, resulting in many farmers fleeing their homes, leaving their land without cultivation.Prices rose, agriculture deteriorated, industry and trade shrank.
Religion
The Romans left the Egyptians at first to freedom of belief, and treated them in this area soft, did not interfere or limit freedom of beliefs, and Egypt was like other Roman states condemn the pagan religion, and Egyptians continued to enjoy this freedom until Christianity originated in its native Palestine, Egypt was at the forefront The country where Christianity leaked in the middle of the first century AD, by St. Mark because of its proximity to Palestine.
This religion began to spread in Alexandria and the face of the sea and then gradually spread throughout Egypt during the second century AD and raised the fears of the pagan Romans, and poured torment on the Egyptians who converted to Christianity, and left pagan official religion of the state.
The persecution took an organized image during the reign of Emperor Sfarous (193_211 CE) and then reached its peak in the reign of Emperor Diocletian (284-305). The persecution with strong and stubbornness gave it a national character, and for its faith Egypt provided large numbers of martyrs, which led the Coptic Church in Egypt to call the era of this Emperor (the era of martyrs).
The means of persecution failed to stop the spread of Christianity, which pervaded all of Egypt.
The means of persecution were eased when Emperor Constantine I (306_337) recognized Christianity as a religion permitted in the state, like other religions.
In 381 AD, Prince Theodosius I (378_395 AD) issued a decree making Christianity the only official state religion throughout the empire.
Persecutions took place, and the means of torture were focused on the pagans after they were followed by Christians, and Christians continued to spread their religion in the same strength as the pagan supporters tried to extinguish the roots of Christianity.
Although Christianity became the official religion of the emperor, Egypt did not enjoy this decree because of a controversy in the nature of Christ __ and the conflict between the Church of Alexandria, which calls for the single nature of Christ (the divine nature and human nature came to one place, the body of Christ, Without mixing, no mixing and no change in the two natures), and between the Church of Rome, which is by nature.
Thus the Egyptians were subjected to the colors of torment for embracing a doctrine contrary to the doctrine of the empire.
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