Roman and Byzantine Egypt

Granary of an empire

After the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, Octavian, soon to be the emperor Augustus, made Egypt a Roman province. It was treated as a special possession of the emperor, governed by a prefect, and its main task was to send grain to feed the city of Rome. Alexandria remained the capital and one of the largest cities in the empire, a busy port where Greek was still the language of government and trade.

Emperors as pharaohs

Like the Ptolemies before them, Roman emperors appeared on temple walls in the dress of pharaohs, and building and decoration continued at Dendera, Esna, Kom Ombo and Philae. In the cities, Roman life brought baths, theatres and colonnaded streets. In Alexandria a granite column almost 27 metres tall, wrongly known as Pompey’s Pillar, was raised around AD 300 in honour of the emperor Diocletian. Nearby, the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, dating mainly from the 2nd century AD, mix Egyptian gods with Roman dress and Greek decoration. At Kom El Dikka archaeologists uncovered a small Roman theatre, baths and lecture halls.

The coming of Christianity

According to tradition, St Mark the Evangelist brought Christianity to Alexandria in the 1st century AD, and the city became one of the great centres of the early Church. Christians suffered harsh persecution, above all under Diocletian; the Coptic calendar, the “Era of the Martyrs”, still counts its years from AD 284. After Constantine accepted Christianity and Theodosius I made it the state religion in 380, the old temples were gradually closed; Philae, among the last, was shut under Justinian in the 6th century. After the Council of Chalcedon in 451, most Egyptian Christians broke with the imperial Church over the nature of Christ, giving rise to the independent Coptic Orthodox Church. Coptic, the last stage of the Egyptian language, written mainly in Greek letters, became the language of the Church.

The desert fathers

Christian monasticism began in Egypt. St Anthony (c. 251–356) withdrew into the Eastern Desert near the Red Sea, where the monastery bearing his name still stands, and Pachomius founded the first communal monasteries in Upper Egypt. In Sinai, the emperor Justinian built the fortified Monastery of St Catherine in the mid-6th century at the foot of Mount Sinai; it has been in use ever since.

From Rome to Byzantium

When the empire was divided in 395, Egypt was governed from Constantinople. The Roman fortress of Babylon on the Nile, rebuilt around AD 300, became the heart of today’s Coptic Cairo. After a brief Persian occupation (619–629), Byzantine rule ended when Arab armies took Babylon in 641 and Alexandria soon afterwards.

Where to see it today

• Pompey’s Pillar
• The Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa
• Roman Theatre, Kom El Dikka
• Religious Complex (Coptic Cairo), around the Babylon fortress, and the Coptic Museum
• Saint Catherine Monastery near St Catherine
• Esna Temple, with its Roman-era hypostyle hall
• Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria

Last checked October 2026. Sources: britannica.com, britannica.com, britannica.com, britannica.com, whc.unesco.org.