The second part of the Egyptian society strata
The Jews
The Jews began to be mentioned in historical sources for the second time after their exodus, which was mentioned by the Torah since the middle of the sixth century BC, and there are about 100 papyri and some ostraca written on them in the Aramaic language dating back to the fifth and fourth centuries BC, which mentions the existence of a Jewish garrison at the first cataract of the Nile guarding the borders of southern Egypt To account for the Persian ruler.
The documents mention their habits in marriage and divorce, possession of slaves and their release, and some of these slaves carry Egyptian names and sublime names, as well as details of some problems, their personal lives, their properties, the method of buying and selling, and financial loans with an interest of about 60% and a repayment period of one of them, is 20 days.
They owned a temple of the god Yahweh on the island of Elephantine (Philae Island). The group of Jews spreads during the era of the Ptolemies, who left them to live their religious life according to their teachings. Therefore, they were affected by the factors of the Greek civilization, whose center is the city of Alexandria.
This was mentioned in the Jewish seventieth of the Old Testament known as (Sibtiwa Gent) and it was found in Alexandria in the third century BC.
Also one of the richest people in Alexandria was called (Philon the Jew). He learned Persian Greek in the first decades of the first century AD and wrote many books in the Greek language, which mentions the mother of a million Jews who lived in Alexandria at his time, but it is likely that this number is exaggerated. Probably the population of the entire Alexandria.
The city of Alexandria was divided into five neighborhoods, of which the Jews were one of these neighborhoods, and when the rule of the Romans came, Augustus emphasized the privileges that the Ptolemaic kings had granted to the Jews, which is that the Senate would be Jewish, in contrast to the people of Alexandria, who deprived the Jews of the feeling of themselves that they are Alexandrian. They are allowed to enter the gymnasium, which is the center of life and politics in the Hellenistic world.
This led to his strife in Alexandria in the year 38 AD and an ongoing war against the Jews, so a delegation went to Rome to present their problems to the Emperor (Caligula).
During the reign of Emperor Claudius in AD 41, missions were sent similar to the previous one, and in 1921 AD, a papyrus was obtained that states that both sides maintain the status quo and It is preserved in the British Museum, and it is clear in this papyrus that must be wary from Jews.
The first revolution
The privileges of the Jews were clearly diminished after the Jewish revolutions in the first and second centuries AD in Egypt. In the year 70 BC, some Jewish refugees came to Egypt from other places and Jerusalem to stir up the few despite the destruction of their main temple in the city of (Leontopolis), which is located in the village of Met Dakahlia flooded and stole its contents. Some rulers feared that this temple would become the center of the Jewish revolution, such as al-Quddus. Therefore, a tax was imposed on the Jews on every male vendor for the sake of maintaining the temple, and then the tax was doubled to four times and it was imposed on all members of the mansah, including slaves from the age of three years.
And these taxes were imposed for the sake of the great Roman god (Jupiter), who destroyed the Jews in Jerusalem during their revolution, and this tax remained imposed until the end of the second century AD.
The second revolution in Egypt
It erupted due to enmity and tension for the clash between the Greeks and the Jews in Alexandria, and one of the most important reasons for that revolution was the withdrawal of Roman military units from Egypt to participate in the wars of the Emperor (Trajan) against (Parthia), and that revolution took place in the year 115 AD in (Egypt and Forinia) and was echoed Large in Cyprus and Mesopotamia, the Alexandria revolution was eliminated at that time, as for the rest of the places where the revolution was put down in the year 117 AD, and the Qura was characterized as a guerrilla war that spread in Upper Egypt and the Delta until the region of Thebes.
The papyrus notes a quote about the intensity of the fighting, the large number of deaths, the destruction, and the riots wrought by the Jews in the year 117 AD. A papyrus appears in which a person asks the Strategos to grant him a 60-day leave to arrange his affairs due to the riots caused by the Jews.
After the passage of 100 years from the previous date, a papyrus appeared in the village of Auxrinchus indicating that the people showed good intentions, sincerity, and friendship to the Romans after their participation in the wars against the Jews, and we still celebrate Victory Day year after year.
(And the Jewish revolt continued in Palestine after AD 117)
A revolution appeared under the leadership of Barokhia, the leader of the revolution, and the title of Son of the Star, but it could not ignite the peaceful Jews against the Romans.
The Egyptians
They are the inhabitants of the country and they are neither Roman nor Greek citizens, nor are the inhabitants of the four cities, which enjoyed privileges during the Ptolemaic era, but lost them during the Roman era, and the nature of the Egyptian class society in the Roman era, like any society, there are social differences that define its position, and those differences are represented in how it is affected and saturated with the Hellenistic character.
Mixed marriage
It is the marriage of the original Egyptian people, the children of Greek settlements, and rural areas, which became published, and the children had mixed names. In the era of the Romans, if a person wanted to register the name of his guarantor in the Egyptian language, he had to obtain the citizenship of the Romans and if he wanted to change to a Greek, there is a document proving that on the date of 194 AD.
The Emperor’s Treasury Manager was responsible for determining the social status, determining differences, and imposing fines on violators. There is a papyrus in the East Berlin Museum containing 100 strict rules and laws established during the August era that aim to prevent the advancement and progress of society and to preserve the differences with the logic of divide and conquer (Divide et impera) and from The most important of these laws:
If a Romanian man or a Roman woman married a Greek or Egyptian, their children would follow the lower social class.
- If Egyptians register their father after his death as a Roman, one-fourth will be confiscated.
It is not permissible for the Alexandrians to marry Egyptian women.
The emperor’s treasury was aimed at the financial exploitation of the poor and the weak, especially in Egypt, where they were singled out for harsh treatment, as the Romans used the policy of tyranny and tyranny that Augustus used with the Egyptians since the conversion of Egypt to a Roman state. The reason is the anti-foreign politicians that gradually increased from the middle of the Roman Republic until its end. Its wars with Carthage and the saying of Cato must destroy Carthage.
And that image increased with the Roman Empire and the status of Egypt and its huge, endless wealth, and this represents a great motivation for Augustus to conquer Egypt and defile with subjects to both (Antonius and Cleopatra), as the poet (Horatius) mentioned that he called them the deadly beast and the mad queen.
In 212 BC, Caracalla issued a famous decree granting Roman citizenship to all inhabitants of the empire and excluding those who were subject to this decree.