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At the time of this latter uprising, one of the two legions normally stationed in Egypt had been reassigned to the Danube frontier. Allegedly, the peasants defeated units of the remaining legion and almost took Alexandria before the insurrection was suppressed.
Concurrently, an apocalyptic literature began to rise among the Egyptian population, prophesying a new Golden Age based on the old beliefs after the vile, “pitiless and immoral masters” have come to a gruesome end. These Egyptian writings can be contrasted to the Greek‑authored “Acts of the Pagan Masters,” which merely massaged the wounds of the Greek intellectual, flagrantly insulting the Emperors but never suggesting any violent action to overthrow the oppressors. In the Egyptian “Narrative of the Potter” (the version circulating in Roman Egypt of an ancient document derived from the premise that the ram god Khnum sculpted men on his potter's wheel), the Potter prophesizes:
"...and many a death will [strike] in the high places, and the city of the belt weavers will be deserted, the slaves will be freed, their masters deprived of life, their virgin daughters will perish, men will castrate their daughters' husbands and practice incest with their mothers, they will perforce violently sacrifice their male children and themselves...and [justice] will return, transferred back to Egypt, and the city by the sea will be but a place for fisherman to dry their catch, because Knephis, the Tutelary Divinity, will have gone to Memphis, so that passers‑by will say, `This is the all‑nurturing city in which live all the races of mankind.' Then will Egypt be increased when...the dispenser of boons, coming from the Sun, is established there by the goddess [Isis] most great, so that those then alive will pray and those previously deceased will arise in order to partake the boons at the end of our woes."
(Lewis, 1983: 206‑207)
This passage is reminiscent of the prophetic predictions made by the Navaho Indians, justifying the Ghost Dance of 1890 and glorifying the removal of the oppressor by violent means and restoration of the old, good ways, including the resurrection of those who have died under the oppressors. The city by the sea, of course, is Alexandria.
The Old Gods and Priests Under Attack
Thus, Egyptians first turned to the old religion, as Native Americans relied on their traditional belief system, for a solution to their problems. Remember, when the Romans took over, the priests, having taken numerous concessions from the insecure Ptolemies, were in a relatively strong political position. High on the list for the new Caesar Augustus attempting to consolidate his new province was the need to reduce the substantial wealth and political power accrued by the priesthood.
Sacred land was confiscated. The whole Egyptian temple system was placed under the jurisdiction of a Roman‑appointed “High Priest of Alexandria and all Egypt.” Temples were required to produce an annual report of their property‑holdings and lists of names and duties of priests associated with the temple, the accuracy of which was subject to surprise government inspections and state fines. A temple was forbidden to employ more than a certain number of priests. All priests were required to mold their appearance to a public code, requiring them to wear priestly linen instead of wool and shave their heads to be easily identifiable, as well as being circumcised—an operation only performed by Jews at the time.
The Egyptian deities were further sublimated to superior Greek and Roman deities by exclusion from Diocletian's order for refurbishing of old temples at Roman expense. After all, in the Roman mind, as declared by Octavian visiting his newly‑conquered Egypt, Romans were used to worshipping gods, not cattle, referring to the Apis Bull. Cicero, Juvenal and Plutarch all expressed their disdain for Egyptian religion. According to Juvenal:
“Who knows not what monsters demented Egypt worships. One part reveres the crocodile, another stands in awe of the Ibis, devourer of snakes...Here they venerate cats, there fish, and there a whole town venerates a dog.”
(Lewis, 1983: 90)
Roman xenophobia justified treating the Egyptians more harshly than other conquered peoples, and also only added to Egyptian inducement to bite the hand who claimed to feed them.