PERIOD GUIDE · Egypt
In 332 BCE Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and built Alexandria, "turned outward" toward the Mediterranean; in 30 BCE Octavian assumed control. The Met's timeline joins these years into one period with two names.
Approximately 332-30 BCEMove through the periods
The whole scheme with this period marked; the periods before and after are its neighbours in the row. Boundaries follow the sources and are not to scale.
On the Met's timeline for Egypt, 1000 BCE-1 CE, the "Macedonian and Ptolemaic Periods" are dated "ca. 332-30 B.C.". According to the timeline, Egypt, "under Persian rule since 343 B.C.", is conquered by Alexander the Great in 332, and Alexander builds a new capital city, Alexandria, "turned outward toward the Mediterranean and Hellenistic world". Upon his death in 323 BCE, Egyptian rule passes "informally and then formally" to one of his generals, Ptolemy, and to Ptolemy's descendants. Source 1.
The double name marks two stages within one range: the years after Alexander's conquest, and the rule of Ptolemy and his descendants. In the text read, the timeline gives no year for the formal passage to Ptolemy, so the site does not split the period. The end is tied to a dated event: Octavian conquers Antony and Cleopatra in a sea battle off Actium in northwestern Greece, "and in 30 B.C. assumes control in Egypt" following their suicides and the death of Caesarion. On the same page "Roman Rule" begins in 30 BCE, ca. 30 BCE-330 CE. Source 1.
According to the timeline, the "settlement of Greek and eastern Mediterranean peoples in Egypt increases greatly". The Ptolemaic court itself is "emphatically Greek in atmosphere and practice" and adopts the god Sarapis; yet the Ptolemies "represent themselves as pharaohs performing traditional rites" and are "prolific builders in fully traditional pharaonic style at many temples". In the source the two descriptions stand side by side: a Greek court and a pharaonic kingship. Source 1.
"Alexandria: a capital turned toward the Mediterranean" reads the sentence on the building of the city and asks what it tells us about a capital on the coast, and what it does not. "The Temple of Horus at Edfu: 180 years of building" shows how one temple was begun, inaugurated twice and finished under three Ptolemaic kings. "Karanis: three levels of a Graeco-Roman town" also appears here, because the lowest house level uncovered there is assigned to the Ptolemaic period.
Source
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Checked
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