Egypt Under Foreign Rule

Egypt Under Foreign Rule follows one of the most dramatic transformations in ancient Egyptian history, when the land of the pharaohs became the prize of competing empires and ambitious conquerors. Beginning with the Persian conquest of 525 BCE, this volume explores Egypt's fierce resistance to foreign domination, the rise of its last native pharaohs, and the arrival of Alexander the Great, whose conquest opened an entirely new chapter in the country's history.

The story then moves into the fascinating world of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, where Greek rulers governed an ancient Egyptian civilization while gradually adopting its religious traditions and royal imagery. Readers will discover the founding of Alexandria, the legendary Library and Mouseion, the meeting of Greek and Egyptian cultures, the growth of the cults of Isis and Serapis, and the dynastic rivalries that repeatedly pushed the royal family toward civil war.

At the center of the final struggle stands Cleopatra VII, one of antiquity's most famous and misunderstood rulers. Her alliances with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, her confrontation with Octavian, and her death in 30 BCE brought an end to Ptolemaic independence and transformed Egypt into a province of the emerging Roman Empire.