Department of the Classics, Harvard University

Alexandria in Rome
Author(s): Sarolta A. Takács
Source: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 97, Greece in Rome: Influence,
Integration, Resistance (1995), pp. 263-276
Published by: Department of the Classics, Harvard University
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/311310
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 ALEXANDRIA IN ROME

SAROLTA A. TAKACS*

Ax, HIOKHgioaK) AneKcaIHApmo

H oaro BHIOeTb ee He 6ygy!
yBH)Iy Krnp, oporoi BorHHe,
YBHIy Typ, E4ec H CMHPHy,
yBH)Cy ACHHbI - MeiTy Moei IOHOCTH,
KopHH4) HaneKyio BH3aHTHIO
I BeHele Bcex )eJIaHHH,
uenb Bcex cTpeMJIeHH -
yBH)Iy PHM BeJIHKHH"!1

T HE tormented Io and her asylum-seeking descendants, the

Danaids, present the mythological link between Greece and Egypt
while Greek emporia in the Nile delta offer historically more tangible
connections between the two countries. Alexander's conquest and the
foundation of a new city eventually transferred Egypt and its monu-
ments, visible and readable symbols of political sovereignty belonging
to times beyond mere history, into the Greek/Macedonian sphere of

*I would like to thank the organizers of the Greece in Rome conference, Profs.
Christopher Jones and Richard Thomas, for inviting me and giving me first the chance to
speak and now to write about some aspects of my research. I am especially grateful to
Christopher Jones, Lark DiLucia Miller, and Charles Segal for their comments and recog-
nize the editors of HSCP who were so patient with me. This article features new ele-
ments as well as components from my Isis and Sarapis in the Roman World (Leiden 1995
[Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 124]).
1 M. A. Kuzmin (1872-1936) Alexandrian Songs (concluding poem), J. E. Malmstad
and V. Markov eds. Gesammelte Gedichte I, Gedichtbdnde vor der Revolution (Munich
1977) 199. "Alas, I am forsaking Alexandria / and long shall I not see her. / I shall see
Cyprus, dear to the Goddess, / I shall see Tyre, Ephesus and Smyrna, / I shall see Athens,
the dream of my youth, / Corinth and far Byzantium / and the crown of all longings, / the
goal of all strivings-/ I shall see Rome the mighty!" (trans. M. Green, see also his
Mikhail Kuzmin Selected Prose and Poetry [Ann Arbor 1980] 333-362).

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 264 Sarolta A. Taktcs

control. The Lagids, Alexander's succe

themselves in light of this millennia-o
the Roman principes, could do the sam
Octavian took into Roman possess
cultural melting-pot, and the guardian
lectual culture. Alexandria is what Rome should but never would
become: one of the major intellectual centers of the imperium. Alexan
dria's role in Rome's cultural self-definition is certainly less immediat
than that of Greece; nevertheless, this Greek/Macedonian foundatio
left consequential imprints on Rome. With an eye on cultural traditio
Mikhail Kuzmin's stanza delicately links Alexandria and Rome. Since
scholars have already superbly detailed the literary connection betwee
Alexandrian and Late Republican poets, this essay will focus on some
of the political and religious connections between Alexandria an
Rome.

After official enthronement as Pharaoh at Memphis, Alexander set

sail down the Nile. When he reached the coast, he sailed westward and
came to Ra-kedet, an Egyptian village, which the Greeks called Rhaco-
tis. A new city was to be built here. As we all know well the young
conqueror hurried on to the oracle of Ammon-Ra at Siwah and, then
after defeating Darius, to the ends of the world. He would never see the
completed Alexandrea ad Aegyptum, wedged between the Mediter-
ranean and the island of Pharos to the north and Lake Mareotis to the
south. Its history became that of the Ptolemies.2 Alexander's
achievements, however, were woven into a powerful, multi-faceted cul-
tural myth; a myth that would be emulated by various successors, i.e.,
the heirs of the famed city by succession or conquest and those who
modelled themselves after Alexander and thus evoked the power of his
myth. Pompey's imitatio Alexandri offers the first tangible evidence of
a Roman's imitation of Alexander, which does not mean that Pompey
was its originator. It seems plausible that Mithridates VI Eupator's imi-
tatio spurred Pompey's. This would lock their respective imitationes
into the context of the struggle for control over Asia.3 After Pompey,
the link between an imperator and Alexander the Great, which did not

2 P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria (Oxford 1972).

3 C. Bohm, Imitatio Alexandri im Hellenismus (Munich 1989 [Quellen und Forschun-
gen zur antiken Welt 3]) 95-100, with valuable bibliographical references. Scipio
Africanus' Alexander connection has been judged not to be authentic (see Bohm, ibid.,
99 n. 16).

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 Alexandria in Rome 265

require likeness, remained operational. Plut

"uncontrollable desire for power and all ar
the first and greatest" to Alexander's.4 Th
used Alexander's effigy on the imperial sea
in Alexandria is said to have gazed upon
the fatal tourist and imperial successor, Ger

Even before now I thought it (Alexandri

tacle, in the first place because of the h
to whom a common debt is from those who have the same
aspirations.6

While Alexander associated himself with Ammon-Ra, Ptole

Soter chose the syncretic Sarapis as the patron deity of the new dy
Sarapis, an inexact Greek transliteration ('Oxaptlnt;) of the Egyp
"Wsir-Hp," is the abstraction of all dead--or, in Egyptian terms, O
fied-Apis-bulls. The Apis-bulls were connected with Memph
whose priests, the priests of Ptah, wielded tremendous political
they made and un-made pharaohs.7 Since a dead god like Osiris c
hardly have been an appealing concept to Greeks and Macedonian

linguistic
Some couldmisunderstanding of "Wsir-.Hp"
associate Sarapis' place was athe
of origin with welcome coincidence.
Black Sea city
Sinope, others could connect -apis with the Greek king Apis, who hap-
pened to have died in Egypt. These possible associations must have
facilitated an acceptance of Sarapis, the dynasty's protector, and bound
Macedonians and Greeks living in Egypt to their new country and the
Ptolemaic ruling family that claimed its right of succession in accor-
dance with the old and established pharaonic system. According to this
system, each pharaoh was in essence a living god. He was the embodi-
ment of Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris. The Ptolemies successfully
integrated something new, Sarapis, into the dynastic ritual, which fur-

4 Ant. 6.
5 Suet. Aug. 18 and 50.

6 Tacitus Ann. 2.73 and POxy 25.2435.18-21, trans. E. G. Turner. 116F & 6FyE.6ieEvog
3ti[v Oy[ct] I [X]Gtrp6t'*toy 0*BGct t , gv rp6rtov 6ic .6[v] [ii]po ccId Kt[ to]trlv
rpS;7 tOv IcUVIrLesttgrands
C. Maystre, Fkttvpretres
6k[p]..[iv
de Ptahtka Memphis
a] I [to]]i; t.v nt.[0v]
(Freiburg, &vtzxoTtOvot;.
Switzerland, and
G6ttingen 1992 [Orbis biblicus et orientalis 113]) and D. J. Crawford, J. Quaegebeur,
W. Clarysse, Studies on Ptolemaic Memphis (Louvain 1980 [Studia Hellenistica 24]).

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266 Sarolta A. Takdcs

nished the structure for Egypt's religi

a reciprocal assimilation of the value
queror and the conquered had occurred
Under the watchful eyes of the firs
the most important trade center of an
ness with India and China. Exports co
products, especially cereals, papyri, iv
silver, glass, and textile products. The
ranean basin and areas beyond. A cen
and regulated by the ruler,8 controlled
Soter and, especially, Ptolemy II Philad
projects in and outside Egypt.9 Alexa
potential formed the basis for the elab
Alexandria offered something not on
book but also for the mind: it had libraries-of which the most famous
was located in the Mouseion-and scholars who worked on various sci-
entific projects. Alexandria, thanks to Demetrius of Phaleron's sugges-
tion which Ptolemy I and his successors took to heart, became the intel-
lectual center of the Graeco-Roman world. Although Varro's story of
the Ptolemies' jealousy of the growth of the library at Pergamon and
their papyri boycott, which, consequently, brought about the Pergamene
invention of parchment,10 is a figment of imagination, it still points to a
cultural competition between the Lagids and Attalids. Pergamene
patronage and scholarship might pale in comparison with that of
Alexandria, but when we think of Crates and his student Panaetius we
have to acknowledge their impact on Roman intellectual development
of the second century B.C.E.11
8 Pap. Cairo Zen. 59503 [Catalogue des Antiquites Egyptiennes du Caire 85 (1928)
220-221: a letter from Python and Antipatros (?) to Panakestor]. C. C. Edgar suggests
"that the subject of the letter is the distribution of banks controlled by the Treasury." See
also P. W. Pestman ed., A Guide to the Zenon Archive (Leiden 1981 [Papyrologica Lug-
dono-Batava 21]) 113 (addenda, corrigenda), 289 n. 10 (Antipatros), 386 (Panakestor),
and 410 (Python).
9 F. Heichelheim, "Monopole," RE 31 (1938) 159-190; C. Pr6aux, L'economie royale
des Lagides (Bruxelles 1939) 280-297; and M. Rostovtzeff, The Social and Economic
History of the Hellenistic World 2nd ed. (Oxford 1986) 1.404-406.
10 Pliny HN 13.70.
11 E. V. Hansen, The Attalids of Pergamon (Ithaca 1971 [Cornell Studies in Classical
Philology 29]) 390-433 gives a good survey of Attalid literary and artistic patronage. For
a more detailed account of the Pergamene cultural program see H.-J. Schalles, Unter-
suchungen zur Kulturpolitik der pergamenischen Herrscher im dritten Jahrhundert vor

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 Alexandria in Rome 267

Pergamon, bequeathed by Attalus II

Egypt, wrested from the last Ptolemy a
more than a century later, mark the open
economic, social, and political breakdow
While in the political sphere the traditio
forced to work, the conquerors did not
opinions, and tastes. They found new w
And, whatever they found, their interest
into an integral part of the Roman worl
ences shaped Rome's cultural and intellec
action with external intellectual impulses
cess of self-discovery. We note that at t
struggle, these influences shaped Roman
religion more than ever before.
Conscious of the difference between the Hellenistic and the Roman
literary heritage, Roman writers, especially after the Social War, were
able to produce literature that reflected this new condition. They had
successfully overcome what still plagued the political sphere; they had
found new ways of expressing their cultural identity, which had become
linked with the Greek past. And in this endeavor Alexandrian poets
served as models.
Rome had to wait for Augustus to resolve the conflict between the
actual political condition and the inherited political and moral model.
His creation, the principate, rested on the traditional Republican value
system and political organization. In essence, its purpose was the sys-
tematic propagation of the notion of Augustus as the central social,
political, and religious force of the state. This, of course, set him apart
from all the other inhabitants of the empire. The process of detaching
the figure "Octavian" from the human sphere began with the deification
of C. Julius Caesar. The senatorial decree to name him Augustus, the
acquisition of the title pater patriae sealed this metamorphosis. The
internal dynamic of the emperor as an extraordinary human being,
reflected in the official worship and in his status as a diuifilius, enabled
each subsequent emperor to place himself in the intermediate sphere
between humans and gods with greater facility than his predecessor.12

Christus (Tiibingen 1985 [IstForsch 36]). In addition, B. Virgilio, Gli Attalidi di Pergamo
(Pisa 1993 [Biblioteca di Studi Antichi 70]).
12 An emperor's immediate predecessor did not need to be a diuus. See M. Hammond,
The Antonine Monarchy (Rome 1959) 203-204; L. Ross Taylor, The Divinity of The

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 268 Sarolta A. Takdcs

Ultimately, he was solely in the divine

appropriate treatment. With every
Ptolemaic model became more pertinent
Indeed, "Augustus would have smile
been informed that he had introduced
Rome";13 it was hardly his intention. H
reacted to and manipulated political s
good Roman fashion "honors were give
dered," and Augustus made sure that t
The first princeps, however, could not
tionally presenting Gaius (Caligula) wit
in one generous act and probably could
like Nero who displayed striking artistic
tial political interests. Vespasian proved
enough military support and political sa
Alexandria happened to be the city wh
made. No princeps introduced pharao
but political developments, dynamics, a
with Ptolemaic Alexandria through its
its major deities, Isis and Sarapis.
Alexandria and to much greater deg
which could capture a Roman's imagina
most intensive political anti-Egyptian
Actium, the artistic employment of
From the Late Republic Roman villas in
tured Nilotic landscapes and Isiac symb
world; in addition, they presented a w
much in Rome's sphere of interest and
the empire. In this manner, the exotic
imaginary escape from the accepted an
same time within the Roman sphere, w
control. We have to remember that in
private interests did not have to coin
hypocrisy as long as a Roman politic
interests of the Roman state.

Roman Emperor (Middletown 1931); and S. R. F Price, "Between Men and God: Sacri-
fice in the Roman Imperial Cult," JRS 70 (1980) 28-43.
13 A. D. Nock, CAH 10 (Cambridge 1934) 489.

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 Alexandria in Rome 269

Isiac symbols on villa walls should not

and erroneous interpretations. Isis and Sa
Campania nor Rome. In Campania they
second century B.C.E., when there were
Delos and Ptolemaic Egypt. After Mit
B.C.E., the process of integration sped u
bolized Egypt; as such, they or their attr
paintings. In short, they found their wa
trolled illusions as part of the experience
The most popular notion of Actium as
defender of true Roman-ness and an ori
power-hungry couple, is a notion that, in
erately propagated popular "historical ro
ugliness of this very human struggle for
it parallel with a divine struggle. Thus, t
beginning and justification. This promon
nia, however, is not alone in claiming
motifs, there is also the sistrum (rattle)
did not have to name the v~a'"Ytm;14 the
meant the Egyptian queen.

regina in mediis patrio uocat agmina sis

necdum etiam geminos a tergo respicit

Christians identified the sistrum simply

they divorced it from historical and litera
After Actium and the consequent integr
Egyptian artistic motifs were used even m
The best examples for this are Augustus
tine, the aula Isiaca, and the Villa della F
of Agrippa and Julia. The wall decoration
Augustus' house include Egyptian lan

14 Plut. Ant. 54.6.

15 Aen. 8.696-697.
16 I. Becher, "Oktavians Kampf gegen Antonius un
G6ttern," Altertum 11 (1965) 40-47 and Augustus
politik und Propaganda in augusteischer Zeit (Leip
17 M. de Vos, L'egittomania in pitture e mosaici
imperiale, EPRO 84 (Leiden 1980).

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 270 Sarolta A. Takdcs

flowers, uraei, and situlae.18 (The latt

and water jars, can be Isiac symbols.)
motifs and depicted an Egyptian solar
Augustus' placing of obelisks in Rom
tradition of sculptural art, shows thi
inclusion of these originally Egyptia
inscriptions into Rome's visual land
claim to power and Rome's politica
obelisk in the campus Martius, now
torio,21 was the hand (gnomon) of
obelisk, now in the Piazza del Popol
circus maximus. Besides these, Augus
ment of two obelisks by the entranc
of them is now in the Piazza del Quir
Esquilino. The first obelisk which Au
ment expressing his and Rome's supe
Piazza di S. Pietro. G. Alf6ldy conv
obelisk originally had been planned a
C. Cornelius Gallus in 30 B.C.E., orde
saris, i.e., Octavian (Augustus), turned
Roman rule over Egypt. Shortly af
obelisk, its old inscription more or le
icatory inscription. Gaius (Caligula) t
Rome and placed in the circus Uatica
Augustus' "program of cultural renew
Rome's landscape and imbued with a
tually, obelisks were put up in other

18 G. Carettoni, Das Haus des Augustus auf d

struction of the villa in the years 36-28 B.C
67-85.

19 M.-Th. Picard-Schmitter, "B6tyles Hellenistiques," Fondation Eugene Piot Monu-

ments et MWmoires 57 (1971) 43-88.
20 E. Iversen, Obelisks in Exile (Rome 1969).
21 A youth holding the gnomon in his lap serves as personification of the campus Mar-
tius in the apotheosis relief of the column of Antoninus Pius. The gnomon (obeliscus
Augusti) like the obelisk in the circus maximus were brought to Rome in 10 B.C.E. Both
share the same dedicatory inscription to the sun (CIL VI 701 and 702).
22 G. Alf6ldy, Der Obelisk aufdem Petersplatz in Rom. Ein historisches Monument der
Antike, (Heidelberg 1990 [SB Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist.
Klasse, 1990.2]).

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 Alexandria in Rome 271

spinae of circuses.23 Egypt had becom

world.

While there is a tendency to connect

everything that is utterly un-Roman (lik
emperors who wear dog masks) and every
dent-but then should we have expected
inhabitants worship animals and vegetab
that Egypt of all countries in Rome's sph
the oldest historical tradition. Its histor
incredible size and age were visual pro
times and yet existed beyond a merely m
Rome had successfully made Greek cultur
dria that could claim to have been the gu
admired intellectual past. A place whe
stored was not only the Mouseion in the
library in the Serapeum.24 For the Roman
dria was a place where the treasures of h
stored and, therefore, a place where the
reach. Hadrian, the philhellene, under
Canopus complex of his elaborate villa in
understanding of the importance of Alex
It is interesting to note that we do no
before the first century B.C.E. It was J
"to procure and classify the greatest po
Latin books and open them to the public
Pollio, who founded a public library.27 B
was the most successful in the establishment of libraries. There were
two and each was connected with a temple, had Greek and Latin sec-
tions, and a reading room where conversation was possible.28 One
23 J. H. Humphrey, Roman Circuses. Arenas for Chariot Racing (London 1986).
24 F. Ritschl, Die alexandrinischen Bibliotheken unter den Ptolemdiern (Breslau 1838)
and E. A. Parsons, The Alexandrian Library (Amsterdam, London, and New York 1952).
25 F. Coarelli, Guide archeologiche Laterza 5 (Rome and Bari 1982) 44-72;
N. Hannestad, Roman Art and Imperial Policy (Aarhus 1988) 209; H. Mielsch, Die
romische Villa. Architektur und Lebensform (Munich 1987) 75-85, 104. I agree with
M. Taliaferro Boatwright, Hadrian and the City of Rome (Princeton 1987) 143-149,
239-260 that this complex was not an edifice to commemorate Antinoos' death.
26 Suet. Jul. 44.
27 HN 7.30, 35.2.
28 Suet. Aug. 29 and C. Dziatzko, "Bibliotheken," RE 5.2 (1897) 418.

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 272 Sarolta A. Takdcs

might imagine them something like t

Alexandria.
Alexandria and, by extension, Egypt also, left their mark, as I have
pointed out above, in the political sphere. Nero, who could stress that
he was the great-great-grandson of Augustus and the only surviving
male descendant of Germanicus, had besides Seneca the Stoic Chaere-
mon of Alexandria as an instructor.29 Stoicism, with its theory of logos,
the formative and guiding principle of nature that is identified with
deus, was compatible with Egyptian deism. The influence of Rome's
foremost philosophical and political theory had reached Alexandria,
but, what is more interesting, it was reflected back to Rome in this
specifically Alexandrian combination. Even Seneca's De Clementia
feeds on this Egyptian background, for it celebrated Nero as the sun in
a manner similar to Amenhotep IV (or Akhnaton) in the Great Hymn to
Aten and Isis' son in the Great Hymn to Osiris (both texts are from the
New Kingdom).30 After the devastating fire of 64 C.E., Nero could even
build the appropriate home, the domus aurea, from which it was appar-
ently possible to follow the daily and yearly course of the sun without
any interference.31 This is not to say that Nero embraced purely Egyp-
tian principles. His interests in Greece and the god Helios, for exam-
ple, are far more explicit.32 Despite this fact, the Egyptian background,
the coincidence and correlation of concepts cannot be overlooked. It is
a minute but important additional element in understanding ancient
Rome.
Nero's suicide threw the empire into civil war, from which Ves-
pasian emerged successfully. The legions in Alexandria had pro-
claimed him emperor. The city's gods stood on his side and neither

29 P. W. van der Horst, Chaeremon, Egyptian Priest and Stoic Philosopher (Leiden
1984 [EPRO 110]).
30T. Adam, Clementia Principis (Stuttgart 1970 [Kieler Historische Studien 11])
41-45; R. Turcan, Sineque et les religions orientales (Bruxelles 1967 [Collection Lato-
mus 91]); and P. Grimal, "Le De Clementia et la royaut6 solaire de N6ron," REL 49
(1971) 205-217.
31 H. P. L'Orange, "Nero's Cosmic Hall," in Studies on the Iconography of Cosmic
Kingship in the Ancient World (Oslo 1953) 28-34 and J.-L. Voisin, "Exoriente sole
(Su6tone Ner 6). D'Alexandre ' la Domus Aurea," in L'Urbs. Espace urbain et histoire
(Rome 1987 [CEFR 98]) 509-543.
32 Like Caligula Nero is termed vo; "Hto; (SIG 814, 34-35) and Antiphilus Anth.

Pal. 9 178:
nently "AXtE,
on Rhodes for ic napcx
whose a6v (plyyo;
freedom ,CxiVe
Nero pleaded NEpov. Helios featured most promi-
successfully.

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 Alexandria in Rome 273

Vespasian nor his sons ever forgot it. T

gave Vespasian further advantages. He c
economic center and the most importan
food supply chain. Egypt was the bread
internal stability depended on it. Ves
Romans before and after him, could als
of the mythological Alexander, the p
conqueror and founder of a world empi
disintegrated after his death, the Roma
centuries that they had obtained a world
Virgil poetically formulated:

tu regere imperio populos, Romane, m

(hae tibi erunt artes) pacique imponere
parcere subiectis et debellare superbos

The Roman were the heirs of the Helle

world of ideas, its territories. And as R
from the Republican oligarchy to the pr
to the immensely powerful myth of Al
with Alexander in Vespasian's ascent to
on Mount Carmel, which was organiz
parable to the one in the oasis of Siwah
whatever greatness he imagined for him
The Jewish historian Josephus, then a pr
would become emperor.35 Less obviou
supreme deity, in Alexander's case Amm
pis. The request of two sick men to b
Alexandrian Serapeum,36 because the go
their dreams, emphasizes the elevated
propagated, and would eventually hold.37
33 Aen. 6.851-853.
34 Diod. Sic. Hist. 17.49.2-5.3; Curt. 4.7.23 and
Anab. 3.3-4.

35 Suet. Vesp. 5.6.

36 A. Henrichs, "Vespasian's Visit to Alexandria," ZPE 3 (1968) 51-80 and R. Latti-
more, "Portents and Prophecies in Connection with the Emperor Vespasian," CJ 29
(1931) 441-449.
37 Tac. Hist. 4.81. Tacitus always eager to unmask sycophants stresses that "both these
incidents are still vouched for by eyewitnesses, though there is now nothing gained by
lying."

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274 Sarolta A. Takdcs

Although the propagated connection

the god Sarapis was a novelty, it was e
building blocks had not only been in pl
also gone through various stages of de
ments were the extraordinary social, p
the emperor enhanced by imperial wor
filius. In addition, monarchical rule bes
Rome's foremost political ideology, s
been a specifically formulated prom
princeps, the system was put in place b
position and had a natural flexibility a
Vespasian, like other principes, could a
was not the cult of Isis these emper
Alexandrian and dynastic characteristic
In addition, at the time of Vespasian t
superstitio but a sacrum publicum, wh
sanctioned residence in the campus Ma
(Caligula's) or in the beginning of Clau
speak against a hypothesis that there m
in the campus Martius before the t
Claudius, and that the introduction of the Isia was not linked to a
temple construction. Although one should not think of Apuleius'
Metamorphoses Book 11 as simply and singularly a handbook on Isiac
initiation, it can give us some valuable information about non-mystery
facts. Apuleius tells us that Lucius "happily fulfilled the duties of that
ancient college, which was founded at the time of the dictator Sulla,
and that he (Lucius) waited to be initiated as priest of Isis
Campensis."39 Can we link this "ancient" collegium pastophorum with
a pre-principate Isiac shrine in the campus Martius? The fact that the
earliest inscription from Rome mentioning Isiacs came from regio VIII,
the Capitoline region,40 should not make us disregard Apuleius' state-
ment. Catullus' puella requested: mihi, mi Catulle, paulum / istos com-
moda: nam uolo ad Serapim / deferri,41 and the Second Triumvirate
voted in favor of a temple of Isis and Sarapis in 43 B.C.E. It is important

38 For the dating see G. Wissowa, Religion und Cultus der Romer (Munich 1902) 353
and A. A. Barrett, Caligula (Manchester 1989) 220-221.
39 11.30 and 26.
40 SIRIS 377 = CIL 12 1263 = VI 2247 = ILS 4405 = ILLRP 159.
41 10.25-27.

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 Alexandria in Rome 275

to note that the Triumvirate did not vote

The hypothesis that the first official te
campus Martius could have been a replacem
earlier structure does not seem at all far-fetched.
Vespasian's sojourn at the temple of Isis in the campus Martius on
the night before his triumphal procession should be seen as an act of
piety; Domitian's renovations of Isea fulfilled the same purpose.43 Ves-
pasian and his sons did not forget where their rule began. A link was
forged and kept intact between Alexandria, its deities, and the new
domus Augusta.44 Vespasian's successor, Titus, arrived in Alexandria a
year after the destruction of Jerusalem (April 25, 71 C.E.).45 Before he
had visited the Apis-bull in Memphis.46
Other emperors like Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus,
and Caracalla came to Egypt and visited Alexandria,47 but literary
sources have only one of them travel to Memphis, and he happened to
be the founder of a new dynasty, namely Septimius Severus.48 This
pattern also seems to suggest that Germanicus, who is said to have

42 Dio Cass. Hist. 47.15 (Ka vov TO xe Kapanttt Ai "tIott i-yrlpiov'ro).

43 H. Dressel, "Das Iseum Campense auf einer Miinze des Vespasianus," SB
kinig.-preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften 25 (1909) 640-648. Domitian had an arch
added as part of the Iseum Campense's restoration (B. Sesler, "Arco di Domiziano
all'Iseo Campense in Roma," RIN 1, ser. 4 (1952-53) 54-55, 88-93; E. Nash, Bildlexikon
zur Topographie des antiken Rom (Tiibingen 1961) 1.118-119; and G. Gatti, "Topografia
dell'Iseo Campense," RPAA 26 (1943-44) 117-163). He also set up an obelisk which is
now in the Piazza Navona. On its east side is a picture of Isis crowning Domitian with
the hieroglyphic caption: "The autokrator loved by Isis and Ptah, may he live like Ra." In
the Iseum at Beneventum is another obelisk with a hieroglyphic text linking Domitian
with Horus and Ra. See also K. Lembke, Das Iseum Campense in Rom: Studie iiber den
Isiskult unter Domitian (Heidelberg 1994).
44 Eleven statue and relief fragments were found in the domus Flauia. M. Malaise,
"L'inventaire pr61iminaire des documents 6gyptiens en Italie," EPRO 21 (1971) 222 says
too eagerly that the Flavian palace had "une chapelle isiaque."
45 POxy 34.2725 [letter to Adrastus and Spartacus (April 29, 71 C.E.). "All in all, it is
safe to conclude that Titus Caesar made his entrance into Alexandria toward 7 o'clock on
the morning of 25th April A.D. 71 (p. 127)." One place Titus "stopped at" was the Ser-

apeum (18-22: 6 &0 Kl'pto; I Ki[ou]p Eofi- e XOev i t [6]paSx P p6ov iv rnappqtoXfi I E
[......] .t(xV Ei9X 1p(aXrtov .n rto lX0apaxioo6 Ei;t [0] ilrt laIKO[V.....] V ta 8F & Klt
-r0v ztIt41v yv6orl &v &varXp199 ^6....] ]... a a "& rtav;ar).
46 Suet. Tit. 5.3.
47 On travels of principes see H. Halfmann, Itinera principum (Stuttgart 1986 [Heidel-
berger althistorische Beitrage und epigraphische Studien 2]).
48 HA, S 17.4.

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 276 Sarolta A. Takdcs

fed the Apis-bull while visiting Mem

authority.49 Septimius' depiction as Sa
tion of a temple of Sarapis on the Qu
elevation to that of Iuppiter Maxim
porous line separating the emperor fr
Alexandria was truly and complete
sciously or not, the Ptolemaic ruler co
and dynastic rule captured existing po

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

49 D. G. Weing-irtner, Die Agyptenreise des Germanicus (Bonn 1969 [Papyrologische

Texte und Abhandlungen 2]).
50 A. M. McCann, The Portraits of Septimius Severus (Rome 1968 [MAAR 30]) the
Serapis-Severus portrait type IX 155-168.

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