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Alexandria grew rapidly and acknowledged no superior but Rome, becoming a center not only of Hellenism, but Semitism, becoming the greatest Jewish city in the world. The Ptolemies developed the museum into a Greek university, and its libraries were famous throughout the ancient civilized world. |
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Alexandria had been under effective Roman control for some time but passed under formal Roman jurisdiction in 80 B.C. by the terms of the will of Ptolemy Alexander. |
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Alexandria showed favor to Mark Anthony during the wars of succession and was administered by a prefect from the imperial household in the aftermath of the victory of Augustus. The city soon regained its former prosperity, since it commanded an important granary of the Roman empire. |
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In 22 B.C., Augustus introduced the Julian calendar into Egypt. Prior to this time, the Egyptians had used the Egyptian civil calendar of 365 days and resolutely resisted any attempts to reform the calendar. The reform was successful in this case, however, and the first day of the Egyptian year, 1 Thoth, was set to 29 August. Thereafter, the two calendars remained synchronized, since both intercalated a day every four years. |
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The Alexandrian calendar is, then, an Egyptian civil calendar with an intercalary day creating a fixed year. Therefore, the Augustan reform "stabilized" the Egyptian calendar in the sense that it matched the Julian calendar. This calendar is the one that eventually prevailed as the Egyptian calendar until the conquest of the area by Islam in the seventh century A.D. |
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Alexander's conquests introduced a Hellenistic influence into the areas of his empire which had a lasting influence on many of the cultures there. The Era of Alexander was used in many areas as an epoch. The Hebrews, among other peoples, used this era under several names, such as the Era of Contracts, since legal records were maintained using this calendar. The era is referred to as the Mundane Era, the Era of Contracts, and the Era of the Horned One. |
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9.7.3.1.2. 9.7.3.1.4
Code on CD-ROM |
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See the SCDTL text on the CD for the discussion of the code. |
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9.7.3.2
Ethiopian Calendar |
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This section discusses the calendar known as the Calendar of the Ethiopians. |
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When the African areas that had been part of the Roman empire were overrun by the wave of Islamic conquest in the seventh century A.D., two pockets of resistance remained. One group was the Egyptian Christians, the Copts, who have already been discussed. The other was the people of Ethiopia, who were Christianized in the fourth century A.D. Both groups continued to use the Alexandrian-type calendar, which was in vogue when contact with the West was lost. Both groups changed the epoch of their calendar. |
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