Egypt under Greek Rule

Cleopatra VII

In 332 BC Alexander the Great conquered Egypt with a Greek army. At first the Egyptians thought he would make them independent again, but he did not. Alexander made Egypt part of his own empire. When Alexander died in 323 BC, his general Ptolemy (TA-low-mee) took over Egypt as his own territory. He and his successors (all called Ptolemy) ruled Egypt until the Roman Augustus conquered it from the last Ptolemy and Queen Cleopatra in 30 BC. The Ptolemies succeeded in reconquering much of Israel and Syria. They brought Greek culture and the Greek language to Egypt, though ordinary people continued to speak Egyptian and worship Egyptian gods.

To find out more about Hellenistic Egypt, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:

Egypt After the Pharaohs: 332 BC-AD 642: from Alexander to the Arab Conquest, by Alan Bowman (1996). A standard among historians, and pretty readable.

Cleopatra, by Diane Stanley (reprinted 1997) . A biography of the last independent queen of Egypt, for kids.

Women in Hellenistic Egypt: From Alexander to Cleopatra, by Sarah Pomeroy (reprinted 1990). Pomeroy is an expert on the lives of women in antiquity.

The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome, by Erich Gruen (reprinted 1986).

Other time periods in Egyptian history:
Old Kingdom (2686-2160 BC)
First Intermediate Period (2160-2040 BC)
Middle Kingdom (2040-1633 BC)
Second Intermediate Period (1786-1558 BC)
New Kingdom (1558-1085 BC)
Third Intermediate Period (1085-525 BC)
Persian rule (525-332 BC)
Greek rule (332-30 BC) (also called the Hellenistic)
Roman rule (30 BC-700 AD)
Islamic rule (700 AD to present)