 Egypt
If Egyptians, Greeks, Jews and Romans might be identified as the most prominent population strands of Egypt in Roman imperial times, Dio of Prusa tell us that there were many others there too: settlers from Libya, Cilicia, Ethiopia, Arabia, Bactria, Scythia, India. This pluralistic society is well represented in the textual and material remains of the period. How the Greco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian traditions viewed the Egypt and Egyptians of their own time and of the Pharaohs, is itself a fascinating exercise in identity creation. With the coming of Islam Egypt started a new chapter of its history, which continues to the present day, but the Napoleonic expedition at the end of the 18th century was hugely influential in reconfiguring the whole western conception both of Egypt and the orient. The fierce debate in the United States of recent years about the cultural identity of Cleopatra shows the continuing power of the ancient world to affect the modern. (Professor McGing, Dr Dodge)
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