Loyalty and Dissidence in Roman Egypt : The Case of the Acta Alexandrinorum

Examines the Acta Alexandrinorum, which tells of the trials and executions of Alexandrians by Roman emperors. Dr Harker looks at the development of this literature, which was especially popular in the first three centuries AD, and the perspective it offers on provincial life in the Roman Empire.

The Acta Alexandrinorum are a fascinating collection of texts, dealing with relations between the Alexandrians and the Roman emperors in the first century AD. This was a turbulent time in the life of the capital city of the new province of Egypt, not least because of tensions between the Greek and Jewish sections of the population. Dr Harker's was the first in-depth study of these texts since their first edition half a century ago, and it examines them in the context of other similar contemporary literary forms, both from Roman Egypt and the wider Roman Empire. This study of the Acta Alexandrinorum, which was genuinely popular in Roman Egypt, offers a more complex perspective on provincial mentalities towards imperial Rome than that offered in the mainstream elite literature. It will be of interest to classicists and ancient historians, but also to those interested in Jewish and New Testament studies.