Beautiful Egypt 85 – «An Oppressed People» September 7, 2014

   Ever since we started “Beautiful Egypt” series of articles, we have been looking into the history of Egypt to present it to our readership an easy and understandable way. In fact, we resorted to history books and references and were able to collect historical material that supported us in writing these articles. This material also enabled us to shed light on what has become of the East throughout seven centuries which are counted among the worst in Egypt’s history, as Egypt became a Roman province after a trivial love affair.

   That era started with Cleopatra’s reign. Julius Caesar continued to protect her until he was assassinated. He was succeeded by the second triumvirate: Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus. The eastern part of the kingdom was entrusted to Antony who fell in love with Cleopatra and married her. This ignited a clash between Octavius and Antony who had abandoned his wife, the former’s sister. Also, no sooner had Antony annexed some Roman provinces to Alexandria and enthroned his sons Alexander and Ptolemy to fulfill Cleopatra’s wish, than Octavius reviled him at the Senate, accusing him of squandering the Empire’s property. So, Antony was deposed. War was declared against Egypt. Octavius prevailed, and both Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide after failing to win Octavius’ understanding. Cleopatra’s death marked the beginning of Egypt’s becoming a Roman province.

   For seven centuries, Egypt suffered from the Roman reign. Egypt was the Empire’s sole source of wheat and grain, in addition to the money she used to pay annually to the Empire. This drained the economy. Few emperors, like Tiberius, were just. Tiberius is said to have scolded Egypt’s proconsul for collecting and sending more taxes than was decreed. He sent him a message, saying, “Mark my words. I never ask a shepherd but fattening his herd. Yet, I would never have him slaughter it.” Thus, the proconsul stopped collecting additional taxes. Yet, most emperors used to seize as many riches form Egypt as they could. Historians agreed that the Roman’s economic policy in Egypt aimed at achieving their best interest. Ahmed Kamal writes, “Egypt became a colony in the full sense of the word. Rome treated the Egyptians as a defeated people. She gave Jews and Greeks privileges. On the other hand, Egyptians were prohibited from carrying weapons. Whoever possessed weapons would be condemned to death. Romans were ruthless, especially in collecting taxes. Egyptians lived in poverty for centuries. The country’s economy and social life collapsed.”

   History presents horrific images of what tax collectors used to do. They would arrest any relative of those who were incapable of paying taxes and coerce him in order to pay the money. They were so merciless that they would keep the corpse of whoever did not pay his taxes until his relatives paid the money instead of him. Additionally, they charged the people with paying the expenses of the Roman garrison’s provisions. These garrisons consisted of 30,000 sentries, divided into 3 squads as well as additional troops. So, Egyptians were victims of coercion, taxes and discrimination. Dr. Ibrahim Noshy maintains that, “Farmers used to flee from taxes and corvee, seeking shelter in forests and swamps. So much so, that some villages were completely deserted.”

   Thus, Egypt led a period of economic recession which was made worse by imposing taxes on the people. This resulted in rebellions which were overcome by violence and coercion: for emperors used to dispatch armies or troops to fights rebels. We tackled this in previous articles. Sir Harold Idris Bell asserts that during the sixth century A.D., Egypt had two classes: the rich and the destitute. He says, “The most significant phenomenon in Egypt at that time was the division of the society to feudalists and farmers who were almost slaves.”

   Likewise, Egypt witnessed several rebellions and seditions which broke out amongst the Egyptians and the Jews. There had always been attempts to create schisms between the people and the rulers. For instance, Jews sometimes tried to instigate Romans against Egyptians, which led to the outbreak of the rebellion of Alexandria against the Jews. Many people were killed. Moreover, Jews used to support the enemy coming to Egypt and the Levant in fighting Christians and ruining churches. This happened during the Persian conquest as we mentioned in the previous article.

   Egyptians were coerced by pagan Roman emperors. Tribulations increased at different times. Yet, they reached their peak during the tenure of Diocletian and Maximian, as thousands of Egyptians were slaughtered. No sooner had Egyptians rested when the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, than clashes started when some emperors embraced the Chalcedonian creed. They persecuted whoever rebuffed it. It is said that Pope Dioscorus, the twenty-fifth patriarch, refused the creed. At that time, Emperor Marcian had adopted it, and some bishops complied lest the emperor oppress them. So, they wrote a letter consenting of the emperor’s faith. Pope Dioscorus clung to his stance. So did six bishops. He requested the letter which the bishops sent the emperor, wrote his faith, then excommunicated those bishops and whoever deviated from the correct faith. When the emperor got to know, he became furious, and decided to kill Pope Dioscorus. When he reached the Emperor’s court, the queen threatened him of facing the same destiny of St. John Chrysostom, the patriarch of Constantinople. Yet, Pope Dioscorus did not accept her threat, and reminded her of the pain and illness that alighted upon his persecutors. The empress became furious. She hit the Pope so hard that he lost two teeth. Likewise, he was insulted, beaten, and his beard hair was plucked off. The emperor ordered that he be exiled, and enthroned another patriarch in his stead. But Egyptians rejected that patriarch. Such incidents continued to take place throughout seven centuries whereby violence and persecution were used to make Egyptians succumb.

   Gratien Le Pere, one of the French campaign’s sages, writes in the “Description of Egypt” about the incidents witnessed by Egypt during the Romans’ tenure. He says, “Christians used to flee from the Arians’ and others’ persecution and chasing, seeking shelter in deserts and Upper Egypt.” Dr. William Soliman writes in his “The Copts and Muslims”, “The Egyptian Church has never forgotten the dawn of its history when Copts were oppressed and persecuted by the Melchites who, under the cloak of Christianity, did torture them. The Roman era was not any better, whether it was pagan or Christian. Romans did not benefit from Christianity neither on the moral nor the cultural level. Rather, it was a Christian empire with a pagan attitude!”

   Egypt did not emerge sound from Romans’ wars against their enemies, especially the Persians. As we mentioned in the previous article, Persians ruined Egypt and the Levant during the tenure of Phocas. Churches in Jerusalem were ruined. Christians were killed. Then, Persians moved to Egypt where they killed and imprisoned a countless number of its people until Heraclius overcame them and seized Egypt.

   With the return of the Romans, the Melchites started to persecute the Copts, for the emperor had appointed Cyrus (Al-Muqawqis) patriarch of Alexandria. His ten-year tenure witnessed more persecution of the Copts: for they were made to choose either the Melchite creed or death. Historians assert that Cyrus continued to persecute Copts throughout his tenure. Alfred J. Butler writes, “We have to make it a point that Copts were not allowed to resist persecution. Neither could they fight. Rather, they were away from fighting after Cyrus had oppressed them.”

   Historians maintain that Egypt’s proconsul was given the title “al-Muqawqis”, a Greek word that meant “honorable” or “esteemed”. Thus, it is a title, not a name. There were two people who bore that name, one of whom tortured Christians so harshly that Pope Benjamin, the 38^th patriarch, and some bishops fled to Upper Egypt. So was the story. Stories never end in Beautiful Egypt.

General Bishop

Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center