27An Exception
in Africa
When Queen Cleopatra died in 30 B.C.E., her
nation of Egypt became a province of the
Roman Empire. For centuries after, Egyptians
continued to worship local gods and goddesses.
Under Roman rule, worship of deities such as
Osiris and Horus continued alongside early
Christianity. Christian missionaries in the first
century C.E. had established the Coptic Church,
spreading the gospel in the local language,
Coptic.
With the establishment of Christianity as the
official religion of the Roman Empire, pagan —that is, non-Christian — temples were ordered
closed. The one exception was the Temple of Isis.
This suggests that the rules were slightly different
for the North Africans living far from the center of
the Empire.A Peace Treaty
Along the Nile, just south of Egypt, lay the region
known as Nubia. Dongola was the capital of
Makuria, one of three Nubian kingdoms.
Christian missionaries, possibly from
Constantinople, converted the Makurians to—
f the Empire
The remains of a monastery
complex at Old Dongola