interest in the ‘‘Laws of the Jews.’’ At any rate, it reflects a certain degree of
hellenization, at least at the cultural level, among the Jewish communities, of which
the most striking representative is the philosopher Philo (early first century AD).
Although violent conflicts broke out in Alexandria between the ‘‘Greeks’’ and the
Jews in the course of the first century AD, the causes of these were not religious, but
political and juridical: the Jews of Alexandria, demoted by imperial law into the
inferior class of the Aegyptii, sought to recover a more favorable status. However,
Trajan’s harsh suppression of a revolt after two years of armed conflict (AD 115–17)
put an end to the Jewish presence in Alexandria and Egypt for almost two centuries.
We know practically nothing of the circumstances in which Christian communities
became implanted in Alexandria and recruited members. The existence at the end of
the second century AD of a catechesis school distinguished by great theologians
(Pantenus, Clement, Origen) leads to the supposition that there was already an
important community in the city. But it was primarily in the third century AD that
Christianity took off (in Alexandria more than thecho ̄ra) and that the ecclesiastical
structures were put in place. The edicts of Diocletian forbidding the practice of
Christianity delivered a severe blow to it. However, owing to the tolerant measures
of Constantine, and above all to the ever more favorable policies of the emperors
towards Christians, Christianity was destined to become the dominant religion in
the second half of the fourth century (Bagnall 1993; Frankfurter 1998). It was the
dominant religion, but a troubled one. In the third century and especially in
the fourth, the Christians of Alexandria were riven by doctrinal conflicts, by the
Melitian schism and by the Arian ‘‘heresy.’’ In the context of these conflicts,
the traditional cults, Greek and Egyptian, were completely lost. Even if the signifi-
cance of the event may have been exaggerated, the destruction of the great Sarapieion
by the ‘‘commandos’’ of bishop Theophilus in AD 392 marks the disappearance of
the extraordinary melting-pot of religions that Alexandria had represented.
GUIDE TO FURTHER READINGThe fundamental work on the religious system of Alexandria remains the chapter devoted to it
in Fraser 1972:1.189–301 and 2.323–461. For the city in general, see Bernand 1996 and Ballet
- For the material evidence for Alexandrian religion, see Adriani 1961, Fazzini 1988, and
La gloire d’Alexandrie1998, and, for the underwater archaeology in Alexandria’s harbors, see
Goddio 1998a, 1998b. For terracotta statuettes, see Dunand 1990. For Ptolemaic temples see
Clarysse 1999, for their festivals see Dunand 1981, and for the grand procession of Ptolemy II
see Rice 1983. For Isis, see Dunand 1999 and 2000; for Sarapis, see Rowe 1946 and
Hornbostel 1973; and for the inscriptions from outside Egypt bearing on both, Vidman - For dynastic cult see Heinen 1978 and 1995. For the role of Memphis under the
Ptolemies see Thompson 1988. For the Jews of Alexandria see Me ́le`ze-Modrzejewski 1981.
For the late antique period, see Bagnall 1993 and Haas 1997.
The Religious System at Alexandria 263