The Famous Jacob’s Reviews > Pharaohs: The Rulers of Ancient Egypt for Over 3000 Years > Status Update

Cleopatra VII was born into chaos. She had to wage a civil war against her brother who was co-ruler but rejected her authority.

Roman General Pompey was defeated and fled to Egypt. Her brother killed Pompey thinking this was a favor to Caesar, but he supported Cleopatra instead.

Once Caeser was killed, Cleopatra got caught up in the Roman civil war and lost to Augustus in 30bc. This marked the end of the Pharaohs.

Ptolemaic Egypt gradually weakened through constant war with the Greek successor states and the resulting internal strife from high exploitative taxes. Rome also started to sponsor this to weaken the Greek successor states.

Later wives of the Pharaohs usually were named Cleopatra and sometimes even rules Egypt briefly. A tradition of making the queen an equal co-ruler developed.

Rome defeated the other Greek states

Alexandria became so huge, that it became almost like it's own separate region. This is where the Great Library of Alexandria (Museion) was founded which was thought to store all the worlds books.

Also, during this time many Egyptians picked up a lot of Greek whoxh combined with Ancient Egyptian, led to Coptic.

It was also during this time that many projects were completed to make Egypt the breadbasket of the world

Alexander invaded the Persians and conquered Egypt in 332bc. He took the title of Pharaoh and restored many Egyptian customs. He also founded Alexandria on the top of the Nile Delta.

Alexander had conquered all of Persia, but his empire fractured after he died. One of these rulers was Ptolemy who controlled Egypt and founded the 31st Ptolemaic dynasty from 304bc. A mix of Greek & Egyptian cultures.

The Persians regained control of Egypt in 343bc and Egypt would not be independently ruled until 1952 - 2,300 years later.

Persians presented themselves as Pharaohs a tradition that would last into the Greek age. Also, at this time Greece and Egypt both supported their respective fights against the Persians.

Egypt was free in 404bc again (29th to 30th dynasties). Though this was maintained by large mercenary Greek armies which impoverished Egypt. The traditional veneration of the Pharaoh broke down here too.

They also fought the Babylonians many times and assisted Israel. Taking in refugees when Israel was taken over by Nebuchadnezzar. Coinage was also introduced around this time.

Though when they fought the Persians, they failed and the Persians ruled from 525 to 404bc as the 27th dynasty.

This was hard too since Persia had a monotheistic Zorastorianism religion. During this long period, Egypt was just a province.

The 26th dynasty relied on heavily armed Ionian Greek troops - heavy armor was a rarity at the time. They also developed a navy on conjunction with the Greeks.

There was also a pushback against previous Kushite rule in the same way as for Hyksos for the New Kingdom. During ~590bc, the Egyptians invaded far south as revenge against the Nubians and Kushites. Armies were now heavily foreigner based with Greek + Jews.

Though the Assyrians left a client state of Sais since that area had been the main opponent to Kushite rule. The Assyrians were brutal and intolerant of Egyptian culture and controlled Egypt from ~671 to ~656bc.

The Sais client state is what defeated the Assyrians and established the Late Period as the 26th dynasty. Which was a period of restoration of Egyptian values (mainly old and middle kingdom) that lasted unt

Eventually the New Kingdom rulers were ruled by Libyan rulers who had been Egyptized after the Bronze Age Collapse. They kept the traditions of Egypt. 

Then the Kushites took over which also followed all of Egypts traditions, but based also kept their Kush Lands to the South of Nubia.

The Neo Assyrians invaded and took over Egypt and Nubia, but not Kush.