Abstract
The early Roman period (30 BCE - 284 CE) was the last era marked by a dynamic development of the native Egyptian religion. Not only in the religious sphere, did the conquest of Egypt by Octavianus Augustus for the most part not bring about a radical break with the past.
One of the exceptions was the coming of the Roman army, which played an important role in spreading Roman culture across the whole Mediterranean. The present paper examines how the Roman army entered the sacred landscape of Egypt as seen through the epigraphic evidence left by the soldiers in various peripheral regions of the province of Egypt, where the presence of the army was especially strong.
Each of the three regions of interest, namely Alexandria and surroundings, the Eastern Desert and the region of the First Cataract and Roman Lower Nubia, is surveyed for relevant epigraphic evidence and the individual inscriptions are described, analysed and discussed in context. Subsequently, the data acquired from the analysis of the evidence are brought together.
The situation in the studied regions is compared, pointing out the clear differences in the manifestation of the Roman soldiers' presence in the sacred landscape of each of them and even individual sites. Overall, the observed approaches of the Roman military servicemen were also diverse, ranging from the accommodation and integration with the native cults to the introduction of new divinities and the appropriation of sacred spaces.
Finally, conclusions are drawn how in each of the regions, as well as overall, the Roman army contributed to continuity and facilitated change in the religious sphere in Egypt of the early Roman period.