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1 Seeing Egypt in Italy: Considering the Egyptian and Roman Aspects of the Temple of Isis in Pompeii The grandeur and mystery of ancient Egypt has fascinated people for millennia. Just as tourists today go to Egypt to see pyramids, temples, tombs, and mummies, Romans visited Egypt for sight-seeing and religious pilgrimage and brought Egyptian souvenirs back to Italy from their journeys. In the Roman view, Egypt was an enigmatic land associated with fertility, the deeds of Alexander the Great, ancient customs of pharaohs, and the home of the popular cult of the Egyptian goddess, Isis. To associate themselves with Egypt, Romans adopted Egyptian motifs into their art and architecture in Roman towns like Pompeii where Egyptian influences can be seen in domestic wall paintings of nilotic landscapes and pygmies and public temples dedicated to Isis. This paper considers the Temple of Isis in Pompeii as part of this tradition and proposes that certain architectural features of the Roman temple in Pompeii were inspired by the Egyptian temple of Isis at Philae. Romans traveled to Egypt for a number of reasons including business, sight-seeing, employment in the military and religious pilgrimage; graffiti survives from tourist trips to Egypt even in the 2 nd century BCE, a full century before Egypt was annexed into the Roman Empire under the first emperor Augustus. 1 Graffiti inscribed on Egyptian monuments shows that tourists often traveled on the Nile, and Victoria Foertmeyer has demonstrated that tourist itineraries usually culminated at the temple of Isis at Philae. 2 Philae was a popular tourist site for three 1 J. Lea Beness and Tom Hillard, “The First Romans at Philae (“CIL” 1 2 .2.2937a),” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 144 (2003): 203. And as Swetnam-Burland states, “even before Egypt became a province of the empire, Roman citizens (and non-citizens) who resided in Italy visited its cities and sanctuaries… [and] after Egypt became a Roman province under Augustus, such visits became even more frequent.” See Molly Swetnam-Burland, “Egypt in the Roman Imagination: A Study of Aegyptiaca from Pompeii” (Ph.D., diss. University of Michigan, 2002), 37. 2 V. Foertmeyer, “Tourism in Graeco-Roman Egypt” (Ph.diss., Princeton University, 1989), 33-34. See also Beness and Hillard, “The First Romans,” 205. Numerous inscriptions at Philae reference ‘acts of adoration,’ which
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Page 1: Seeing Egypt in Italy - University of Iowa Egypt in Italy.pdf · Seeing Egypt in Italy: ... under the first emperor Augustus. 1 Graffiti inscribed ... philosophical treatise focused

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Seeing Egypt in Italy:

Considering the Egyptian and Roman Aspects of the Temple of Isis in Pompeii

The grandeur and mystery of ancient Egypt has fascinated people for millennia. Just as

tourists today go to Egypt to see pyramids, temples, tombs, and mummies, Romans visited Egypt

for sight-seeing and religious pilgrimage and brought Egyptian souvenirs back to Italy from their

journeys. In the Roman view, Egypt was an enigmatic land associated with fertility, the deeds of

Alexander the Great, ancient customs of pharaohs, and the home of the popular cult of the

Egyptian goddess, Isis. To associate themselves with Egypt, Romans adopted Egyptian motifs

into their art and architecture in Roman towns like Pompeii where Egyptian influences can be

seen in domestic wall paintings of nilotic landscapes and pygmies and public temples dedicated

to Isis. This paper considers the Temple of Isis in Pompeii as part of this tradition and proposes

that certain architectural features of the Roman temple in Pompeii were inspired by the Egyptian

temple of Isis at Philae.

Romans traveled to Egypt for a number of reasons including business, sight-seeing,

employment in the military and religious pilgrimage; graffiti survives from tourist trips to Egypt

even in the 2nd

century BCE, a full century before Egypt was annexed into the Roman Empire

under the first emperor Augustus.1 Graffiti inscribed on Egyptian monuments shows that tourists

often traveled on the Nile, and Victoria Foertmeyer has demonstrated that tourist itineraries

usually culminated at the temple of Isis at Philae.2 Philae was a popular tourist site for three

1 J. Lea Beness and Tom Hillard, “The First Romans at Philae (“CIL” 1

2.2.2937a),” Zeitschrift für

Papyrologie und Epigraphik 144 (2003): 203. And as Swetnam-Burland states, “even before Egypt became a

province of the empire, Roman citizens (and non-citizens) who resided in Italy visited its cities and sanctuaries…

[and] after Egypt became a Roman province under Augustus, such visits became even more frequent.” See Molly

Swetnam-Burland, “Egypt in the Roman Imagination: A Study of Aegyptiaca from Pompeii” (Ph.D., diss.

University of Michigan, 2002), 37. 2 V. Foertmeyer, “Tourism in Graeco-Roman Egypt” (Ph.diss., Princeton University, 1989), 33-34. See also

Beness and Hillard, “The First Romans,” 205. Numerous inscriptions at Philae reference ‘acts of adoration,’ which

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reasons: its location at the southernmost border between Egypt and Nubia, its temple to Isis was

considered the most sacred in Egypt,3 and the vibrant rituals and festivals held within the temple

precinct.4 Romans, along with Egyptians, Greeks, and Nubians, participated in religious

festivals for Isis and her brother/husband Osiris such as the ‘looking for Osiris’ festival, which

enacted the myth of Osiris, in which Isis looked for the dismembered body parts of Osiris so that

she could magically heal him.5 As part of the international festival environment at Philae,

specialized industries produced votive objects for religious pilgrims to dedicate in festivals.6 In

addition to participating in religious festivals, second- and first-century-BCE Roman tourists

would have seen the impressive temples of Philae being built before them, alive with craftsmen

and priests, newly constructed buildings, freshly carved relief decorations, and brilliant paint.

Roman visitors to the temple complex of Philae would have seen a typical Ptolemaic temple and

sacred precinct with standard and new temple forms such as the pylon, enclosed courtyard, and

birth house complete with screen walls and broken-door lintels. The temple of Isis at Philae

would surely have made an impression on any Roman visitor.

When traveling Romans returned to Italy, they brought with them knowledge of the

temple art and architecture at Philae and from this incorporated Egyptian motifs into their own

civic and domestic architecture such as at the Temple of Isis at Pompeii. In addition, Romans

suggests that the site was a popular destination for religious pilgrimage. On Philae as a holy place, see Ian

Rutherford, “Island on the Extremity: Space, Language and Power in the Pilgrimage Traditions of Philae,” in

Pilgrimage and Holy Space in Late Antique Egypt, ed. D. Frankfurter (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 229-256. 3 See G. Haeny, “A Short Architectural History of Philae,” BIFAO 85 (1985): 197-233 and PM VI, 203-

256. For general references, see Eleni Vassilika, Ptolemaic Philae (Lueven: Peeters, 1989), 19; and Erich Winter,

“Philae,” LÄ IV (1982), 1022-1027. 4 Plutarch described vivid local festivals and processions in De Osiride et Iside, and although his

philosophical treatise focused on the cults of Isis and Osiris in the pharaonic period and it is not known whether he

had first-hand knowledge of Egypt, his descriptions are valuable in that they show the active participation of the

local populations and festival-goers. See David Frankfurter, Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), 53; and Daniel S. Richter, “Plutarch on Isis and Osiris: Text, Cult,

and Cultural Appropriation,” Transactions of the American Philological Association 131 (2001): 192. 5 Foertmeyer, “Tourism,” 214.

6 Swetnam-Burland, “Egypt,” 43.

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brought back Egyptian objects such as small statuettes, papyri scrolls, canopic jars, and shabti

figurines as souvenirs to remind them of their experiences. At Pompeii’s Temple of Isis, a

Ptolemaic inscription from Herakleopolis in Egypt was attached to the outer cella wall and

canopic jars and statuettes from Egypt were found within the temple’s precinct. Modern scholars

call such objects of Egyptian manufacture found in Italy or Roman manufacture that employ

Egyptian themes aegyptiaca.7 Scholars nominally reserve the term aegyptiaca for sculptures and

wall paintings, and temple architecture has yet to be added to this dialogue. These objects were

especially popular in the late Republic and early Empire and have been found in abundance

throughout the Roman Empire. Some modern scholars have characterized this as a kind of

Egyptomania similar to that seen in Europe and the modern world from the Italian Renaissance

to the present day.8 To see Roman fascination with Egypt as a mere mania does not show that

reasons for the adoption and adaptation of Egyptian motifs and influences in the art and

architecture of Italy were complex and multivalent. Scholars have recently identified three main

reasons that Romans collected Egyptian objects and adopted Egyptian imagery into their art: to

remind them of the vast sprawl of empire and their place in it; to establish connections to the

imperial court and to Augustus’s victory at Actium in 31 BCE; and to reference the cult of Isis.9

7 Catalogues of Egyptian-themed material in Italy include: Anne Roullet, The Egyptian and Egyptianizing

Monuments of Imperial Rome (Leiden: Brill, 1972); and the more recent, M.J. Versluys, Aegyptiaca Romana: Nilotic Scenes and the Roman Views of Egypt (Leiden: Brill, 2002).

8 See, for instance, Carla Alfano, “Egyptian Influences in Italy,” in Cleopatra of Egypt, ed. Susan Walker

and Peter Higgs (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001), 276-289; Sally-Ann Ashton, Roman Egyptomania (London: Golden House Publications, 2004); James Curl, Egyptomania: The Egyptian Revival , a Recurring Theme in the History of Taste (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994); and C. Ziegler, “From

One Egyptomania to Another, the Legacy of Roman Antiquity,” in Egyptomania: Egypt in Western Art, 1730-1930,

ed. J.-M. Humbert, M. Pantazzi, and C. Ziegler (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 1994), 15-20. 9 For more recent approaches to the material and issues surrounding Roman interest in Egypt, see Molly

Swetnam-Burland, “Egypt in the Roman Imagination: A Study of Aegyptiaca from Pompeii” (Ph.D., diss.

University of Michigan, 2002); and Molly Swetnam Burland, “Egyptian Objects, Roman Contexts: A Taste for

Aegyptiaca in Italy,” in Nile into Tiber: Egypt in the Roman World, ed. Laurent Bricault, Miguel J. Versluys, and

Paul G. Meyboom (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 113-136.

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Egyptian elements and motifs were incorporated into an Italian artistic vernacular that was

intended for an Italian audience.

When considering the possible Egyptian sources for inspiration for aegyptiaca, and

particularly for Egyptianizing Third Style wall paintings, Molly Swetnam-Burland has concluded

that it is possible that Romans were looking to paintings in New Kingdom tombs in the Valley of

the Kings in Egypt, Ptolemaic Alexandrian tombs, illustrated papyri, and cartonnage mummy

cases that were imported to Italy from Egypt.10

Following this example, it would be constructive

to attempt to find possible Egyptian sources for inspiration for Italian temples to Isis. This paper

considers the Temple of Isis at Pompeii as an example of aegyptiaca, and suggests that certain

unusual architectural features of the Pompeian temple such as the treatment of space and

decoration in the portico and so-called Nilometer were inspired by the Temple of Isis at Philae.

The temple complex of Isis in Pompeii is located in Region VIII near the Triangular

Forum, the Large Theater, and the Samnite Palaestra (Figure 1).11

The sanctuary was surrounded

by an enclosure wall and was entered through a small entrance on the north side from the Via del

Tempio di Iside. A secondary entrance was located on the south side that led to a grouping of

three subsidiary rooms that may have been either living quarters of priests or working areas

(rooms 7-9).12

The main sanctuary area was surrounded by a colonnaded portico, within which a

grouping of structures including the main temple, a so-called Nilometer, the main altar, and a

sacrificial pit were discovered (Figure 1). Two rooms modern scholars call the ekklesiasterion

(room 6) and the sacrarium (room 5) are located off of the portico and were likely used for

10

Swetnam-Burland, “Egypt,” 76-82. 11

Main sources on the Temple of Isis include: S. De Caro, ed. Alla ricerca di Iside: analisi, studi e restauri dell’Iseo pompeiano nel Museo di Napoli (Rome: ARTI, 1994); S. De Caro, “L’Iseo di Pompei,” in Iside: il mato, il mister, la magica, ed. E. Arlsan (Milan: Electa, 1997), 338-344; P. Hoffman, Der Isis-Tempel in Pompeji (Ph.D. diss., Trier, 1993); and V. Tran tam Tinh, Essai sur le culte d’Isis a Pompei (Paris: E. de Boccard, 1964).

12 Swetnam-Burland, “Egypt,” 18.

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rituals and events associated with the cult’s initiates. The complex’s portico, ekklesiasterion, and

sacrarium were painted with frescoes.13

In Egypt, temples built during the reigns of the Ptolemies who ruled after Alexander’s

conquest in 332 BCE, and Roman emperors beginning with Augustus, expanded on the form and

function of traditional pharaonic temples.14

As seen at Philae, these temple complexes usually

consisted of a main temple and numerous subsidiary structures set within a high enclosure wall

(Figure 2). The most sacred part of the main temple was the sanctuary or naos towards the back

of the structure; this held the cult statue and was the home of the god (Figure 3). This sanctuary

was surrounded by a number of rooms, and preceded by an inner and outer hypostyle hall. An

open colonnaded court came before the sequence of hypostyle halls, and it, in turn was fronted

by a monumental gateway or pylon. The pylon controlled movement in the temple by which

priests and parishioners were guided through increasingly sacred space (Figure 2). Pylons were

especially important during festivals where participants were expected to process along the

central axes of the temple as pylons were monumental markers of these axes. Pylons, along with

the inner and outer walls of the temple, were carved with relief scenes and brilliantly painted

with imagery from ceremonies and festivals that occurred in the temple. These reliefs reminded

festival participants of their roles in cultic ritual and ceremonies.

13

The cult statues of Isis and Osiris are no longer extant. It is likely that statues of Serapis and Anubis

were placed in the wing niches of the temple and a statue of Harpocrates was placed in the wall niche of the portico,

however, these no longer survive. Frederick Brenck, “’Great Royal Spouse Who Protects Her Brother Osiris’: Isis

in the Isaeum at Pompeii,” in Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia, ed. Giovanni Casadio and Patricia A. Johnston

(Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2009), 231n18. 14

I use the term Greco-Roman Egyptian temples to refer to temples built in both the Ptolemaic and Roman

periods in Egypt. On Egyptian temples, see: Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt (London: Thames and Hudson, 2000). For Ptolemaic and Roman temples, see: Dieter Arnold, Temples of the Last Pharaohs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999); Ragnhild Bjerre, “Temples of the Ptolemaic and Roman

Periods: Ancient Traditions in New Contexts,” in Temples of Ancient Egypt, ed. Byron Shafer (Ithaca, NY: Cornell

University Press, 1997), 185-237; and Dieter Kurth, “The Present State of Research into Graeco-Roman Temples,”

in The Temple in Ancient Egypt, ed. Stephen Quirke (London: The British Museum Press, 1997), 152-158.

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The building form of the birth house is particularly striking as a subsidiary structure

typical in Greco-Roman Egyptian temple precincts. As a Greco-Roman building form, it

honored the birth of the child god of the site’s main deity; here, the birth of Isis’s son Horus is

celebrated. These structures are usually considerably smaller than the main temple and consist

of fewer than five rooms. At Philae, the birth house mimics the form of the main temple on a

smaller scale, with three rooms and an enclosure wall (Figure 2). It is fronted by four exterior

columns which are connected by screen walls and the entrance is emphasized by a broken-door

lintel, mimicking the pylon of the main temple (Figure 4).

The Temple of Isis in Pompeii is a traditional Roman temple in form, in which a main

cella sits at the back of a high podium, behind a deep colonnaded porch. The porch is accessible

from a set of stairs, and topped with a pediment (Figure 5).15

However, there are a number of

elements that also compare to Egyptian temple forms. For instance, although an enclosure wall

is a traditional element in Roman temples, the sacred space of the temple precinct is surrounded

by an enclosure wall and this, combined with the wide intercolumniation of the columns in the

portico in front of the temple’s central axis are reminiscent of Egyptian temples. This space is

framed by square pillars with engaged columns, which were surely meant to draw attention to the

central axis of the temple complex (Figure 1). The columns in the portico are free standing and

are placed at regular intervals around the colonnaded space. The wide intercolumniation and

monumentality of the square pillars and engaged columns mark the central axis as distinct from

the surrounding portico. Stefano De Caro has suggested that the planners of the sanctuary

positioned the main entranceway to force visitors to walk through the portico through the pillared

15

See J. Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples: The Republic to the Middle Empire (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 2005).

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entrance in a “processional or ceremonial” manner before viewing the temple fully.16

Although

not a pylon shape, it is possible that the framing of space by square pillars with engaged columns

was meant to act in a similar way, as pylons of Egyptian temples also functioned to control

movements during processions. Similarly, it is possible that the inclusion of numerous

structures, especially the so-called Nilometer, within the temple precinct was meant to mimic the

many-structured Egyptian temple complexes.

Scholars have debated the purpose of the so-called Nilometer (Figure 6).17

The roofless

structure, which emulates the form of the main temple, enclosed a subterranean basin for water

which was an essential element in the cultic activities of Isis. Lauren Petersen calls this structure

one of the “features signaling that this sanctuary was dedicated to an Egyptian deity…”18

The

Egyptian Nilometer measured the level of water of the annual inundation of the Nile River. If

the structure at Pompeii was indeed a Nilometer and measured water, as Peter Hoffman has

concluded, this would recall Egyptian temples, as numerous Egyptian temple precincts, including

Philae, had a Nilometer on temple lands. It is also possible that the builders of the Pompeian

sanctuary meant the Nilometer to recall the grouping of buildings within the sacred space of

Egyptian temples, in which the birth house is also a smaller version of the main temple form.

The Nilometer’s structure has numerous elements that could relate to the birth house form of

Greco-Roman Egyptian temples. These include corner pillars and solid exterior walls that look

similar to the screen walls popular in Greco-Roman temples and visible on the birth house at

Philae. And although the Nilometer’s façade is topped with a pediment, the two central pillars

and arch form could evoke the broken-door lintel of the Greco-Roman Egyptian temples (Figure

16

As cited in Swetnam-Burland, “Egypt,” 18-19. 17

Hoffmann, “Isis-Tempel,” 207-208. See also, Moorman, “Temple,” 149n29. 18

Lauren Petersen, The Freedman in Roman Art and Art History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

2006), 29.

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4). The architectural form of the Nilometer may have been meant to recall Egyptian sacred

structures.

Furthermore, it is possible that the wall decorations of the Pompeian Iseum evoke Philae.

The portico of the temple is decorated in Fourth Style wall paintings and has the general pattern

of red color fields that are separated by aediculae. A small sacryl-idyllic scene alternates with a

single figure of an Isiac priest or priestess in the middle panel of each section (Figure 7). The

figures recall those of Isiac procession, and one might imagine the initiates “following these

standing figures, as though in processional order, into the temple precinct.”19

Reliefs and painted

scenes of ritual and procession on Egyptian temple walls also serve a similar purpose, as can be

seen in relief carvings of priests shown on the pylon of the complex at Philae (Figure 8).

Furthermore, the Isiac priest in the south portico shares similar form to the priests on the pylon at

Philae. Like the Egyptian priests, the Pompeian priest has a similar stance— he walks with his

right foot extended before his left. The Pompeian priest wears similar long robes as the Egyptian

priests and the drapery conforms to his stance, forming a triangular shape, like in the reliefs at

Philae. It is possible that Pompeian builders and artists looked to Egyptian temple imagery for

the creation of these figures.

Because Romans traveled to Egypt and to the Temple of Isis at Philae at least by the 2nd

century BCE and continually throughout the Augustan period, and because the temple at Philae

was known in the Roman world as the goddess’ greatest Egyptian temple, it would be surprising

if the builders of the Pompeian Iseum did not seek inspiration at Philae. This paper has

compared the architectural form and wall decoration of the Temples of Isis at Philae and Pompeii

and concluded that possible inspiration for the atypical elements of the otherwise typical Roman

structure at Pompeii was Isis’s most famous Egyptian temple. First, elements in the temple

19

Brenck, “Isis,” 223.

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precinct, such as wide intercolumniation and use of square pillars with engaged columns in the

portico suggest that the Pompeians were controlling space in a similar way as the Egyptians with

the pylon form. Second, it is possible that the Nilometer in the Pompeian temple precinct was

meant to emulate the architectural symbiosis of the Egyptian main temple and birth house.

Third, the decoration of the portico could be referencing Egyptian temple reliefs and paintings

which also depicted priests in cultic rituals and procession. It can be concluded that although “the

sanctuary [at Pompeii] projects an image of being first and foremost a Roman temple, [and]

images of Isis and her entourage seem almost secondary because they are literally absorbed

within the familiar vernacular of Roman architecture and decoration,”20

it is possible that

Egyptian temple forms were also at the base of the Temple of Isis at Pompeii. As such, Roman

temples to Isis can be considered a form of aegyptiaca and should be inserted into modern

scholarly dialogue. This conclusion invites further investigations into the complexity of Roman

adoption of Egyptian influences in Italy suggesting that future comparisons of Italian and

Egyptian monuments will allow for a more nuanced understanding of Romans’ fascination with

Egypt.

20

Petersen, Freedman, 37.

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Selected Bibliography

Arnold, Dieter. The Temples of the Last Pharaohs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Ashton, Sally-Ann. Roman Egyptomania. London: Golden House Publications, 2004.

Beness, J. Lea and Tom Hillard. “The First Romans at Philae (“CIL I2.2.2937a).” Zeitschrift für

Papyrologie und Epigraphik 144 (2003): 203.

Bjerre, Ragnhild. “Temples of the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods: Ancient Traditions in New

Contexts.” In Temples of Ancient Egypt, Edited by Byron Shafer, 185-237. Ithaca, NY:

Cornell University Press, 1997.

Brenck, Frederick. “’Great Royal Spouse Who Protects Her Brother Osiris’: Isis in the Isaeum at

Pompeii.’ In Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia, Edited by G. Casadio and P.A. Johnston,

217-234. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2009.

De Caro, S., ed. Alla ricerca di Iside: analisi, studi e restauri dell’Iseo pompeiano nel Museo di Napoli. Rome: ARTI, 1992.

Foertmeyer, V. “Tourism in Graeco-Roman Egypt.” Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1989.

Haeny, G. “A Short Architectural History of Philae.” BIFAO 85 (1985): 197-233.

Moorman, Eric. “The Temple of Isis at Pompeii.” In Nile Into Tiber: Egypt in the Roman World,

Edited by Laurent Bricault, M.J. Versluys, and Paul G. Meyboom, 137-154. Leiden:

Brill, 2007.

Rutherford, Ian. “Island on the Extremity: Space, Language and Power in the Pilgrimage

Traditions of Philae.” In Pilgrimage and Holy Space in Late Antique Egypt, Edited by D.

Frankfurter, 229-256. Leiden: Brill, 1998.

Swetnam-Burland, Maria R. “Egypt in the Roman Imagination: A Study of Aegyptiaca from

Pompeii.” Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 2002.

__________. “Egyptian Objects, Roman Contexts.” In Nile Into Tiber: Egypt in the Roman World, Edited by Laurent Bricault, M.J. Versluys, and Paul G. Meyboom, 113-136.

Leiden: Brill, 2007.

Tran tam Tinh, V. Essai sur le culte d’Isis a Pompei. Paris: E. de Boccard, 1964.

Vassilika, Eleni. Ptolemaic Philae. Leuven: Peeters, 1989.

Versluys, M.J. Aegyptiaca Romana: Nilotic Scenes and the Roman Views of Egypt. Leiden: Brill,

2002.

Ziegler, C. “From One Egyptomania to Another, the Legacy of Roman Antiquity.” In

Egyptomania: Egypt in Western Art, 1730-1930, Edited by J.-M. Humbert, M. Pantazzi,

and C. Ziegler, 15-20. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 1994.

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Figures

Figure 1. Temple of Isis, Pompeii; ca. Figure 2. Temple of Isis, Philae. Plan.

Augustan Period. Plan. Lauren Hackworth Richard Wilkinson, The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt (London: Thames and Hudson, 2000), 213.

Petersen, The Freedman in Roman Art and

Art History (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2006), figure 12.

Figure 3. Typical Egyptian temple plan of Figure 4. Hathor Temple, Philae;

the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods. Judith Ptolemaic. Broken-door Lintel. MacKenzie, The Architecture of Alexandria Eleni Vassilika, Ptolemaic Philae, and Egypt c. 300 BC to AD 700 (New (Leuven: Peeters, 1989), Plate XXV.B.

Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007),

figure 200.

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Figure 5. Temple of Isis, Pompeii; ca. Figure 6. Nilometer, Temple of Isis,

Augustan Period. Reconstruction Drawing. Pompeii; ca. Augustan period. Giovanni P.

Augustan Digital Image Database, Carratelli, Pompei: Pitture e Mosaici: The University of Iowa. Volume VIII. (Rome: Instituto della

enciclpedia italiana, 1990-2003), 798.

Figure 7. Isiac Priest, Portico, wall Figure 8. Temple of Isis, Philae; Ptolemaic.

painting from the Temple of Isis, Pylon Relief. Vassilika, Ptolemaic Philae, Pompeii; ca. 62 AD. National Museum, Plate XIII.D.

Naples. Carratelli, Pompei, 775.