Religious Violence in Late Antique Egypt Reconsidered: The Cases of Alexandria, Panopolis and Philae

Abstract

The period of Late Antiquity has long been perceived, and is still often perceived, through the lens of (Christian) literary works, which tell dramatic stories of violence against temples, statues and even ‘pagans’, and may give the impression that this was a period of widespread religious violence. Egypt, where such stories abound, has often been seen as a particularly good illustration of the pervasive nature of religious violence in the Late Antique world. This article takes a different view. By adopting a theoretical framework on religious violence from Religious Studies and including all the other sources available from Egypt—papyri, inscriptions and archaeological remains—it argues that events were often dramatized for ideological reasons and that, when seen against a general background of religious transformation, religious violence occurred only occasionally in specific local or regional circumstances. This point will be demonstrated by discussing three iconic events that have often been adduced as symptomatic of widespread violence in Late Antique Egypt: the destruction of the Serapeum at Alexandria in 391/392, the anti-‘pagan’ crusade of Abbot Shenoute in the region of Panopolis around 400, and the closure of the Isis temple at Philae in 535–537.