[Sca-cooks] OT: Rome and medieval Egypt

[Terry Decker]

In 332 BCE, Egypt fell to Alexander.  With Alexander's death in 323 BCE, 
Egypt passed to his general, Ptolemy, who founded the Ptolemaic dynasty 
which lasted for roughly 300 years until the death of Cleopatra in 30 BCE. 
>From 30 BCE until 642 CE (Arab conquest), Egypt was a Roman province, 
becoming part of the Byzantine Empire about 395 CE.  Under the Ptolemies, 
the culture of the court was primarily Greek giving way to Roman culture. 
Culinarily, The Deipnosophists (Atheneus) and the various Roman cookery 
texts would likely cover the noble European Egyptians.  The general 
Egyptians likely made do with a diet of onions, beans and bread.  We know 
less about the Byzantine period.  During the Medieval period, the food was 
probably similar to that found in al-Baghdadi, although that is open to 
argument.

A key point to remember is that during the Greek and Roman period, Egypt's 
primary export crops were wheat, millet, and sorghum.

Bear

> I assume we don't know any more about Egyptian food of the Roman and 
> Medieval era than we do of Byzantium. Which doesn't seem to be much, 
> certainly no menus, right?
>
> Stefan