This is my favorite Egyptian history book. Lewis in one small volume brings Egypt during the period of Roman rule to life in the pages in front of you. The book draws from thousands of papyrus documents collected in Egypt over the years. As you might expect, these mostly deal with the minutia of daily life, contracts and prayers, polemics and taxes, and Lewis's book uses theses to tell his story. The book is highly readable, enjoyable, and I recomend it to any one with an interest in any period in Egypt (after all, how much did the Nile change between 1000 BC and 300 AD).

Although I was required to purchase and use this book for my Roman History course, I found it to be absolutely amazing in quality and detailed and compelling in content.

No enthusiast of Classical civilization, amature or professional, should be without this book.