The Rosetta Stone of Ptolemy V

Egypt's wisdom literature reveals more than a cultural preoccupation with social hierarchy. The instructions of Anksha Shonky bears the marks of the period that produced it, the bloody and chaotic sunset of ancient Egypt's history. By 100 BCE, Egypt was not the solitary autocracy that had built the great pyramids in the 2600s. A series of foreign peoples had conquered the country - Hixos from the north, Libyans from the west, then Kushites from the south, and then Persians from the east. In 304 BCE, Egypt became subject to the Macedonians under Alexander the Great.