This is the story of the adventues and misadventures of the Jewish people in the land of Egypt - shrouded in the mists of biblical history under the Pharaohs; the strange intermezzo of the Jewish mercenary detachment on the island of Elephantine on the upper Nile; the apogee of Jewish culture under the Ptolemies; and, finally, the Jewish community's rapid decline and catastrophic disappearance under Roman rule.
