Alexander the Alabarch - People He Knew in Rome

Alexander's Egypt: The People
The novels Toga in the Wind and Toga in Time are about a young Alexander the Alabarch who was the epitropos for Antonia Minor the niece of Augustus and daughter of Marcus Antony. The Greek word epitropos would possibly translate into Latin as procurator which meant that Alexander had administrative oversight of Antonia Minor's extensive properties in Egypt in the early first century, especially around Lake Moeris in the Arsinoite Nome. Alexander was also the "alabarch" which was defined in Emperor Justinian's Edict XI as the Roman administrator in charge of obrussa (Latin) or assaying Egypt's imperial gold by testing it through fire. By the Roman period, gold nuggets were long mined out and all new gold came from obtaining gold powder through crushing quartz veins. Gold powder has to be melted and purified of inclusions to be assayed.
	Alexander the Alabarch Alexander the Alabarch was a real person, but this is a fictional portrait. (Image by the author)
	Amarantus Amarantus, freedman of Alexander the Alabarch, was a real person, but this is a fictional portrait. (Image by the author)
	Gisco Gisco, companion to Alexander the Alabarch, and an expert fighter. His father was Numidean and mother was Nubian; a fictional character. (Image by the author)
	Sabinus Sabinus, a Roman of the Arsinoite Nome, a fictional character. (Image by the author)
	Leah Leah, a teenaged Jewess from Judea, fictional character. (Image by the author)
	Titus Serenius Titus Serenius, Roman eques and epistrategos, of the Arsinoite Nome, a fictional character. (Image by the author)
	Indike Inkike, pronounced In-dee-kay, a young Egyptian woman from Crocodilopolis in the Arsinoite Nome, fictional character. (Image by the author)
	Antonia Minor Antonia Minor was the niece of Augustus, daughter of Marcus Antonius, and an important land owner in Egypt. (Image by the author)