The province was instituted in tetrarchic times under the name of Aegyptus Herculia (for Diocletian's colleague Maximian), with ancient Memphis as capital (315-325), but later re-merged in Aegyptus. In 341 the province was reconstituted, but the name was changed into Augustamnica to remove pagan connotations. It consisted of the Eastern part of the Nile delta and the ancient Heptanomia, and belonged to the Diocese of Oriens.[3][4]
Map of the late Roman Diocese of Egypt, with Augustamnica in the East.
Augustamnica was the only Egyptian province under a corrector, a lower ranking governor.
Around 381 the provinces of Egypt become a diocese in their own, and so Augustamnica become part of the Diocese of Egypt. Between 386 and the end of the 4th century the new province of Arcadia Aegypti, named after Emperor Arcadius, was created with territory from Augustamnica, the Heptanomia;[4] Augustamnica's capital was moved to Pelusium.
From the military point of view, the province was under the Comes limitis Aegypti. According to the Notitia dignitatum, the province hosted several military units:[5]
Before 539, Augustamnica was divided into two provinces: Augustamnica Prima (First - North) and Augustamnica Secunda (Second - South).[4]
Augustamnica Prima had Pelusium as metropolis (administrative centre) and was under a corrector, who governed the following cities: Pelusium, Setroithes (or Sethroitis), Tanis, Thmuis, Rhinocorura, Ostracine (or Ostracina), Pentaschoinon, Casium, Aphnaion, Hephaestus, Panephysis, the Tents outside Gerra, the Tents inside Gerra, Thennesus, Panephusis.[6]
Leontopolis was the capital of Augustamnica Secunda.
^Alan K. Bowman, Egypt after the pharaohs: 332 BC-AD 642. From Alexander to the Arab Conquest, University of California Press, 1996, ISBN0-520-20531-6, p. 79.
Keenan, James K. (2000). "Egypt". In Cameron, Averil; Ward-Perkins, Bryan; Whitby, Michael (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume XIV - Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A.D. 425–600. Cambridge University Press. pp. 612–637. ISBN978-0-521-32591-2.
As found in the Notitia Dignitatum. Provincial administration reformed and dioceses established by Diocletian, c. 293. Permanent praetorian prefectures established after the death of Constantine I. Empire permanently partitioned after 395. Exarchates of Ravenna and Africa established after 584. After massive territorial losses in the 7th century, the remaining provinces were superseded by the theme system in c. 640–660, although in Asia Minor and parts of Greece they survived under the themes until the early 9th century.
