The Rosetta Stone is not known for its content, but as a lexicon of Egyptian hieroglyphics. The decree inscribed on the stone, however, discusses a violent revolt – largely lost to history – that shaped the trajectory of western civilisation.
Had the young pharaoh Ptolemy V been overthrown, events like the Hasmonean revolt (which established a Jewish kingdom), the affairs of Cleopatra with Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony, and even the rise of Christianity may have looked very different.
