In the mid-first century b.c., Alexandria was a coastal furnace of cultural assimilation. Wealthy apostates weave crowns of early spring rosebuds. They drag the righteous poor into the stone public square. The Nile delta heat presses down on the crowded avenues. Sweat and fear run down the faces of the faithful. They suffer profound physical exhaustion under the weight of foreign rule and native betrayal. A quiet promise of future vindication eventually settles over their battered bodies.
A powerful faction of men in the Hellenistic capital abandon their ancestral laws. They adopt a crude materialist worldview from Gentile elites. They believe the Creator has abandoned his creation. They assert that a human breath is merely smoke from a dying fire. They conclude that physical might dictates all justice. They specifically target the righteous man. He constantly opposes their greed. He publicly shames their legal infractions. They design a lethal trap using local magistrates. One day of a laborer's wages barely buys a loaf of bread in this harsh economy. These men instead squander pounds of silver on seasonal flowers and imported wines. They use their political capital to torture the defenseless.
The woven crowns of rosebuds function as a fragile mask for sheer violence. The oppressors attempt to hide their cruelty behind the language of fleeting joy. Their philosophical arguments rapidly devolve into the raw application of iron chains. Men routinely dress their greed up as high philosophy before they start breaking bones.
Men who claim life holds no divine meaning are always the first to make it miserable for others.
The stone holding cells and withered petals of Alexandria eventually dissolved into the coastal marsh. The brutal mechanics of human oppression simply waited for the next empire to pick them up.