In the Ptolemaic period in Egypt, the Greek rulers used terms like “Jew” and “Macedonian” to label the definitive geographical and ethnic origin of a person’s ancestors and to mark certain people as superior in status to native Egyptians, who were identified by their villages (Joseph Mélèze Modrzejewski, The Jews of Egypt from Ramses II to Emperor Hadrian [Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1995], pp. 80–81). However, this usage of Ioudaios is not pertinent here because the Romans abolished such distinctions (pp. 161–165). Jews, Nabateans and other inhabitants of the Dead Sea area were afterward identified by villages.