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With the linguistic history of Egypt writ large on objects and monuments, individuals of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods (ca. 4th cent. BCE to 4th cent. CE) were constantly confronted by visual records of the past. Temples in particular were spaces where rulers and elite had been displaying their religious piety while also affirming political allegiances or exhibiting their social status for millennia. The Egyptian temples of the pharaonic period provided templates for the massive construction projects that were underwritten by foreign rulers during the first millennium BCE. However, the unique innovations in architecture and decoration of those same buildings are a testament to the changing dynamics of post-pharaonic Egypt. This talk will focus on the function of inscriptions and reliefs placed within Egyptian temples.