Rosetta Stone decree

The Rosetta Stone decree, or the Decree of Memphis, is a Ptolemaic decree issued at Memphis by a council of priests confirming the royal cult of Ptolemy V in 196 BC. It is one of a series that affirm the royal cult of the king. It was recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphs, Egyptian Demotic and Ancient Greek, on the Rosetta Stone and the Nubayrah Stele, among others. The bilingual and triscriptual nature of the inscription was key to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Text.
The text as recorded on the Rosetta Stone is considered the most complete of any of the surviving stelae, as it preserves the inscription in three scripts and two languages. The first script is Egyptian hieroglyphs, the second is Demotic, and the third is Greek capitals. Only parts of the last fourteen lines of hieroglyphs remain; these correspond to the last twenty-eight lines of Greek text which is also damaged. The Demotic section is thirty-two lines of which the starts of fourteen are damaged (reading right to left). Fifty-four lines of Greek are present, twenty-six of which are damaged at the ends. The majority of the damaged and missing sections of the hieroglyphic portion of the inscription can be restored using a copy of the decree from Damanhur (Hermopolis Magna) which was discovered in 1896. It post-dates the Rosetta Stone by fourteen years and as such has slightly different content, omitting details that are no longer relevant.
Demotic was possibly the draft language of the decree, based on the rendering of the section describing the shrine housing the statue of the king. The wording makes the most sense in Demotic, with the Greek version not making much sense, and the hieroglyphic version lacking a determinative, rendering the meaning unspecific. However, the text is a composite, with sections drawing more on Greek or pharaonic traditions more than others.
The inscription opens with the date of the decree:
[Year 9, Xandikos, day] 4 which corresponds to the second month of the Egyptians, Winter, day 18 (under) Pharaoh...
This date corresponds to 27 March 196 B.C.
The date does not record the day the decree was issued, but the date on which priests assembled as part of national festivals. On the Rosetta Stone, this is the coronation of the king, while on other stelae the occasion is the installation of a sacred animal.
The text records that Ptolemy reduced or abolished taxes for the army and general population:
 Of the dues and taxes existing in Egypt some he has cut and others he has abolished completely in order to cause the army and all other people to be happy in his time as [Pharaoh. The due]s of Pharaoh which fell upon the people who are in Egypt and all those under his suzerainty as Pharaoh, amounting to a great number, he has abolished them.
He also relaxed the taxes paid by temples:
He has ordered regarding the divine revenues of the gods and the silver and grain which are given as syntaxis to their [temples] each year and the portions which accrue to the gods from vineyards and gardens and all other property over which they had rights under his father, that they remain in their possession; further, he has ordered regarding the priests not to pay their tax for serving as priest above the amount they paid up to year one of his father. He has relieved the people [who are in] the offices of the temples of the sailing they make to Alexandria every year... He has remitted the dues of Pharaoh which were charged to the temples up to Year 9, amounting to much silver and grain, likewise the value of royal linen that is charged to the temples among what they contribute to the House of Pharaoh and the remainder that they are fixed to pay up to the time in question. He has ordered further regarding the one artba of wheat per aroura which used to be levied on the fields of the temple estate, likewise the wine-measure-per-aroura from the vineyards of the temple estates of the gods: he has remitted them.
The generosity of the king is also extolled, having granted amnesty to prisoners, and outlawing pressganging. Much space is dedicated to detailing the silver and grain given to temples, especially those centered on the animal cults:
He has made numerous benefactions to the Apis and Mnevis and the other animals which are sacred in Egypt, more than those who were before did it, his heart being concerned with their affairs at all times, giving whatever was desired for their burials great and revered and bearing that which occurred for them (at) their temples when they celebrate festivals and make burnt offerings before them and the other things it is fitting to do. The honours befitting the temples and the other honours of Egypt he has established in their order according to law; he has given gold, silver and grain in plenty and other things for the temple of the Apis; he has had the new work completed in exceedingly beautiful work. He has had completed temple, shrine and altar anew for the gods; he has caused other things to be put in order, being at heart a god beneficent towards the gods; he has enquired after the honours of the temples that they be renewed in his time as Pharaoh in fitting fashion.
Earlier copies recount the king's victory in the siege of Lycopolis:
He has ordered also regarding those who would return of the warriors and the remainder of the men who had been on the other side in the rebellion which occurred in Egypt, to let them [return] to their homes and their property belong to them (again). He has taken every care to send infantry, cavalry and ships against those who came by land and sea to attack Egypt, making great expenditure in silver and grain for these matters, to cause the temples and the people to be at peace. He went to the stronghold of Shekan [which was] fortified by the enemy with every device, there being many weapons and every kind of equipment within; he laid siege to the stronghold in question with a wall around its exterior on account of the enemies who were within it who had inflicted great wrong upon Egypt, having abandoned the path of duty to Pharaoh and duty [to the] gods. He caused to be dammed up the canals which provided water for the stronghold in question, the like of which no former pharaohs had been able to do, expending much silver upon it. He appointed a force of infantry and cavalry at the mouth of canals in question to watch over and guard them because of the overflow of water which was great in year 8 at the canals in question, which provided water for an extensive area and were (therefore) extremely deep. Pharaoh seized the stronghold in question by force in a short time; he prevailed over the enemies who were within it and gave them over to slaughter as did Re and Horus son of Isis to those who were hostile to them in the said places formerly. The enemies who had assembled an army and were at its head to disturb the nomes and do harm to the temples, abandoning the path of Pharaoh and his father, the gods granted that he prevail over them at Memphis during the festival of the assumption of the supreme office which he inherited from his father: he had them slain at the stake.
While later versions from Upper Egypt refer to the conquering of Thebes after its rebellion:
...there was fought in the land of the South, in the Territory of Thebes, with the impious man, the enemy of the gods, (who) had been assembling from(?) the warriors(?) and troops of the Ethiopians who had united with him, slaying them, seizing as captive this (wicked man) [alive].
The cult of the king is then established, with temples throughout Egypt to:
...set up a statue of Pharaoh Ptolemy living forever, the God who appears, whose goodness is perfect, which is to be called Ptolemy protector of Egypt, meaning Ptolemy who defends Egypt, with a statue of the city god giving him the sword of victory, in the temple, in each and every temple, in the (most) conspicuous place in the temple, made in the style of the Egyptians' work. The priests are to attend the statues in the temple, in each and every temple, three times daily and they are to set the sacred equipment before them and they are to perform for them the rest of the things which it is customary that they do for the other gods during festivals and processions on the days in question. They are to cause to appear the divine image of Pharaoh Ptolemy, the God who appears, whose goodness is perfect, (son of) Ptolemy and Queen Arsinoe, the Gods who love their father, with the god shrine in the temple, in each and every temple, and they are to set it in the sanctuary with the other gold shrines.
The specific appearance of the shrine in which the statue of the king is to be kept is described in detail:
In order for the shrine to be recognised today and the rest of time hereafter, they are to set ten gold royal crowns, with a uraeus on each one in the manner that is customary to do for gold crowns, on this shrine in place of the uraei which occur on top of the rest of the shrines and the Double Crown is to be in the middle of the (other) crowns because Pharaoh made his appearance in it in the temple at Memphis when there were performed for him the customary ceremonies which are performed at the assumption of the supreme office; they are to set above the square(?) which is outside the crowns, before the gold crown mentioned above, a papyrus and a sedge-plant; and they are to set a uraeus on a basket, with a sedge-plant under it, at the right on the corner at the top of the gold shrine; and they are to set a uraeus with a basket under it, on a papyrus, at the left, signifying Pharaoh who illumines Upper and Lower Egypt.
The feast days and rites of the cult of the king are then detailed:
Since it happens that it is the last day of the fourth month of Summer upon which they celebrate the birthday of Pharaoh, having been established as a festival and procession in the temples already, likewise the seventeenth day of the second month of Winter on which were performed for him the ceremonies of the assumption of the supreme office - the beginning of all benefits that have happened for all men - the birth of Pharaoh living forever and the assumption of the supreme office by him, these days, the seventeenth and the thirtieth, are to be celebrated as festival every month in all the temples of Egypt; and they are to make burnt offerings and libations and the other things which it is customary to do at the other festivals in these two festivals every month; and whatever offerings are made, they are to assign the offerings to people who serve in the temple; and they are to celebrate festival and procession in the temples and all of Egypt for Pharaoh Ptolemy living forever, the God who appears, whose goodness is perfect, each year on the first day of the first month of Inundation for five days, wearing garlands and making burnt offerings and libations and the other things it is fitting to do.
It is also stipulated that the statue of the king should take part in the major festivals of other deities, and that his statue should process with them.
The priests of all temples throughout Egypt are bestowed with a new title - "priests of the God who appears, whose goodness is perfect" - in addition to their existing titles.
The worship of the king is also extended to the general population:
Furthermore, it will be possible for ordinary people who so wish to cause to appear the likeness of the gold shrine of the God who appears, whose goodness is perfect, as described above, and to have it in their homes and to celebrate the festivals and processions described above each year, (thus) shall it be known that those who are in Egypt honour the God who appears, whose goodness is perfect as is right to do.
The text ends with instruction that temples throughout Egypt are instructed to erect a stela bearing a copy of the decree recorded in three scripts and two languages.
Copies.
The Rosetta Stone is only one of several surviving copies of the decree. The inscription instructs the clergy in temples throughout Egypt to:
write a decree on a stela of hard stone in the script of the words of god, the script of documents and the script of the Ionians and set it up in the first-rank temples, the second-rank temples and the third-rank temples, in the vicinity of the divine image of Pharaoh living forever. 
The Rosetta Stone preserves the earliest copy of the decree, from year 9 of Ptolemy V’s reign; the latest copies are from years 21 and 23. The content of the text is broadly the same across the various copies, with later versions omitting or adding details as relevant; these include adding Ptolemy’s wife, Cleopatra I to the royal cult after their marriage, and recording military expeditions. The specific details also vary according to the location of the stele; copies from Upper Egypt record the reconquering of Thebes in year 19 instead of the siege of Lycopolis.
External links.
The Rosetta Stone online line-by-line translation