Greeks in Ptolemaic Egypt (Volume 2) (Classics in Papyrology) - Softcover

Lewis, Naphtali

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0970059124 ISBN 13: 9780970059123

Publisher: American Society of Papyrologists, 2001

Synopsis

The conquests of Alexander the Great were followed by a flood of Greek migration into the lands previously ruled by Persia. In Egypt, thanks to the survival of collections of related documents written on papyrus, it is possible to study the fortunes of some of these immigrants and their families, and of some of their Egyptian neighbors, with an immediacy provided by no other ancient source. In this book we see the engineer Kleon battling with problems of irrigation and silting, while the district officer Diophanes deals with disputes arising from the mutual hostility between two populations. Some Egyptians, such as Menkhes the village clerk and Panebkhounis the soldier, gain through their services some of the privileges enjoyed by the Greeks; the Greek cavalry officer Dryton, on the other hand, marries an Egyptian, and in the next generation his family begins to lose its Greek identity. These and other case studies compose a vivid picture of life in a country in which the native Egyptian population is dominated by a privileged and exclusive Greek minority.

About this title

About the Author:

Naphtali Lewis is Distinguished Professor (Emeritus) of Classical Studies in the City University of New York, and has been Visiting Professor at Yale University and the University of California (Santa Barbara). He is a fellow of the American Academy in Rome, a corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and a past President of the International Association of Papyrologists. He is the author of 18 books and more than 150 articles published in scholarly journals internationally.

Review:

Greeks in Ptolemaic Egypt is a book which intends to bring (and succeeds) the hellenic population of the Nile Valley to life for us via eminently enjoyable style and masterful integration of original texts in translation into the body of the work. (KMT: A Modern Journal of Egyptology, Vol. 13, #3, Fall 2002)

Essential background reading for the Ptolemaic component of the Documentary Papyrology class at the University of Oxford (Dr Nikolaos Gonis University of Oxford)

About this edition

• Publisher: American Society of Papyrologists
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0970059124
• ISBN 13: 9780970059123
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 182