Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra

Few other civilizations rival Ancient Egypt in its power to capture the modern imagination, and Cleopatra VII, monarch at the end of the Ptolemaic period, has always been preeminent among its cast of characters. Coming to power just before the unstable state was about to be absorbed into an autocratic empire, Cleopatra oversaw not only Egypt's progress as an influential regional power but also the fragile peace of its ethnically mixed population.

Michel Chauveau looks at many facets of life under this queen and her dynasty, drawing on such sources as firsthand accounts, numismatics, and Greek, Demotic, and hieroglyphic inscriptions. His use of such sources helps to free the narrative of dependence on later (and usually hostile) Greek and Roman historians. By taking up such subjects as funeral customs, language and writing, social class structure, religion, and administration, he affords the reader an unprecedented and comprehensive picture of Greek and Egyptian life in both the cities and the countryside.

Originally published in French in 1997, Egypt in the

Translator's Note

ix

Genealogical Table of the Ptolemaic Dynasty

x

Map of Egypt

xii

Introduction

1

(5)

Historical Perspective

6

(23)

The Heritage of Alexander the Great

6

(5)

Crisis in the Kingdom under Philopator and Epiphanes

11

(2)

Ptolemy VI Philometor and the Recovery of Egypt

13

(2)

The Fat King and His Wives

15

(1)

Physkon's Children

16

(2)

Ptolemy the Flutist

18

(2)

The Flight and Return of Auletes

20

(2)

Auletes's Children

22

(2)

Cleopatra, Ally of Rome

24

(2)

Cleopatra and Antony

26

(3)

Greek Pharaohs and their Subjects

29

(23)

Kings, Queens, and Royal Children

29

(4)

A King for the Greeks

33

(1)

The Defied King

34

(3)

A Pharaoh for the Egyptians

37

(2)

A Pharaoh for the Gods

39

(1)

Protection of the Temples

40

(1)

Royal ``Philanthropy''

41

(2)

Visits to the Provinces

43

(1)

A Regal Life

44

(1)

The Program of the Royal Titularies

45

(1)

The Allegiance of the Clergy

46

(3)

The Ideology of Resistance

49

(3)

Cities and Countryside

52

(20)

A Unique Land

52

(3)

A Multitudinous Population

55

(1)

The Lagide Capital

56

(2)

The Center of the Hellenistic World

58

(5)

The Delta

63

(2)

Memphis and the Faiyum

65

(2)

Map of the Faiyum area

67

(1)

Upper Egypt

67

(2)

Architecture and Urbanism

69

(3)

Economy and Society

72

(28)

The Weight of Bureaucracy

72

(1)

The Strategos

73

(3)

The Official Scribes

76

(2)

The Burden of Taxation

78

(2)

Resistance and Contraband

80

(2)

A Cash Economy

82

(2)

The Ravages of Inflation

84

(3)

The Misery of the Peasants

87

(3)

Autopsy of a Village: Kerkeosiris

90

(3)

Artisans and Shopkeepers

93

(2)

Greeks and Egyptians before the Law

95

(3)

Slavery

98

(2)

Priests and Temples

100

(35)

The Most Religious of Peoples

100

(2)

New Sanctuaries

102

(4)

Sacred Animals

106

(2)

The Prestige of the Priests

108

(1)

Piety outside the Temples

109

(4)

Greek Priests

113

(2)

Temple Economy

115

(2)

Oracles and Oaths

117

(1)

Strange Slaves

117

(1)

The Deities of Memphis

118

(5)

The Life and Dreams of Ptolemaios the Recluse

123

(4)

Coveted Virgins

127

(2)

The Woes of an Egyptian Mendicant Friar

129

(2)

To Be Greek in an Egyptian Temple

131

(2)

An Informer in the Temple

133

(2)

Living on the Death of Others

135

(16)

The Land of the Dead

135

(1)

The Greeks and the Egyptian Afterlife

136

(1)

Specialists in the Service of the Dead

137

(2)

The Choachytai at Work

139

(2)

A Professional Association

141

(2)

''Saints'' Sometimes Disturbed

143

(1)

Division of Labor in the Other Corporations

143

(2)

A Disputed House

145

(2)

Cadavers in the City

147

(2)

An Embalmer Complains to the King

149

(2)

Soldiers and Peasants

151

(19)

A Military State

151

(1)

Soldiers in the Countryside

152

(2)

The Hazards of Cohabitation

154

(1)

Independent Income from Real Estate

155

(1)

A Soldier-Speculator: Dionysios, Son of Kephalas

156

(2)

A Curious ``Persian''

158

(2)

A Military Colony in the South of Egypt: Pathyris

160

(1)

A Cretan in Egypt: The Cavalryman Dryton

160

(4)

The Solidarity of an Egyptian Family

164

(2)

The Sudden Disappearance of a Garrison

166

(1)

The End of the Lagide Army

167

(3)

Two Languages, Two Cultures, Three Writing Systems

170

(21)

A Multicultural Society

170

(1)

The New Arthens

171

(2)

Decline and Rebirth of Alexandrianism

173

(3)

Medicine in the Reign of Cleopatra

176

(1)

Greek Culture in the Countryside

177

(1)

Poems in the Midst of Accounts

178

(2)

Hellenizing Distractions at the Serapeum

180

(2)

Appollonios and the Last Pharaoh

182

(1)

The Native Temples as Guardians of Religious Culture

183

(2)

Demotic: Living Language and New Literature

185

(1)

Egyptian Stories and Romances

186

(1)

Wisdom and Satire

187

(2)

Hellenism at Edfu

189

(2)

Conclusion

191

(6)

Abbreviations

197

(2)

Notes

199

(15)

Glossary

214

(3)

Index

217

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Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra

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Table of Contents

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