Bingen, Hellenistic Egypt-bmcr Brynmawr Edu 2007 2007-10-01 HTML

pdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.10.01

Jean Bingen, Hellenistic Egypt: Monarchy, Society, Economy, Culture.Edited with an Introduction by Roger S. Bagnall. Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 2007. Pp. (xx+) 305. ISBN 10: 0-520-25142-3. ISBN 13:978-0-520-25142-7. $24.95 (pb).

Reviewed by John Bauschatz, The University of Arizona ([email protected])Word count: 3120 words

[Articles included in the volume are listed at the end of the review.]

In Hellenistic Egypt: Monarchy, Society, Economy, Culture, a collection of previously publishedshort essays by Jean Bingen (hereafter B), translated and edited by Roger Bagnall, a broad crosssection of the work of one of the foremost twentieth-century papyrologists and historians ofHellenistic Egypt is for the first time made accessible to an English-speaking audience.1 The bookhighlights B's role as a catalyst for change and revision in the study of Hellenistic Egypt throughout along and distinguished career, and takes as its focus a number of case studies on subjects asdiverse as Thracian immigrants to Egypt and Roman traditions about Cleopatra, loosely groupedinto four thematic sections. Though much of the material presented here is now a few decades old,the synthesis is welcome and illuminating and provides the reader with a clear picture of HellenisticEgypt as a unique bicultural society. In this book, ancient historians, classicists, papyrologists,


Egyptologists and students of the Hellenistic world will find ample food for thought as well asimpetus for careful reconsideration of their own views on Ptolemaic Egypt.

Both B, in his foreword (pp. xix-xx), and Bagnall, in his introduction ("Jean Bingen and the Currentsof Ptolemaic History," pp. 1-12), stress a need for reevaluation and reassessment as a driving forcebehind the creation of this volume. B underlines the importance for the historian of constantlyreturning to the sources for Hellenistic Egypt and reconsidering the work of earlier scholars,especially as scholarship tends to be colored by the times in which it is produced. Bagnall expandson this theme, providing the reader with an introduction to the history of European scholarship onPtolemaic Egypt, which, through the Word War II era, was strongly influenced by the politicallandscape. Bagnall sees B and a number of other scholars as trailblazers in the postwar scholarlyworld, men and women who dedicated their careers to careful reassessment of primary sourcesand the inherited interpretations of these sources. Towards the end of the introduction, he notes afew of the themes that have characterized B's work over the years and resurface again and again inthe present volume: the essentially improvised character of the Ptolemaic economy; the nature ofpower in a Hellenistic state; the dependence of the Ptolemies on Macedonian immigrants to fillimportant administrative positions; and the weaknesses of the Ptolemaic state, chief among these aperpetual shortage of manpower.

As noted, the book is organized into four thematically grouped sections. It begins with severalstudies on the monarchy (chapters 1-5; pp. 13-79). There follow sections on the Greek population inEgypt (chapters 6-12; pp. 81-154), the Ptolemaic economy (chapters 13-15; pp. 155-212) andinteractions between Greeks and Egyptians (chapters 16-19; pp. 213-278) before the conclusion(pp. 279-289). Each chapter derives from a paper, article or book chapter written by B between1970 and 1999. Bagnall provides a list of the original publications (pp. vii-viii; see the Appendix tothis review for a version of this list), as well as a list of illustrations (pp. ix-x), a glossary (pp. xi-xv;very helpful) and three maps: "The Eastern Mediterranean in the Hellenistic Period" (p. xvi),"Hellenistic Egypt" (p. xvii) and "The Fayyum (Arsinoite nome)" (p. xviii). Following the conclusionBagnall appends a bibliography (pp. 290-298), a general index (pp. 299-302) and an index ofpassages discussed (p. 303).


Part I, "The Monarchy" (pp. 13-79, chapters 1-5), highlights select Ptolemaic kings and queens. Inchapter 1, "Ptolemy I and the Quest for Legitimacy" (pp. 15-30), B develops two of the mainstrategies of Ptolemy I for the establishment of his new kingdom: the adaptation of the model of theruler presented by Alexander and the creation of Alexandria as a major new Greek cultural center.Chapter 2, "Ptolemy III and Philae: Snapshot of a Reign, a Temple and a Cult" (pp. 31-43), has aquite different focus: OGIS 61 (= I.Philae I 4), an inscription on the naos of Ptolemy II Philadelphusat Philae dating to 245/244 B.C.2 B reedits the text and demonstrates that the inscription reveals anattempt to highlight ties within the royal family at the beginning of the reign of Ptolemy III. Part Iconcludes with three chapters on Cleopatra VII (i.e., the famous one). In chapter 3, "Cleopatra, theDiadem and the Image" (pp. 44-56), B provides a historical sketch of the end of the Ptolemaicdynasty. His purpose is to caution his readers about the inherited traditions about Cleopatra, fromthe Roman period all the way through Black Athena and the recent spate of Cleopatrabiographies.3 As B sees it, the reign of Cleopatra likely did not represent a breach with thetraditional royal behavior of the Ptolemies. She filled all the functions of king, both political andreligious, and promoted her son Caesarion on temples and in titulature as the young king and hersuccessor. In chapters 4 ("Cleopatra VII Philopatris" [pp. 57-62]) and 5 ("The Dynastic Politics ofCleopatra VII" [pp. 63-79]), B analyzes the documentary data for Cleopatra's reign, primarily theroyal titulature and the associated formulae used for dating documents, to see what they tell usabout her dynastic policy. A major concern here is working out the chronology of the reigns ofPtolemy XII, Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra herself. But B also dwells at length on the status andposition of Cleopatra's children with Caesar and Marc Antony, as well as her place as a Ptolemaicqueen in a rapidly changing eastern Mediterranean landscape.

In Part II ("The Greeks," chapters 6-12, pp. 81-154), B turns his attention to the Greek population ofPtolemaic Egypt. The first two chapters feature parallel case studies on immigrant groups from theGreek mainland, beginning with immigrants from Thrace (chapter 6, "The Thracians in PtolemaicEgypt," pp. 83-93). Here B suggests that the Thracians in Hellenistic Egypt, far from constituting thebottom rung of the Ptolemaic social ladder, were in fact among the better off of the cleruchs, thePtolemaic soldiers who were given plots of land (cleruchies) in return for their military service. In the


next chapter (7: "Ptolemaic Papyri and the Achaean Diaspora in Hellenistic Egypt," pp. 94-103), Bturns to the Achaeans, for whom the evidence is especially thin, but extensive enough for B toconclude that the Achaeans in Ptolemaic Egypt, like the Thracians and other groups designatedwith Greek ethnics, appear to have integrated themselves relatively easily into the cleruchic system.Chapter 8 ("Greek Presence and the Ptolemaic Rural Setting," pp. 104-113) has as its focus thephysical manipulation and reorganization of the Ptolemaic countryside. B observes that while manyGreeks owned cleruchies, few of them actually lived on them or farmed them, leaving these tasks tolocal Egyptians and thereby guaranteeing that rural Egypt remained predominantly Egyptianthroughout the Ptolemaic period. B searches for the location of Greek settlement in the followingchapter (9, "The Urban Milieu in the Egyptian Countryside during the Ptolemaic Period," pp. 114-121). From the third century B.C. on, Greeks seem to have settled in a more or less permanentmanner in the provincial capitals of Egypt, the nome metropoleis, which B calls "catalyst[s] ineconomic, cultural or political exchanges" (p. 117). Chapter 10 ("Kerkeosiris and its Greeks in theSecond Century," pp. 122-131) returns us to the Egyptian countryside. Here B draws on the richsecond century B.C. documentation from the village of Kerkeosiris and observes that even in thosecases where a Greek landowner is said to be the cultivator of his own allotment ( ), itis not always the case that he himself cultivated or even lived on the land. In chapter 11 ("TheCavalry Settlers of the Herakleopolite in the First Century," pp. 132-140), B compares the secondcentury B.C. documents from Kerkeosiris and some first century B.C. papyri from the Herakleopolitenome. In the latter, B finds evidence of a gradual change in the status of cavalry cleruchs: by the endof the first century B.C., this group seems to have established a certain degree of autonomy as wellas a kind of hereditary possession of its allotments. Lastly, in chapter 12 ("Two Royal Ordinances ofthe First Century and the Alexandrians," pp. 141-154), we catch a glimpse of the Greek populationof Alexandria. B analyzes C.Ord.Ptol. 75-76, a double decree issued in 41 B.C. by Cleopatra VIIand Ptolemy XV Caesar in response to the complaints of some Alexandrian citizen farmers whohad requested protection against illegal and excessive taxation. In the first decree, Cleopatraconfirmed the special rights of the Alexandrians to exemption from certain taxes and appended thesecond decree to stress that the edict be carried out: a clear indication that the petitioners wereimportant people.


The three essays collected in Part III ("The Royal Economy," pp. 155-212) all have as their focusaspects of the Ptolemaic financial system. The first of these (chapter 13, "The Revenue LawsPapyrus: Greek Tradition and Hellenistic Adaptation," 157-188), contains some of B's earliestreflections on the so-called Revenue Laws of Ptolemy II Philadelphus. B produces a revised set ofgeneralizations about this seminal text. Among the important conclusions are the following: that theLaws are, in fact, not any sort of code, but rather a compilation of official documents; that the text ofthe Laws as we have it derives from two separate papyrus rolls, not one; and that the regulationsand procedures mandated in the Laws, though fundamentally Greek, were nevertheless laid out overa thoroughly Egyptian framework. In chapter 14 ("The Structural Tensions of Ptolemaic Society," pp.189-205), B identifies some of the socioeconomic stressors that operated on Ptolemaic society. Heexamines three sets of documents scattered throughout the time and space of Ptolemaic rule: thefamous Zenon archive of the third century B.C.; P.Tebt. I 5, a late second century B.C. collection ofroyal ordinances; and a collection of first century B.C. Herakleopolite papyri. B sees a commonthread running through these documents: the perpetual frustration of profit seeking Greek migrantswho regularly lacked access to arable land. He concludes that the instabilities inherent in thePtolemaic economic system prevented any evolution in economic and agricultural thought that mighthave helped alleviate this problem of land access. In chapter 15 ("The Third-Century Land-Leasesfrom Tholthis," pp. 206-212), B considers the leasing and subletting of cleruchies, a subject alsotouched upon in chapters 8-10. In a group of leases and receipts for rent drawn up at Tholthis in theOxyrhynchite nome, we see lessees who did not work the land themselves, but rather served asmiddlemen who put land into the hands of Egyptians.

In the final section of the book (Part IV, "Greeks and Egyptians," pp. 213-278), B considers theinteractions between Greeks and Egyptians in the Ptolemaic state. In chapter 16 ("Greek Economyand Egyptian Society in the Third Century," pp. 215-228) he examines some of the consequencesof the introduction of Greek economic forms--especially a monetized Greek economy--on theindigenous population. B reveals a number of difficulties that arose as a consequence of thesynthesis, and ultimately concludes that the new constraints imposed on the Egyptians meant forthem a greater dependence on the Greeks, though the native population retained its prominence inagriculture. Chapter 17 ("Greeks and Egyptians According to PSI V 502," pp. 229-239) highlights


an early incidence of contact between Greeks and Egyptians under the Ptolemies. PSI V 502 (256B.C.), an official letter, shows evidence of a fundamental divide between the Greek managers of aroyal estate and its Egyptian labor force. The latter seem to have fled the land rather than come faceto face with a set of decidedly foreign ideas about crop estimates and taxation. In chapter 18("Graeco-Roman Egypt and the Question of Cultural Interactions," pp. 240-255), B posits thecoexistence in Ptolemaic Egypt of two fundamentally different complex cultures: a dominant Greekminority and a subject Egyptian majority. Neither the Greeks nor the Egyptians ever formed acompletely homogeneous community, but the two groups had fundamentally different structures anddynamics, as well as a lack of interest in each other and in abandoning their own culturalcharacteristics. In the final chapter (19, "Normality and Distinctiveness in the Epigraphy of Greekand Roman Egypt," pp. 256-278), B surveys some of the characteristics of Greco-Romaninscriptions in Egypt. He describes a number of types of documents unique to Greco-Roman Egypt,among these proskynmata and trilingual priestly decrees, but his main focus is a series of firstcentury B.C. decrees concerning asylum in temples. Contrary to the common interpretation, whichsees these documents as the proclamations of a weak king gradually compelled to concede moreand more power to the Egyptian clergy, B argues that the texts reveal a powerful monarchy whoseintervention eventually became necessary in order to uphold the traditional grant of asylum intemples.

On the whole, B's book is a success. There are some problems with the collection, but they are thesame sorts of problems that often pop up in books of this sort and do not seriously undermine thework as a whole. As the reader of this review may have noticed already, repetition of material issometimes an issue. This is especially true in chapters 3-5 and 8-10, where in each case a topic(Cleopatra VII and land tenure, respectively) receives treatment in three successive essays, thoughfrom only slightly different angles in each essay. The book might have benefited from someadditional pruning in both of these areas, though it is admittedly difficult to say which of the threeessays ought to have been edited or eliminated in each case. In addition, the fact that the essayscollected here were written over a period of some thirty years and prepared for a host of journals,international conferences and edited volumes with different focuses and/or readerships contributesto an overall lack of internal cohesion. Bagnall has done a nice job of threading the individual pieces


together, and the thematic organization of the book is on the whole quite appropriate, but in the end,the volume remains a clear patchwork. Lastly, some readers may be deceived by the title of thebook and the quote from J. G. Manning on the back cover, which seem to promise a general surveyof Hellenistic Egyptian society.4 Such readers will be disappointed to find that in reality, B's book isa series of often very narrowly focused case studies in each of the four subject areas mentioned inthe title and not at all a survey of Hellenistic Egyptian society.

Again, though, these are minor gripes. We should be grateful to B and Bagnall for Hellenistic Egypt:Monarchy, Society, Economy, Culture, a book that will doubtless prove encouraging andinspirational reading for future generations of scholars of Hellenistic Egypt. B shines forth from thesepages as a trailblazer and a revisionist, a man well deserving of the title "most distinguished livinghistorian of Hellenistic Egypt" bequeathed on the back cover. One hopes that this first collection ofsome of his most important works will not be the last.

Appendix: Original sources of chapters (from B, pp. vii-viii):

Chapter 1, "Ptolemy I and the Quest for Legitimacy" (pp. 15-30) = "Ptolme Ier Ster ou la qutede la lgitimit," BAB 5 ser. 74 (1988): 34-51.

Chapter 2, "Ptolemy III and Philae: Snapshot of a Reign, a Temple and a Cult" (pp. 31-43) ="I.Philae I 4, un moment d'un rgne, d'un temple et d'un culte," Akten des 21. InternationalenPapyrologenkongresses (Archiv fr Papyrusforschung, Beiheft 3, Leipzig, 1997): 88-97.

Chapter 3, "Cleopatra, the Diadem and the Image" (pp. 44-56) = "Cloptre: l'image et lediadme," BAB 6 ser. 7 (1996): 235-248.

Chapter 4, "Cleopatra VII Philopatris" (pp. 57-62) = "Cloptre VII Philopatris," CE 74 (1999): 118-123.

Chapter 5, "The Dynastic Politics of Cleopatra VII" (pp. 63-79) = "La politique dynastique de


Cloptre VII," CRAI (1999): 49-66.

Chapter 6, "The Thracians in Ptolemaic Egypt" (pp. 83-93) = "Les Thraces en gypte ptolmaque,"Pulpudeva, Semaines Philoppopolitaines de l'histoire et de la culture thrace 4 (Sofia, 1983): 72-79.

Chapter 7, "Ptolemaic Papyri and the Achaean Diaspora in Hellenistic Egypt," (pp. 94-103) = "Lespapyrus ptolmaques et la diaspora achaienne," Archaia Achaia kai Eleia: Anakoinoseis kata toProto Diethnes Sumposio (= Meletemata 13, Athens, 1991): 61-65.

Chapter 8, "Greek Presence and the Ptolemaic Rural Setting" (pp. 104-113) = "Prsence grecqueet milieu rural ptolmaque," in M. I. Finley, ed., Problmes de la terre en Grce ancienne (Parisand The Hague, 1973): 215-222.

Chapter 9, "The Urban Milieu in the Egyptian Countryside during the Ptolemaic Period" (pp. 114-121) = "Le milieu urbain dans la chra gyptienne l'poque ptolmaque," Proceedings of the XIVInternational Congress of Papyrologists (London, 1975): 367-373.

Chapter 10, "Kerkeosiris and its Greeks in the Second Century" (pp. 122-131) = "Kerkosiris etses Grecs au IIe sicle avant notre re," Actes du XVe Congrs International de Papyrologie IV(Brussels, 1979): 87-94.

Chapter 11, "The Cavalry Settlers of the Herakleopolite in the First Century" (pp. 132-140) = "Lescavaliers catoeques de l'Hraclopolite au Ier sicle," Egypt and the Hellenistic World (= StudiaHellenistica 27, Leuven, 1983): 1-11.

Chapter 12, "Two Royal Ordinances of the First Century and the Alexandrians" (pp. 141-154) = "Lesordonnances royales C.Ord.Ptol. 75-76 (Hraclopolis, 41 avant J.-C.)," CE 70 (1995): 206-218.

Chapter 13, "The Revenue Laws Papyrus: Greek Tradition and Hellenistic Adaptation" (pp. 157-188) = "Le papyrus Revenue Laws: tradition grecque et adaptation hellnistique," Rheinische-


Westflische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vortrge G 231 (Opladen, 1978).

Chapter 14, "The Structural Tensions of Ptolemaic Society" (pp. 189-205) = "Les tensionsstructurelles de la socit ptolmaque," Atti del XVII Congresso Internazionale di Papirologia III(Naples, 1984): 921-937.

Chapter 15, "The Third-Century Land-Leases from Tholthis" (pp. 206-212) = "The third-century B.C.land-leases from Tholthis," ICS 3 (1978): 74-80.

Chapter 16, "Greek Economy and Egyptian Society in the Third Century" (pp. 215-228) ="conomie grecque et socit gyptienne au IIIe sicle," in H. Maehler and V. M. Strocka, eds.,Das ptolemische gypten (Mainz am Rhein, 1978): 211-219.

Chapter 17, "Greeks and Egyptians According to PSI V 502" (pp. 229-239) = "Grecs et gyptiensd'aprs PSI 502," Proceedings of the Twelfth International Congress of Papyrology (Toronto,1970): 35-40.

Chapter 18, "Graeco-Roman Egypt and the Question of Cultural Interactions" (pp. 240-255) ="L'gypte grco-romaine et la problmatique des interactions culturelles," Proceedings of the XVIInternational Congress of Papyrology (Chico, 1981): 3-18.

Chapter 19, "Normality and Distinctiveness in the Epigraphy of Greek and Roman Egypt" (pp. 256-278) = "Normalit et spcificit de l'pigraphie grecque et romaine de l'gypte," in L. Criscuolo andG. Geraci, eds., Egitto e storia antica dall'ellenismo all'et araba (Bologna, 1989): 15-35.

Notes:

1. All abbreviations for editions of papyri mentioned in this review are after John F. Oates, RogerS. Bagnall, et al., Checklist of Greek, Latin, Demotic and Coptic Papyri, Ostraca and Tablets,


September, 2007. 2. OGIS = Orientis graeci inscriptiones selectae, W. Dittenberger, ed. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1903-1905.I.Philae = Les inscriptions grecques de Philae, A. Bernand and E. Bernand, eds. 2 vols. Paris,1969. 3. M. Bernal, Black Athena: the Afroasiatic roots of classical civilization. 3 vols. London, 1987. 4. As Manning puts it, B's book is "[t]he most comprehensive account of the economy, society, andculture of Hellenistic Egypt available in English."

ReadLatest

Index for2007

Change GreekDisplay

Archives Books Available forReview

BMCRHome

HTML generated at 13:32:18, Friday, 03 April 2009

Documents

Bingen, Hellenistic Egypt-bmcr Brynmawr Edu 2007 2007-10-01 HTML