The Hellenistic Period

This book presents in translation 175 of the most revealing documents that have survived on stone and papyrus from the Hellenistic period.

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• Presents over 150 sources in translation.
  
• Captures the political, social, economic and religious dynamism of the Hellenistic kingdoms and cities.
  
• Covers the entire Hellenistic world, with extensive coverage of the Ptolemaic kingdom.

Table of Documents ix

List of Illustrations xv

Preface xvii

Note on Editorial Practice xxi

Abbreviations xxii

Note on Reading Documents xxiv

The Texts 1

I Political History 1

II The Foreign Possessions of the Ptolemies 111

III Life in Greek Cities 119

IV The Bureaucracy of Ptolemaic Egypt 144

V The Royal Economy of Egypt 163

VI The Military and Police of Ptolemaic Egypt 199

VII The Ptolemaic Legal and Judicial System 206

VIII Social Relations and Private Life 229

IX Religion 247

Appendix: Ptolemaic Administration 285

Tables and Charts 289

I Ptolemaic Kings 289

II Seleucid Kings to 96 BC 290

III Antigonid Kings 290

IV Attalid Rulers 291

V Months 291

VI Currency 292

Glossary and Index of Greek Terms 293

Concordance: Papyri 301

Concordance: Inscriptions 305

Concordance between Editions 309

Index of Persons, Places and Subjects 311

"For any reader, this book will provide an illuminating, reliable and accessible resource. Its clarity of style, meticulous attention to detial, and sensitivity to current bibliography provide a model that should be emulated by other scholars contemplating the creation of their own sourcebooks...it is quite simply difficult to find fault with this book." Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"This collection is a model of meticulous scholarship and excellent judgement. I read it with great pleasure and great respect." Dr John Ma, Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford

Roger S. Bagnall is Professor of Classics and History at Columbia University. He has edited numerous papyri and ostraka and his previous publications include Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History (1995), The Demography of Roman Egypt (1994) and Egypt in Late Antiquity (1993).

Peter Derow is Hody Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at Wadham College, Oxford and Lecturer in Ancient History in the University of Oxford. He has published on Hellenistic history and epigraphy and Roman republican history, and has a special interest in Polybius and dealings between Rome and the Greeks. He is co-editor with Robert Parker of Herodotus and his World: Essays from a Conference in Memory of George Forrest (2003).

Thousands of documents surviving on stone and papyrus help us to understand the complex society that took shape after the death of Alexander the Great. This book presents some of the most revealing of these documents in translation, allowing readers to form a direct impression of life in the Hellenistic world.

The book contains 175 documents capturing the political, social, economic, and religious dynamism of the Hellenistic kingdoms and cities. It covers the entire Hellenistic world and draws extensively on the papyrus remains of the Ptolemaic kingdom in Egypt, which allow an unequalled depth of insight into daily life at every level of society.