Reinventing the Ptolemaic Empire in the II c. BC. Practice and ideology


Reinventing the Ptolemaic Empire in the II c. BC. Practice and ideology

Christelle Fischer-Bovet University of Southern California

 

Programme 2024-25

Did the Macedonian dynasty of the Ptolemies ever rule an empire? Does it matter? By analyzing state formation in the Eastern Mediterranean over three centuries since the death of Alexander ‘the Great’ in 323 BC, this talk sheds light on the roles and attitudes of the various actors who participated in the construction and adaptation of the Ptolemaic imperial infrastructure and ideology; they lived both inside and outside Egypt, from the royal family and court members to local elites and populations across the eastern Mediterranean. Despite its fragmentary character, papyrological, epigraphic, numismatic, and archaeological evidence hints at imperial networks of communications and often challenges Polybius’ assessment of the decline of Ptolemies, which has influenced historians until today. It argues that the particular resilience of state institutions (political, economic, and military) and ideology borrowed and adapted by the Ptolemies allowed the Ptolemaic kingdom to pass from periods of internal decay to stability again. Central to these processes was the capacity of the Ptolemies to collaborate with and integrate influential segments of the local population in Egypt and outside Egypt.