History

Late in the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator a revolt broke out in Egypt. The historian Polybius described it as a war of “small events,” unremarkable save for its savagery, and reflective of the decline of Ptolemaic power (14.12). The Ptolemies themselves used the word ταραχὴ, or “disturbance,” and most modern commenters simply call it the Great Revolt. It lasted approximately twenty years (207-185 BCE), and at times rebels were active across the whole length of Egypt. This paper argues that the rebellion should be understood as an insurgency, in which predominantly Egyptian insurgents used irregular warfare tactics to subvert and overthrow Ptolemaic rule in Egypt. It examines documentary evidence, including eyewitness papyri, from the period of the revolt to offer the first detailed study of rebel tactics in the Great Revolt. It evaluates the evidence for insurgent violence through the categories of subversive, indirect, and direct violence. While observers tended to see rebel violence as chaotic banditry, insurgency theory clarifies the systemic effects of accumulating small events of violence on the state’s legitimacy to rule, will to resist, and capacity to fight.

This article reviews possible papyrological evidence for rebel activity in the Fayum during the Great Revolt (206–185 BC). A recently-published archive belonging to two Tanis taricheutai has provided evidence for Fayum rebels. Seven further papyri that might describe rebel activity, but have not been read that way before, complement this picture. These documents shed light on the meaning and recognition of violence and crime in a time of revolt.

The Ptolemaic dynasty of Hellenistic Egypt has a reputation more for opulence, or τρυφή, than for martial prowess. Athenaios, in his Deipnosophistae, could reliably dip into the Egyptian well for images of extravagance. For the Ptolemies, manifestations of wealth were performative politics, and enhanced the fortunes of their state. Ptolemy II Philadelphos was the most successful of the dynasty at converting wealth, through opulent display, into legitimacy and prestige, and was known as the most formidable, most lavish, and most magnificent of Hellenistic kings. His strategy worked well enough but marked a departure from traditionalist royal authority. His father and each of their contemporaries won acclamations from their soldiers on battlefields before their coronations or as confirmation to their accession. Philadelphos has thus gained a reputation as rather more a lover than a fighter, but a careful study of one of his most celebrated displays of wealth--the Grand Procession--not only helps date the event but also demonstrates the centrality of traditional, bellicose feats, particularly over the Galatian menace.

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A study of both the structures of the Ptolemaic army and its military operations under the first four kings of the Ptolemaic dynasty, designed to evaluate the three chief purposes of the army, change over time in structures and mechanism, success and failure in the field, and correlations between documentary and literary evidence.

Both Western and Chinese intellectuals have long derided filial piety tales as an absurd and grotesque variety of children’s literature. Selfless Offspring offers a fresh perspective on the genre, revealing the rich historical worth of these stories by examining them in their original context: the tumultuous and politically fragmented early medieval era (A.D. 100–600). At a time when no Confucian virtue was more prized than filial piety, adults were moved and inspired by tales of filial children. The emotional impact of even the most outlandish actions portrayed in the stories was profound, a measure of the directness with which they spoke to major concerns of the early medieval Chinese elite. In a period of weak central government and powerful local clans, the key to preserving a household’s privileged status was maintaining a cohesive extended family.
Keith Knapp begins this far-ranging and persuasive study by describing two related historical trends that account for the narrative’s popularity: the growth of extended families and the rapid incursion of Confucianism among China’s learned elite. Extended families were better at maintaining their status and power, so patriarchs found it expedient to embrace Confucianism to keep their large, fragile households intact. Knapp then focuses on the filial piety stories themselves—their structure, historicity, origin, function, and transmission—and argues that most stem from the oral culture of these elite extended families. After examining collections of filial piety tales, known as Accounts of Filial Children, he shifts from text to motif, exploring the most common theme: the "reverent care" and mourning of parents. In the final chapter, Knapp looks at the relative burden that filiality placed on men and women and concludes that, although women largely performed the same filial acts as men, they had to go to greater extremes to prove their sincerity.