Hellenistic and Roman Egypt

The structure of astrological sign rulership from the Hellenistic Egyptian period around 150-200 BCE was based on observational astronomy.  This structure of Hellenistic planetary order has been maintained for over 2,000 years yet the reason for it’s order has been forgotten.  This article is a culmination of 20 years of research to find the artifacts and astronomical verification for this ordering of planetary rulership of zodiacal signs.

From 1972 to 1978 the University of Ben Gurion at Beersheva conducted a large-scale archaeological survey and excavations along the coastal plain of Northern Sinai – between the Suez Canal and the Gaza region. The survey which encompassed an area of some 2000 square km., surveyed c. 1300 sites, ranging from small encampments to large urban centers dating from prehistoric to Ottoman periods.
During the survey 1059 coin finds were registered by the archaeologists from conglomerates of some 75 sites and sub-sites, i.e. c.7% of all the surveyed sites. 693 individual coins were identified while the remaining 368 inventory numbers relate to individual coins or groups of coins, mostly Late Roman minina (fourth–fifth century) that remained unidentified or unaccounted for.

This article aims at giving an overall view of the real and mythical topography of the Abaton of Biggeh, which housed a relic, the left leg of the God Osiris, in connection with the rituals. After a geographical and archaeological presentation, I will stress in particular the different species of trees growing on and around the Abaton. A new French translation will be provided, with commentary, of the Abaton Decree, in relation to the depictions on the Gate of Hadrian in the temple of Philae. A discussion of all the classical sources in chronological order will follow, in order to draw comparisons with the Egyptian sources. Lastly, the possible location and spatial organization of the Abaton in comparison with other sacred mounds will be addressed.

Throughout the Ptolemaic era, the Greek rulers of Egypt had to tackle complex issues pertaining to the nature of their dominion over peoples who were in many ways culturally, socially, and politically distinct. This paper examines how, despite these differences, Ptolemy II Philadelphus found a way to connect with both the Greek and Egyptian segments of his population by identifying himself with the god
Dionysus. Although a Greek deity, Dionysus possessed specific associations that would have resonated with elements of Egyptian religion and culture. These connotations would have promoted the perception of Philadelphus as a legitimate and benevolent ruler capable of transcending cultural boundaries. The grand procession in the Ptolemaia festival has been characterized by Dorothy J. Thompson as a form of propaganda for the ruling family. Similarly, the various forms of evidence presented in this paper suggest that Dionysus would have been a convenient
political vehicle in this syncretic environment. Such an approach on the part of Philadelphus was highly innovative and effective, and influenced the political identity assumed by later Ptolemaic rulers.

"Abstract: Of all the lost Foundation Poems attributed to Apollonius Rhodius, active at the court of Ptolemy II, the Ktisis of Alexandria must have been the most important for his contemporaries, and surely is the most intriguing for modern scholars of the Hellenistic world. Unfortunately, only a brief mention of this epyllion survives, in a scholion to Nicander’s Theriaka, relating to the birth of poisonous snakes from the severed head of Medusa, carried by Perseus over Libya. Deadly and benign serpents belong to a multi-cultural symbolic imagery intertwined with the Greek, Macedonian, Egyptian and Jewish origins of the city. This paper explores the possible connections of the only episode preserved from Apollonius’ Ktisis with the most ancient known traditions on the foundation of Alexandria —possibly even created at the time of Alexander or of the first Lagid dynasts, Ptolemy I and II."

Epitome of the Codex Petropolitanus, transcription by Friedrich Graefe with a comment of Gottfried Hermann, epitomical translation of Nonnos Dionysiaca, Vol. 1, Leipzig 1819 and Vol. 2, Leipzig 1826. Done by Eckhard Siemer.

The Text of the Epitome is provided with a comment, given in the footnotes.
It contains 43 illustrations, 1 portrait, 4 maps, a literary register, a record of persons and a second one recording the things like rivers and towns, mentioned in the Dionysien of Nonnos. At least it shows a selection of important Transcriptors and Translaters of antiquity greek works, which flourished during the time of the Renaissance, mainly between 1412 to 1527.
The Volume has 220 pages, plus the appendix mentioned even above. The content is structured in a chronological view and tooks epigraphical reports of the Hittite into consideration.
The subject is to explain about dechiffre the "Ainigmata" in the Dionysien of Nonnos of Panopolis. Concerning the Ainigmata in the Dionysien is meant the riddle refering the names of the acting persons.
Metamorphoses in the way of ainigmata are inherent the Epos of the Dionysiaka. The ainigmata by themselfs are defined by the cadmeian Sphinx in Palaiphatos work about The truth of greek myths, chapter 4, Peri tes Kadmeías Sphingós.
Here are a few examples : Kadmos is often shown as the King of Theben and thats the real name of him as a historical person. But at other situations this Kadmos stands for Bellerophon.
Another enigma is Pentheus. This Pentheus stands for the historical person Lykos of Athen, as shown in Euripides, The raging Herakles. The task of the ancient audience was to solve these riddles in order to understand. Because there were only a very few tradited in the context of the archaic matters about 1193 - 1185 BC the Dionysien are dealing with, the audience got it successful and so they got informed about the deeds of Bellerophon, Typhon, Amphilochus, Mopsos of Titaron and Lykos of Athen in a very interesting way. 

Eckhard Siemer,
Goslar-Hahnenklee
Liknon vom Stau Verlag

ISBN  978-3-98 13693-4-2

This article provides a brief summary of archaeological fieldwork conducted by the University of Vienna Middle Egypt Project at el-Sheikh Fadl Umm Raqaba with a special focus on one particular Late Period tomb, A2 T1. Having been discovered by Flinders Petrie in the early 20th century, this rock-cut tomb is of special interest because of a lengthy Aramaic dipinto inscription with a literary text telling the tale of the Egyptian rebel Inaros who fought against the Assyrian occupation during the 7th century BCE.
The tomb was fully excavated for the first time by the Austrian mission in 2016 and 2017. Significant and substantial new evidence was uncovered including large quantities of human remains and artefacts that provide insights into the ancient occupation of the tomb as well as its dating. Importantly, the Aramaic inscription and the underlying original painted decoration of the tomb were subject to intensive new study that included first-hand confirmation of the reading of the rebel’s name as ynḥrw being the Aramaic form of the Egyptian name ’ir.t-ḥr-r.r=w (Greek Ináros). Further, the inscription and decorations were recorded with the assistance of Multispectral
Imaging (MSI) technology which enabled to counterbalance degeneration and modern graffiti to enhance better reading.
The first results of this new archaeological work would suggest that the tomb itself probably dates somewhat later than had been previously suggested, which, nevertheless, opens up new possibilities to explain the significance and provide an interpretation for this unusual inscription as well as for the tomb, the site and the region surrounding el-Sheikh Fadl.

This paper summerizes the hellenistic coin finds on sites BEY 002, BEY 006, BEY 004, BEY 026, BEY 145, BEY 125, BEY 133, BEY 142 and BEY 144 from Beirut. The full data presented the VXth INC Glasgow, 2009,  are consultable in the "Talks" section of the current page of Academia.

The study addresses the legal rules that allowed in Rome and in some Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, especially Egypt, women to serve as guardians or to assist the guardian of their prepubescent children. In Rome, mothers as guardians are attested during the second century by individual imperial concession, and the mother as manager in aid to the guardian is amply attested in the classical age. In Egypt, mothers could serve as guardians, appointed by a private act of the husband (since the beginning of the province until 212 AD), while in connection to the guardian (with the name ἐπακολουθήτρια) they appear only from the first half of the second century ad. the author questions the mutual influences between the two sets of rules.

Nel presente articolo si esaminano le norme giuridiche in base alle quali a Roma e in alcune province orientali dell'impero romano, soprattutto l'Egitto, la madre poteva essere tutrice o poteva svolgere fuzioni di ausilio al tutore dei propri figli impuberi. A Roma la madre tutrice appare attestata già dal secondo secolo per concessione imperiale individuale, e la madre amministratrice in ausilio al tutore è ampiamente attestata in età classica. In Egitto la madre tutrice, nominata con atto privato del marito, compare dalle origini della provincia e fino al 212 d.C., mentre, affiancata al tutore, con il nome di ἐπακολουθήτρια, è documentata solo dalla prima metà del secondo secolo d.C. In dottrina ci si è interrogati circa le influenze reciproche tra i due sistemi di norme. L'autore conclude che è legittimo ipotizzare che la scomparsa della madre tutrice egizia dopo il 212 sia stata causata dalla diffusione del diritto romano nelle province a seguito della Constitutio Antoniniana, mentre non sembra possibile rinvenire altre reciproche influenze. In particolare, si nega che la madre amministratrice romana sia derivata dall'ἐπακολουθήτρια egizia.

The study addresses the legal rules that allowed in Rome and in some Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, especially Egypt, women to serve as guardians or to assist the guardian of their prepubescent children. In Rome, mothers as guardians are attested during the second century by individual imperial concession, and the mother as manager in aid to the guardian is amply attested in the classical age. In Egypt, mothers could serve as guardians, appointed by a private act of the husband (since the beginning of the province until 212 AD), while in connection to the guardian (with the name ἐπακολουθήτρια) they appear only from the first half of the second century ad. the author questions the mutual influences between the two sets of rules.

Nel presente articolo si esaminano le norme giuridiche in base alle quali a Roma e in alcune province orientali dell'impero romano, soprattutto l'Egitto, la madre poteva essere tutrice o poteva svolgere fuzioni di ausilio al tutore dei propri figli impuberi. A Roma la madre tutrice appare attestata già dal secondo secolo per concessione imperiale individuale, e la madre amministratrice in ausilio al tutore è ampiamente attestata in età classica. In Egitto la madre tutrice, nominata con atto privato del marito, compare dalle origini della provincia e fino al 212 d.C., mentre, affiancata al tutore, con il nome di ἐπακολουθήτρια, è documentata solo dalla prima metà del secondo secolo d.C. In dottrina ci si è interrogati circa le influenze reciproche tra i due sistemi di norme. L'autore conclude che è legittimo ipotizzare che la scomparsa della madre tutrice egizia dopo il 212 sia stata causata dalla diffusione del diritto romano nelle province a seguito della Constitutio Antoniniana, mentre non sembra possibile rinvenire altre reciproche influenze. In particolare, si nega che la madre amministratrice romana sia derivata dall'ἐπακολουθήτρια egizia.

An "Alexandrian" encomiastic epigram in honor of Augustus (Supplementum Hellenisticum 982), "Aevum Antiquum" 11 (1998), 255-344

Contents:
1) Papyrological evidence. Hypothesis on the period and on the circumstances of the composition of the epigram. [The first known Greek epigram on papyrus with pentameters in eisthesis].
2) Epigram as Encomium and encomiastic ekphrasis. Possible epigraphical destination of SH 982.
3) Encomium as a hymn to the laudandus' divinity.
4) The Text.
5) August as a Zeus Eleutherios/Liberator: the Roman-Egyptian interpretation of the "Basileis soteres" Hellenistic tradition.
6) The Personification present in the epigram: a picture of the "Golden Age".
7) August as Nilotic ruler, bringer of Prosperity.
8) Iconography of the Augustean Apollo: the princeps and the elaboration of his own divine image.
9) Apollo "Actius" and Apollo "Leucadius".
10) Mutual influences of the Greek and Latin encomiastic poetry in the Augustan age: two different ways of expressing the same ideology.
11)  Appendix: the documentary texts of the tomos (P.Lond II 256 a, d, e) with translation and commentary.
12) Bibliography.

Success in war over rival kings or barbarian invaders was one of the marks of legitimation for the Hellenistic rulers. Depictions of, or allusions to, war are quite rare in the surviving Hellenistic court poetry; however, we can have a glance of military life (and death) through the lens of verse epitaphs for men who served in the army –in every rank, from royal philoi to humble privates–, and from the occasional dedicatory epigrams they commissioned for temple offerings. Poetic portrayal of members of an army involves display (or concealment) of many layers of their individual and public “identity”: social status, ethnicity, cultural background, religious belief, etc. Building a corpus of such epigrams produced in the 4th-1st cent. BC, from every area of the Hellenistic world (mainland Greece, Macedonia, the Ptolemaic, Attalid and Seleucid kingdoms, the independent poleis of Asia Minor) I shall try to assess similarities and differences in self-presentation of men who –often gone unremarked by ancient historians or court poets– helped building the power of their basileis or keeping the freedom of their own polis.

Chapter 10 studies Hellenistic and Roman military epitaphs, and addresses a number of interconnected issues: the unpopularity of epitaphs for individual soldiers in the Greek Anthology; the near absence of inscribed epitaphs in literary sources, despite the fact that they are often of good literary quality; and the question of their authorship.
Apparently, there was no ‘Hellenistic Simonides’, author of warriors’ inscriptional epitaphs worthy to be gathered in a book. In the seventh book of the Greek Anthology there are many fictitious epitaphs for Homeric heroes or famous historical figures, but funerary epigrams celebrating the death in battle of individual, contemporary military men are only a dozen. This lack may be a choice of later compilers of florilegia, or may be due to the fact that epigrammatists who composed  military epitaphs did not publish them as a collection. There is no evidence that any epigrammatist known from the Greek Anthology also acted as a professional writer of military epitaphs; we can just propose some hypothetical candidates for this role, such as Damagetus  and Posidippus. Epitaphs for common soldiers were usually commissioned to professional poets, most of whom now remain anonymous (only occasionally we find signatures in epigraphic poems); the technitai  found their inspiration in Homer and in the elegiac, lyric and tragic ‘classics’; anthologies like that of Meleager could also offer some models, although the main literary-epigraphic reference was still the Simonidean corpus. The lack of a specific, recognizable personal style makes it difficult to trace the same hand in contemporary epitaphs. It has been suggested that professional versifiers used ‘sample books’ for composing epitaphs, but the very existence and the nature of these anthologies is still to be proved. In some cases, the deceased, especially when he presents himself as a veteran belonging to the local élite, may have had his say on the contents and form of his future epitaph, or even might have been responsible for composing it.

This is a meticulous survey of the reception of some lyric subgenres
in Hellenistic poetry and it is meant to be the first of a series of contributions
on the subject. Leaving aside lyric in a religious context, the paper is divided
into two main sections, namely lyric poetry composed for rulers and lyric poetry
written for everyday people. In the new social context lyric poetry was intended
for presentation in the royal symposia. The Alexandrians wrote all types of occasional
lyric poetry (enkomia, epinikia, epithalamia, threnoi and epikedeia), a fact
that is reflected both in the work of distinguished poets, such as Callimachus,
Posidippus and Theocritus as well as in the epigrammatic tradition and in poetic
fragments found on papyri. Special attention is given to stichic lyric poetry and
to the new genre of the mime, whereas the oral tradition of the carmina popularia
and the making of lyric anthologies for symposiastic use complete the picture.

"Contents:
1. Introduction: doriktetos chora and the ‘spear theme’
in Hellenistic court poetry
2. The text of the epigram for Neoptolemus
3. The identity of Neoptolemus
4. Historical background
4.1. Anatolia between Ptolemies and Seleucids in the third century BC
4.2. Galatian raids in Anatolia
4.3. A coalition of Pisidians, Paeonians and Agrianians
with Galatians against Tlos, a Lycian fortress. Possible scenarios
5. The typology of the statue
6. Other epigrams for Ptolemaic generals and soldiers
7. Some concluding remarks

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Expanded version of the paper presented at the Fédération internationale des Associations d'études classiques (FIEC) Kongress Berlin, 24. - 29. August 2009:
http://www.fiec2009.org/proposals/barbantani.pdf
http://www.fiec2009.org/panel1.html

Abstract 2009:
"Doriktetos chora. The symbol of the spear in funerary or honorary epigrams/inscriptions for
Ptolemaic philoi and soldiers."

An interesting epigram, preserved by Stephanus of Byzantium, has been composed to accompany an honorary statue of Neoptolemos, a Ptolemaic general who, on the occasion of “barbarian” invasions, helped the city of Tlos, situated in the interior of Lycia, a region under the control of Egypt under Ptolemy Philadelphos. The poem suggests that Neoptolemos is portrayed as a doryphoros, like the Lysippean Alexander praised by many poetae docti active in Alexandria (see
Posid. 65, 70 A.-B.; Asclepiades A.P. XVI 120; cfr. Antiph. A.P. VI 97). The symbol of the spear, usually associated to Hellenistic kings both in poetry and in the visual arts, represents the martial aspect of the ruler, who, with the protection of the gods, conquers and preserves his domain, the «spear-won land» (dorivkthtoı cwvra). Scholars have generally overlooked the presence of this symbol in documents referring to the king’s generals, philoi and also private soldiers. I shall examine some of these, with special focus on the Ptolemaic kingdom.""

This contribution to a conference centered on Pergamum’s “Red Basilica” explores selected sanctuaries in Roman Egypt that the scholarly literature usually attributes to Isis. A detailed and compact study of the sanctuaries’ chronology and topographical, architectural and ritual settings, this article reveals the great formal and functional variety of sanctuaries attributed to Isis in Roman imperial Egypt and proffers a critical examination of the criteria on which scholarly attributions to Isis are based. The cautionary remarks put forward as a result of my examination also pertain, but are not limited, to current interpretations of the conference’s touchstone, Pergamum’s “Red Basilica”, as a sanctuary of the “Egyptian” gods.

Hellenistic Epinician

With the notable exception of Callimachus’ elegiac and iambic epinician experiments (Victoria Berenices, Victoria Sosibii, Iamb VIII), in the Hellenistic period the epigrammatic genre seems to be the true heir of the lyric victory ode, as clearly shown by the work of scholars such as Robert, Ebert and Moretti. The publication of P.Mil.Vogl. VIII 309 brought to us eightheen new agonistic epigrams, attributed to Podisippus; some others, mainly anonymous, are scattered through old and recently published epigram collections. Taking into consideration Callimachus’ elegiac poems and agonistic and dedicatory epigrams, I shall explore how the theme of victory (both athletic and military), which is at the core of the Hellenistic royal ideology, is presented in the Hellenistic epinician code, focusing in particular on the actualization of the archaic topos of the aggelia, and on the adaptation of the epinician kudos to royal women. I shall also discuss the relation between agonistic “epinician” epigrams, especially those in honor of Ptolemaic and Attalid dynasts, and the monumental representation of royal victory.