Counting the People in Hellenistic Egypt
2 Volume Paperback Set

This book consists of two closely related parts. Volume I published fifty-four Greek and Egyptian demotic papyri which derive from census and tax activities in Egypt of the third and second centuries BC. Volume II is an historical study, using these texts to analyse fundamental aspects of Ptolemaic Egypt. The salt-tax registers of P. Count make possible an assessment of the fiscal policy of the new Macedonian pharaohs and an analysis of the population make-up in both ethnic and occupational terms. A demographic analysis of this material exploits the best information for family and household structure for the Western world before the fifteenth century. A constant theme throughout is the impact of the Greeks on the native population of Egypt. This is traced, for example, in cultural policies, in administrative geography, in the realm of stock-rearing and in the changing religious affiliations traceable through the names that parents gave their children.

Reviews & endorsements

'The two volumes supplement each other in an outstanding way, and the easily readable second volume rests firmly on the hard facts of the first. The texts touch upon a variety of topics of the socio-economic life of Hellenistic Egypt, and the extensive bibliographies help to find further information on things (seemingly) as far away from taxation as salt production or literacy in the ancient world.' Arctos

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Product details

• Date Published: April 2010
• format: Multiple copy pack
• isbn: 9780521152341
• length: 1137 pages

• dimensions: 229 x 152 x 29 mm
• weight: 0.82kg
• availability: Temporarily unavailable - available from TBC