The Ptolemies, the Sea and the Nile
The Ptolemies, the Sea and the Nile
Mary Stefanou, University of Athens, Greece
Dorothy J. Thompson, Girton College, Cambridge
With its emphasis on the dynasty's concern for control of the sea – both the Mediterranean and the Red Sea – and the Nile, this book offers a new and original perspective on Ptolemaic power in a key period of Hellenistic history. Within the developing Aegean empire of the Ptolemies, the role of the navy is examined together with that of its admirals. Egypt's close relationship to Rhodes is subjected to scrutiny, as is the constant threat of piracy to the transport of goods on the Nile and by sea. Along with the trade in grain came the exchange of other products. Ptolemaic kings used their wealth for luxury ships and the dissemination of royal portraiture was accompanied by royal cult. Alexandria, the new capital of Egypt, attracted poets, scholars and even philosophers; geographical exploration by sea was a feature of the period and observations of the time enjoyed a long afterlife.
- Adopts an original approach to the Hellenistic period and examines a new set of questions
- Employs a variety of specialist methodological viewpoints, without resorting to scholarly jargon
- Provides much of value to readers interested in the subject of sea power in other historical periods
Product details
October 2017Paperback
9781108436663
296 pages
230 × 153 × 15 mm
0.43kg
13 b/w illus. 11 maps 8 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- In memoriam F. W. Walbank Christian Habicht
- 1. Introduction Kostas Buraselis and Dorothy J. Thompson
- 2. The Ptolemaic League of Islanders Andrew Meadows
- 3. Callicrates of Samos and Patroclus of Macedon: champions of Ptolemaic thalassocracy Hans Hauben
- 4. Rhodes and the Ptolemaic kingdom: the commercial infrastructure Vincent Gabrielsen
- 5. Polybius and Ptolemaic sea power Andrew Erskine
- 6. Ptolemaic grain, seaways and power Kostas Buraselis
- 7. Waterborne recruits: the military settlers of Ptolemaic Egypt Mary Stefanou
- 8. Our academic visitor is missing: Posidippus 89 (A-B) and 'smart capital' for the thalassocrats Paul McKechnie
- 9. Aspects of the diffusion of Ptolemaic portraiture overseas Olga Palagia
- 10. Ptolemies and piracy Lucia Criscuolo
- 11. The Nile police in the Ptolemaic period Thomas Kruse
- 12. Hellenistic royal barges Dorothy J. Thompson
- 13. Eudoxus of Cyzicus and Ptolemaic exploration of the sea route to India Christian Habicht
- 14. Timosthenes and Eratosthenes: sea routes and Hellenistic geography Francesco Prontera
- 15. Claudius Ptolemy on Egypt and East Africa Klaus Geus.
