Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra: History and Society Under the Ptolemies

Michel Chauveau

Cornell University Press, 2000 - Biography & Autobiography - 226 pages

The book provides an easily digestible introduction to Cleopatra's world... A fascinating introduction to an era when the political and military face of the Mediterranean world was changing rapidly. ―Patricia Spencer, Egyptian Archaeology

Few other civilizations rival Ancient Egypt in its power to capture the modern imagination, and Cleopatra VII, monarch at the end of the Ptolemaic period, has always been preeminent among its cast of characters. Coming to power just before the unstable state was about to be absorbed into an autocratic empire, Cleopatra oversaw not only Egypt's progress as an influential regional power but also the fragile peace of its ethnically mixed population.

Michel Chauveau looks at many facets of life under this queen and her dynasty, drawing on such sources as firsthand accounts, numismatics, and Greek, Demotic, and hieroglyphic inscriptions. His use of such sources helps to free the narrative of dependence on later (and usually hostile) Greek and Roman historians. By taking up such subjects as funeral customs, language and writing, social class structure, religion, and administration, he affords the reader an unprecedented and comprehensive picture of Greek and Egyptian life in both the cities and the countryside.

Originally published in French in 1997, Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra fulfills a long-standing need for an accessible introduction to the social, economic, religious, military, and cultural history of Ptolemaic Egypt.

Contents

• V: 6
• VI: 11
• VIII: 13
• IX: 15
• X: 16
• XI: 18
• XII: 20
• XIII: 22
• XIV: 24
• XV: 26
• XVI: 29
• XVIII: 33
• XIX: 34
• XX: 37
• XXI: 39
• XXII: 40
• XXIII: 41
• XXIV: 43
• XXV: 44
• XXVI: 45
• XXVII: 46
• XXVIII: 49
• XXIX: 52
• XXX: 55
• XXXI: 56
• XXXII: 58
• XXXIII: 63
• XXXIV: 65
• XXXV: 67
• XXXVII: 69
• XXXVIII: 72
• XXXIX: 73
• XL: 76
• XLI: 78
• XLII: 80
• XLIII: 82
• XLIV: 84
• XLV: 87
• XLVI: 90
• XLVII: 93
• XLVIII: 95
• XLIX: 98
• L: 100
• LI: 102
• LII: 106
• LIII: 108
• LIV: 109
• LV: 113
• LVI: 115
• LVII: 117
• LIX: 118
• LX: 123
• LXI: 127
• LXII: 129
• LXIII: 131
• LXIV: 133
• LXV: 135
• LXVII: 136
• LXVIII: 137
• LXIX: 139
• LXX: 141
• LXXI: 143
• LXXIII: 145
• LXXIV: 147
• LXXV: 149
• LXXVI: 151
• LXXVII: 152
• LXXVIII: 154
• LXXIX: 155
• LXXX: 156
• LXXXI: 158
• LXXXII: 160
• LXXXIV: 164
• LXXXV: 166
• LXXXVI: 167
• LXXXVII: 170
• LXXXVIII: 171
• LXXXIX: 173
• XC: 176
• XCI: 177
• XCII: 178
• XCIII: 180
• XCIV: 182
• XCV: 183
• XCVI: 185
• XCVII: 186
• XCVIII: 187
• XCIX: 189
• C: 191
• CI: 197
• CII: 199
• CIII: 214
• CIV: 217

About the author

Michel Chauveau is a former member of the Institut Français d'Archæologie Orientale in Cairo, and is currently director of studies at L'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris. He is the author of Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra: History and Society under the Ptolemies, also from Cornell. David Lorton, an Egyptologist, lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra: History and Society Under the Ptolemies; Cornell paperbacks; Cornell paperbacks. Egyptology / ancient history
• Author: Michel Chauveau
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2000
• ISBN: 0801485762, 9780801485763
• Length: 226 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Historical; Biography & Autobiography / Women; History / Ancient / Egypt; History / Ancient / General; History / Ancient / Rome; History / Civilization; Social Science / Archaeology; Social Science / Customs & Traditions