Michel Chauveau (translated from the French by David Lorton). 2000. Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra: History and society under the Ptolemies. Cornell University Press, Ithaca. 196 pages, plus 30 pages of notes, glossary, and an index.
The book Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra is a fascinating glimpse into the cultural mixing of two great civilizations, Egypt and Greece. Although much has been written--and filmed, of course--about the end of the Greek occupation of Egypt, when Cleopatra VII so disastrously attempted her own conquest of Rome, little has been written from the viewpoint of Egypt. Chaveau puts the responsibility for the Roman bias on the propaganda machine of Imperial Rome. Drawing extensively on Greek and Egyptian documents, Chaveau has constructed an intriguing discussion of what it must have been like in the great clash of cultures of Greek-occupied Egypt.
The first chapter of the book provides a brief history of Egypt from Alexander's conquest in 332 BC to Cleopatra VII's losses at Actium in 30 BC. In this part, Chaveau bravely addresses the tricky genealogy and succession of the royal families--just because the Ptolemies were Greek didn't mean they didn't follow the Egyptian custom of keeping the kingdom in the family. For example, Berenike III was the daughter of Ptolemy IX and Cleopatra IV (both children of Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra III) and she married her father's brother Ptolemy X (also known as Alexander I) and later his bastard son Ptolemy XI, also known as Alexander II, who had his wife and former mother-in-law (Berenike III, remember?) assassinated--it's tough to write a comprehensible sentence explaining it, let alone a chapter.
The remainder of the book addresses the cultural clash and adjustments made during the 300 year occupation. Issues discussed include religion, architecture, slavery, taxation, the effects of a cash economy, language, literature; everything from why Egyptian scribes became more powerful around the Greek pharoahs (they spoke and wrote better Greek than any Greek could write Egyptian) to how the Egyptian religious practices of mummification interacted with the Greek religious abhorrence for dead bodies. In one story, Chaveau describes a legal case involving a dispute over ownership of a house used to store as-yet unmummified bodies prior to their removal to the west bank of the Nile. The house stood near a Greek traditional processional route, and one of the parties in the dispute argued that the proximity of the cadavers was upsetting to the Greek gods and goddesses. One side argued that the Egyptians should move all their mortuary rituals off the east bank of the Nile; but the argument failed--because the Egyptian priests who maintained the house also took part in the processions.
All in all, this is a very interesting book. As is the case with most translated works, the language is occasionally a little more formal than one might like; but the ideas are so interesting that you overlook the occasional "autochthonous" reference. The combination and contrast of two such disparate cultures sheds a little light on today's ethnic struggles and proves that there is nothing new in the universe.
