ANCIENT ALEXANDRIA:
BETWEEN GREECE AND EGYPT

ABSTRACTS
(IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER BY SPEAKER)

Mohammed Abd-El-Ghani
Professor, Alexandria University

"Alexandria and Middle Egypt - Some aspects of social and economic contacts under the Roman Rule"

The topic will be divided into two main themes. The first is the existence and activities of the country-folk of Middle Egypt in Alexandria. This theme traces the cases of the temporal or permanent residence of those rural population in the capital, the reasons behind their residence, the relations between them and their local home-villages of Middle Egypt, and their various activities in Alexandria and at home. The second theme will deal with the counter-existence of the Greek Alexandrians - whether citizens or residents - in the nomes of Middle Egypt. This part will deal briefly with the land property of the Alexandrians in that area under the Romans; it will also concentrate on the various reasons and motives which led them to stay there. The social and economic status of those Alexandrians and Romanized Alexandrians and the privileges which they enjoyed shall also be dealt with. There will be further mentioned the degree of interaction of those Alexandrians with the local authorities and population of the nomes of Middle Egypt as well as the activities they participated in.

Mostafa al-Abbadi
Professor emeritus, Alexandria University

"The Island of Pharos in Myth and History"

The island of Pharos featured prominently twice in the legends of the ancient world. First, in an episode in the Odyssey, when Menelaus encountered Proteus on the island of Pharos; second, in connection with Alexander's desire to found a new city in Egypt, as is reported in the Alexander Romance. This paper attempts to analyze Homer's account and discuss its significance in understanding the image of Egypt in the Greek mind at that time. The subsequent literary tradition of 'Helen in Egypt' as developed. by Stesichorus, Herodotus, Euripides and Apollodorus, is also discussed in this connection. Furthermore there is a discussion of the story in the Alexander Romance concerning the choice of a site for the city and its connection with the earlier Pharaonic religio-political tradition of the divine origin of kings.
John Baines
Professor of Egyptology, University of Oxford
2002-03 Freehling Visiting Professor of Humanities, University of Michigan

"Egyptian elite self-presentation in the context of Ptolemaic rule"

Elite monuments in traditional indigenous style -- statues, stelae, and mortuary equipment, set up in traditional temples and forming part of burials -- were created outside and conceivably within Alexandria throughout Ptolemaic times. Most are inscribed in hieroglyphic Classical Egyptian. Their visual and verbal expression continued to develop in style and content. This vital elite culture has been seen as belonging to a small indigenous group, but a few monument owners are now known to have possessed Greek as well as Egyptian roles and probably ethnicity, either during part of their lives or throughout them. Hellenistic visual influence on these pieces is limited and texts are exclusively Egyptian. This "conservatism" is part of the rigidity of indigenous Egyptian forms, which left little space for a positive expression of diverse cultural roles. Such roles were not necessarily rare or absent. Self-presentation in temple and burial had long tended toward radical idealization and fictionalization. It may be impossible to know what proportion of the elite outside Alexandra was "ethnically" Greek, Egyptian, or mixed, because people may have presented themselves differently in different contexts. Since forms used outside temple and tomb are virtually inaccessible, such questions may prove unanswerable; they may not always be completely meaningful.
Peter Bing
Associate Professor of Classics, Emory University

"Kallikrates of Samos between Egypt and Greece: the Evidence of the New Posidippus Papyrus"

Kallikrates of Samos was supreme commander of the Ptolemaic fleet for some twenty years under Ptolemy II Philadelphus, founded the cult of Arsinoe-Aphrodite at Cape Zephyrion, and was granted the signal honor by Philadelphus of being first eponymous priest of the cult of Alexander and the Theoi Adelphoi. The Milan papyrus of epigrams by Posidippus reveals new details about this eminent courtier's career, and brings depth to previously known activities. In particular, it shows how Kallikrates sought to tie Ptolemaic institutions to venerable Greek sites and traditions. Thus we see now that his link with the Theoi Adelphoi extended to a lavish dedication in their honor at Delphi to commemorate his chariot victory at the Pythian games (XI 33 - XII 7). Further, new epigrams about the shrine of Arsinoe-Aphrodite seek to integrate this cult (and by extension Egypt) into the matrix of the Greek literary heritage. Finally, it is now clearer than ever that Posidippus was epigrammatist par excellence to the Ptolemaic elite and that, in commissioning works from him, Kallikrates emulated the Ptolemies themselves.

Nicola Bonacasa
Full-Professor of Greek and Roman Archaeology
Dean of the Department of Cultural Heritage
Palermo University

"Realism and Eclecticism in Alexandrian Art: Some Aspects"

Sfumato, genere e realismo, sono le definizioni più note per la plastica artistica di Alessandria. Mentre, poco nota è l'eredità del "classico", sia come tradizione dei filoni culturali del IV sec. a.C., sia come rivisitazione "neoclassica" del passato, sia, e di più, come sperimentazione nuova, di gusto "eclettico".
Lo sfumato ed il pittoricismo hanno attirato spesso l'attenzione della critica, anche di recente, ed è superfluo insistere su codesti temi. Per il genere, il realismo e il verismo delle botteghe di Alessandria io ho chiarito ampiamente la mia posizione nel 1998, al XIII Congresso Internazionale di Archeologia Classica di Berlino (Akten, 1990).
Nel fervore delle nuove invenzioni dell'Ellenismo, anche in parte riconosciute ad Alessandria, una sola voce autorevole, quella di Achille Adriani, ha identificato e classificato l'area culturale dell'eclettismo. Dalle stele funerarie certo eseguite sul posto da artisti attici, alle sculture monumentali dei Quartieri Reali, forse parte di due frontoni, al famoso Dodekatheon di Alessandria, ad alcune teste di Serapide, alla grande testa di principessa lagide, con boccoli calamistrati, ai numerosi monumenti perfino della ritrattistica, ai tipi molteplici di Iside, Arpocrate, Nilo, Euthenia, Afrodite, Ninfe e Muse, dalle terracotte isiache alle famose "tanagrine", e, infine, ai bronzetti di sacerdoti. In queste opere sono presenti echi degli ideali patetici scopadei, del pittoricismo sfumato di tradizione prassitelica ed il gusto per l'eclettismo elegante e individuale, e gli stessi principi ispiratori sono pure ripresi da alcune sculture ideali della fine del II e del I sec. a.C. Senza dire, poi, che molte statue e molti ritratti di stile misto vanno considerate espressioni dell'eclettismo greco-egizio, questa volta rivolto non al marmo importato dalla Grecia, ma alla lavorazione delle pietre tradizionali della scultura egiziana.
Anzi, conviene precisare che alcuni ritratti alessandrini, dopo Raphia (217 a.C.), denotano un misto di realismo e di accademismo, che sono gli esiti di due condizioni, una nuova per assimilazione della cultura artistica dell'Egitto e l'altra ereditata dalla Grecia. Ancora una volta, nella terra dei Faraoni, la gloriosa tradizionale arte dell'antico Egitto e la nuova rivoluzionaria arte prodotta dai Greci ripropongono il medesimo raffinato confronto tra realismo ed eclettismo.
Più difficile è la ricerca nell'ambito del repertorio delle terrecotte, dei piccoli bronzi e delle argenterie, dove però l'iterazione di un repertorio fortunato e tradizionale tramanda scene e decorazioni gradite ed a lungo circolanti.
Arriviamo così al vasto e fortunato repertorio classicistico delle stoffe copte, perentorio e dilagante fino alla tarda antichità, come un palinsesto ricco di eredità classiche.
L'Egitto greco-romano, dunque, che rimase solo ai margini del classico, di questo grande fenomeno fu interprete e tramite, anche verso la cultura artistica romana, per mezzo del gusto classicistico e della moda eclettica.
Quanto alla storia della storiografia, sarà sufficiente ricordare l'importante e recente eco del significato del classico, idea o realtà, e dei temi classicistici, ampiamente discussi nel Catalogo della recente mostra di Berlino: Die griechische Klassik (Marzo-Giugno 2002).

Ellen Birnbaum
Harvard University

"Jews’ Perceptions of Themselves and Others in Ancient Alexandria"

In contrast to their fellow Jews in the homeland of Judea, Alexandrian Jews necessarily had to define themselves in relation to non-Jewish neighbors—mostly Egyptians and Greeks—and their culture. One characteristic of some Alexandrian Jewish writings is the allegorical interpretation of Scripture, whereby the Bible is understood to mean something other than its obvious sense. According to one argument, this kind of interpretation was an important vehicle of expression for Jews’ attitudes toward their neighbors. By understanding the Bible allegorically, Jews were able to subsume Greek ideas to Scripture, to portray Moses as the originator of these ideas, and thus implicitly to assert the superiority of Jews to Greeks.

To test this argument, this paper will focus upon three Alexandrian Jewish sources known for their use of allegorical interpretation—the Letter of Aristeas, the fragments of Aristobulus, and the writings of Philo. The investigation will show that allegorical interpretations can express a variety of Jewish attitudes toward non-Jews, including superiority of Jews to non-Jews, equality between the two groups, or neutrality on the issue. In addition, some interpretations may reflect contemporaneous social and political circumstances. In other, non-allegorical parts of these works, all three sources also offer views different from and occasionally opposite to those found within the allegorical interpretations. Expressions of inferiority to non-Jews, however, are not found. Thus the authors of these works demonstrate an ambivalent stance, sometimes seeing Jews as superior to non-Jews, sometimes seeing the two groups as equal or potentially equal.

Ellen Birnbaum is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. Author of The Place of Judaism in Philo ’s Thought: Israel, Jews, and Proselytes, she has recently been teaching, studying, and writing about Jews among Egyptians and Greeks in ancient Alexandria.

Fabienne Burkhalter
Former Member of the French School of Athens
chercheur associé au Centre Ausonius (UMR 5607) de l'Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux III

"Hierothytai: a Greek Magistracy in Alexandria"

The hierothytai are mentioned in various marriage contracts of the Augustan period drawn up in the basileia of Alexandria. In a special clause, the bride and the bridegroom agreed to draw up and register a new contract through the hierothytai, when one of them requires it. According to some scholars, the function of the Alexandrian hierothytai was deeply influenced by the Egyptian model, where the scribe and priests of the temples were responsible for carrying out the notariate (CdE 60 (1985), 398-411).

This paper rejects that theory and shows that the hierothytai were Greek magistrates, of Greek tradition, whose functions in Alexandria were very similar to those of the agoranomoi in the khôra. A papyrus at Columbia University (P.Col. IV 120), written in 229/8 B.C., can throw new light upon this subject. It suggests that the hierothysion of Alexandria was located in, and gave its name to, the quarter of the city called the Patrika.

Recent publication : "La mosaïque nilotique de Palestrina et les pharaonica d'Alexandrie", Topoi, 9 (1999), 229-260 ; "Le Tarif de Coptos. La douane de Coptos, les fermiers de l'apostolion et le préfet du désert de Bérénice", Autour de Coptos, Topoi, Suppl. 3 (2002), 199-233.

Livia Capponi
PhD student in Ancient History (thesis on Augustan Egypt)
Brasenose College, Oxford

"The 'oikos' of Alexandria"

In this paper I discuss the problem of the status of the land of the Alexandrian citizens in the late Ptolemaic and early Roman periods. I examine the extant documents that refer to the city of Alexandria as a landowner. In particular, I take into consideration the references to the institution of the oikos or patrimony of the city.
Jean-Yves Empereur
Director of the Center for Alexandrian Studies, French National Research Center (CNRS), Alexandria

"Recent rescue excavations in Alexandria A contribution to the Topography of the Capital of the Ptolemies"

From 10 years, the Center for Alexandrian Studies (CEA) proceeds to rescue excavations in Alexandria, on dry land and underwater, in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Following the building projects of the developers, we had opportunities to go down to the natural bedrock in more than 15 archaeological excavations, in the Bruccheion district, in the Kaisareion, in the ancient streets, city walls and recently in the Necropolis. Underwater, we are currently reconstructing some parts of the Lighthouse, as it will be showed. A group of 6 colossal statues is emerging from the sea. Thanks to these results, we shall update the picture of the topography of the Capital of the Ptolemies. A first preliminary report on an excavation which recently started in the Latin Cemetery of Terra Santa n°2 (near the Alabaster Tomb) will be given.

Recent bibliography:

Commerce et artisanat dans l'Alexandrie Hellénistique et romaine, Actes du Colloque d'Athènes, 11-12 décembre 1998, BCH Suppl. 33, 1998.

Collection of the Études Alexandrines (Cairo, IFAO publisher) : 8 volumes published : 1) Alexandrina 1, 1998 ; 2) V. FRANÇOIS, La céramique médiévale à Alexandrie, 1999 ; 3) Alexandrie médiévale,1, Table ronde tenue à l'IFAO, Le Caire 1996, 1998 ; 4) M.-D. NENNA ET M. SEIF EL DIN, La vaisselle en faïence d'époque gréco-romaine : catalogue du Musée gréco-romain d'Alexandrie, 2000 ; 5) Nécropolis 1: Tombes B1 B2, B3, B8, 2001 ; 6) Alexandrina 2, Le Caire, 2002 ; 7) Nécropolis 2, 2002 ; 8) Alexandrie médiévale 2, 2002.

For a larger public :

Alexandria rediscovered. George Braziller Books, New York, 1998.
La Gloire d'Alexandrie, catalogue de l'exposition du Petit Palais, mai-juillet 1998, Paris, 1998.
Le phare d'Alexandrie, Paris, Découvertes Gallimard, Paris, 1998.
Alexandrie hier et demain, Paris, Découvertes Gallimard, Paris, 2001.

Paolo Gallo
Professor, University of Turin

"The Pharaonic Monuments of Alexandria: an Overview"

The name of Alexandria of Egypt evokes some of the most impressive monuments of the Greek culture: the luxurious royal palaces of the Ptolemies, the Mouseion and the Famous Library; More than that, there is the Pharos, the tomb of Alexander the Great, the great Serapeum. Nonetheless, the largest capital of the Greek culture in the Mediterranean provides a number greater and greater of monuments from the Pharaonic period, and others that belong to later periods, but were produced in conformity with the ancient Pharaonic cultural tradition: they are the so-called "pharaonica" of Alexandria. These monuments display a great variety: sphinxes, obelisks, blocks of holy buildings, columns, shrines, but also stelae, sarcophagi, statues of Egyptian gods and even private statues, clepsydrae and so on.

The large quantity of Pharaonic materials from the archaeological excavations of the last years reopens the question of the traditional image of the town of Alexander the Great and the conclusions that historians and archaeologists had hitherto drawn on the monumental features and on the cultural identity of the great metropolis of the Hellenistic world. If Alexandria was one of the greatest capitals of the Greek culture, which was then the role of these great Pharaonic monuments in the ancient Macedonian foundation? At present, there is no exhaustive about the "pharaonica" of Alexandria. Our research aims therefore at filling this gap in the studies and its objective is to explain the different meanings (religious, cultural et cetera) that the Pharaonic, or "Pharaonic-shaped" monuments did assume in Alexandria, through cataloguing, study and detailed pulications.
Christopher Haas
Associate Professor of History
Villanova University

"Hellenism and Opposition to Christianity in Alexandria"

This paper examines the response of pagan Alexandrians to Christianity from the mid-3rd century to the end of the 4th century. Specifically, it explores the role of Hellenism in the construction of a pagan communal identity during this period, and seeks to determine whether Hellenism, in a narrowly Alexandrian context, signified a religious ideology. Was Hellenism simply the construct of late antique philosophers in their attempt to comprehend indigenous religion into a universal system, or did it have real meaning for the average Alexandrian? In an attempt to answer these questions, this paper focuses on popular religious behavior as an indicator of pagan self-identity in Alexandria, and assesses literary representations of "Hellenes" by both pagan and Christian writers.

Christopher Haas is the author of Alexandria in Late Antiquity: Topography and Social Conflict (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).

Mona Haggag
Assistant Professor of Classical Archaeology
Department of Classical Studies
University of Alexandria

"Some Unpublished Magical Figurines from Upper Egypt"

An ensemble of two wax figurines of a man and a woman attacked by two jackals has been uncovered under an inverted earthen pot in the cemetery of ancient Cynopolis. Wax figurines were used in homeopathic magic in Egypt as early as the Old Kingdom for some purposes - mostly aggressive. Wax figurines were equally used in Greece for the same purposes. In Graeco-Roman Egypt the two cultures converged to produce a synthesis of magical traditions combining both Egyptian and Greek elements. In this paper the magical wax ensemble will be studied in view of the testimony of literary and archaeological evidence.
Giovanni Ruffini
Columbia University

"Late Antique Pagan Networks from Athens to the Thebaid"

Pagan intellectual life in the fifth and sixth centuries CE takes form around an axis comprised of Egypt, Alexandria, and Athens. Authors like Damaskios provide a rich prosopographical account of pagan philosophical and literary circles from the end of the fifth century on through the reign of Justinian. This prosopographical material is susceptible to a variety of forms of social network analysis. These quantitative approaches allow us to identify previously unnoticed cliques and internal social ruptures, and to determine which of these pagan elites were the most socially connected. It ultimately permits us to ask whether, in the context of pagan late antiquity, Alexandria was closer socially to Greece or Egypt.

Giovanni Ruffini (AB University of Chicago, 1996, MA San Francisco State University, 1999) is a graduate student in ancient history at Columbia University. Recent work includes Greek and Roman Coins of the Lindgren Collection, a forthcoming publication of San Francisco State University's Frank V. de Bellis Collection, and the presentation of a paper entitled "Egypt's Southern Frontier after the Diocletianic Retreat" at the Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity IV conference, March 2001.
Walter Scheidel
Professor, University of Chicago

"Creating a Metropolis: a Comparative Demographic Perspective"

The evolution of Ptolemaic Alexandria into one of the largest cities of the ancient Mediterranean world cannot be traced in any detail. Ancient sources fail to elucidate the pace and overal pattern of its urban development. Drawing on comparative evidence for later premodern capital cities, this paper seeks to establish a propositional model of the character of Alexandria’s demographic growth. As the new focus of political power and resource flows, Ptolemaic Alexandria can be expected to have expanded rapidly for a limited amount of time until it approached a ceiling imposed by structural constraints and development stalled. This model is meant to provide a conceptual framework for future assessments of pertinent evidence, especially the archaeological record. Walter Scheidel currently teaches ancient history at the University of Chicago. He will move to Stanford University in 2003. His most recent book is Death on the Nile: disease and the demography of Roman Egypt (Brill, 2001).

Heinrich von Staden
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

"Galen of Pergamum on Alexandria and Egypt"

Galen's extensive observations about Alexandria and Egypt are of considerable value not only because of his perhaps unparalleled knowledge of the illustrious, complex tradition of scientific medicine in Alexandria. As a Greek from Asia Minor who lived in Alexandria for four years (though he is perhaps better known for his years in the service of the imperial family in Rome), he also offers useful comparative perspectives. Furthermore, Alexandria, like Rome and Pergamum, became central to his depiction of the world and, in particular, of his place in it.

His detailed remarks about Alexandria, scattered across roughly forty of his 138 extant treatises, not only reflect Galen's direct and indirect familiarity with Alexandria and Egypt but also prompt many questions. This paper attempts to address several of these questions, including the following: What motivated a brilliant young Greek physician trained in Asia Minor to go to Egypt in the mid-second century? Given Galen's harsh criticism of most of the leading Alexandrian physicians he encountered and his overt contempt for many Alexandrian social and cultural practices, why did he stay there for four years, and why did Alexandria remain an important point of reference in his prolific writings of all periods? What, if anything, did he depict as being distinctively Alexandrian, and, in particular, in what respects, if any, did he draw a distinction between Alexandria and other parts of the Greek-speaking world or between 'Alexandrian' and 'Egyptian'?
Dorothy Thompson
Faculty of Classics, Cambridge UK

"Ptolemaic Alexandria, an Up-country View"

As a city Alexandria was thought of as somehow separate from the rest of Egypt. This paper sets out to ask what different groups living in the chôra knew of their capital city, how they learned of it and what they thought of it. Most of the surviving evidence treats the Greek settler class but even minor administrative officials might be required to come to the capital on official business. Various examples are considered and real knowledge of the capital is set besides second-hand knowledge, in which the role of literature learned at school is crucial. The Egyptian view of the capital is shown to be somewhat negative. It is suggested that a sense of Alexandria was important for the unity of the Ptolemaic kingdom. Ptolemaic kings took positive action to promulgate a favourable image of their capital.

Dorothy Thompson teaches ancient history in the Faculty of Classics in Cambridge, England. She is a Fellow of Girton College and Fellow of the British Academy. Together with Willy Clarysse, she has recently completed a two-volume study of Ptolemaic tax registers entitled Counting the people.

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