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Csaba A. La’da
Encounters with foreigners, either as successful or unsuccessful invaders or as peaceful immigrants, were frequent experiences of the Ancient Egyptians and represent a crucially important force in the shaping of the history and culture of Egypt throughout the millennia. As a result, from the earliest times Egyptian outlook fundamentally divided the world into oqx and hWvx, that is, the nurturing and familiar black earth of Egypt and the hostile red earth of the desert, symbolizing the outside world. In this Weltanschauung, Egyptians (vqX2{$r) oqx stood opposed to foreigners, usually referred to as |Ewx}2{ ‘foreigners’ or ‘desert dwellers’1 or, alternatively, by a large number of different ethnic designations (e.g. La’da 1996; Zibelius 1972).
Of all ancient peoples, the Greeks had probably the most extensive and fruitful encounter with Egypt. Documented contacts between Egypt and the Greeks span approximately two millennia, stretching from the Aegean Bronze Age to the loss of Egypt by the Byzantine empire to the Arabs in 641 AD. Here I survey and examine the nature of this interaction between Egyptians and Greeks in the hellenistic period, the period in which the two peoples and cultures experienced some of the closest and most enduring encounters with one another, which produced profound and long- lasting results for both civilizations.
A large number of aspects could be mentioned, encompassing practically all areas of life, a testimony to the extent and depth of the interaction between Greeks and Egyptians in the hellenistic period, e.g. the Greek impact on the Egyptian economy, for which there is evidence already from the first period of Persian domination in Egypt (Chauveau 1996a: 411, 1996b: 41–42 n. 14) and the introduction of Greek technological innovations and management techniques. Various areas of intellectual life could be discussed: cross-cultural influences in literature, sculpture (Ashton 2003), painting, medicine, astronomy and astrology, architecture and other branches of art and science. The problem of languages in contact forms another very important and large field. In this chapter, I concentrate on the key political and social factors of the encounter between Greeks and Egyptians, which created the essential framework for cross-cultural interaction and to a large extent predetermined its dynamics. I focus principally on theoretical questions, using examples from the sources to illustrate them, as it seems that there is a certain amount of confusion in this regard in the secondary literature and that, due to recent research and new sources, a major revision
of current fundamental views of the society and culture of hellenistic Egypt has become inevitable.
Relations between Egypt and the areas of the Aegean and the Mediterranean settled by the Greeks are of great antiquity (Assmann 2000; Austin 1970; De Salvia 1989; Vercoutter 1997; and the exhibition catalogue Karetsou 1999). Contact with Minoan Crete and the Mycenaean Greeks is well attested. The image of Egypt is already firmly established in the Homeric poems and a plethora of Egyptian artefacts has been unearthed in Greece, the Aegean and even in western Greek colonies such as Cumae and Pithecusa in Italy from as early as the eighth century. The seventh century brought a significant broadening of relations: the first major Greek colony was established on Egyptian soil. Naucratis, founded in the Delta on the Canopic branch of the Nile in the reign of Psammetichos I (664–610), played a crucial role in channelling the flow of trade, people and ideas between Egypt and the Greeks. Besides merchants and their wares, an increasing number of mercenaries came from Greece to help to realize the political aspirations of the kings of the twenty-sixth Dynasty.
The late seventh century opened a qualitatively new chapter in relations. In addition to the tangible exchange of objects and goods, from the time of Solon there appears to have been a certain kind of abstract intellectual contact. There survive a growing number of works written in Greek which demonstrate some measure of familiarity with Egypt and Egyptian thought or at least claim to have been influenced by them. The list of the authors of such works is impressive: Solon, Hecataeus of Miletus, Herodotus, Euripides and Plato to name only the best known.
Finally, the fifth and especially the fourth century brought an intensification of military contacts. This took the form of anti-Persian co-operation between Greek city- states and, first, Egyptian rebels and then the pharaohs of the twenty-ninth and thirtieth Dynasties, who struggled, ultimately unsuccessfully, to preserve their independence in the face of the Persian threat.
It was against this historical background of Egypto-Greek relations that Alexander the Great and his army victoriously entered Egypt in December 332 BC. As the second period of Persian domination was particularly oppressive, the natives welcomed Alexander as their liberator. In the decades which followed, Alexander and his successors in Egypt, the Ptolemies, gradually built up a highly sophisticated and centralized state, which was to last for over three centuries until Octavian the later Augustus finally “added Egypt to the empire of the Roman people” (Res Gestae 27) in 30 BC.
One of the most immediate and tangible impacts on Egypt of Alexander’s conquest and Ptolemaic rule was immigration. Although Egypt had always acted as a powerful magnet for invaders and immigrants alike, Alexander’s conquest opened a new era in the history of the country from the point of view of immigration: a sustained period of mass immigration. Hundreds of thousands of foreign settlers poured into the country from practically all over the then known world, attracted by the prospect of employment, land and rich economic opportunities. In addition, a large number of foreign slaves and prisoners of war were brought to Egypt by its new rulers. For example, according to the Letter of Aristeas, Ptolemy I deported 100,000
Jewish prisoners from Palestine to Egypt, although the numbers in this report are greatly exaggerated (Modrzejewski 1991: 65).
The best and most reliable quantifiable evidence available for the history of immigration to Egypt in the hellenistic period are the ethnic labels referring to individuals in the papyrological and epigraphic source material (La’da 1996, the database of which is in preparation for publication). There are close to 150 different foreign ethnic terms attested in the Greek and demotic sources,2 which demonstrates the ethnic and geographical heterogeneity of the immigrants. Although they originated from a large number of different ethnic groups inhabiting regions all over the Mediterranean, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, the Near East and north-eastern Africa, numerically the most dominant group was undoubtedly formed by the Greeks and the by then largely hellenized Macedonians. In addition, a significant number of immigrants arrived from other, previously more or less hellenized peoples in Europe and Asia Minor, such as the Thracians and the Carians. On the evidence of the ethnic designations found in the documents, Thracians seem to have constituted the third largest group of immigrants to the Egyptian chora after the Greeks and Macedonians. Other large immigrant groups were formed by the Jews, Arabs, Mysians and Syrians. Thus, in the hellenistic period the principal sources of immigration to Egypt were to some extent reorientated away from such traditionally important sources as Syria- Palestine, Libya and Nubia towards Greece, Macedonia, areas of the eastern and central Mediterranean inhabited by Greeks and to other parts of the Balkans and Asia Minor.
Ethnic designations in the documents can also provide information about the chronology of immigration to hellenistic Egypt. They suggest that immigration peaked in the third century, dramatically declining in the second and coming to a virtual halt in the first century, although there is very little evidence for the period before the 280s and for the first century.
Alexander’s conquest was followed by a sustained period of mass immigration, the scale and ethnic and geographical diversity of which were unprecedented in Egyptian history. This process, which took place as part of a wider population movement from the north-eastern Mediterranean towards the Near East, seems to have lasted until about the end of the third century and brought in mostly Greeks, Macedonians and other peoples from the Balkans and Asia Minor, as well as smaller numbers of people from ethnic groups located in the Near East. As a consequence, a large proportion of the population of hellenistic Egypt was of foreign descent, although the exact numbers and proportions are ultimately indeterminable. These conclusions are unequivocally corroborated by other types of evidence, such as ancient Greek historians and archaeology.
It is particularly difficult to reconstruct what image of Egypt these Greek and Macedonian immigrants brought with them to their new country, apart from the fact that they must obviously have considered it an especially attractive destination from an economic point of view. The difficulty involved in this is due not only to a lack of direct sources but also to the fact that it is hard to gauge how much influence the ideas of Greek intellectuals exercised on ordinary people in the early hellenistic period. Nevertheless, in the light of the generally positive Greek intellectual approaches to Egypt and Egyptian civilization in the archaic, classical and early hellenistic periods
(cf. Assmann 2000: 83–92), it seems reasonable to assume that these immigrants, and especially their more educated elite, arrived with a positive image of Egypt. Certainly, the intellectual attitude of the majority of Greco-Macedonian immigrants was in general open and receptive to at least some aspects of Egyptian culture. This is strongly suggested by the speedy adoption of particular Egyptian religious ideas and imagery by the new immigrants (e.g. Hölbl 1993, 1994: 256, 2001: 281; stela P. L. Bat. XX F). No doubt the ground had been prepared to some extent by the spread of the Isis cult to Greece early in the hellenistic period (Hölbl 1994: 78, 2001: 85) and by the participation of pre-hellenistic Greek immigrants to Egypt in native cults (Hölbl 1994: 93, 2001: 99; Thompson 1988: 96).
An important role must have been played in this regard by the example which Alexander’s and the early Ptolemies’ attitude towards Egyptian religion and their religious policies gave their Greek and Macedonian subjects. Alexander’s attempt to win divine legitimacy through the oracle of Amun at Siwa, his respect for Egyptian religious and political traditions, his sacrifices to various Egyptian deities, his sacred building activity – especially his foundation of an Isis temple in Alexandria (Arrian
Anabasis III.1.5, Hölbl 1994: 78, 2001: 85) – and possibly also his coronation in the
traditional Egyptian manner (Q. Curtius Rufus IV.7.5; Hölbl 1994: 9, 69–70, 80; 2001: 9–10, 77–78, 88), all suggest wide-ranging co-operation with the Egyptian clergy, and set the tone for the rest of the hellenistic period. Whether inspired by mere political calculation, genuine religious devotion or perhaps by the appreciation generations of Greek intellectuals showed of Egyptian civilization, the Ptolemies followed Alexander’s example through their active religious policy (see Hölbl 1994, 2001: chs. III (3), VI (6) and IX (9)). Numerous aspects of this policy seem to suggest not only that the Ptolemies were open and receptive to Egyptian culture, especially religion, but also that they had, obviously to a varying extent, a positive attitude towards it.3 These aspects include, for example, the expensive temple building programme undertaken on a huge scale all over the country, the official acceptance and widespread application of Egyptian religious ideology and imagery, the increasing adoption of the Egyptian theory of kingship, the creation of the Serapis cult and the generous royal patronage it enjoyed, as well as Manetho’s active involvement at the court in the shaping of this religious policy and the royal encouragement he received to write a history of Egypt and perhaps other works on Egyptian religion. This positive attitude undoubtedly reached its climax on both the ideological and artistic planes under Cleopatra VII.
The generally open and positive attitude that the Ptolemies and their Greco- Macedonian subjects appear to have had towards Egyptian religion and also to some other aspects of Egyptian culture no doubt had an important and beneficial influence upon the nature of interaction which developed between the Ptolemaic state and its native Egyptian subjects, on the one hand, and between Greeks and Egyptians, on the other.
Another factor which played a crucially important role in determining the dynamics of the interaction between Egyptians and Greeks was the political and strategic situation of Egypt in the hellenistic world.
Alexander the Great died suddenly in 323 BC and in the ensuing power struggle among his successors, one of his generals, Ptolemy, son of Lagos, secured Egypt for
himself. Having victoriously defended his dominion from challenges several times on the battlefield, he made himself king and pharaoh of Egypt in 306/304 BC, founding the dynasty which was to be the most successful and long-lasting of all hellenistic royal dynasties. The fragmentation of Alexander’s empire and the emergence of separate and often hostile hellenistic kingdoms from its ruins meant that the Ptolemies were forced to rely on Egypt as their one and only home base. Although they did possess territories outside Egypt proper, such as Cyrenaica, Cyprus, parts of the Aegean and the southern coast of Asia Minor, these possessions, which were entirely due to Egypt’s economic and military might, were lost over time. This loss must obviously have hugely increased Egypt’s strategic value to the Ptolemies. Immigration to Egypt declined sharply by the end of the third century and in the hostilities of this century Egypt was gradually cut off from its traditional recruiting grounds and sources of mercenaries in Greece and Macedonia. The emergency situation before the battle of Raphia in 217 BC, when an acute and dangerous shortage of Greek and Macedonian soldiers occurred, forced Ptolemy IV to arm for the first time large numbers of native and Libyan troops. This powerfully conveyed the message that the Macedonian monarchs of Egypt could no longer rely on foreigners and outside support to maintain their rule over the country in the face of both external and internal threats.
The fact that the Ptolemaic dynasty was forced by these political circumstances to make Egypt its sole power base represents another radically different characteristic of the Macedonian conquest and rule. In almost all previous and subsequent periods of foreign domination, Egypt was attached and subjected, as a vanquished province, to a foreign empire and ruled from outside. Its resources were channelled out of the country, draining it of its wealth. In the Ptolemaic period, however, a dynasty, which albeit foreign in origin came progressively to identify with Egypt, ruled the country from within. Although the Ptolemies spent vast sums on foreign campaigns and expensive gifts to further their political aims, the economic resources of the country substantially remained within it, benefiting the local population. This is in sharp contrast with the Roman period, for instance, when Egypt was gradually and ruthlessly bled of its wealth through the taxes it was forced to pay to its master. Thanks to the Ptolemies’ efforts, in the third century Egypt regained its ‘great power’ status in the Near East and the eastern Mediterranean basin, which it had lost 700 years previously at the end of the New Kingdom. No power in the eastern and central Mediterranean and the Near East could afford to ignore Egypt any longer.
Thus, the scene is set: a country which was conquered by a foreign power but which eventually became an independent kingdom again, albeit under foreign monarchs. The ruling dynasty often had to struggle to protect its grip on power from both foreign threats and internal revolts. Large numbers of immigrants, probably in the hundreds of thousands, poured in and settled, making Egypt their permanent home. As a consequence, a significant proportion of the population came to be of foreign descent. After more than a century, however, large-scale immigration came to a halt. These are the key factors that had important consequences for the dynamics of the interaction between Egyptians and Greeks, the two largest ethnic groups sharing the country.
In any systematic analysis of the relations between different ethnic groups in any society, a fundamental distinction must be made between two large spheres of interaction: the official and the private. It is essential to realize that official or state policy, either openly declared or undisclosed, towards different ethnic groups is in most polities quite different from private attitudes. Nevertheless, it is obvious that official policy can and usually does have a strong influence upon ethnic interaction in the private sphere.
What kind of state and society was hellenistic Egypt from the perspective of ethnicity? What role did ethnic differences play and what significance did the Ptolemaic government attach to them in the distribution of political power and material wealth? To put it more abstractly, was hellenistic Egypt a stratified multi- ethnic polity which was characterized by differential control of power and wealth by different ethnic groups or, rather, did ethnicity play a minimal role, or no role at all, in social stratification?
And if ethnicity did play some role in the social stratification of hellenistic Egypt, precisely how important was this role? Was it an openly discriminatory state in which differentiation between the Greco-Macedonian immigrants and the natives was explicitly codified in the laws and expressed in the institutions of the state (type 1: openly discriminatory state)? To use a modern example, which has been referred to in recent research (see Ritner 1992: 290), was hellenistic Egypt a state similar to South Africa under the apartheid regime where the hierarchy and segregation of different racial groups were enshrined in the laws and strictly enforced?
Or was hellenistic Egypt a covertly discriminatory state, which, although it had no discriminatory laws and institutions, in practice had a discriminatory agenda and in its practical acts strengthened and promoted the immigrants at the expense of the natives (type 2: covertly discriminatory state)? Modern examples would be the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, where the laws guaranteed equality to all irrespective of ethnic background and where the governments claimed to uphold all human rights, but in reality both countries practised a deliberate policy of expulsion, discrimination and forced assimilation of ethnic groups they considered undesirable. Both of these states have recently been confined to history by internal ethnic strife as a direct consequence of precisely the ethnic inequalities they fostered.
Or, finally, was hellenistic Egypt a non-discriminatory state in which ethnicity played no role in governmental policy, the laws and the institutions of the state (type 3: non-discriminatory state)? This, however, would not necessarily mean that ethnicity had no role at all in social stratification: ethnic prejudice and discrimination between immigrants and natives may well have had some part in the structuring of society, even without an overt or covert discriminatory policy on the part of the Ptolemaic state. To understand how this could have been possible, the example of modern western Europe and North America may be helpful. There the equal rights of