Counting the People in Hellenistic Egypt 2 Volume Hardback Set (Cambridge Classical Studies)
Cambridge University Press, 2006-08-03
EAN 9780521839334, ISBN10: 0521839335
Hardcover, 1056 pages, 25.7 x 18 x 7.6 cm
Language: English
This book consists of two closely related parts. Volume I publishes fifty-four Greek and Egyptian demotic papyri which derive from census and tax activities in Egypt of the third and second centuries BC. Volume II is an historical study, using these texts to analyse fundamental aspects of Ptolemaic Egypt. The salt-tax registers of P. Count. make possible an assessment of the fiscal policy of the new Macedonian pharaohs and an analysis of the population make-up in both ethnic and occupational terms. A demographic analysis of this material exploits the best information for family and household structure for the Western world before the fifteenth century. A constant theme throughout is the impact of the Greeks on the native population of Egypt. This is traced, for example, in cultural policies, in administrative geography, in the realm of stock-rearing and in the changing religious affiliations traceable through the names that parents gave their children.
' ... an invaluable contribution and essential reading for all students of ancient history, Egypt and papyri.' The Journal of Classics Teaching 'these volumes are a must-read for anybody interested in Ptolemaic Egypt, or the Hellenistic world at large ... a wonderful piece of scholarship, setting the framework of Ptolemaic society ...' Sehepunkite