Social Unrest and Ethnic Coexistence in Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid Empire
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4162818 |
|---|---|
| Authors | C Fischer-Bovet, Christelle Fischer‐Bovet (0000-0002-7709-9657, University of Southern California, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 229 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 3-45 |
| Publication date | 2015-11-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Past & Present (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-2746 • E-ISSN: 1477-464X |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/pastj/gtv036 |
| OpenAlex | W2193092363 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
This article aims to demonstrate that the Ptolemaic and Seleucid kingdoms were multi-ethnic empires successful at integrating socially and ethnically diverse populations. They were at least as successful as the Roman empire after them in this regard, even if many scholars have stressed the degradation of the power of these kingdoms because of ethnic, even nationalistic, reaction to Greek conquest and colonization.1 In the case of Egypt, the core of the Ptolemaic state, ethnic diversity was largely limited to Greeks, Egyptians and Jews. The vast Seleucid Empire, by contrast, brought together Greeks, Persians, Babylonians, Bactrians and, from the second century, Jews. Although the relationship between Greeks and non-Greeks in both empires has been studied, close comparison between the two states has rarely been undertaken due to the diversity of sources, their distinct character (papyri for Egypt, cuneiform texts for the Seleucid empire), and the scarcity of Seleucid material. While the existence of ethnic tensions in these two multi-ethnic states is not surprising, the lack of clear evidence for conflicts along exclusively ethnic lines has been so far overlooked, with a few exceptions.2 Drawing on theoretical research about ethnicity and ethnic interaction, this article explains the absence of pure ethnic conflicts as a consequence of the integration of the local elite — above all at the lower administrative level and in the army — within the new foreign ruling groups. Mechanisms that facilitated the balancing of ethnic and socio-economic interests made this possible. After a brief exploration of the nature of unrest in the eastern Mediterranean under Alexander the Great and his successors, this article focuses on the state policies that prevented unrest in Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid Empire by facilitating ethnic integration. The analysis of group solidarities in Hellenistic Egypt and the Seleucid Empire suggests that socio-economic solidarities carried more weight than ethnic ties in maintaining political stability. It adds historical depth to the debate in the social sciences about explaining ethnic conflicts and reinforces the view — contested in sociology — that ethnic groups and ethnic conflicts are as old as humankind, even if conflicts along purely ethnic lines were rare in these states.3 Above all, this paper provides specific examples over a long time span that can inform and perhaps improve social scientific models.4 In turn, anthropological, sociological, and economic research may help ancient historians to analyse inter-ethnic relations in a comparative setting, with two results. Historians will avoid equating imperial policies with Hellenism, and they will better understand the particularities of the multi-ethnic empires that developed in the eastern Mediterranean.
Ancient history · Elite · Empire · Ethnic group · Greeks · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classical Antiquity Studies · History · Law
| Citations per year | 0.63 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2023 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |