Military immigration and the emergence of cultural or ethnic identities: The case of Ptolemaic Egypt

• Authors: Sänger Patrick
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Due to the recruitment policy of the Ptolemaic army, soldiers formed the largest migrant group into Egypt. Against this background it is natural to wonder whether papyri from Egypt allow us to trace the formation of a ‘military diaspora.’ Kostas Buraselis first applied this term to Ptolemaic Egypt to describe the whole body of soldiers from Greece and other regions who settled there. The present article seeks to investigate whether this is a useful concept by having a closer look at the practical expressions and facets of military immigration. This requires us to differentiate between two different kinds of Ptolemaic soldiers: the military settlers or cleruchs representing the regular army and the mercenaries or professional soldiers. The study will show that both population groups not only illuminate different military immigration and employment patterns but also different aspects of the military diaspora in Hellenistic Egypt.

Keywords

EN

cleruchs; mercenaries; identity; immigration; military diaspora; Hellenistic Egypt

• Publisher: Fundacja im. Rafała Taubenschlaga
• Journal: The Journal of Juristic Papyrology
• Year: 2015
• Issue: 45
• Pages: 229-253

Dates

published

2015

Contributors

author

Sänger Patrick

• Universität Wien Institut für Alte Geschichte und Altertumskunde, Papyrologie und Epigraphik Universitätsring 1 1010 Vienna Austria

Identifiers

ISSN

0075-4277