Triumphal Inscription of Ptolemy III at Adulis

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_7107
dc.title	Triumphal Inscription of Ptolemy III at Adulis
dc.contributor.author	Rossini Alessandro
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	it
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/axon/2021/2/iscrizione-trionfale-di-tolomeo-iii-ad-aduli/
dc.description.abstract	The complex triumphal inscription of King Ptolemy III of Egypt (246-222/221 BC) ‘Great King descended from Heracles and Dionysus’ stands out among the great epigraphic documents of the Ptolemaic dynasty. It includes the official genealogy of the sovereign, a panorama of the territories inherited from Ptolemy II and, above all, the list of the conquests of the first phase of the Laodicean war (246-245 BC), which culminated in an anabasis up to Central Asia. We know this historical and meta-historical document only through the autopsy of the Alexandrian merchant Cosmas Indicopleustes, who saw it in Adulis (Kingdom of Axum), in the heart of ancient Aithiopia, in 547-549 AD. The inscription raises numerous questions, and must be examined keeping in view the concepts of memory and tradition. Added to this is the fascinating intellectual history of his reception, which played a role in the birth of the concept of ‘Hellenism’ itself.
dc.relation.ispartof	Axon
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 5 \| Issue 2 \| December 2021
dc.issued	2021-12-10
dc.dateAccepted	2021-10-25
dc.dateSubmitted	2021-08-05
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2532-6848
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/Axon/2532-6848/2021/02/005
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Adulis
dc.subject	Adulis
dc.subject	Axum
dc.subject	Axum
dc.subject	Cosmas Indicopleustes
dc.subject	Cosmas Indicopleustes
dc.subject	Hellenism
dc.subject	Hellenism
dc.subject	Laodicean war
dc.subject	Laodicean war
dc.subject	Memory
dc.subject	Memory
dc.subject	Propaganda
dc.subject	Propaganda
dc.subject	Ptolemy III
dc.subject	Ptolemy III
dc.subject	Tradition
dc.subject	Tradition
dc.subject	Triumph
dc.subject	Triumph

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

Alessandro Rossini Università degli Studi di Verona, Italia

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abstract

The complex triumphal inscription of King Ptolemy III of Egypt (246-222/221 BC) ‘Great King descended from Heracles and Dionysus’ stands out among the great epigraphic documents of the Ptolemaic dynasty. It includes the official genealogy of the sovereign, a panorama of the territories inherited from Ptolemy II and, above all, the list of the conquests of the first phase of the Laodicean war (246-245 BC), which culminated in an anabasis up to Central Asia. We know this historical and meta-historical document only through the autopsy of the Alexandrian merchant Cosmas Indicopleustes, who saw it in Adulis (Kingdom of Axum), in the heart of ancient Aithiopia, in 547-549 AD. The inscription raises numerous questions, and must be examined keeping in view the concepts of memory and tradition. Added to this is the fascinating intellectual history of his reception, which played a role in the birth of the concept of ‘Hellenism’ itself.

Published

Dec. 10, 2021

Accepted

Oct. 25, 2021

Submitted

Aug. 5, 2021

Language

Keywords: Hellenism • Ptolemy III • Axum • Propaganda • Memory • Cosmas Indicopleustes • Laodicean war • Triumph • Tradition • Adulis

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/Axon/2532-6848/2021/02/005

Copyright: © 2021 Alessandro Rossini. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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