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Axon | Vol. 2 | Issue 1 | June 2018

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Research Article

Inscription of Greek Mercenaries to Abu Simbel

Stefano Struffolino    Università degli Studi di Milano    

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abstract

On the leg of one of the colossal statues on the facade of the great funerary temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel, in Nubia, Archon son of Amoibichos and Peleqos son of Eudamos, two mercenaries of Greek-Carian origin who militated in the ranks of the Egyptian Army, engrave a five lines inscription in which they recall the salient data of the expedition against the Nubian populations launched by the pharaoh of the XXVI dynasty Psammethicus II between 593 and 592 BC. The different origins of the people who left their mark in this and in the other graffiti on the Abu Simbel temple, explained by the palaeographic and dialectal peculiarities of the texts, confirm what we can learn from other sources, above all Herodotus, on the opening of the Saitic Egypt to external presences, also organised in stable settlements. The reasons for such a reception were certainly of an economic nature, but it is undeniable that for the Egyptians a considerable advantage came also from the possibility of exploiting the new military potentials of the Greek hoplite tactics, contributing to the spread of a mercenary service that encouraged different degrees of ethnic and social integration.

Published
June 29, 2018
Accepted
March 19, 2018
Submitted
Jan. 10, 2018
Language
IT

Keywords: Peleqos • Elefantina • Psammetico • Abu Simbel • Theokles • Egitto • Mercenariato • Asia minore caria • Ramesse II • Kush • Amoibichos • XXVI dinastia • Nubia • Amasi • Eudamos • Erodoto • Kerkis • Archon • Nilo • Potasimto • Napata • Egitto Saitico

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/Axon/2532-6848/2018/01/001

Link AXON 197
Copyright: © 2018 Stefano Struffolino. 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.