Immigrant Soldiers and Ptolemaic Policy in Hellenistic Egypt (Late Fourth Century–30 BCE)

Abstract

This chapter examines the military diaspora in Hellenistic Egypt ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty between 323 and 30 BCE (when Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire). Based on papyrological evidence, the essay analyzes how after Alexander the Great had occupied Egypt in 332 BCE, civilians and soldiers from the Greek-speaking world came to Egypt and were grouped according to ethnic categories. It then investigates the importance of immigrants for the military policy of the Ptolemies and the identities of two specific population groups that emerged from immigrant soldiers: Cleruchs (members of the regular army of the Ptolemies) on one hand, and mercenaries, or professional soldiers, on the other. The chapter shows how the different affiliation to one of the two military groups manifested itself in different identity formations: While the cleruchs presented themselves as preservers of a (common) Greek cultural identity, mercenaries/professional soldiers seemed to express an ethnic identity (e.g., Boeotian, Cretan, Jewish) through association. Most prominent among the latter were the politeumata, administrative units based on (semi-autonomous) ethnic communities of mercenaries/professional soldiers, with which the Ptolemies may have intended to create an integrative (urban) counterpart to the cleruchic settlements based on individual land grants.