Introduction

Abstract

The Introduction provides a background to set the book’s argument into the larger context of the Hellenistic world. After giving a brief account of Hellenism in Egypt before and after Alexander’s campaigns, the chapter provides comparative material by presenting selected examples of Hellenistic gymnasia outside of Egypt with their architectonic characteristics, their functions, and their cultural significance. It then provides the methodological and scholarly foundations of the analysis and reviews the main aspects that come into play for the study of the gymnasia of Ptolemaic Egypt. This sets the place of Egypt within the study of the larger Hellenistic world.