Gymnasia and Greek Identity in Ptolemaic Egypt

This book provides the first complete study of the documentation relevant to the gymnasium and gymnasial life in Egypt at the time of the Ptolemies, the longest reigning Hellenistic Royal House (323-30 BC). Paganini analyses the diffusion, characteristics, administration, and developments of the institution of the gymnasium in Ptolemaic Egypt and its implications for the assertion of Greek identity. He shows how this institution and its people were affected by the local environment and how 'those from the gymnasium', the members of this most distinctively Greek institution, were truly embedded in the social and cultural milieu of the country where they lived: they were the 'Greeks' of Egypt. Thanks to the information originating from Ptolemaic Egypt and its papyrological sources, this work showcases the variety of concomitant features and different traditions that were alive and active in the Hellenistic world, thus contributing to a better understanding of the ancient world in all its complexity and vitality.

1 - Introduction
2 - The Institution
3 - The Gymnasium at Alexandria
4 - Legal Status of Gymnasia
5 - The Officials
6 - Gymnasial Status
7 - Outsiders: Integration and Rejection
8 - Living the Greek Way
9 - The Gymnasium and Greek Identity

Mario C. D. Paganini obtained his DPhil in Ancient History from the University of Oxford and has held postdoctoral positions at the University of Copenhagen and at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He has conducted extensive research on the socio-cultural history of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt and on Greek documentary papyrology, including on private associations and on the first global edition of the papyri belonging to the archive of Apollonios, strategus of the Apollonopolites Heptakomias (second century AD).