Hellenistic Monarchies in the Mediterranean World Building a New World Order?

The contributions to this volume represent a range of case studies that provide perspectives on the question of how deeply Hellenic influence penetrated into the lives of the subjects of the Hellenistic monarchies. Greek became the language of international discourse of the ruling elites in the kingdoms formed after the conquests of Alexander. But to what extent were the institutions and practices of these monarchies shaped by ideologies brought by Greek-speaking rulers? To what extent did the customs of the complex cultures they ruled over shape the practices of the ruling elites, conserving ancient institutions in traditional ways?

Introduction.- The Court, the Polis and Hellenistic Intellectual Culture.- The Commemorative and Legitimizing Dimension of Cultural Property in the Hellenistic Empires.- Victorious Kings. Hellenistic Rulers and Agonistic Success.- Tyche and the Hellenistic monarchies: The fortune of a new world.- Alcetas, the Pisidians, and the Macedonian Rule in Southern Asia Minor.- Leagues of Carians as Local Rather than Imperial Structures.- Ptolemy I, the Adversary, and Egyptian Royal Literature: “Restoring” a New World Order.- The Transformation of Native Temples and Invented Traditions: Between New Religiosity and Royal Policy – The Case of Ptolemaic Egypt.- Sight-seeing and state-branding: Egyptian cultural heritage in Ptolemaic diplomacy.- Associations in Ptolemaic Egypt: A Sociopolitical Typology.- Kingship, not monarchy. Some new directions in the study of Hellenistic kingship.

Mark Munn is Professor of Ancient Greek History and Archaeology at the Pennsylvania State University. His special interests are in Greek historiography, intellectual history, the history of ancient Mediterranean religions, connections between Anatolia and Greece, warfare and fortifications, epigraphy, survey archaeology and topography. He is the excavator of the Classical and Hellenistic fortress of Panakton near Athens.