2021/12/10 by Alessandro Rossini · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Ancient history #Archaeology and Historical Studies #Central asia #Classical Antiquity Studies #Classics #Genealogy #History #Ptolemy's table of chords
paper · doi:10.30687/axon/2532-6848/2021/02/005
openalex publication_date 2021/12/10 · openalex created_date 2021/12/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
The complex triumphal inscription of King Ptolemy III of Egypt (246-222/221 BC) ‘Great King descended from Heracles and Dionysus’ stands out among the great epigraphic documents of the Ptolemaic dynasty. It includes the official genealogy of the sovereign, a panorama of the territories inherited from Ptolemy II and, above all, the list of the conquests of the first phase of the Laodicean war (246-245 BC), which culminated in an anabasis up to Central Asia. We know this historical and meta-historical document only through the autopsy of the Alexandrian merchant Cosmas Indicopleustes, who saw it in Adulis (Kingdom of Axum), in the heart of ancient Aithiopia, in 547-549 AD. The inscription raises numerous questions, and must be examined keeping in view the concepts of memory and tradition. Added to this is the fascinating intellectual history of his reception, which played a role in the birth of the concept of ‘Hellenism’ itself.