{"product_id":"the-birdcage-of-the-muses-patronage-of-the-arts-and-sciences-at-the-ptolemaic-imperial-court-305-222-bce-9789042933507","title":"The Birdcage of the Muses: Patronage of the Arts","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the third century BCE, the Ptolemaic imperial court at Alexandria was        the unchallenged center of culture and learning in the Hellenistic        world. Backed by the vast wealth and prestige of the Ptolemies, the city        of Alexandria became the symbolic capital of the world, the main hub of        a dynamic imperial network that stretched from the Indian Ocean to the        Black Sea. Many poets, philosophers, inventors, geographers, and other        men of letters migrated to that center to enjoy the generous patronage        of the Ptolemies.  The Birdcage of the Muses is the first        book-length historical study of the golden age of Ptolemaic cultural and        scientific patronage. Working from new approaches to premodern        imperialism, Rolf Strootman reconsiders the significance of Hellenistic        court poetry from the perspective of current empire studies and the        sociological study of the court, arguing that artistic, scholarly and        scientific production contributed to processes of elite integration in        the heterogeneous imperial world system controlled by the Ptolemies.        Rejecting the modernist view that poets, scholars and technicians were        autonomous outsiders to court society, the author is able to place these        men in the social milieu of the court, showing how their professional        behavior was ruled by the same mechanisms of gift exchange, etiquette        and competition that determined court society as a whole. The        Hellenistic Age was a period of intensified globalization, and it was        through the royal court that writers and scientists were able to gain        access to the extensive elite networks that connected communities        throughout the Mediterranean and beyond. Literary authors in particular        contributed themselves to the growth of interconnectivity by creating a        common 'Hellenistic' imperial culture and language, and through the        expression of imperial themes, notably the idea that the civilized world        was, or ought to be, a single oikoumene of which Alexandria was        the glorious, magnetic heart.","brand":"Peeters Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49546311598423,"sku":"9789042933507","price":74.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-birdcage-of-the-muses-patronage-of-the-arts-and-sciences-at-the-ptolemaic-imperial-court-305-222-bce-9789042933507","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}