Description
Book SynopsisHellenistic courts were centres of monarchic power, social prestige and high culture in the kingdoms that emerged after the death of Alexander. They were places of refinement, learning and luxury, and also of corruption, rivalry and murder. Surrounded by courtiers of varying loyalty, Hellenistic royal families played roles in a theatre of spectacle and ceremony. Architecture, art, ritual and scholarship were deployed to defend the existence of their dynasties. The present volume, from a team of international experts, examines royal methods and ideologies. It treats the courts of the Ptolemies, Seleucids, Attalids, Antigonids and of lesser dynasties. It also explores the influence, on Greek-speaking courts, of non-Greek culture, of Achaemenid and other Near Eastern royal institutions. It studies the careers of courtesans, concubines and 'friends' of royalty, and the intellectual, ceremonial, and artistic world of the Greek monarchies. The work demonstrates the complexity and motivations of Hellenistic royal civilisation, of courts which governed the transmission of Greek culture to the wider Mediterranean world - and to later ages.
Table of Contents. Court, Kingship, and Royal Style in the Early Hellenistic Period Shane Wallace (TCD, Dublin) 2. At Home with Royalty: Constructing the Hellenistic Palace Janett Morgan (Royal Holloway, London) 3. The Seleucid and Achaemenid Court: Continuity or Change? David Engels (Brussels) 4. ???? ???????: The Multiple Ways of Life of Courtiers in the Hellenistic Age Ivana Savalli-Lestrade (CNRS, Paris) 5. Eunuchs, Renegades and Concubines: The ‘Paradox of Power’ and the Promotion of Favourites in the Hellenistic Empires Rolf Strootman (Utrecht) 6. Callimachus, Theocritus and Ptolemaic Court Etiquette Ivana Petrovic (Virginia) 7. Symbol and Ceremony: Royal Weddings in the Hellenistic Age Sheila Ager (Waterloo) 8. Once a Seleucid, Always a Seleucid: Seleucid Princesses and and their Nuptial Courts Alex McAuley (Cardiff) 9. In the Mirror of Hetairai. Tracing Aspects of the Interaction Between Polis Life and Court Life in the Early Hellenistic Age Kostas Buraselis (Athens) 10. Image and Communication in the Seleucid Kingdom: the King, the Court and the Cities Paola Ceccarelli (UCL) 11. Outside the Capital: the Ptolemaic Court and its Courtiers Dorothy J. Thompson (Cambridge) 12. Courting the Public: the Attalid Court and Domestic Display Craig Hardiman (Waterloo) 13. Hellenistic Patronage and the non-Greek World Erich Gruen (Berkeley) 14. Bithynia and Cappadocia: Royal Courts and Ruling Society in the Minor Hellenistic Monarchies Oleg Gabelko (Russian State University) 15. Deserving the Court’s Trust: Jews in Ptolemaic Egypt Livia Capponi (Pavia) 16. Misconduct and Disloyalty in the Seleucid Court Peter Franz Mittag (Cologne) 17. The Hands of Gods? Poison and Power in the Hellenistic Court Stephanie Winder (Edinburgh) 18. The Royal Court in Ancient Macedonia: the Evidence from Tombs Olga Palagia (Athens)
