The theme of our March AMME session is “Rebellions and Revolts”.
Our speakers:
- Uzume Wijnsma (Leiden University): “The rebellions of Achaemenid Egypt: a comparison between Greco-Roman and Egyptian evidence.”
Abstract:
The Egyptian rebellions against the Achaemenid Empire are well known from Greco-Roman sources. These sources suggest that Egypt rebelled frequently against Persian rule - perhaps more frequently than any other province. Though the reliability of the Greco-Roman sources has been called into question in this regard, the present talk argues that they are largely corroborated by contemporary Egyptian texts. In fact, it is possible that more Egyptian texts should be connected to the rebellions than what has been previously recognized
- Dir. Dr. Antti Lampinen (Finnish Institute at Athens) “The Greco-Roman Image of Alexandria as a Chronically Rebellious City”
Abstract:
My talk discusses the pervasive and long-lasting Greco-Roman image of the city of Alexandria as a chronically rebellious city. The explanations used to account for and reify this image offer some telling evidence for the Greco-Roman climatologically motivated stereotypes about Egyptians, as well as for the ancient assumptions about the characteristics of urban poor and ‘mixed’ populations. The connections to the broader proto-Orientalizing set of stereotypes are numerous, but in some ways Alexandria’s almost proverbial proneness to revolt and upheaval seems to have constituted a case of its own, with clear continuity in its literary portrayals from the Hellenistic era to the Late Antiquity.
The session takes place Thursday 25 March at 4:15-6 pm EET time ONLINE in Zoom https://helsinki.zoom.us/j/62322592487 (Meeting ID: 623 2259 2487).