First published at 00:37 UTC on January 27th, 2021.
Lecture 14: n November 332 B.C., Alexander and the Macedonian army crossed Sinai in a record seven days, and entered the Nile valley. The Persian satrap Mazaces surrendered Memphis, and the Egyptians hailed Alexander, then age 24, as the living god …
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Lecture 14: n November 332 B.C., Alexander and the Macedonian army crossed Sinai in a record seven days, and entered the Nile valley. The Persian satrap Mazaces surrendered Memphis, and the Egyptians hailed Alexander, then age 24, as the living god Horus and pharaoh of the Lower and Upper Egypt.
Alexander was dazzled by the heady divine honors paid by his Egyptian subjects. His 18-month sojourn in Egypt revealed the different roles of Alexander. As a Hellene in culture and speech, Alexander shared with Greeks a fascination in the antiquity of Egyptian cults and customs best expressed in Herodotus’s account of a century earlier. In contrast to the Achaemenid kings, Alexander conducted the rituals expected of a pharaoh, and so won the loyalty of his Egyptian subjects. He endowed and restored temples and shrines. As a philhellene Macedonian king, he founded Alexandria, a Greek city, on the western most branch of the Nile, and so ensured the import of Egyptian grain to the Hellenic world.
Foremost, Alexander capitalized on the unpopularity of Persian rule. Cambyses had waged a savage war of conquest, and he was reputed to have desecrated tombs and shrines. Darius I had imposed heavy tribute and a large garrison on Egypt. Twice the Libyan military elite in the Delta had rebelled and cast out their Persian masters. Alexander was even rumored to be the son of the last pharaoh of Dynasty XXX. But Alexander remained ever the pragmatic conqueror, for he divided the administration of Egypt. Macedonian
officers commanded the garrisons; Egyptians administered justice; and a Greek accountant Cleomenes of Naucratis supervised finances.
Suggested Reading:
Austin, Greece and Egypt in the Archaic Age.
Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander.
Boardman, The Greeks Oveseas.
Bosworth, Conquest and Empire.
Bowman, Egypt after the Pharaoh.
Burstein, “Alexander’s Organization of Egypt: A Note on the Career of Cleomenes of Naucratis.”
Engels, Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army.
Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria.
Parker and Cerny, A Saite Oracle Papyrus from Thebes.
Lecture 15: https://www.bitchute.com/video/ECYyre6nxPXs/
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