Kostas Buraselis Mary Stefanou and Dorothy J. Thompson - The Ptolemies, the Sea and the Nile

With its emphasis on the dynasty's concern for control of the sea both the Mediterranean and the Red Sea and the Nile, this book offers a new and multifaceted perspective on Ptolemaic power in a key period of Hellenistic history. Within the developing Aegean empire of the Ptolemies, the role of the navy is examined together with that of its admirals. Egypt's close relationship to Rhodes is subjected to scrutiny, as is the constant threat of piracy to the transport of goods on the Nile and by sea. Along with the trade in grain came the exchange of other products. Ptolemaic kings used their wealth for luxury ships, and the dissemination of royal portraiture was accompanied by royal cult. Alexandria, the new capital of Egypt, attracted poets, scholars and even philosophers; geographical exploration by sea was a feature of the period and observations of the time enjoyed a long afterlife.

Kostas Buraselis is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Athens. His favoured fields of research are in Hellenistic and Roman history. He has written and edited a number of books and numerous articles on related subjects.

Mary Stefanou is a PhD student at the University of Athens, currently teaching classical philology in a Greek secondary school. She is the author of articles on ancient Greek historical subjects and on the teaching of history. Her main research interests lie in Hellenistic history, the political and institutional history of Ptolemaic Egypt, Hellenistic armies and immigration in the Hellenistic world.

Dorothy J. Thompson, Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge, is an ancient historian with a particular interest in Hellenistic Egypt. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and an Honorary President of the International Society of Papyrologists. The second edition of her prize-winning Memphis under the Ptolemies was published in 2012.