Modern historians about Macedonia – P. M. Fraser

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There is no proof that the mint at which Cleomenes’ and Soter’s coinages were struck was situated in Alexandria, but when we bear in mind that Egypt had previously had virtually no coinage, it hardly seems likely that Soter would have established a mint at Memphis; while the new city by the sea, open to Greek commerce, would have had immediate need of coin, quite apart from the necessity of Ptolemy, for reasons of prestige, issuing his coinage from a Greek rather than from a native Egyptian city

Ptolemaic Alexandria
Book by P. M. Fraser; Clarendon Press, 1972,page 7

Quote:

Another set, with identical wording, was found in 1945 at the north end of the site, north of Diocletian’s Column, in the south-east corner of the temple of Sarapis itself.194 These plaques, inscribed in Greek and hieroglyphics, read: ‘ King Ptolemy, son of Ptolemy and Arsinoe, the Theoi Adelphoi, 〈dedicated〉 the temple and the sanctuary to Sarapis

Ptolemaic Alexandria
Book by P. M. Fraser; Clarendon Press, 1972,page 28

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The site is so completely bare that the structure of the Ptolemaic temple is wholly conjectural,201 though there are indications that the architecture and furniture of the shrine may have been a mixture of Greek and Egyptian.

Ptolemaic Alexandria
Book by P. M. Fraser; Clarendon Press, 1972,page 28

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These latter form one of the largest and most important groups of painted stelai, comparable to those from Demetrias-Pagasae and Sidon. Like them they are purely Greek in style and execution, with no Egyptian elements, and differ from contemporary funerary reliefs primarily in respect of their technique, which is dictated by a very different material, rather than in any fundamental distinction of tradition

Ptolemaic Alexandria
Book by P. M. Fraser; Clarendon Press, 1972,page 33

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The general development of the necropoleis of Alexandria was probably, then, as follows: in the earliest period of which we have record, from the foundation of the city until the middle of the second century, the Greek population was for the most part buried or cremated east of the city in the areas of Chatby, Ibrahimiya, and Hadra. Subsequently the main necropoleis shifted to the west, to the areas of Gabbari and Wardian, the ‘Necropolis’ par excellence, which was in use in the time of Strabo and continued for a long time afterwards

Ptolemaic Alexandria
Book by P. M. Fraser; Clarendon Press, 1972,page 34

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THE population of Alexandria in its early period may be divided constitutionally into seven main categories, most of which survived in different degrees until the end of the Ptolemaic period. These groups are: first, the Greek population consisting of (i) the citizen-body (πολι + ̑ται), (ii) partial and probationary citizens, whose exact status is problematical and obscure, (iii) Greeks with no particular civil status, and (iv) Greeks with external ethnics (Κυρηναι + ̑οι, ‘Ρόδιοι, Σάμιοι and so on); and secondly the non-Greek population consisting originally of (v) the native Egyptian population, (vi) foreign, non-Greek immigrants (Jews, Syrians, and others), and (vii) slaves.

Ptolemaic Alexandria
Book by P. M. Fraser; Clarendon Press, 1972,page 38

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They in fact represent one of the major developments of later antiquity: the emergence of an unprivileged Greek-speaking population, numerically superior to the citizen population, which in Alexandria in the course of time usurped effective authority from the demesmen and transferred it into mob rule

Ptolemaic Alexandria
Book by P. M. Fraser; Clarendon Press, 1972,page 51

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The civilian Macedonian immigrants are a very different story. As to Alexander’s actions concerning them we know nothing, but if the Ptolemies wanted to show favour to the Macedonians, the natural way for them to have done so was to appoint them to posts in their gift, and this, to judge by the available evidence, they did not do, reserving such appointments as a general rule for Greeks from overseas and for Alexandrians. There does not seem therefore any reason to attribute to the Macedonian civilians in Alexandria a privileged or especial status either juridically or de facto.We may NOW TURN to the NON-GREEK population of Alexandria, consisting of Egyptians, Jews, Syrians, and others, and slaves of varied nationality

Ptolemaic Alexandria
Book by P. M. Fraser; Clarendon Press, 1972, page 53-54

Lysimachos – P. M. Fraser