Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra. By Michel Chauveau. Translated by David Lorton. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2000.

Abstract

For background on the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt, one could almost not do better than Michel Chauveau's Egypt in the Age qf Cleopatra. Using the latest or most accepted information, both archaeological and scholarly, Chauveau leads the reader through the entire breadth of the empire, from its beginnings as a satrapy of Alexander the Great's empire and Ptolemy I Soter's creation of a kingdom during the Successor Wars in the late 4th century B.C. to the fall of Cleopatra VII and Marc Anthony almost 300 years later. Using information from both the Greek and Egyptian populations, Chauveau does an admirable job in showing how the two societies co-existed, one immigrant and one native. The book is a brief overview of the social history of Egypt under Greek rule but concentrates less on the royal succession and the ideology of the ruling class.