Western Civilization I / Unit 5 WC1 0412 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Ptolemaic Egypt: Greek Pharaohs, Egyptian Clerks, Record Harvests
Captions available
The idea
The Ptolemies ruled as pharaohs while staying Macedonian Greek, with Greeks in the top ranks over an Egyptian bureaucracy and Greek soldier-colonies on the land. Obsessive papyrus records and a managed Nile gave the cheapest wheat from Spain to Mesopotamia.
In practice
Cleopatra VII, the first Ptolemy to speak Egyptian.
Where people slip
The Rosetta Stone is Ptolemaic, on the anchor alone. Prosperity came from the bureaucracy.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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