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The Hellenistic Court
Ediited by Andrew Erskine, LLoyd Llewellyn-Jones and Shane Wallace
ISBN 9781910589625, Hardback
 
Hellenistic courts were centres of monarchic power, social prestige and high culture in the kingdoms that emerged after the death of Alexander. They were places of refinement, learning and luxury, and also of corruption, rivalry and murder. Surrounded by courtiers of varying loyalty, Hellenistic royal families played roles in a theatre of spectacle and ceremony. Architecture, art, ritual and scholarship were deployed to defend the existence of their dynasties.
The present volume, from a team of international experts, examines royal methods and ideologies. It treats the courts of the Ptolemies, Seleucids, Attalids, Antigonids and of lesser dynasties. It also explores the influence, on Greek-speaking courts, of non- Greek culture, of Achaemenid and other Near Eastern royal institutions. It studies the careers of courtesans, concubines and `friends’ of royalty, and the intellectual, ceremonial, and artistic world of the Greek monarchies.
The work demonstrates the complexity and motivations of Hellenistic royal civilisation, of courts which governed the transmission of Greek culture to the wider Mediterranean world – and to later age



The contributors:
Sheila Ager, Kostas Buraselis, Livia Capponi, Paola Ceccarelli, David Engels, Oleg Gabelko, Eric Gruen, Craig Hardiman, Alex McAuley, Peter Franz Mittag, Janett Morgan, Olga Palagia, Ivana Petrovic, Ivana Savalli-Lestrade, Rolf Strootman, Dorothy Thompson, Shane Wallace, Stephanie Winde,
 

Contents

Abbreviations

Introduction by Andrew Erskine, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones and Shane Wallace

PART I: DEVELOPMENT

1. Court, Kingship, and Royal Style in the Early Hellenistic Period - Shane Wallace

2. At Home with Royalty: Re-viewing the Hellenistic Palace - Janett Morgan

3. The Seleucid and Achaemenid Court: Continuity or Change? - David Engels

PART II: LIFE AT COURT

4. Βίος αὐλικός The Multiple Ways of Life of Courtiers in the Hellenistic Age - Ivana Savalli-Lestrade

5. Eunuchs, Renegades and Concubines: The ‘Paradox of Power’ and the Promotion of Favourites in the Hellenistic Empires - Rolf Strootman

6. Callimachus, Theocritus and Ptolemaic Court Etiquette - Ivana Petrovic

PART III: MARRIAGE

7. Symbol and Ceremony: Royal Weddings in the Hellenistic Age - Sheila L. Ager

8. Once a Seleucid, Always a Seleucid: Seleucid Princesses and their Nuptial Courts - Alex McAuley

PART IV: BEYOND THE PALACE

9. In the Mirror of Hetairai. Tracing Aspects of the Interaction Between Polis Life and Court Life in the Early Hellenistic Age - Kostas Buraselis

10. Image and Communication in the Seleucid Kingdom: the King, the Court and the Cities - Paola Ceccarelli

11. Outside the Capital: the Ptolemaic Court and its Courtiers - Dorothy J. Thompson

12. ‘ Court-ing the Public’: the Attalid Court and Domestic Display - Craig Hardiman

PART V: CROSSING CULTURES

13. Hellenistic Court Patronage and the non-Greek World - Erich Gruen

14. Bithynia and Cappadocia: Royal Courts and Ruling Society in the Minor Hellenistic Monarchies - Oleg Gabelko

14. Deserving the Court’s Trust: Jews in Ptolemaic Egypt - Livia Capponi

PART VI: DISLOYALTY AND DEATH

15. Misconduct and Disloyalty in the Seleucid Court - Peter Franz Mittag

16. The Hands of Gods? Poison in the Hellenistic Court - Stephanie Winder

17. The Royal Court in Ancient Macedonia: the Evidence for Royal Tombs - Olga Palagia

Index