British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
BA PDF Symposium 200626 April 2006 AbstractsDr Céline MarquailleElite power in Hellenistic Cyprus (323-58 BC)After the death of Alexander the Great, the island of Cyprus, strategically located at the crossroad between East and West, fell in the hands of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian kings who ruled over Egypt and a Mediterranean empire from 323 until the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC. The Cypriote kingdoms were abolished and replaced by political organisations based on the city model, which had then spread to the whole Greek world and beyond. It is generally assumed that royal administration in Cyprus left little room for local institutions and that Ptolemaic occupation meant not only political but also cultural and economic apathy for the island. In fact epigraphic evidence and onomastic considerations show that in parallel to royal officials, who formed, in Alexandria and abroad, an “aristocracy of function”, the power of local elites (Cypriote, Phoenician and Semitic) survived in Cyprus, enjoying political activities in municipal but also royal offices. These two distinct elite bodies hardly interpenetrated but had an influence on each other that is clearly visible in religious and cultural practices, and public manifestations. Dr Céline Marquaille was an undergraduate in Paris (La Sorbonne), and completed an MA in Classics at Paris X- Nanterre on Alexander the Great in Roman imagination. Since then she has been interested in reception and projection of power, especially during the Hellenistic period (323-30 BC). She completed a PhD thesis at King's College London in 2001 on The External Image of Ptolemaic Egypt . She took up the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2003 and her research has focused on the history of Cyprus in Hellenistic times and its relations with central power, i.e. Ptolemaic Alexandria.
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