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Ptolemaic decrees

There exist three copies plus a fragment of the Decree of Canopus, two copies of the Memphis Decree (one imperfect), and two and a half copies of the text of the Rosetta Stone, including the copy on the Nubayrah Stele and a temple wall inscription with edits, or scene replacements, completed by subsequent scribes.

243 BC Decree of Alexandria (Ptolemy III)[edit]

The Decree of Alexandria was issued on the 13rd of Gorpiaios = 3 december 243 BCE. It proclaimed that statues of Ptolemy III and his wife Berenice II as well as a shrine for them should be set up in each temple to worship them as beneficent gods.^[3]

239 BC Decree of Canopus (Ptolemy III)[edit]

The Decree was issued on 7 Appellaios (Mac.) = 17 Tybi (Eg.) year 9 of Ptolemy III = Thursday 7 March 238 BCE (proleptic Julian calendar).

• Stone 1: Stele of Canopus, (no. 1), found 1866, 37 lines of hieroglyphs, 74 lines of Demotic (right side), 76 lines of Greek 'capitals', fine limestone.
• Stone 2: Stele of Canopus (no. 2), found 1881, 26 lines hieroglyphs, 20 lines Demotic, 64 lines Greek 'capitals', white limestone.
• 3rd partial text with lines of hieroglyphs (now in the Louvre).
• 4th text was discovered in 2004 at Bubastis, by the German-Egyptian 'Tell Basta Project'.

217 BC Decree of Memphis (Ptolemy IV)[edit]

• Stone 1: Raphia Decree, found 1902 at the site of ancient Memphis, hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Greek, dark granite.
• Stone 2: Pithom Stele, No. II, found 1923, hieroglyphs (front), 42 lines Demotic (back), virtually complete, providing an almost total translation, and Greek (side), sandstone.

196 BC Decree of Memphis (Ptolemy V)[edit]

• Stone 1: Stele of Rosetta, "The Rosetta Stone", found 1799, (remaining) hieroglyphs, 14 lines, 32 lines Demotic, 54 lines Greek 'capitals', dark granite (granodiorite).
• Stone 2: Nubayrah Stele, found in the early 1880s, hieroglyphs, lines 1–27 were used to complete the missing lines on the Rosetta Stone, Demotic, Greek capitals, limestone.
• Site 3: the Temple of Philae, inscribed hieroglyphs from the Third Decree on walls, also overwritten, with scenes and figures of humans/gods.

186 BC Philensis II Decree (Ptolemy V)[edit]

Issued at Alexandria upon the suppression of a revolt.^[2]

185 BC Philensis I Decree (Ptolemy V)[edit]

Issued at Memphis upon the enthronement of an Apis bull.^[2]

References[edit]

Works cited[edit]

• Manning, Joseph Gilbert (2012). The Last Pharaohs: Egypt Under the Ptolemies, 305-30 BC. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691156385.
• Pfeiffer, Stefan (2015). Griechische und lateinische Inschriften zum Ptolemäerreich und zur römischen Provinz Aegyptus. Lit. ISBN 978-3-643-13096-9.
• Stanwick, Paul Edmund (2010). Portraits of the Ptolemies: Greek Kings as Egyptian Pharaohs. University of Texas Press. ISBN 9780292787476.

Further reading[edit]

• El-Masry, Yahia; Altenmüller, Hartwig; Thissen, Heinz-Josef (2012). Das Synodaldekret von Alexandria aus dem Jahre 243 v. Chr (in German). Buske. ISBN 9783875486223.
• Von Recklingshausen, Daniel (2018). Die Philensis-dekrete: Untersuchungen Uber Zwei Synodaldekrete Aus Der Zeit Ptolemaios' V. Und Ihre Geschichtliche Und Religiose Bedeutung (in German). Otto Harrassowitz. ISBN 9783447108027.

External links[edit]

• Hellenistic Inscriptions: Egyptian Decrees in English translation