The Judean-Syrian-Egyptian Conflict of 103-101 B.C.

In 103-101 B.C. a dynastic struggle between two Ptolemaic princes is fought in Syria and Palestine and involves the Seleucids and the Hasmonean Alexander Jannaeus. The ancient historians Pompeius Trogus, Justinus and Josephus give only a very sketchy picture of the events. In the present volume this is fleshed out by papyri and inscriptions: a correspondence in Greek and demotic of Ptolemaic soldiers on campaign to their relatives in far-away Pathyris, a funerary epigram in Edfou, a hieroglyphic inscription for a Ptolemaic general, perhaps even some material from Qumran. The multilingual documentation asks for a multidisciplinary approach by papyrologists, demotists, Egyptologists, semitists and historians. This was the last great work of E. Van 't Dack, who headed the team, and was responsible for the historical conclusions, in which he not only reconstructs the details of a military campaign, but also gives a new view of the history of Egypt and Palestine about 100 B.C. In 103-101 B.C. a dynastic struggle between two Ptolemaic princes is fought in Syria and Palestine and involves the Seleucids and the Hasmonean Alexander Jannaeus. The ancient historians Pompeius Trogus, Justinus and Josephus give only a very sketchy picture of the events. In the present volume this is fleshed out by papyri and inscriptions: a correspondence in Greek and demotic of Ptolemaic soldiers on campaign to their relatives in far-away Pathyris, a funerary epigram in Edfu, a hieroglyphic inscription for a Ptolemaic general, perhaps even some material from Qumran. The multilingual documentation asks for a multidisciplinary approach by papyrologists, demotists, Egyptologists, semitists and historians. This was the last great work of E. Van 't Dack, who headed the team, and was responsible for the historical conclusions, in which he not only reconstructs the details of a military campaign, but also gives a new view of the history of Egypt and Palestine about 100 B.C.