5.2 Greeks and Egyptians in Ptolemaic Egypt

Naukratis

settlement with Greek merchants and mercenaries, established in Saite period

Memphis

Important ancient Egyptian city and an early political center of Egypt

Under the Ptolemies, it remained an important religious and administrative center, where Alexander the Great also visited and sacrificed to the Apis bull after conquering Egypt in 332 BCE.

race

way of categorizing people by supposed inherited physical or mental charateristics

ethnicity

socially defined sense of belonging to a group, often associated with shared history, ancestry, culture, language, religion

Examples of ethnic tension — Complaint to Zenon (3rd cent.)

a worker complained that he was not receiving his pay and supplies. He believed he was treated badly because he was considered a foreigner and did not know how to act as a Greek

ex.2 Herakleides’ petition (3rd cent)

a man described himself as Greek and a foreigner when asking King Ptolemy for justice in a dispute with an Egyptian women

—shows that ethnic identity could affect people’s experiences and how they sought justice.