"So watching rome" Topic

And I got a question, I think I remember reading that the Egyption(ptolomy) were abit to egyptified?

They were ofocurse a greek(macedonian) royal house.
I know the ptolomy dynasty did go a little native, But did they go that native? in the series thet do not seem Hellenic at all.(yes I know not a documantary)

Not sure how they are represented in the show, but yes, the Ptolemies did adopt some Egyptian attributes, most notably in the sphere of religion (dress, ritual etc).

In the civic sphere (at higher levels) they retained a predominantly Greco-Macedonian outlook. Lower levels of government were administered to a great extent by the Egyptian scribe caste. Egyptians even served as governors/strategoi of various nomes by the late 2nd century BC but the highest levels were culturally Hellenised.

Adrian Goldsworthy's historical biography of Antony and Cleopatra is interesting on this:

link

If I remember correctly, he says that this particular Cleopatra did occasionally dress 'Egyptian' and had herself and Marcus Antonius represented in ways that would help with her Egyptian populace. However, these were standard Ptolemaic political ploys, and in essence the dynasty was Greek/Macedonian. After all, they were responsible for constructing the Library as part of their claim to hegemony over the Hellenistic world.

In contemporary portraits, Cleopatra VII was often represented in Egyptian guise:

As well as in Hellenistic form:

Personally, I think that in Rome, Lyndsey Marshal portrayed a good likeness of both versions of Cleopatra:

On the DVDs, the commentary explains why they did this . . . they wanted to show the Egyptians from a Roman perspective, namely "those people are really freakin' strange and not at all like us"

Loren Wiseman
lorenwiseman.com

Naughty minx!

Ahem, anyway, yes a mix of Hellenic and Egyptian styles seemed about right to me too.