Book Review: Zwischen König und Karikatur

Bryn Mawr Classical Review ( Reviewed by Paul Edmund Stanwick)

Peter Nadig. Zwischen König und Karikatur. Das Bild Ptolemaios' VIII. im Spannungsfeld der Überlieferung. Münchener Beiträge zur Papyrusforschung und antiken Rechtsgeschichte 97. Munich: C.H. Beck, 2007.

Although there are innumerable treatments of the life of Cleopatra the Great, few books take other individual Ptolemaic rulers as their exclusive subject. In his volume, Peter Nadig writes about Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II (reigned in Egypt, 170-163, 145-116 B.C.), one of the longest ruling and most notorious of the Ptolemies. As the subtitle of the book suggests ("Between King and Caricature"), one of Nadig's goals is to critically examine the veracity of the caricatured image that comes across in the Greek and Roman sources on the king. Among other things, these ancient authors call him Physkon, which can be translated as "pot belly" or "fatso." Athenaeus, for example, comments that the king's belly was so large that it was difficult to measure. These authors also emphasize the king's acts of cruelty, ruthlessness, and extravagance. Diodorus Siculus notes that Ptolemy VIII killed his son born by his sister-wife and then sent the dismembered remains to her.

Nadig wants to look beyond the possible biases of the ancient authors and seek other means to judge the nature and effectiveness of Ptolemy VIII's rule. To do this, Nadig collects data from contemporary, self-representational sources ("Selbstzeugnisse und amtlichen Verlautbarungen"), which the king himself or his advisors would have formulated. These include the king's fragmentary memoir (Hypomnemata), titulatures and epithets, decrees, portraits (glyptic as well as in the round), and building programs. Nadig takes an interdisciplinary and multicultural approach, integrating information from history, archaeology, and Egyptology as well as placing Greek and Latin texts beside Egyptian hieroglyphic and demotic sources. The result is a handy reference to the life of a ruler who deserves more attention for the significant events and developments of his reign and for the effects they had on the subsequent history of Egypt.

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