Heirs of the Fortunate King: Ptolemy VI and Ptolemy VIII between Memory and an Early Idea of Hellenismus

Methodological introduction to the problem – considered as such in light of quantitative contingencies and qualitative realities – of the exegesis of the surviving literary sources on Ptolemy VI and Ptolemy VIII from a literary, ideological, and historical perspective, i.e., from the authorial viewpoint. Detailed analysis of the testimonies of over 40 ancient and late-antique Greek, Roman, and Jewish authors. Analysis of the survival and, especially, the reframing of the memory of the two rulers in the early studies of J.G. Droysen and the “prehistory” of the concept of “Hellenism.” First critical translation from Latin to English of Droysen’s doctoral dissertation on Egypt under Ptolemy VI.