''Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra'' (originally published as ''L'Egypte au temps de Cléopâtre'') is a non-fiction book by French historian

Michel Chauveau Michel Chauveau (born 1956) is a French historian and Egyptologist known for authoring ''Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra'' and '' Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth''. Chauveau is Director of Studies at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris. Bibli ...

Synopsis

The book is a

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

of the Ptolemaic Kingdom between the late 3rd and 1st Century BC. It draws heavily on

Demotic Egyptian Demotic (from grc, δημοτικός ''dēmotikós'', 'popular') is the ancient Egyptian script derived from northern forms of hieratic used in the Nile Delta, and the stage of the Egyptian language written in this script, following Late Egypt ...

and Greek papyrological evidence.

Publication and translations

The book was originally published by

Hachette Hachette may refer to: * Hachette (surname) * Hachette (publisher), a French publisher, the imprint of Lagardère Publishing ** Hachette Book Group, the American subsidiary ** Hachette Distribution Services, the distribution arm See also * Hachett ...

in 1997. An English translation by

David Lorton David Lorton was an Egyptologist and translator, most well known for his work translating European research into English. Career In 1976, Lorton received a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies for his work in Thebes, Egypt. ...

was published by

Cornell University Press The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University; currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, making it the first university publishing enterprise in th ...

in 2000.

Reception

The book garnered a mostly positive reception for Chauveau's use of textual sources and its exploration of domestic changes which occurred within Egypt. Helen Strudwick, reviewing a set of translations by Lorton, wrote that Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra was "a very readable and entertaining overview" of the period. Jane Rowlandson, writing for the ''Classical Bulletin'', praised the book's approach to Ptolemaic history from Chauveau's perspective as an Egyptologist as previous works on the subject often focused exclusively on Classical sources.{{Cite journal , last=Rowlandson , first=Jane , date=2004 , title=Michel Chauveau, 'Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra. Translated by David Lorton'. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 2000 , url=https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/michel-chauveau-egypt-in-the-age-of-cleopatra-translated-by-david-lorton-ithaca-ny-and-london-cornell-university-press-2000(eef0134b-1b62-42d5-bb0e-7e42bfe4ee98).html , journal=Classical Bulletin , language=English , volume=80 Marjorie Venit, in the ''

Bryn Mawr Classical Review ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'' (''BMCR'') is an open access journal founded in 1990. It publishes reviews of current scholarly work in the field of classical studies including classical archaeology.Ptolemaic dynasty The Ptolemaic dynasty (; grc, Πτολεμαῖοι, ''Ptolemaioi''), sometimes referred to as the Lagid dynasty (Λαγίδαι, ''Lagidae;'' after Ptolemy I's father, Lagus), was a Macedonian Greek royal dynasty which ruled the Ptolemaic ...

. However, both Rowlandson and Venit were critical of the book's layout and use of subheadings, which they felt made the book unnecessarily confusing.

References

1997 non-fiction books History books about Egypt Egyptology books Books about social history Books about the ancient Near East