Graeco-Aegyptiaca | Hans van Wees: Greek soldiers in Saite Egypt: myths and realities

The Graeco-Aegyptiaca online seminar started in January 2022 with papers given monthly by established scholars in the field of Egyptian and Greek cultural relations. The third season's second event „Greek soldiers in Saite Egypt: myths and realities” was held by Hans van Wees (University College London) on 23 January 2024.
Herodotus’ story of how Psammetichus I and the Saite dynasty came to power with the help of Greek hoplite mercenaries has generally been taken quite seriously by historians of ancient Greece and even by some historians of Late Period Egypt. Assyrian and Egyptian evidence shows, however, that this tale was little more than a myth, typical of the way in which ancient Greeks tended to represent themselves as vastly superior in warfare to non-Greeks. This paper puts together textual and material evidence from Egypt, Assyria and the Greek world to assess in more realistic terms what role Greek soldiers played in Saite history and what role overseas military service played in the economies and societies of archaic Greek city-states.
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Graeco-Aegyptiaca is a collaborative initiative by colleagues in the fields of Egyptology and Classics based in Hungary and the United Kingdom. The project aims to bring together researchers interested in the history of cultural interaction between Egyptians and Greeks from the very beginning to the Byzantine period.
Further information:
University College London - www.ucl.ac.uk/...
The Palladion - www.palladion....