Author Description

Regional and administrative units, nomes and toparchies divided Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt into a multitude of regions and districts, allowing the total control of the state over the land. Used since at least the Old Kingdom, this system has undergone important changes throughout the history of the country. However, the pace and nature of the remodelling seem to intensify during the Greco-Roman period. This book analyses the territorial division of Egypt, between Elephantine and Memphis, and its fluctuations from the third century BC to the end of the third century AD, when the reforms of Diocletian changed the system again. In parallel to the study of the country's administrative division, the religious geography outlined in the nomes lists and processions of this late period is investigated in detail in order to highlight the reciprocal influences between these two modes of perception of the Egyptian landscape. The interactions observed in this study, even minimal ones, make it possible to nuance the fossilisation of priestly geography and thus to reconsider the traditional Egyptological cliche which claims that a strong distinction is to be made between these two geographies, especially during the Ptolemaic and Roman eras.