Book contents
- the cambridge history of Rights
- The Cambridge History of Rights
- The Cambridge History of Rights
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors to Volume I
- General Introduction
- Introduction to Volume I
- 1To Claim to Protect Claims
- 2The Individual and the Communal
- 3Human Rights in the Hebrew Bible?
- 4Greek Subjective Rights?
- 5Aristotle on Subjective Rights
- 6Do Rights Exist in Hellenistic Philosophy?
- 7Rights in Ptolemaic Egypt
- 8Rights in Roman Republican Thought
- 9Ius in the Subjective Sense in Classical Roman Law
- 10Rights and Dignity in Late Ancient Thought
- 11Rights in Late Ancient Law?
- 12Rabbinic Judaism
- 13Sasanian Law
- Index
- References
7 - Rights in Ptolemaic Egypt
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2026
Book contents
- the cambridge history of Rights
- The Cambridge History of Rights
- The Cambridge History of Rights
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors to Volume I
- General Introduction
- Introduction to Volume I
- 1To Claim to Protect Claims
- 2The Individual and the Communal
- 3Human Rights in the Hebrew Bible?
- 4Greek Subjective Rights?
- 5Aristotle on Subjective Rights
- 6Do Rights Exist in Hellenistic Philosophy?
- 7Rights in Ptolemaic Egypt
- 8Rights in Roman Republican Thought
- 9Ius in the Subjective Sense in Classical Roman Law
- 10Rights and Dignity in Late Ancient Thought
- 11Rights in Late Ancient Law?
- 12Rabbinic Judaism
- 13Sasanian Law
- Index
- References
Summary
In terms of social and legal history, Ptolemaic Egypt is the best known of the Hellenistic kingdoms, as the dry sand conserved an abundance of papyri for centuries. Its multi-ethnic population and the combination of ancient Egyptian, Persian, and Greek cultural elements make it an even more interesting case study. A direct equivalent to the modern concept of rights probably did not exist in Ptolemaic Egypt, even if there is discussion around the terms used. Aspects of the concept of rights can be traced at different levels of intensity. Rights and duties in the sense of obligation deriving either from contract or violations of other persons or their belongings are found in hundreds of contracts, petitions, claims, or court proceedings in Greek as well as in Egyptian contexts. Beyond this two-person relationship, more abstract rights over things and persons are found relative to property, paternal authority, or slavery, which are all sometimes categorized as absolute rights today. On the other hand, to assume rights in the sense of liberties of an individual against the state or of legal power within the state is probably anachronistic.
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- The Cambridge History of Rights , pp. 177 - 201Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Further Reading
Bagnall, R. S. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009).Google Scholar
Bagnall, R. S., and Derow, P. (eds.), The Hellenistic Period: Historical Sources in Translation (Oxford, Blackwell, 2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keenan, J. G., Manning, J. G., and Yiftach-Firanko, U. (eds.), Law and Legal Practice in Egypt from Alexander to the Arab Conquest: A Selection of Papyrological Sources in Translation, with Introductions and Commentary (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, N., Greeks in Ptolemaic Egypt: Case Studies in the Social History of the Hellenistic World (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1986).Google Scholar
Manning, J. G., “Demontic Law,” in Westbrook, R. (ed.), A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law (Leiden, Brill, 2003), pp. 819–62.Google Scholar
Manning, J. G., The Last Pharaohs: Egypt under the Ptolemies, 305–30 bc (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2010).Google Scholar
Mélèze Modrzejewski, J., Droit et justice dans le monde grec et hellénistique (Warsaw, Fundacja im. Rafala, 2011).Google Scholar
Mitteis, L., Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde: Bd. 2: Juristischer Teil (Leipzig, Teubner, [1912] 1963).Google Scholar
Montevecchi, O., La papirologia, rist. riveduta e corretta con addenda (Milan, Vita e Pensiero, 1988).Google Scholar
Préaux, C., Le monde hellénistique. La Grèce et l’Orient (323–146 av. J.-C.) (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1978).Google Scholar
Rupprecht, H.-A., Recht und Rechtsleben im ptolemäischen und römischen Ägypten: An der Schnittstelle griechischen und ägyptischen Rechts 332 a.C –212 p.C, Abhandlungen der Geistes- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse/Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur (Stuttgart, Steiner, 2011).Google Scholar
Thompson, D. J., Memphis under the Ptolemies, 2nd ed. (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolff, H. J., Das Recht der griechischen Papyri Ägyptens in der Zeit der Ptolemäer und des Prinzipats: Bd. 1: Bedingungen und Triebkräfte der Rechtsentwicklung (Munich, Beck, [1978] 2002), Bd. 2 – Organisation und Kontrolle des privaten Rechtsverkehrs.Google Scholar
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