Readings in
Egyptian History

Manetho: Pride of place on this page goes, as it should, to the work of an ancient Egyptian. He was a priest of the 3c B.C. who took upon himself the mission of educating the Greeks and Romans, and thru them the entire world, in Egyptian history and religion, and he succeeded: excerpted, translated, corrupted — but even 2300 years after he wrote there's enough of a kernel of fact and history for his writing to remain useful to archaeologists, historians, chronologists, and Biblical scholars. His King Lists, dividing the rulers into Dynasties, are still today the framework for the history of ancient Egypt.

[ complete English translation, and some Greek;
presented in 9 webpages ]

Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride (On Isis and Osiris): Egyptian religion as viewed thru the lens of Graeco-Roman civilization. An enormous amount of information mixed in with an equal amount of Greek speculation and philosophical projection: not necessarily what the Egyptians themselves actually thought.

[ complete English translation, presented in 5 webpages ]

Although showing its age, having been usefully updated or contradicted by newer works, Edwin R. Bevan's The House of Ptolemy remains one of the best and most thorough scholar­ly surveys of the Greco-Macedonian rulers of Egypt from Ptolemy I thru Cleopatra: everything that can be affirmed, and most of what can be or has been guessed or argued.

[ 393 pages of print, presented in 24 webpages ]

Aulus Hirtius' Alexandrian War tells the story of Caesar's over­powering of the last Ptolemies; in just the way Caesar would have liked it to be told. (Latin, English)

[ 130 pages of print + 2 maps, presented in 7 webpages ]

My Antiquary's Shoebox orientation page lists a few journal articles related to ancient Egypt. They can be found quickly by searching that page for the (copyable) character ☥.