The purported enthronement of Alexander the Great in Egypt (332 B.C.): between fragments of Greek historians, Hellenistic-Roman accounts and historiographical speculation

Abstract

Commentators on the Alexander Romance (AR) have often countered the reservations of modern historians on using the text as a historical source for the life of Alexander the Great. This is particularly relevant with regard to the king’s purported enthronement at Memphis. Historical biographies of Alexander as well as recent studies on his Egyptian royal titles lend support to the use of the AR as a source for this particular event, by arguing that an Egyptian enthronement can be defended. These studies make use of a complete onomastic protocol in archaeological evidence that dates from Alexander’s time. The present article offers a systematic discussion of ancient accounts of his first stay in Memphis to emphasize that the reservations of modern historians are based on the silence on the first by historians from the time of Alexander, whose works (preserved only in fragments) were used by writers of the main corpus of Hellenistic-Roman sources. I argue that there is evidence of a Macedonian strategy that sought to align its monarchical experience with older Egyptian traditions as well as the inclination of the Memphite priestly elite to fulfill a messianic expectation disseminated since the disappearance of Nectanebo II. Both, however, for reasons including both the length of Alexander’s stay in Egypt and the special solemnity of the coronation of Egyptian kings, seem not to have resulted in his formal enthronement in Memphis. The silence of the Hellenistic-Roman sources remains imperative.