Egypt in Italy: Visions of Egypt in Roman Imperial Culture

摘要

This is a very interesting book on a fascinating subject, somewhat marred by the author's tendency to pontificate about methodology. Partly because of her didactic tone, one is perhaps the more inclined to notice presentational imperfections, even where these are primarily the responsibility of the publishers. For an expensive, scholarly book issued by a major university press, both index and captions are inadequate, as is to some extent the bibliography. Whilst I am pleased to find myself cited in the latter, several rather more significant primary sources are not and are covered even less comprehensively in the three page index. Though discussed in the text, the likes of Apion (probably synonymous with Hermapion) and Propertius are absent from both index and bibliography. Also discussed is Horace's authorship of poetry that aspired to outlast and rise higher than the pyramids (a notion borrowed by Shakespeare); so too is Sol (to whom Augustus respectfully re-dedicated the obelisks he imported from Egypt). Yet neither Horace nor Sol is indexed; nor indeed are other divinities such as Julius Caesar or Domitian, even though the latter's slender obelisk is both discussed and illustrated.