Motivi encomiastici negli epigrammi funebri per soldati in Egitto dell’età tolemaica (III – I sec. a.C.)

Ptolemaic Egypt (3rd-1st cent. BC) has yielded around thirty epitaphs in verse, eight of which are for soldiers. An investigation of the characteristics of these compositions allows us not only to understand who the deceased man was and what was his role in the society of the time, but also to imagine who may have commissioned the poems. Within the emerging picture, the epitaphs for generals appear to be more accurate in the mise en page, more elaborate in content and richer in encomiastic motifs than the epitaphs for simple soldiers, who instead show less care in the layout and a low presence of topoi and encomiastic formulas. Beyond these differences, which evidently reflect the military rank of the deceased and the client’s status, what emerges is the central role of the army within the Ptolemaic kingdom and its function as a privileged instrument by which the political élite could exercise and at the same time, display their power.