Peukestas (son of Makaratus)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peukestas ( Greek  Πευκέστας ), son of Makaratus, was a Macedonian officer of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC.

Peukestas was born by Alexander in the spring of 331 BC. Together with Balakros as the commander (strategos) of the troops left behind in Egypt. It is said to have been subordinate to 4,000 men.

Peukestas, son of Makaratus, probably refers to an order written on papyrus , which was discovered in 1972 in a temple chamber of an animal sanctuary in Saqqara , which was once built by Nectanebo II . This between the years 331 and 323 BC The command dated to the 3rd century BC is the oldest extant Greek document written on papyrus. The order, summarized in three lines, is:

row text translation
1 [Μ] ΠΕΥΚΕΣΤΟΥ
( [μ] Πευκέστου · ) 		[From] Peukestas
2 ΜΗΠΑΡΑΠΟΡΕΥΕΣΘΑΙΜΗ
( μὴ παραπορϵύϵσθαι μη- ) 		Nobody is allowed to enter.
3 ΔΕΝΑΙΕΡΕΙΩΣΤΟΟΙΚΗΜΑ
( δένα ἱϵρϵίως τὸ οἴκημα ) 		This chamber belongs only to the priest.

Obviously this order was addressed to the Macedonian-Greek troops, who were to be forbidden from entering a place that was sacred to Egyptians. From the papyrus it can also be concluded that Peukestas held the supreme command in Lower Egypt and Balakros in Upper Egypt.

literature

  • Waldemar Heckel : Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great. Prosopography of Alexander's Empire . Oxford et al. a. 2006, p. 203.
  • Eric Gardner Turner : A Commander-in-Chief's Order from Saqqara. In: The Journal of Egyptian Archeology. Vol. 60 (1974), pp. 239-242.
  • Eric Gardner Turner: Greek manuscripts of the ancient world. Edited by Peter J. Parsons . In: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Vol. 46 (1987) pp. 136-139, No. 79.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Arrian , Anabasis 3, 5, 5.
  2. ^ Curtius Rufus 4, 8, 4.
  3. ↑ P. Saqqara inv. 1972 GP 3 = SB 14, 11942 ( online ).
  4. ↑ See Turner (1974), p. 239.
  5. ↑ Werner Huss : Egypt in the Hellenistic Period 332–30 BC Chr. , CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47154-4 , p. 74 note 22.
personal data
SURNAME Peukestas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Officer of Alexander the Great
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 331 BC Chr.