It is over sixty years since the office of epistrategos in Roman Egypt
was subjected to a detailed examination and in the interverring years a
great deal of new papyrological and epigraphic material has come to
light. It was my original intention to write a study of the office in
this period with, by way of introduction, a brief sketch of the
epistrategos in Ptolemaic Egypt. It soon became apparent, however, that
a much more fundamental study of the Ptolemaic epistrategos was
desirable, which would attempt to answer, or at least to clarify, the
various problems connected with the office in this period. In this book
I have tried to present a comprehensive up-to-date picture of our
knowledge of the Ptolemaic epistrategos. I am far from claiming to have
successfully answered all the questions raised -in particular the
fundamental problern of the nature of the office remains an enigm- but I
hope that I have at any rate provided a basis on which others can build.
As the Ptolemaic and Roman epistrategoi did not have a great deal in
common apart from their titles, an examination of the office falls
naturally into two parts. It therefore seemed not inappropriate to
publish separately the first half of this work dealing with the
Ptolemaic epistrategos, without waiting for the completion of the second
part which will deal with the Roman epistrategos. It is hoped that this
second part will follow without undue delay.