Private associations abounded in the ancient Greek world and beyond, and this volume provides the first large-scale study of the strategies of governance which they employed. Emphasis is placed on the values fostered by the regulations of associations, the complexities of the private-public divide (and that divide's impact on polis institutions) and the dynamics of regional and global networks and group identity. The attested links between rules and religious sanctions also illuminate the relationship between legal history and religion. Moreover, possible links between ancient associations and the early Christian churches will prove particularly valuable for scholars of the New Testament. The book concludes by using the regulations of associations to explore a novel and revealing aspect of the interaction between the Mediterranean world, India and China.

Private associations abounded in the ancient Greek world and beyond, and this volume provides the first large-scale study of the strategies of governance which they employed. Emphasis is placed on the values fostered by the regulations of associations, the complexities of the private-public divide (and that divide's impact on polis institutions) and the dynamics of regional and global networks and group identity. The attested links between rules and religious sanctions also illuminate the relationship between legal history and religion. Moreover, possible links between ancient associations and the early Christian churches will prove particularly valuable for scholars of the New Testament. The book concludes by using the regulations of associations to explore a novel and revealing aspect of the interaction between the Mediterranean world, India and China.

This book provides the first complete study of the documentation relevant to the gymnasium and gymnasial life in Egypt at the time of the Ptolemies, the longest reigning Hellenistic Royal House (323-30 BC). Paganini analyses the diffusion, characteristics, administration, and developments of the institution of the gymnasium in Ptolemaic Egypt and its implications for the assertion of Greek identity. He shows how this institution and its people were affected by the local environment and how 'those from the gymnasium', the members of this most distinctively Greek institution, were truly embedded in the social and cultural milieu of the country where they lived: they were the 'Greeks' of Egypt. Thanks to the information originating from Ptolemaic Egypt and its papyrological sources, this work showcases the variety of concomitant features and different traditions that were alive and active in the Hellenistic world, thus contributing to a better understanding of the ancient world in all its complexity and vitality.