By Jacqueline Engel
IL TESTO COMPLETO DEL “DECRETO DEL CANOPO”, GENTILMENTE FORNITO DA ALBERTO ELLI, È DISPONIBILE QUI
THE COMPLETE TEXT OF THE “CANOPUS DECREE”, KINDLY PROVIDED BY ALBERTO ELLI, IS AVAILABLE HERE
The Canopus Decree is part of a series of bilingual inscriptions inserted in three scripts hieroglyphs, demotic and Greek.
The most famous is the Rosetta Stone, which provided the key to deciphering hieroglyphs in 1822. This Canopus Decree records a great assembly of priests held at Canopus on 7 March 238 BC in honour of Pharaoh Ptolemy III Euergetes, his wife Queen Berenice II, and their daughter Princess Berenice.
It discusses topics such as military campaigns, famine relief, Egyptian religion, and governmental organisation in Ptolemaic Egypt.
It also mentions the king’s donations to the temples and his support for ancient cults, and states that the stela should be erected in all temples of first, second and third rank.
Text and location: Egyptian Museum Cairo
LA CIVILTA' EGIZIA 