But, as so often in the British Museum, appearances are deceiving......
Over two thousand years ago, from the Mediterranean and the Middle East
to India and China, these leaders found different ways of physically
projecting their power and their authority. Today's programme is
particularly fascinating though, because it's a special case. It's
about a ruler who is not strong but weak, a king who has to bargain for
and protect his power by borrowing the invincible strength of the gods
or, more precisely, the priests.......
The Rosetta Stone was made in 196 BC, on the first anniversary of the
coronation of Ptolemy V, by then a teenager. It's a decree issued by
Egyptian priests, ostensibly to mark the coronation and to declare
Ptolemy's new status as a living god - divinity went with the job of
being a pharaoh. The priests had given Ptolemy a full Egyptian
coronation at the sacred city of Memphis, and this greatly strengthened
his position as the rightful ruler of Egypt. But there was a trade-off.
Ptolemy may have become a god, but to get there he'd had to negotiate
some very unheavenly politics with his extremely powerful Egyptian
priests.......
Source: BBC Episode 33 - Rosetta Stone
