Idle Talk – Dr. Gillian Ramsey

Please join us on February 27, from 2:30-3:30 pm in room CM105 for our Idle Talk Series.

With Friends Like These… Conflict of Interest among Hellenistic Royal Philoi
Presented by: Dr. Gillian Ramsey

Hellenistic kings relied upon courtiers and administrative officials called Philoi, literally their “Friends”, to help govern their kingdoms, conduct wars, extract resources, and make decisions. I will explore the question of whether these influential friends ever demonstrated what we today would call conflict of interest, and just how far-reaching the potential for corruption in these royal kingdoms might have been. We will look at a few case studies from the Ptolemaic and Seleucid kingdoms during the late 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.