Gunther Holbl. A History of Ptolemaic Empire. Routledge. Taylor & Francis.

Since recently, English translations cannot be considered true to an original. For instance, atrocities of the Austrian Army against Serbs and the victories of the Russian Army on the Austrian theater were largely censored out from the fundamental Der Ersten Weltkrieg under the guise of shortening.

Grand--and very terse--compilation of Gunther Holbl,  A Ptolemaic Empire cannot contain the issues unwelcome by the American Neocon PC crowd controlling large New York and London publishing houses. Yet, the quality of translation is despicable. The words whose meaning Tina Saavedra obviously does not know appear in bizarre mixture of Latin, Greek  and German terms (heretofore "kleruchic", etc.--Acting as basileus, Antiochos imposed a prostagma on the kleruchoi of Fayum, etc.), i.e. Seleucid King Antiochos in his temporary capacity of a King of Egypt (commonly named pharaoh--A. Bl.) commanded tenant farmers of Fayum... Do you suppose to understand anything from this translation? Furthermore, the index is small--a typical feature of a European book--and the words like prostagma never enter in it.

But the work Prof. Holbl conducted to comprehend and put in the cultural context this most important period of Egyptian history is commendable. In particular, he demonstrated conscious and unconscious fusion of Hellenistic and Egyptian traditions during the Ptolemaic period. From his study, it emerges that most Ptolemies were indifferent generals--who won only one large battle of Rahia but could not exploit it politically--but capable diplomats and civil administrators. The role of the dynastic women in conducting policy was unique in the ancient and, probably, much of the modern world.