Decree of Memphis (Ptolemy IV)

The Decree of Memphis is an ancient inscribed stone stela which comprises the second of the Ptolemaic Decrees issued by Ptolemy IV of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt from 305 BC to 30 BC. Like the Rosetta Stone, the Decree of Memphis is inscribed in three writing systems. It is bilingual, in ancient Egyptian and Greek, and written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, Egyptian Demotic and Greek. Its estimated date of creation is approximately 218 BC. The decree appears to have been created during Ptolemy IV's military reign. A partial copy is on the stone known as the Memphis Stele, and a nearly complete copy is found on the Pithom Stele II.

Famous quotes containing the word decree:

    In the whole vast dome of living nature there reigns an open violence, a kind of prescriptive fury which arms all the creatures to their common doom: as soon as you leave the inanimate kingdom you find the decree of violent death inscribed on the very frontiers of life.
    Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821)