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Decree of Canopus |
The Decree of Canopus is the trilingual inscription, written in three scripts–Egyptian hieroglyphs, Egyptian Demotic, and Greek, on an ancient Egyptian memorial stone stele, the Stone of Canopus, a decree by the Egyptian priests honoring Pharaoh Ptolemy III Euergetes, Queen Berenice, wife of Ptolemy III, and Princess Berenice.1 in 239 BCE, ==Importance for the decipherment of hieroglyphs== This is the earliest of the series of trilingual inscriptions of the "Rosetta Stone Series", the next being the Decree of Memphis (Ptolemy IV), for Ptolemy IV, and the third, final stone, being the Rosetta Stone, inscribed for Ptolemy V, in 196 BCE. Having a greater number of different hieroglyphics than the Rosetta Stone, the Canopus Stone has proved crucial in deciphering them. Two copies of the stele stones exist, in different line widths. (See Ptolemaic Decrees.)
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The inscription touches on subjects such as famine relief, military campaigns, Egyptian religion and governmental organization in Ptolemaic Egypt. It mentions the king's donations to the temples, his support for the Apis and Mnevis cults, which enjoyed huge success in the Graeco-Roman world, and the return of divine statues which had been carried off by Cambyses. It extols the king's success in quelling insurgencies of native Egyptians, operations referred to as 'keeping the peace.' It reminds the reader that during a year of low inundation the government had remitted taxes and imported grain from abroad. It inaugurates the most accurate solar calendar known to the ancient world, with 365¼ days per year. It declares the deceased princess Berenike a goddess and creates a cult for her, with women, men, ceremonies, and special 'bread-cakes'. Lastly it orders the decree to be incised in stone or bronze in both hieroglyphs and Greek, and to be publicly displayed in the temples. 2
The traditional Egyptian calendar had 365 days: twelve months of thirty days each and an additional five epagomenal days. According to the reform every fourth year, the 5–day "Opening of the Year" ceremonies would include an additional, 6th–day. 3 The reason given was that the rise of Sothis advances to another day in every 4 years, synchronizing the beginning of the year with the heliacal rising of the star Sirius, rather than following the seasons.
This Ptolemaic calendar reform failed, but was finally officially implemented in Egypt by Augustus in 26/25 BCE, now called the Alexandrian calendar,4 with a sixth epagomenal day occurring for the first time on 29 August 22 BCE. 5 Julius Caesar had earlier implemented a 365¼ day year in Rome in 45 BCE as part of the Julian calendar.
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