The Lives of Others

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 3 focuses on the Boukoloi (“Cowherds”) in Leucippe and Clitophon. These semi-nomadic pastoralists were imagined to be ungovernable bandits who spoke a non-Greek language, practiced human sacrifice, and fomented rebellions in Egypt against Roman imperial governance. This chapter, informed by the work of James C. Scott, seeks to read the Boukoloi against the grain, understanding the features that appear in Achilles Tatius’ description as “culturally primitive” to be adaptive responses to and a means of resisting Roman power. Furthermore, the Boukoloi help to put Achilles Tatius in dialogue with Demotic Egyptian literature. Such a comparison reveals how Greek and Egyptian traditions use their own culturally distinct literary forms to incorporate these recalcitrant rebels into their narratives. Taken together with Chapter 2, the human and animal worlds of the Nile Delta demonstrate how the representation of place in both Greco-Roman and Egyptian accounts is a potent means to express not only the reaches of imperial power but also its limits.