Zenon

An assistant to a finance minister under Ptolemy II, he traveled through Palestine in 259 and 258 BCE; his letters reveal the Ptolemaic administration of the region.

The papyri of Zenon, who toured Palestine in 259 and 258 BCE as an agent of a finance minister of Ptolemy II, were discovered in Egypt in 1915. They reveal a Palestine monitored, controlled and economically exploited by the Ptolemaic king, with an administration based in Ptolemais (modern Akko) and reaching down to the village level.1 The Ptolemies relied on local aristocrats such as one Tobias, whose family later became notorious for its role in tax collection. The papyri also suggest growing urbanization and perhaps the learning of Greek by some inhabitants.2