Landowners and Tenants in Roman Egypt 019814735X, 9780198147350

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The aim of the Oxford Classical Monographs series (which replaces the Oxford Classical and Philosophical Monographs) is to publish books based on the best theses on Greek and Latin literature, ancient history, and ancient philosophy examined by the Faculty Board of Literae Humaniores.

Landowners and Tenants in Roman Egypt The Social Relations of Agriculture in the Oxyrhynchite Nome

JANE ROWLANDSON

CLARENDON

PRESS 1996

· OXFORD

Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6oP Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bombay Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Pms Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York

C Jane Rowlandson 1996 Al ~ghts ~eroed. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retneval system, or transmitted in any fio- ~ by · ho h • . ' · ... any means . ~t ut t e Pnor P~rmusion in writing of Oxford University Press. , Within the UK, exceptions_are allowed in respect of any fair dealing for the purpose of research or pnvate study, or criticism or review as permitted under the c_opyright, IJ_esi~ and Patents Act, 1988, or in the case of rep,:ographic reproducti~n in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by _the Cop_ynght Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms and in other countries should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above V,

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data a'Vailable Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Lando":ners a~ tenants in Roman Egypt: the soda[ relations of agnculture in the Oxyrhynchite Nome/Jane Rowlandson. (Oxford classical monographs) Includes bibliographical references. 1. Land tenure-Egypt-Oxyrhynchite Nome. 2. Agriculture-Social aspects--Egypt-Oxyrhynchite Nome. 3. Oxyrhynchite Nome (Egypt)Social conditions. I. Title. II. Series, HDJ 30.R68 1996 333.3' .0932-dc20 95-38301 ISBN 0-19-814735-X

13579108642 Typeset ~y J&L Composition Ltd, Filey, North Yorkshire Pnnted in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Bookcraft (Bath) Ltd., Midsomer Norton

PREFACE

This study originated in a D.Phil. thesis submitted in January 1983. To revise a work more than a decade old is a messy task. In addition to incorporating the substantial quantity of new source material and scholarly work published in the meantime, I have altered my interpretation of many points, sometimes very significantly, in light of the new material, the comments of colleagues, and my own greater experience. However, the basic approach and shape of the study remain largely unaltered, although I hope I have succeeded in making them clearer for the reader; any attempt to impose the radically different perspective from which I should now approach this material would have involved writing an entirely different book. Apart from the debts of gratitude which I acknowledged in the thesis, I have incurred many more. I benefited greatly from comments on the thesis, particularly by my examiners, Professors P. J. Parsons and J. D. Thomas, and by Professor R. S. Bagnall. The chance to discuss issues with Dr R. Alston and Dr D. W. Rathbone, as well as other colleagues in London University, has been an invaluable stimulus. Dr D. Montserrat and R. Muller-Wollermann kindly allowed me access to their work before publication. Miss E. C. Dove facilitated the task of revision by transferring the typescript to a word-processor; thereafter the staff of King's College Computing Centre provided help at critical moments. My husband, Michael Roberts, has been ready with all kinds of assistance, intellectual and practical, when he could have been doing his own work. But my most substantial debts are to Dr J. R. Rea, whose understanding of the Oxyrhynchus papyri is matched only by generosity in sharing his time and skills, and to Dr A. K. Bowman, for many years of invaluable criticism and advice, as well his persistence in coaxing me to bring this study to publication.

CONTENTS

List of Figures Notes for the Reader: Abbreviated References, Egyptian Dates, and Technical Terms Maps I. Egypt in the Roman Period 2. The Region of the Oxyrhynchite Nome 3. The Oxyrhynchite Nome in the Roman Period Introduction

ix

x

xn xm xiv I

Chapter I: The Oxyrhynchite Nome I. Topography and Population 2. Agricultural Conditions Chapter II: The Land Category System and its Development I. Introduction 2. Preliminaries: Contexts of Use 3. Categories of Public Land: The Distinction between basilike and demosia ge 4. Categories of Private Land 5. Ge ousiake and Imperial Estates 6. Sacrt!d Land 7. In Retrospect: Changes in the Balance between Public and Private Land Chapter III: The Tenure of Public Land 1. Introduction 2. The Taxation of Public Land 3. Diamisthosis, Security of Tenure, and the Filling of Vacant Tenancies 4. The Imposition on Private Landowners of the Obligation to Farm Public Land 5. The Holders of Public Land Chapter IV: The Landowners and their Properties I. Introduction 2. Landownership and Social Hierarchy vn

8 18 27 31

38 41

55 61 63 70 71

So

88 93

102

103

Contents 3. The Spectrum of Landholding Size: Comparative Evidence 4. The Extent of Landholding Fragmentation 5. The Composition of Landholdings Chapter V: The Inheritance of Land 1. Introduction 2. Testacy and Intestacy 3. Demography and Inheritance 4. Property Devolution to Females 5. Partible Inheritance and the Distribution Landholdings

131

1. 2.

3.

of

Chapter VII: Private Agricultural Tenancy and its Context 1. Introduction 2. Land Management: Tenancy and its Alternatives 3. The Contributions of Landlord and Tenant 4. Leases and Labour in Vineyards 5. Crops and Rents on Arable Land 6. The Duration of Tenancies 7. The Landlords and their Social Circumstances 8. Conclusion: The Social Relationship between Landlord and Tenant and its Implications

OF FIGURES

124

171

4· 5. 6.

CHAPTER VI: The Sale and Mortgage of Land 1. Introduction 2. The Nature of the Sources 3. The Contents of the Sale Documents 4. The Sales as Evidence of Investment or Speculation in Land 5. Other Reasons for Buying and Selling Land 6. Mortgages of Agricultural Land

Hermopolite Landholdings: Distribution of Landholdings by Size The kleros of Eubios near Pela The Proportions of Different Crops specified in Oxyrhynchite Land Leases Rents in Wheat Rents in Money Estimate of Yields of Wheat deduced from the Rents charged

202 203 213

228

236 252 2 59 272

280

Conclusion

Appendices

LIST

II8

1.

2.

Tables 1-19 Oxyrhynchite Land Leases

Bibliography Glossary Index of Sources Index of Proper Names General Index

286 32 9

353 366 367

377

380 Vlll

ix

121

133 237 2 49

250

Notes for the Reader

NOTES

FOR

THE

READER

Thoth I phaophi I }Iathyr I

August 29 September 28 October 28

3. I.

ABBREVIATED

TECHNICAL

EGYPTIAN

November 27 December 27 January 26

TERMS

Direct quotation in Greek has been avoided except where it is essential to discuss the precise words used; it is always accompanied by a translation. However, Greek terms, particularly f~r types of land, crops, and official positions, are frequently used 1~ transliteration. Readers unfamiliar with Egypt and the papyn may find this proliferation of technical terms intimidating; but I feel that it is essential for the proper discussion of a system of land tenure, agriculture and administration which is highly complex and alien to most English speakers. The most common technical terms, and their meanings, are listed in the Glossary, p. ooo; these, and all other unfamiliar terms are explained in the text on their first occurrence (which may be found from the index). But anyone who wishes for a basic introduction to Roman Egypt and its administrative structure should consult one of the following recent surveys: N. Lewis, Life in Egypt under Roman rule (Oxford, 1983); A. K. Bowman, Egypt after the Pharaohs: 332 BC-AD 642: From Alexander to the Arab Conquest (London, 1986), esp. eh. 3, with the diagram of the bureaucratic hierarchy, p. 67.

DATES

Dates in the papyri used in this book are normally given by the regnal year of the emperor(s), the name of the Egyptian month, and the day. The Egyptian months with their Julian equivalents are as follows (the year began on Thoth 1): Choiak 1 Tybi I Mecheir r

February 25 March 27 April 26 Aug. 24-28

REFERENCES

Papyri and related works are cited by the standard abbreviations listed in J. F. Oates et al., Checklist of Editions of Greek and Latin Papyri, Ostraca and Tablets, 4th edn. (BASP Supp. 7, 1992); this also lists (pp. 88-g) the full publication details of the Proceedings of the International Congresses of Papyrology, which are cited by abbreviated titles. Explanation of the abbreviations used for periodicals may also be found in the Checklist (76-8), or in L'Annee Philologique (Paris, 1927- ). Books and articles are cited in full at their first occurrence, and normally abbreviated on subsequent occasions. The following other abbreviations are not covered by these conventions: Le Monde grec Le Monde grec: Hommages a Claire Preaux (ed. J. Bingen et al.) (Brussels, 1975) P. Pher. P. J. Sijpesteijn and K. A. Worp, Eine Steuerliste aus Pheretnouis (Stud. Amstel. xxxiii) (Amsterdam, 1993) Proc. 20th lnt. Congr. Pap. Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Papyrologists, Copenhagen, 23-29 August, r992 (ed. A. Bulow-Jacobsen), Copenhagen, 1994 Full details of papyri published only in periodicals are given in the Index of Sources. 2.

Phamenoth r Pharmouthi I Pachon I Extra days

Pauni r Epeiph I Mesore I X

May 26 June 25 July 25 Xl

••::

0

25km

20

15

10

5

://

•Safl Aasin SESPHTHA?

Sumisla al waqf

• BaC

al-O~y~t • le tiff i:f:

(

/\

al-Korn al-Ahm~ Shimm al-Basal•

f'j.i \ ____/ •

.

KEY Greek(XieiSand nomecapitals

Theadelphia

Other place names

Bllhasa • TAMMOROU I PALOSIS •ltnitJ,1 . /./ ~ PEJJ'j,, Ta.,,,bidi • al-Sheikh Ziyad

Billa al-Gaba/ '•Shimm al-BasaJTAMPITEloJhKJ(/ THOLTHIS ARTAPATOLJ? al-Oibliya TERYTHIS? Bani ;'(q]-Lams):•1zbatHasan Basha 'Abd~ · )J . •Saqula • , 0 f3d }[ SEN~KELEU u a / / :;:: \Shulqam • Salt Abu Girg \,\ SENOKOMIS • , PSO~,:HIS? al•Bahnasa1• Abtuga • Abu Girg OXYRHYN!'.,,HUS Ashruba • PTHOCHIS PAKERKE

THEBAID

Antlnoopolla

/

:l!/

Memphis

Teblunis

~~~O

Tait ;~.Quli'a • • Absug THOLTHIS PSYCHIS n • SaftaJ-'Urata • aJ~Fashn al-Gafadun

Sokn.opaiouNesos§;,Moenarar,s Theadelphia

•

:i;i~ERYPHISrambu• \ TAAMPEMOU • al-Qais ~.Al Sheikh Fadl KYNOPOUS \\) (NECROPOLISOF KYNOPOLJS)

,Y;./

,•,.,,·

Bil~;{;;J~i!agadda•

;:,, •i • _.'.-:;:,-·

/

:i!f Korn an-Namrud

::ii•• Korn al-Banal

(Only place names mentioned in Iha book are marked on the map)

K~':: ..al-Manaqir :::,KomTir1a• Philae

~Ft

• Bardanuha PHERETNOUIS • ldqaq al-Misk Mimbal

• lstal

KEY

'i:)".

SADALOU

Edge of weslem desert Modern name of site with evidence of ancient settlement(taken from

al-Korn a)thmar Manq,Jtin•

~zwischenSama/Ut

Tunakla •

Korn Korn ar:Rahib • Korn al-Matlab •

Bilhasa SINARY

tt~\

unddemGabaJAbJSireh. 6) Other modem place-name Probableancientequivalent of modern place-name

:;h

Map r.

Egypt in the Roman period

Xll

Map 2. The Region of the Oxyrhynchite Nome: Sites with Evidence of Ancient Settlement and Probable Ancient Equivalents of Modem Place-Names xiii

INTRODUCTION -·-·-·Boundary

of nome (approx)

- - - Boundary of toparchy (approx) ········:;:::· Boundary of pagus (approx) i(li! Edga of weslam dasart Lower Nameof toparchy 4th

Numberof pagus

•efilA

Oxyrhynchlt$ vlllaga Identifiedwith a modem place-name(see Map2)

SOUIS

Oxyrhynchlte vlllage which can be located only approximately

Map 3. The Oxyrhynchite Approximate Reconstruction

The site of the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus lies some 180 km south of Cairo, at the junction between a desert route from the Small (Bahriya) Oasis and the major watercourse running along western edge of the Nile valley, the Bahr Yusuf. The town, called Permedjed in Egyptian, was already in Pharaonic times the centre of its administrative region (the Nineteenth nome). It had an important cult of Thoeris, the hippopotamus-goddess of childbirth, and later also a cult of the 'sharp-nosed' fish, the oxyrhynchos, from which the town derived its Greek name. Under Ptolemaic and Roman rule Oxyrhynchus became an increasingly important centre of regional administration, reaching a peak of prosperity in the Byzantine period. After the Arab conquest of Egypt it retained some significance, suffering a sharp decline only under the Mamelukes. The site of the ancient city was abandoned, but its impressive limestone ruins became a source of building material and lime for the remaining inhabitants of Bahnasa, the small town which now clings to the western bank of the Bahr Yusuf, and of the equally modest Sandafa al-Far on the opposite bank. Part of the site has also been covered in modern times by a cemetery. 1 Thus, when the Oxford scholars Grenfell and Hunt first arrived in 1897 to excavate for papyrus texts, little remained of the ancient temples, civic buildings, and private houses. But the rubbish mounds of the Roman and Byzantine period yielded a prolific harvest of texts; so that Grenfell and Hunt's six seasons of digging, followed by Italian excavations in the 1920s, made Oxyrhynchus the most important single source of Greek

Nome m the Roman Period: An xiv

' ]. Kruger, Oxyrhynchos in der Kaiserzeit: Studien zur Topogmphie und Literaturrezeption (Frankfurt, 1990) now provides the most thorough survey of the history of the site of Oxyrhynchus, material remains and excavations. See also H. Kee3, RE XXVII I. 1, cols. 2043-6. On the changing form of the city's Greek name, see D. Hagedorn, 'OBYPYI'XQN fIOAIE und H OBYPYI'XITQN fIOAIE', ZPE r2 (1973), zr,~z.

Introduction

Introduction

papyri."' Many of these papyri are now dispersed in libraries and other institutions throughout Europe and America, as a reward for their contribution to the original excavations, but the bulk of published texts are contained in the series the Oxyrhynchus Papyri and Papiri delta Societa Italiana. The former series has recently reached its sixtieth volume, comprising over four thousand Greek texts, mostly documents of the Roman and Byzantine periods.

documentation is precisely a consequence of the region's distinctive history. Major agricultural development under the early Ptolemies, followed by decline and abandonment of the peripheral villages in the later Roman period, left a string of sites along the desert edge in a condition ideally suited to the preservation of papyri. Several of these villages were unusually large, but their position necessitated a constant battle against sand blown from the desert and the silt which choked the lengthy irrigation canals. These villages on the margins of the Fayum may therefore not be representative of the villages in the less adverse conditions of the Nile valley and the southern Delta. What I am attempting to do, therefore, in this study of landholding and agrarian social relations in the Oxyrhynchite nome, is to offer an alternative and complementary perspective to the often rather pessimistic picture based on papyri from the Fayum. Of course the evidence from Oxyrhynchus is no less partial; the discarded papers of an urban community give a somewhat distorted view of conditions in the countryside. What emerge most clearly are the patterns of landholding and land management by the urban propertied class; villagers are in general documented only to the extent that they somehow impinged on the urban community, whether through private transactions, such as leases, sales, or loans, or through their appearance in administrative records of various kinds. Even the administrative records are scantier than might be anticipated, since villages had their own local officials and record-offices, while the chief nome officials, the strategos and basilikogrammateus, were required to serve away from their own place of residence, and customarily took their papers home with them once their period of service was concluded. A further disadvantage of the Oxyrhynchite texts, numerous though they are, is their predominantly disparate content, including few identifiable 'archives' or 'dossiers'; groups of texts which together can be used to make much more effective sense of an individual's or family's activities than can single documents alone. How far can we, therefore, reconstruct a balanced view of agricultural conditions in the Oxyrhynchite nome? In particular, in so far as the evidence suggests a different picture of agrarian conditions from that based primarily on texts from the Fayum, is it possible to judge how far this reflects substantive

These papyri have provided the source material for several general socio-economic surveys of Oxyrhynchus, as well as other studies of specific topics. 3 Several of these include discussions of landholding as part of the wider urban economy and society. But, no doubt because the papyri emanate from the town rather than the country villages, no study has hitherto had as its main focus the agrarian conditions within the Oxyrhynchite nome. Our picture of rural society in Roman Egypt has instead been primarily based on another region, the Fayum (the ancient Arsinoite nome), an oasis immediately adjacent to the Nile valley, irrigated by the Bahr Yusuf which turns west through the Lahun gap some 80 km north of Oxyrhynchus. This region is another source of Greek papyri in large numbers, but this excellent 2

For a brief account of Grenfell and Hunt's excavations, see T. G. H. James (ed.), Excavat£ng £n Egypt: The Egypt Exploratfon Sodety 1882-rgllz (London, 198z), eh. 9 (by E. G. Turner), based on the Egypt Explorat£on Fund Archaeological Reports (ed. F. LI. Griffith) for 18967, pp. 1-12; 19ov'3, pp. 1--9; 1903"4,pp. 14-17; 1904"5, PP· 13-17; 190~, pp. 8--16; 19067, pp. 8--n. B. V. Darbishire's map of the site fo~ the frontispiece to P. Oxy. vol. L, and several photographs of the excavations are published, in Excavating in Egypt, and in H. D. Schneider, Beelden van Behnasa: Egyptische kunst uit de Romeinse Keizertijd 1e-3e eeuw na Chr. (Zutphen, 1982), 24. On the Italian excavations, see E. Breccia, 'Fouilles a Oxyrhynchos et a Teb~nis. 1928-30', Le Musie Greco-Romain d'Alexandrie, 1925JI /Rome, 1970: anastattc reproduction of 1st edn., Bergamo, 1932), 6o-3. H. Maclennan, f!xyrhynchus: An Economic and Soda[ Study (Princeton, 1935); R. L. B. Morns, 'A Study in the Social and Economic History of Oxyrhyr:chus for the First Two Centuries of Roman Rule' (Duke University Ph.D. thesis, 1975); I. Fikhman, Oksirinkh-gorod papirusov. Social'no-economiceskie otnoseniya v Egipetskom gorode iv-serediny vii v (Moscow, 1976); E. Kutzner, Untemu:hungen zur Stellung der Frau im romischen Oxyrhynchos (Frankfurt, 1989); Kruger, Oxyrhynchos in der Kaiserzeit; H. Rink, Strassen und Viertelnamen von Oxyrh~nch?s (Diss. Giessen, 19z4); E. G. Turner, 'Roman Oxyrhynchus', jEA 38 (1952); 1d.,_ Oxyrhynchus and Rome', HSCP 79 (1975), 1-24. There are also prosopograph,es: B. W. Jones and J. E. G. Whitehorne, Register of Oxyrhynchites, JO BC-AD 96 (Am. Stud. Pap. 25), (Chico, Calif., 1983), and the computerized prosopography in preparation at King's College London by D. W. Rathbone. 2

3

Introduction

Introduction

regional differences, and how far it is simply the product of the different origin of the documents, between a metropolis, the central town of the nome, and villages at the margin of cultivation? The metropolitan bias of the material is in any case only an aspect of the major limitation on our understanding which arises from reliance on a single source: papyrus texts written in Greek, at a time when Egyptian was the language spoken by the rural population, and was still used for some documents (no texts in Egyptian from Oxyrhynchus have been published from the entire Roman period). 4 The rural agricultural population, the least powerful, literate, and articulate section of society, is almost inevitably documented only patchily, and then indirectly, through the concerns of the powerful. To be aware of such bias offers the chance of allowing for it and using imagination to fill the gaps in our knowledge. There is sufficient evidence to provide some sense of what Oxyrhynchite villages were like; and, even if the villagers' point of view has rarely been preserved, we do know that metropolitans had a significant presence in landholding at every village. It is difficult to imagine that the livelihood of many villagers could remain entirely free from contact with residents of the metropolis, whether these were their tax-collectors, landlords, creditors, purchasers of their produce, or relatives who had migrated to the city. Much of this book is in fact concerned with exploring the means by which, and the extent to which, the prosperity of the urban population was derived from their ties with the residents of the villages of the nome. It is organized, not around a single linear argument, but around a sequence of topics which approach the available evidence from a variety of angles. The

first chapter attempts to describe, as precisely as the evidence permits, the topography of the Oxyrhynchite nome; it also contains a brief introduction to the agricultural conditions. The next two chapters address questions posed by Rostovtzeff's still fundamental work on Egyptian land tenure. 5 The complexities of land tenure, less fashionable now than when Rostovtzeff wrote, are apt to make a reader's concentration wander. Neverthless, the subject remains of primary importance to our understanding of all aspects of landholding; it was the system of land categories which determined the rates of taxation on different parcels of land, and the conditions under which they could be acquired or disposed of, thus setting out the 'rules of the game' for individual landholders. The essentials of this system are summarized at the start of Chapter II, and readers not interested in the technicalities may prefer to skip the discussion, occupying the central sections of the chapter, of its detailed development as illustrated in the Oxyrhynchite papyri. Chapter III subjects the picture of the tenure of public land presented by Rostovtzeff (largely based on the papyri from the Fayum) to comparison with the evidence from Oxyrhynchus, identifying substantial differences between the two areas which cannot wholly be accounted for by the metropolitan origin of the latter evidence. The remaining chapters focus mainly on land in private ownership, or effectively in private possession. Chapter IV begins with a sociological survey of the landowners, and then looks at the composition and location of their properties, which were often fragmented into several discrete parcels. This chapter in the main treats the evidence synchronically; the following chapters explore how far the various methods by which land was transmitted from one owner to another, inheritance and marriage (Chapter V), and sale (Chapter VI), served to preserve or to change the existing landholding patterns. Finally, Chapter VII considers the conditions under which the land was actually farmed. Short-term leasing arrangements have left by far the fullest evidence, but does this abundance of evidence exaggerate their significance? A close analysis of these leases, in juxtaposition with the other available evidence of forms

4 The use of demotic for legal documents seems to have contracted rapidly over the first two centuries AD, so that the only two sites to have produced demotic papyri after the reign of Augustus are Soknopaiou Nesos and Tebtunis: K.-T. Zauzich, 'Demotische Texte romischer Zeit', in G. Grimm, H. Heinen, and E. Winter (eds.), Das rihnisch-byzantinische Agypten (Aegypt. Trev. II) (Mainz, 1983), 77-80. The hundreds of demotic ostraca said to be from Oxyrhynchus, relating to provisions for desert travel, are now dated to the Ptolemaic period: W. Clarysse, Bib. Or. 4z (1985), 338-44. One demotic papyrus of Roman date from Oxyrhynchus is described in P. Oxy. VI 961, and Dr J. R. Rea informs me that a very small number of papyri containing demotic are listed among the unpublished Oxyrhynchus texts. But who knows what the village temples of the nome might have produced, if only they could be excavated?

4

5 M. Rostowzew (Rostovtzeff), Studien zur Geschichte des romischen Kolonates (Leipzig and Berlin, 1910), pt. II.

5

Introductian

Introduction

of land management, shows that they do illuminate an important aspect of the agrarian conditions in the nome. The leases depict in some detail a form of relationship between the metropolitan landowners of Oxyrhynchus and the local village tenants who cultivated their land, which persisted throughout much of the Roman Principate, but was apparently eclipsed in the late third century AD by more permanent forms of dependence by cultivators on their landlords. Female landowners are referred to constantly throughout the book. Except for the discussion of female inheritance (Ch. V § 4) it is not appropriate to devote a separate chapter to them. In some respects female landowners behaved no differently from their male counterparts, while the particular problems which female landholding did pose (e.g. in the compulsory imposition of public land, see Ch. II § 4) are most effectively treated in the relevant context. But some very interesting general points do emerge about the role of female landholders, which are summarized in the Conclusion, and can be traced in more detail by using the index. The chronological focus of this study is essentially the period of the Roman Principate, between 30 BC, when Egypt became a province of the Roman empire, and the late third century AD. The documentary record from Oxyrhynchus in any case begins only at the very end of the Ptolemaic period, and becomes plentiful only in the mid-first century AD; documentation is fullest from then until the mid-third century. Administrative changes in the later third century (many pre-dating the reign of Diocletian, usually perceived as the 'watershed' between the early and late Roman empire) led to the cessation of many forms of administrative documentation characteristic of the earlier period. Most types of private legal contract also become rare after the mid-third century, although they do not disappear entirely. Diocletian's reform of land tenure, unquestionably of major importance, was in a sense only the culmination of long-term developments. This process can best be appreciated by briefly viewing the history of land tenure from a fourth-century perspective (Ch. II § 7), not least because our only precise figure for the area of land under cultivation in the Oxyrhynchite nome comes from that century. The land-lease contracts, the only type of document to have survived in reasonable quantity from throughout

the entire period of Greek documentation in Egypt, also offer the possibility of a longer perspective. Thus, although the main focus of Chapter VII remains the period of the Principate, it also exploits the continuity in the evidence for tenancy (and paid labour on estates) in looking forward to developments of the fourth and later centuries, which have themselves been treated in important recent studies. 6 What wider relevance does this study have? Oxyrhynchus is the best-documented provincial city of the Roman empire, and its papyri offer a unique opportunity to examine how an urban landowning class derived its wealth from the rural hinterland. Much has traditionally been made of the 'uniqueness' of Egypt among Roman provinces, but we must not exaggerate the significance of the undoubted differences, both of administrative structure and agricultural conditions, between this province and other parts of the empire. 7 In particular, it is clear that the prosperity of a substantial class of urban landowners in the metropoleis of Egypt was a specific development of the Roman period, and was at least in part the direct result of government policies specifically designed to create such a class on analogy with other provinces of the Greek east. 8 The inevitable differences of detail, for instance arising from the agricultural regime based on the annual inundation of the Nile, should not be allowed to obscure the underlying similarities between landowners in Egypt and those elsewhere in the empire, in their social aspirations and attitudes to their property.

6

6 Fikhman, Oksirinkh-gorod papirusov; J. Gascou, 'Les Grandes Domaines, la cite et l'etat en Egypte byzantine (Recherches d'histoire agraire, fiscale et administrative)', Travaux et Memoires 9 (1g85), 1-90; R. S. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton, 1993). 7 Cf. D. W. Rathbone, 'The Ancient Economy and Graeco-Roman Egypt', in L. Criscuolo and G. Geraci (eds.), Egitto e storia antica dell'ellenismo all'eta Araba: bilancio di un confronto (Bologna, 1989), 159-76. 8 A. K. Bowman and D. W. Rathbone, 'Cities and Administration in Roman Egypt', JRS Sz (199:i), 10-,-,z7.

7

The Oxyrhynchite Nome AD 30']'8, the toparchies were replaced by ten pagi. 4 The number-

CHAPTER

The Oxyrhynchite

x. TOPOGRAPHY

I

Nome

AND POPULATION

Almost all the texts used in this study come from finds at the site of Oxyrhynchus itself; but their subject matter concerns the agricultural area of the nome, stretching from over 40 km to the north of the metropolis to about 25 km to the south. This territory contained about a hundred villages, some evidently quite large, as well as numerous smaller settlements. In principle, a distinction existed between komai (villages) and epoikia ('tied' estate villages); however, some of the latter tended to develop into ordinary villages, and were sometimes eventually officially recognized as komai. The annual inundation necessitated a highly nucleated pattern of settlement, with villages situated on higher ground than the surrounding arable fields, although vineyards and orchards, which were not inundated, could have buildings associated with them. 1 During the Principate, the administration of the Oxyrhynchite nome was based on a division of the area into six toparchies: the Upper, Western, Eastern, Middle, Thmoisepho, and Lower. Divisions of the toparchies, called merides, do not seem to have had consistent administrative importance." The survival of several lists of villages, especially P. Oxy. X 1285, XIV 1659 and XXIV 2422, enable most villages to be assigned to a toparchy, as well as indicating approximately the relative size of the toparchies and of the individual villages during the third century. 3 In 1

Kriiger, Oxyrhynchos in der Kai;erzeit, 41-6 analyses the evidence for kumai, epoikia, ktemata and choria. a Refs. given in P. Koln III 137 (where Talao is in the Eastern mern of the Lower toparchy). After the rst c. AD, merides usually have personal names (e.g. of Thermouthion and Eudaimon, P. Oxy. XX 227r); some, although not all, of these may relate to sections of private estates rather than to public administration. 3 See Table 1. This data is further analysed by D. W. Rath bone, 'Villages, Land and Population in Graeco-Roman Egypt', PCPhS NS 36 (1990), 103-42, at 125--9.

8

ing of the pagi is known to have followed a south-north sequence, which can provide a helpful guide in locating villages, although the pagus-number of relatively few villages is known, except in the well-documented 8th pagus. 5 Neither the boundaries of the nome, nor those of the toparchies and pagi, are known precisely, but they can be established approximately from several plausible identifications between ancient and modern village names. This in turn assists in the approximate location of many more villages using the internal evidence in the papyri. Recent studies have made an important contribution to our knowledge of the topography of the nome, although scope still remains for further work. 6 In reconstructing the topography of the nome, it is important to be aware of major changes in the physical geography of the Nile valley. The Nile itself has moved perhaps 3 km eastwards since Antiquity. 7 In the papyri, the Nile is referred to as the Great River. 8 The Bahr Yusuf (the ancient Tomis River) which branches from the Nile near Asyut, pursuing a meandering course along the western side of the valley until turning into the Fayum through the Lahun gap, has also altered its course. North of Oxyrhynchus, an old channel is marked on the 1 : 100,000

4 J. Lallemand, L'Administration ciuile de l'Egypte de l'avenement de Dioc/etien a la creation du diocese (284-382), (Brussels, 1964), 97 f. 5 The evidence is collected in P. Oxy. LV 3795 introduction and notes, and P. Pruneti, 'Toparchie e pagi: precisazioni topografiche relative al nomo Ossirinchite', Aegyptus, 6g (1989), 113-18; new information is provided by P. Oxy. LX 4089 and 4092. 6 The fundamental papyrological groundwork was done by P. Pruneti in I centri abitati dell'Ossirinchite: Repertorio toponomastico, (Florence, 1981); J. Kruger, Oxyrhynchos in der Kaiserzeit, traces the attested connections between villages (49ff.), and includes a useful gazetteer (265-308); F. Gomaa, R. Muller-Wollermann, and W. Schenkel, Mittelagypten zwischen Samalut und dem Gaba/ Abu Sir: Beitriige zur histomchen Topographie der pharaonischer Zeit (TAVO Beihefte ser. B no. 6g), (Wiesbaden, 1991), eh. 4 contains a gazetteer of place-name identifications using written evidence (although some suggested identifications are inconsistent with the known toparchy or pagus locations of villages), while eh. 6 provides invaluable archaeological descriptions of the sites throughout this part of the Nile valley, including some plans and photographs. 7 K. Butter, Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt (Chicago, 1976), 35. 8 On this and the Tomis, see H. C. Youtie, ZPE 24 (1977), 133-'7, at p. 136.

9

The Oxyrhynchite Nome

scale map running to the west of the modern one: significantly, Shinara (ancient Sinary) lies on this old course. 9 The western boundary of the Oxyrhynchite nome, for most, if not all of its length, was the desert edge, which here is less an escarpment than a gradual rise. Oxyrhynchus itself lies at a point where the ground rises directly on the west of the Bahr Yusuf with no modern cultivation on that side of the river. In th~ Roman period, however, there was certainly some arable land as well as vineyards, immediately to the north of Oxyrhynchus, i~ the area of the village of Paimis. 10 But it is unlikely that in Antiquity the cultivated land extended significantly beyond the modern edge of cultivation at any point from Oxyrhynchus northwards in the nome, since there the ground rises relatively quickly west of the Old Bahr Yusuf from around 32 m to over 40 m. To the south of Oxyrhynchus, on the other hand, the ground rises even more gently. Modem cultivation extends from 1-6 km west of the Bahr Yusuf, and irrigation could easily be taken further by canals branching from the Bahr Yusuf at a height of about 40 m. That the ancient cultivation did stretch further west is supported by the existence of several koms in the desert, at least some of which seem to have been settlement sites not merely necropoleis. Here lay the ancient village of Ision P;nga, through the territory of which ran the Large Canal, with the Other Canal to the west of it. 11 This area formed part of the ancient Upper toparchy, which is generally agreed to have occupied the whole southern part of the nome, from the boundary with the Hermopolite at Chusis (modem Shusha) northwards almost to the Western toparchy village of Pela (modern Billa al-Mustagidda). 12 The bulk of the 9

. See P. Oxy: LI 3638 line 12 with note; the Tomis ran immediately west of a vineyard near Smary. Cf. the ~ourse of the Bahr Yusuf depicted in the maps of the Napoleonic Description de l'Egypte, in Mitteliigypten zwischen Samalut und dem 10 G~~al ~bu Sir plates I:-IX. P. Oxy. XII 1 5. 47 . Mitteltigypten zwuchen Samalut und dem Gaba/ Abu Sir, 222-6 (settlement sites: Korn al-Matlab; Korn ar-Rahib; Kom Tunaida?; Korn Tirfa; Korn alManaqir?; Korn al-Banat?; Kom an-Namrud, the last a substantial settlement and necropoli~. On Ision Panga, see P. Oxy. VI 988 (canals); references to sandy !and here_and m PSI XII~ 1330 support the location suggested in P. Oxy. LV 38o4 mtrnduct1on. Its location m the 1st pagus (P. Oxy. LX 4092) suggests that it should be equated with one of the more southerly koms. " For Chusis, see M. Drew-Bear, Le Nome Hermopolite: toponymes et sites (Am. Stud. Pap. 21), (Missoula, 1979), 322 f.

10

The Oxyrhynchite Nome

Upper toparchy, including its most prosperous villages, lay to the east of the Bahr Yusuf. But it did not stretch as far as the Nile: the J{ynopolite nome extended to the west bank of the Nile at this point, occupying as much as half the width of the valley, if Pheretnouis, a Kynopolite village close to the Oxyrhynchite boundary, is correctly equated with modern Bardanuha. ' 3 Other villages along the border were Thmoithothis and Keuothis. 14 It seems increasingly likely that Al Qais is the site of ancient J{ynopolis. 15 Even at its most northerly point, the Upper toparchy apparently lacked direct access to the Nile: wheat from Sko was embarked at the Nile harbour of Satyros in the Eastern toparchy. 16 This is confirmed by the existence of a border between part of the Eastern toparchy and the Kynopolite nome. 17 Further links help to locate certain villages within the north-east corner of the Upper toparchy: Episemou had links with both Sko and with Terythis and Adaiou in the Eastern toparchy, while Monimou was a close neighbour of Sko. 18 Useful information about the location of villages in the Upper and Western toparchies may be derived from a papyrus listing obligations to repair sections of the Canal of Apollophanes. 19 The sequence of the fourteen villages named has puzzled commentators, since the last four patently follow a topographical sequence (Pela, Lenon, Paimis, Senekeleu, all known to be in the Western toparchy, south to north along the Bahr Yusuf), not on the face of it borne out by the earlier names in the list. The text describes the canal as running first westwards from the Nile, then turning and running northwards. In fact the list begins on the left bank of the 3 ' It certainly lay in that vicinity. P. Pheretnouis now confirms that lands of Pheretnouis adjoined the Oxyrhynchite border (refs. on p. 7). 4 ' P. Oxy. XLIX 3488 and 3489 are both leases of land near Thmoithothis (stated to be in the Upper toparchy) to villagers from the Kynopolite nome; other refs. are P.Hibeh II 248 frag. 2 line 17 (c.250 BC; spelled Tµ,o,6wtrr), P. Oxy. IV 794, P. Prine. II 42 with ZPE 82 (1992), 123. No references are yet known after the 1st c. AD; was the village later transferred to the Kynopolite? Keuothis was in the Kynopolite by the 6th c. AD, but may earlier have belonged to the Oxyrhynchite: see Pruneti, I centri abitati, 8,4and P. Oxy. LX 4091. 5 ' See N. Litinas, KVl'wV,ro.\,s and Eu