Basic Information Flashcards
(31 cards)
How did Romanisation manifest in Roman Egyptian provincial culture?
Elite gymnasial groups (traditionally Hellenic) leading the development of provincial culture attested by Fayum mummies and funerary culture
Why is the change from Ptolemaic to Roman rule hard to track?
Lack of papyri for the transition from Ptolemaic to Roman rule
What is the main structural change under the Romans?
Very different in terms of the form of government - no king/pharaoh, Egypt acting as a province under an equestrian; could not directly petition the emperor without the assizes, had to go through the governor or a powerful patron
How did administrative changes affect ethnic & language divides in Roman Egypt?
Short offices of officials led to an impersonal system where natives and inhabitants had to learn the Roman system - language barriers - in order to exist, in contrast to ‘benevolent monarchy’
‘Loss’ of Demotic
How did taxation change under the Romans?
Taxation was certainly top-down, and was a fundamental change from Ptolemaic Egypt. Heavy poll tax to fund Augustus’ army - Egypt was the experimental first province to be subjected, led to rioting, Alexandrians and Romans exempt, specifically focused on rural populations (typically indigenous)
What was a key status change under the Romans?
Full privatisation of the kleruchic holdings of catoecic (cat-oy-kik) status: creating an elite class of private landowners to replace Ptolemaic salaried officials - municipalisation
Who were tax collectors?
Romans & Ptolemies favoured contractors, could be imperial elite, or even wealthy villagers (required property as assurance)
How did the poll tax change Roman Egypt?
Poll tax resulting in a central treasury and fundamental change of status categories, shifting the balance of power in a population
What is the façade of continuity?
Official titles from Ptolemaic period stay the same, but the functions and how offices work etc. are different as a result of Roman rule
What was trade like pre-Romans in Egypt?
Limited to no surplus = not much trade
Trade fairly local pre-Romans
How did taxation changes under the Romans affect the economic model of Egypt?
Increased taxation under the Romans leads to more surplus generation because you need excess to pay heavier taxes
This leads to more trade on both local and more general level
This creates a new economic model
What was required under the Romans in order to generate surplus to pay taxes?
Land ownership
What geographic feature determines the whole pattern of economic production?
The Nile
How often were census conducted and when did this start?
Every 14 years, gets into this cycle definitely under Tiberius, potentially under Augustus
How did censuses work? What information was required?
Submit written declarations (apographai) for each unit of housing, not for the house, but specifically for the number of people
Information: name, age, status, buildings owned
Define ‘elites’ in the Roman world:
The ruling governmental body of wealthy individuals who in cities and towns administered their communities
Which body was usually comprised of elites?
Members of town councils (decuriones or curiales in the West, bouleutai in the East)
Who were elites in Roman Egypt?
In Egypt, where town councils were established only in AD 200/1, the elite is generally taken to designate a restricted group of wealthy individuals of Hellenic descent, or at least with a Hellenized background, who held high administrative positions and magistracies
Who did the poll tax generally apply to?
All men aged between 14 and 62 were required to pay
What were the 2 main fiscal categories of Roman Egypt?
Egyptians (Aiguptioi), that is the inhabitants of the countryside (chora), including the nome capitals (metropoleis), who paid the poll tax, and citizens of the Greek cities (astoi), who were exempt. Roman citizens, who in Egypt were few in number, were also exempt.
What is a common misconception about Roman Egypt’s legal categories?
Legal designations were not necessarily a reflection of ethnicity.
What language were Ptolemaic archives held in?
Greek
What was a result of attempts to make archives more accessible?
As a result, the ‘demise of the demotic document’, but demotic documents survive well into the 1st century CE
What was the ‘Law of the Egyptians’?
“For no law permits wives against their will to be separated from their husbands; and if there is any such law, it does not apply to daughters of a marriage by written contract and themselves married by written contract.”
