The local administration depended heavily on a combination of institutions of local government in the metropoleis and a widespread system of liturgies throughout the nomes. In fact, these two features are the hallmark of the Roman administration of Egypt; nothing of this sort or scale existed in the Ptolemaic period when the system depended primarily on paid government agents. The Roman model aimed at redirecting the burden of tax collection and internal administration of the local communities from the central government to the elites of the countryside, an arrangement that was typical of the empire as a whole (see Ando, this volume; Gleason, this volume).
The institution of both the boulai and the liturgies, along with much of the vocabulary and the honorary titles that came with the former (e. g. ‘‘gymnasiarch’’ = gymnasium director, ‘‘kosmetes’’ = order master, etc.), and the concept of benefaction and wealth redistribution lying behind the latter, were modeled on Classical Athens.
Metropoleis and boulai
Before the introduction of the city councils ( boulai) in 200 ce the strategos and his officials had administrative control over the entire nome, including the nome capitals, the metropoleis. The elites of these cities were styled ‘‘metropolites’’ and were the descendants of the Greek settlers of the Ptolemaic period; no descendants of mixed marriages were allowed in this class and males around the age of 14 had to undergo the process of epikrisis (verification of status). Among them there were other elite groups, perhaps with more privileges, called for example ‘‘the 6,475 colonists’’ in Arsinoe or ‘‘those of the gymnasium’’ in Hermopolis and Oxyrhynchus. Like other elite groups elsewhere in the empire, the Egyptian metropolites were involved in philanthropic projects for the community (e. g. erecting or refurbishing buildings such as baths and stoas), paying the expenses out of their own pockets. In return they received honorific titles, but these were mostly for decorum and did not represent real power. Groups of people with such titles did not represent more than committees overseeing certain community functions.
In 200 CE Septimius Severus introduced a boule (city council) in each nome capital ( metropolis). The best documented boule is that of Oxyrhynchus. The papyri inform us that there were probably around 100 councilors, all of the Greek ‘‘gymnasial’’ class, with property qualifications as well as lifetime and hereditary membership. The council had a president (who had held other offices previously and performed the most important duties), a secretary, and a treasurer. The council met perhaps once a month, with extra meetings as required; the meetings were probably held at the theater. Although it could make recommendations to the assembly of the city, the boule had no real judicial power. The main goal was the collection of taxes in the entire nome. It also supervised and managed the finances of the city and public works and buildings. Though the boule had a certain degree of autonomy in matters of local governance, it was watched closely by the strategos when it came to its most important task, the collection of the nome taxes. Documentary evidence suggests that this system had already begun to slow down in the middle of the second century and often individuals were coerced to undertake the various tasks. By the middle of the following century, there was such a crisis that villagers were forced to undertake metropolitan services, against the rule of law, as the following very fragmentary papyrus, recording an interchange between lawyers and a prefect of Egypt, suggests:
I read the law of the Emperor Severus to the effect that villagers must not be impressed into compulsory service in the metropolis... and after Severus all the prefects have judged thus. The laws are indeed to be esteemed and revered.. .What do you say to the law of Severus and the decision of the prefects? Severus promulgated his law in Egypt when the towns were still prosperous. . . the argument of prosperity, or rather decline in prosperity, is the same for the villages and the towns. . . the force of the law increases with the passage of time. (SB V 7696.82-6, 100-5 [250 ce]; translation from Bowman 1986: 66)
Much of what we know about the municipalization of Egypt and the sharp break with the Ptolemaic period is due to the works of Bowman (1971), Bowman and Rathbone (1992), and Lewis (1970 and 1984) respectively. Though it is almost certain that many of these magistracies existed in Alexandria in the early years of Roman rule, it is still uncertain when they were introduced into the metropoleis of the countryside and they may not have existed until the beginning of the second century (J. D. Thomas 2001: 1250-1).
World History
