Let us now have a cursory look at the compulsory public services (liturgies) (see also Gleason, this volume). The notion of liturgy is directly connected with the Roman concept of munera, which a citizen, depending on his wealth and income (poros), was supposed to undertake. Although some compulsory service existed in the Ptolemaic period, the elaborate liturgical system in Egypt as it evolved in the Roman period finds no exact parallel in the rest of the Mediterranean world, and there remain questions regarding the introduction of the system: some scholars have argued that the system was introduced as early as Augustus, while others do not see any evidence until Trajan (J. D. Thomas 2001: 1249). Whatever the date of its introduction, one thing is clear: the main goal of this system, which worked hand in hand with the city magistracies and the metropolitan boulai, was the effective supervision and collection of taxes.
The liturgical system, like the imperial administration, consisted of multiple tiers. At the very top were the elite metropolitans and (after 200 ce) the bouleutic class. Below them were villagers and the non-elite metropolitans who served as lower-ranking tax collectors and policemen. At the very bottom were the poorest who did not have the sufficient poros: most of these people were asked to use their bodies to fulfill their liturgical duties (J. D. Thomas 1983).
As with taxation, several groups were fully exempt or received temporary relief from liturgies: Roman citizens, Alexandrians and Antinoites, fathers of five children, members of the same household, women, veterans, physicians, priests, etc.; the list is indeed long (Lewis 1997: 89-96). But the majority of the population, depending on their poros, had to serve in some way. At present at least 100 separate liturgies are known whose terms ranged from one to three years, some being seasonal. The tax liturgists were not only responsible for defraying the expenses of the office, but they were individually and collectively responsible for turning in to the appropriate office the quota assigned to their designated area. The procedures of nomination are well attested in the papyrological record. Once a liturgical office was announced, there followed a process of nomination by the local (metropolitan or village) authorities with the ultimate appointment made by the strategos of the nome (Lewis 1997). On the village level, the key figures were the village scribes (komogrammateis) who were eventually replaced by the dekaprotoi (J. D. Thomas 1975).
The liturgical system was harsh on those who lived in the metropolitan centers. But, as papyrological evidence demonstrates, it was even harder on those living in the villages, for efforts to avoid, or protest against nomination to liturgies are plentiful at both levels.
World History
