Greek and Roman Egypt

A perspective on the nature of the Roman legal order in the provinces and the status of local laws and practices under Roman rule. These questions are explored through a series of case studies from Roman Egypt, including the well-known petition of Dionysia (P. Oxy. II 237).

After the death of Alexander III of Macedon, the Seleucid Empire emerged as one of the most powerful Hellenistic kingdoms of Asia. His huge territorial extension and the various peoples who came under their control necessitated the creation of a mighty army that would ensure their control and help protectit from its enemies.

An introduction to the agriculture of Roman Egypt covering a selection of critical issues: the environment, the strengths and weaknesses of our evidence, population and the size of the cultivated area, land tenure and taxation, crops and diet, the management of Egypt’s natural resources, and changes to Egyptian agriculture toward the end of the period in question (i.e. Augustus to Diocletian).  Forthcoming in Wiley-Blackwell, A Companion to Ancient Agriculture, ed. Timothy Howe and David Hollander.

In this comparative study some technical devices, as they were known in the Greco-Roman Alexandria, are juxtaposed to such of the Indian cultural area, as they were mentioned in various, even legendary writings. The focus here is mainly on the time between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE, when the trade between Egypt and South Asia over the sea had a heyday. At that time the main representatives of Western technical engineering lived and worked in Alexandria.

This paper deals with some questions concerning the iconography, iconology and date of execution of the famous mosaic pavement from Sheikh Zoueide in Sinai, now exibited in the Ismailiya Museum. The author analyses both the mythological mosaic with the representation of various subjects, like Dionysiac procession, Nilotic theme, Hippolytos and Phaedra, and another geometric mosaic. The iconological study of all symbolic elements sheds light on the mentality of Nestor who lived in this house and of other inhabitants of the city.  The author sees the great influence of Egypt probably of Alexandria, in the mosaic's style. He also discusses stylistic problems and suggests a date of its execution in the first half of the 5th century.
On the iconological study of the mosaic see also: M.T. Olszewski, Mauvais œil et protection contre l'envie dans la mosaïque de Cheikh Zouède au Sinaï (IV-Ve siècle), published in: Paunier, D., Schmidt, Ch (ed. by), la Mosaïque gréco-romaine VIII. Actes du  VIIIe Colloque international de la mosaïque antique et médiévale, Lausanne 1997 (2001), pp. 276-301.
M.T.Olszewski, Two Late Antique synonymous mosaics from Sheikh Zuweid (Egypt) and Vinon (France) (translated) / Deux  mosaïques  synonimiques  de l’antiquité tardive: Cheikh  Zouède  (Egypte)  et  Vinon  (France) / Dwie późnoantyczne mozaiki synonimiczne z Szeikh Zued (Egipt) i Vinon (Francja) - (in Polish), Światowit IV-A, 2002, pp. 99-105.

The authors of hymns and aretalogies of the Graeco-Roman period often used Homeric, Hesiodic or Pindaric terms to honor the divine. In the case of Isis-au-trône and Hera, a poet from Narmouthis in the Fayum and another from the island of Andros, both writing in the Ist century BC assimilated the two goddesses through an exchange of some of their specific epithets.

DEUTSCH
Das Ziel dieser Arbeit war, die Frage zu klären, ob sich aus den Tempelbauprojekten der Argeadenkönige und des ersten Ptolemäers Muster erkennen lassen und zu untersuchen, ob sich aus diesen in Hinblick auf ihre legitimationspolitische Relevanz ein Modell ableiten lässt. Im Zentrum der Untersuchungen stehen dabei die geografische Verteilung der Bauprojekte und die sakralen Darstellungen in Hinblick auf deren Inhalt. Des Weiteren wurden auch wesentliche Belege zur politischen Gecshichte herangezogen, um wichtige Entwicklungen zu unterstreichen. Im ersten Abschnitt werden der historische Rahmen abgesteckt und und die grundlegenden Legitimationsformen eines Herrschers besprochen, um diese im weiteren Verlauf als Parameter für etwaige Muster heranziehen zu können. Im Laufe der Arbeit werden ferner ausgewählte Tempel aus der Zeit Alexanders des Großen, Philipps III. (Arrhidaios), Alexanders IV. und Ptolemaios' I. als Fallbeispiele beschrieben und ausgewertet.
In einer vergleichenden Analyse wurden die besagten Fallbeispiele in Verbindung zueinander gesetzt, einander gegenübergestellt und die daraus gewonnenen Erkenntnisse beschrieben.


ENGLISH
The aim of this thesis was to clarify if patterns in the temple building projects of the Argeadai kings and the first Ptolemy could be recognized and an analysis made if a relevant model could be derived, regarding their projects and taking their legitimation politics into consideration. The geographic locations of these building projects and the analysis of their respective sacral illustrations were the focal point of the research. Significant data regarding historical events and political background information was integrated into the work to highlight important developments. The first part of the thesis defines the historical framework and discusses the fundamental legitimising forms of a ruler, in order to use these as parameters and reference points for any patterns later on. Furthermore the thesis includes case studies, covering selected temples from the time of Alexander the Great, Philip III (Arrhidaios), Alexander IV and Ptolemy I, and compares and contrasts these with one other and subsequent conclusions are drawn in a comparative analysis. The implied examples were set in conjunction and contrasted with each other and the subsequent conclusions were discribed in a comparative analysis.

Since its discovery by Battiscombe Gunn, it is believed that Saqqara's Ostrakon is able to improve our understanding of how Egyptians designed curved elements, but the geometric significance of the hieratic values is still uncertain. Indeed, in order to obtain an indisputable result, the distance between the vertical ordinates is required, and this distance is not explicitly indicated on the limestone artefact.
But since there were no algebraic formulas at the time of the Pharaohs, a simple grid-based procedure was developed such as those used by the Egyptians to reproduce the scale drawings, to try to decipher the geometric meaning of the curve drawn on the find.
To conclude, this simple process permits to understand that the five hieratic values of the Saqqara Ostrakon describe a segmental arch whose span and rise correspond to the architectural proportions of several Egyptian tombs and arches, and that the numerical sequence of the artefact could be considered the most "ancient" mathematical formula of the circle.

Si definivano incolae, in diritto romano, gli individui domiciliati entro i confini di una colonia o di un municipio. Poteva darsi la presenza di incolae sia in colonie o in municipi romani, sia latini. Premesso uno studio delle comunità locali disseminate nei vasti dominii di Roma, l’indagine si è concentrata sulla posizione degli incolae, che comportava una collocazione giuridica ben precisa. Di conseguenza, per poter essere incolae, i soggetti domiciliati dovevano avere un riconoscimento formale o, secondo i casi, un’autorizzazione da parte della civitas. Sulla base delle fonti letterarie, giuridiche, gromatiche ed epigrafiche si è delineata la condizione giuridica degli incolae, differenziandola da quella di realtà affini quali, tra gli altri, gli adtributi e i contributi.

La diffusion, dans l'ensemble du Bassin méditerranéen et même au-delà (en Arabie, en Inde et dans la lointaine Bretagne), du culte de plusieurs divinités originaires d'Égypte (Isis et son parèdre Sarapis, leur fils le petit Harpocrate, Anubis le dieu chacal, Apis le bœuf de Memphis, Osiris même) est l'un des phénomènes les plus remarquables des époques hellénistique et romaine.
Longtemps assise sur quelques textes littéraires, de belles inscriptions grecques et latines, d’imposantes statues de Rome, d’Athènes ou d’ailleurs, notre compréhension de l’accueil réservé par les non-Égyptiens à cette divine famille s’est considérablement approfondie et affinée par l’étude et l’analyse de milliers de documents sortis de terre depuis la Renaissance (bijoux, statuettes, papyrus, céramiques, monnaies).
On trouvera dans le présent recueil, richement illustré, plusieurs centaines de ces documents traduits le cas échéant en français et commentés, révélant l’extraordinaire impact qu’eurent les cultes isiaques sur les populations du monde gréco-romain près de huit siècles durant.

La recente, importante edizione della stele di Cornelio Gallo a Philae, oltre a raggiungere conclusioni pressoché definitive su questioni specifiche suscitate dal prezioso monumento, sgombrando il campo da radicati pregiudizi, rinnova il dibattito mai interrotto sulle ragioni della disgrazia e della morte di Gallo, escludendo che nella stele vi siano tracce di suoi reati. Anche il riesame delle fonti e la considerazione della cronologia dei fatti permettono di escludere qualsiasi presenza nella stele e nelle sue iscrizioni di colpe di Gallo contro Ottaviano.

Since its discovery by Battiscombe Gunn, it is believed that Saqqara's Ostrakon is able to improve our understanding of how Egyptians designed curved elements, but the geometric significance of the hieratic values is still uncertain. Indeed, in order to obtain an indisputable result, the distance between the vertical ordinates is required, and this distance is not explicitly indicated on the limestone artefact.
But since there were no algebraic formulas at the time of the Pharaohs, a simple grid-based procedure was developed such as those used by the Egyptians to reproduce the scale drawings, to try to decipher the geometric meaning of the curve drawn on the find.
To conclude, this simple process permits to understand that the five hieratic values of the Saqqara Ostrakon describe a segmental arch whose span and rise correspond to the architectural proportions of several Egyptian tombs and arches, and that the numerical sequence of the artefact could be considered the most "ancient" mathematical formula of the circle.

This paper examines civic oaths in the Hellenistic period as public rituals, and as documents inscribed in public ritual settings. Civic oaths were clearly intended to have a coordinating effect on the populace, and this paper seeks to identify which coordinating devices are apparent in the ritual of the oath, and in the location of oath inscriptions. In so doing it will observe how ritual and space were implemented in effectuating the oath; prime case studies include the oaths of Kos and Kalymna, the citizen's oaths of Chersonesos and Mylasa, the oath between Smyrna and Magnesia under Sipylos, and the oath between Eumenes I of Pergamon and his mercenary troops. Taking the historical context into account along with the ritual and spatial setting, it will show how individual rational cooperation was evoked at a time in which loyalty and civic identity were the linchpins in both local and global connections.

The study addresses the legal rules that allowed in Rome and in some Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, especially Egypt, women to serve as guardians or to assist the guardian of their prepubescent children. In Rome, mothers as guardians are attested during the second century by individual imperial concession, and the mother as manager in aid to the guardian is amply attested in the classical age. In Egypt, mothers could serve as guardians, appointed by a private act of the husband (since the beginning of the province until 212 AD), while in connection to the guardian (with the name ἐπακολουθήτρια) they appear only from the first half of the second century ad. the author questions the mutual influences between the two sets of rules.

Nel presente articolo si esaminano le norme giuridiche in base alle quali a Roma e in alcune province orientali dell'impero romano, soprattutto l'Egitto, la madre poteva essere tutrice o poteva svolgere fuzioni di ausilio al tutore dei propri figli impuberi. A Roma la madre tutrice appare attestata già dal secondo secolo per concessione imperiale individuale, e la madre amministratrice in ausilio al tutore è ampiamente attestata in età classica. In Egitto la madre tutrice, nominata con atto privato del marito, compare dalle origini della provincia e fino al 212 d.C., mentre, affiancata al tutore, con il nome di ἐπακολουθήτρια, è documentata solo dalla prima metà del secondo secolo d.C. In dottrina ci si è interrogati circa le influenze reciproche tra i due sistemi di norme. L'autore conclude che è legittimo ipotizzare che la scomparsa della madre tutrice egizia dopo il 212 sia stata causata dalla diffusione del diritto romano nelle province a seguito della Constitutio Antoniniana, mentre non sembra possibile rinvenire altre reciproche influenze. In particolare, si nega che la madre amministratrice romana sia derivata dall'ἐπακολουθήτρια egizia.

Two silver skyphoi with Egyptianizing scenes depicting a nude male in the company of either a crocodile or a hippopotamus are discussed within the intellectual milieu of both the Alexandrian Library-Museion and pharaonic Egyptian temples. After the pharaonic, Egyptian origins of the motifs is suggested, the scenes are interpreted on the basis of the literary testimonia which suggest that such scenes can only be fully understood within the context of the ancient Egyptian pharaonic milieu on which they are based.

"The main point is that when one takes into account what we know about ancient Egyptian mathematics (based primarily on the Rhind Papyrus) and what we know about the system of measuring lengths in terms of "cubits," "palms," and "fingers" , everything involves  the number 7 and its multiple.

"An unusul type - Egyptian (motives) on a (Roman Campana) terracotta-plaque" - Presentation an discussion of an unusual Campana-Relief with Egyptian motives and hieroglyphes in Museum August Kestner, Hannover / Germany (inv. no. 2008.233), previously considered to be a fake. However, two other plaques probably even from the same mould are known and have since been studied in detail by the author (British Museum and Louvre), both of which are complete plaques, however, by far not as well conserved as the piece in Hannover, only a fragment (approx. a little less than the left half). - PLEASE NOTE: By Christian E. Loeben is also the (much shorter) English (!) entry on this piece in the following, more recent exhibition catalogue: BEYOND THE NILE - EGYPT AND THE CLASSICAL WORLD, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2018), p. 273-274, cat. 172. - (in German)

Egipto es conocido por todos por haber albergado una de las civilizaciones más antiguas del Mediterráneo, ya que podemos remontar hoy sus orígenes, al menos, hasta los dos últimos siglos del IV milenio a.C. Griegos y romanos se interesaron desde muy pronto por las maravillas de la civilización egipcia, a la que consideraban no sólo la cuna de la sabiduría, sino también el origen de muchos de los rasgos que caracterizaron a su propia cultura. Producto de ese interés son los numerosos testimonios escritos que nos han llegado de la Antigüedad, donde autores grecorromanos recogieron las experiencias obtenidas en sus viajes a Egipto, así como sus impresiones acerca de lo que allí conocieron. En este trabajo, analizaremos las obras de algunos de ellos, con objeto de dilucidar qué elementos de la religiosidad egipcia les llamaron especialmente la atención y qué grado de relación guardan esos elementos con la religión griega.

Draft study of water rights along the margins of the Graeco-Roman Fayyum, which identifies the absence of attested water entitlements or quotas as an adaptation to the predictably unpredictable water supplies that characterized the area.  Water, in whatever amount it arrived, was regarded as common property and "water rights" were simply the traditional rights to irrigation from a public canal.  This externally unregulated irrigation system required significant inputs of social capital, both to maintain the physical infrastructure and to defend access to water from upstream irrigators.  Against theories of external administrative neglect, decline in population and the subsequent internal decay of the social bonds between individuals and communities that had facilitated equitable water sharing is cited as the cause of the breakdown of the marginal Fayyum's irrigation system in Late Antiquity.

Per il diritto romano erano incolae coloro che avevano il domicilio entro i confini di un municipio o di una colonia diversi da quelli in cui avessero la loro origo. È benvero attestata una differenza fondamentale tra coloro che si domiciliavano nell’oppidum e coloro che lo facevano nel territorium, in quanto per i secondi il domicilio non era sufficiente per ottenere la qualifica di incolae, ma era altresì necessario il possesso o la proprietà di un ager. Tuttavia, quando i rispettivi requisiti o adempimenti fossero stati rispettati, sia gli individui domiciliati nell’oppidum, sia quelli domiciliati nel territorium erano considerati tutti incolae a ogni effetto di legge, senza che possa affermarsi che la qualifica di incolae potesse più pienamente o più correttamente applicarsi ai primi, rispetto ai secondi, contrariamente a quanto ritenuto da gran parte della più influente dottrina moderna. S’è infatti visto che, dei testi che si sono utilizzati per negare quest’ultima affermazione, e cioè D.50.1.35, D.50.1.27.1 e C.10.40(39).3, il primo e il terzo non erano riferiti a individui domiciliati, ma solo a persone dimoranti nel territorio di una civitas, e il secondo non trattava della relazione tra città e territorio di una stessa civitas, ma dei rapporti tra due civitates. Il fatto che tanto i domiciliati nell’oppidum, quanto quelli nel territorium fossero in linea di principio considerati egualmente incolae di una stessa civitas, non impediva naturalmente, in chiave pragmatica, di ravvisare differenze di fatto notevoli tra gli uni e gli altri: quelli che abitavano nel centro urbano erano ovviamente molto più partecipi della vita cittadina, rispetto a quelli che vivevano in zone molto periferiche e spesso assai lontane dal capoluogo e, in confronto con questi ultimi, essi sfruttavano i servizi della città in modo molto più ampio. Tutto ciò giustamente non era considerato privo di conseguenze dal diritto e difatti gli incolae domiciliati nell’oppidum, perciò denominati urbani, oppidani o intramurani, erano soggetti a munera e, in età più avanzata, dovevano accettare honores in misura maggiore rispetto agli altri, che erano detti in contrapposizione ruris incolae o anche incolae extramurani.