Regional Cities and Territory Capitals in Roman Egypt
When Augustus conquered Egypt, Egypt was divided into 30 administrative regions known as (Nomoy), singular (Numus). Augustus kept this Greek division, but added something to it, which is the abstraction of (Epistrijs), which means the rulers of the regions from their military authority, and the governor of Egypt was appointing (the Strategos) who carry out his orders and you only have one assistant to take his place if the position becomes vacant and this assistant is known as the royal secretary.
Each region had a capital known as (Metropolis), which is the center of administration, and the documents explained to us about that. Each capital had its population statistics and their number that differed from its capital to another. For example, Memphis, its shape is pear-shaped, its area is 1 km, its length is 5 km, and also the Hermopolis, which is square in shape, its area is 1 and a half km and more. Its population is about half the population of Memphis, and its houses are 7,000.
As for the number of residents, it is done according to the area and how the public and religious buildings and housing are divided. It is mentioned that the theater of the city (Oxyrhynchus) includes a number of spectators from eight thousand to twelve thousand and this is a census of one of the provincial capitals in the year 116 AD, which was done by the city secretary called (Herakion).
Residents of the city of Hermopolis.
The number of its houses is 7 thousand houses, and through excavations, after the Second World War it proved that the city is surrounded by a thick mud-brick wall from the north with a sacred yard 50 meters wide and 100 meters deep, and there is also the temple of the gods (Hermes), which was named after the city, which is the Greek god Which corresponds to the Egyptian Thoth and a temple was built for the ruling god Augustus
This is in addition to the workers in the yard and the garrison. The streets pass by the southern side until the gate that used to be known (the Moon Gate) in the west until the East Gate, which was known as the Walk Gate, to reach the port that faces the city of Antinopolis. The intersection of the two streets was based on public buildings such as (gymnasiums and bathrooms) For the emperors) such as the bathhouse (Hadrianus) in addition to the gardens, for example, the city of (Arsinoe) and its public buildings such as the gymnasium, public baths, the Great Serapis Temple, twenty other temples and two churches dating back to the end of the 3rd century AD.
Residents of regional capitals
They were notables and they were the inhabitants of the regions known as (Metropolitai) and they had put in his house the last class (the Egyptians), although they claim that their origin is Greek, so they continued to show off and lived like the inhabitants of Greek cities, especially Alexandria, but they planned their cities in the form of chess and erected huge buildings for games. Sports and festivals celebrating the gods and spending on those entertainment with great lavishness.
Papyrus in Oxyrhynchus in the year 200 allocating an amount of money allocating interest to spend on the annual youth matches that are held in Antinopolis at the same level as well as Oxrinchus, which established a ceremonial position in Greece known as the Senate and was distributing wheat for free to the population and we do not know if the rest of the capitals residents They do it or not.
The inhabitants of the provincial capitals lived with a kind of transcendence over everything that is Egyptian and rural, as that class included the children of the Greek settlers. Are all the metropolitans from all the children of the settlers or mixed marriages with the Egyptians? To answer the question, the registration process inside the metropolitan required any individual who wanted to register with proof of lineage For that class, according to the tradition of the city-state in Athens during the reign of (Pericles), and therefore mixed people do not belong.
An example of this is a class called 6475 in (Arsenius) Arafah in the category of gym-wearers (Hermopolis and Oxyrhynchus), and it is perhaps a distinct group within the (metropolitan) class, and this number gives the question of whether it is the number of the population with children or not by the analysis number of that class 6475 of their adult settlers in the aristocratic group of the metropolitan They were registered according to the law that stipulates (registering the child in the gymnasium upon reaching the age of 14)
Important information
The residents of the metropolitan area used to pay the family tax to the Roman will, but at a lower rate than the Egyptians, such as 8 drachmas per year in the city of (Hermopolis), 12 drachmas in the city of (Auxirnchus) and 20 drachmas in the city of (Arsinoe).
Registration inside the gym
When the child reaches the age of 14, he is set for his sitting to determine his class status and his registration of the father’s data, the mother’s found. As for the elite, it is sufficient for the parent to present that he belongs to the class of 6475 settlers.
In (Oxyrhynchus and Hermopolis) the request proves the paternity of the maternal and paternal grandfather if they were members of the gymnasium, for example in the year 260 AD in (Auxerenchus) the grandparents of the applicants were taken because they had been going to the gym for seven generations.
Marriage in a caste (metropolitan)
He was married to each other because marriage outside the class deprived the child of determining his class status, and the marriages were then children of the class or the same family obtain the marriages of brothers and sisters, and there is a document in 165 AD that a brother and sister marry for three generations belonging to the class of gymnasts, and another example is 4 generations, usually sisters marriage An ancient custom spread in the eastern kingdoms of the kings of the Egyptians and the Ptolemies as well as the Romans, and it was held by the metropolitan area because it is a continuation of the Hellenistic restriction.
Because of the spread and increase of brother and sister marriag, the Romanian administration enacted a law stating:
It is not permissible for the Romans to marry their sisters, aunts, or aunts while they are allowed to marry their nieces. This law aims to determine the status of Egyptian men who obtained Roman citizenship during military service, but this marriage was prohibited by imperial decree in 295 AD throughout the empire and it was for marriage Brothers and sisters, it is economically important to preserve inheritance, especially property, homes and agricultural lands.
The financial situation of the capitals' residents
They owned a lot of money and worked by lending money as one of the means of investment, and they owned factories such as papyrus, and it is mentioned that one of the class members owned a factory in which 36 weavers worked and they used to spend their money and wealth in achieving comfort and luxury for them, which indicates the extravagance and extravagance, as it begins with charitable spending from bathrooms, lobbies and markets And that made them hold public office thanks to their donations. The inhabitants of the provincial capitals enjoyed self-rule throughout the first 3 centuries, like the Jews, but they had the privilege of being an employee to perform some tasks known as magistrates and he had administrative authority.
To confirm this, in the year 200 AD, Emperor Severus granted the provincial capitals some administrative systems to only supervise social and economic activities in their society.
To be nominated for this position
The candidate had to pay an amount of money to occupy a position and hold the title, and he was spending his own money on his position and expenses, such as Athens, the place of employees holding honorary titles in the 5th century BC. The coronation process was done by placing a crown of flowers on the head of the new employee and specializing a person called ( Yodaimon invites them to attend the coronation of his son Nilus at the gym and explains that he was the director of the gym.
Jobs within the provincial capitals
There are 6 jobs within the regional capitals, 5 of them are Greek and one Romanian, and he is the supervisor of the supply, which was created in the first or second century AD.
Jimazbarchus: The gymnasium director responsible for supplying the gym with lighting oils, he wears a purple headband and white shoes and is accompanied by four youth guards.
Cosmetis: he is the supervisor of the system and training of boys from the gymnasium class who is known as youth, and he is accompanied on occasions by two of the youth.
- Epigitis: he is the general supervisor and he heads a group of employees that is a cooperative group, and the guardianship class for orphans, women, and guards is two of the youth.
Uthinarchus: The supervisor of catering, increasing food, and grinding grain in the city, and he does not have any judicial authority who has the ability to persuade and solve problems. He can pay from his own money to alleviate the crises and his guard is two of the youth.
Ujuranomos: the superintendent and supervisor of the market, and he used to rent shops and kiosks inside the market as an employee representing the city council guarding one of the youth.
Archerius: The priest or high priest, although it was a great position, was not an owner who headed a group of priests, but his primary function was to supervise the worship of emperors and to exempt the imperial family from guarding one of the members of the youth.
The jobs are arranged according to their importance, and every year elections are held to fill these jobs, and despite the importance of these jobs for the inhabitants of the regions, with the passage of time, the demand for nominations decreases due to the increase in expenditures, the poor economic conditions of the metropolitan and the lack of their wealth.
In the year 200 AD, a comprehensive change occurred in the Egyptian regions due to allowing the establishment of a Shura Council for all capitals and thus raising the level of those capitals to the level of the Roman Municipalities (Monikipia).
In spite of that, however, the Poli Council of provincial capitals did not have any legislative authority, but rather an administrative council whose task was to oversee financial matters, businesses, and public buildings to collect taxes, but over time until the end of the 3rd century AD the residents of the provincial capitals moved away from entering the Shura Council due to the large expenditures on Their ankles.
And a member of the Politics Council was called (Polotai), and for the election he held the title throughout his life and participated in membership within the council more than once and chose the elite members of the metropolitan.
And there is the (Oxyrhynchus) papyrus in the year 233 AD, which states that the population pays ten thousand dakhma as a membership fee in the council (Oxyrhynchus) and this is a large sum at that time, so this membership was limited to the rich only.
The social life of the inhabitants of the capitals of the regions
The houses consist of two or three floors with multiple rooms and corridors with balconies, steam rooms overlooking the street, as shops for sale, such as the ruins of the city of Pompeii, and there is a papyrus in Arsenoy, renting a house with three rooms on the side of the facade.
The building is of mud bricks and the outer walls are built from rows of inner bricks and two rows of stones covered with plaster, decorated with some religious scenes and myths in bright colors, and the stones were used little in spite of the spread in Egypt was used for lintels, the lower and upper stairs inside and outside the house.
And the house includes more than one for a married family. The father and his children (the family house). Does the census include children or not, so we find the relationship of kinship, an example from which we can deduce the average ages between 25-30 years and the death rate was high and those who exceed adolescence half of them live up to 10 years.
Those who live up to 15 years remain half of them up to 25 years, so we find the spread of widows, second marriages, brothers, and half-sisters, and there was an increase in the number of girls from boys in some families, and there was a Greek custom that disposed of children unwanted from them, but the Egyptians were forbidden to kill children they were adopting They were not known as foundlings (Coprius)
The main goal was the equipment for girls at marriage, which cost a huge sum, for example in 127 AD a pair of earrings weighing 14 karats. The age of marriage started from 22 years, and the wife was younger than 15-16 years old.
As for divorce, it was easy and very difficult because of the marriage of young people, and in divorce, the husband demands all the equipment and gifts or paid for them in cash, and the divorce was by agreement between the two parties
The authority of the wife's father
He was entitled to divorce despite her and marry her to another person, such as Athena in the classical era, but in the Roman era, he relaxed such inhuman laws. In the year 186 AD, the Romans judged his son opposing her father, who requests a divorce for two years in court, so the governor of Egypt in 128 AD enacted a law that The married woman's desire to choose the man to live with is respected.
The house includes fathers, sons, relatives, and two slaves or more, such as a family in Alexandria that owned 100 slaves, and this family consisted of the father and his three sons, and housework was for slaves from agriculture and irrigation, as farmers left their lands throughout the empire and the vast loss (latifundia) and slaves worked in it.
The agricultural lands were cultivated by the owners and renters in Egypt, and it was slaves in Roman Egypt who were imported.
The treatment of the metropolitan class for their slaves was the treatment of nobility and nobility, and Al-Bardi explained that to obtain the benefit, release the slaves, and grant rewards in the year 156 AD, granting a will for the emancipation of four of the slaves because of their good conduct and service to him, and some bought their emancipation through the temple and the gods.
Metropolitan interest in reading and writing
Where they were interested in reading and writing and owned libraries inside their homes and the ancient books of Greek poets of serum (Homer, Demosten and Helpiodus), and about 100 papyri were found in villages such as (Karanis and Tiptones) and in 1913-1914 literary works were uncovered in (Panopolis), one of the capitals of the regions of Egypt. Supreme and was particular to the works of the playwright (Minadoros).
Libraries are formed by buying books or borrowing them. One of these notables paid an amount for one of the books to copy the play (Plutus) by a playwright (Artophanes), and the goal behind that was to show off because he loved the Greek heritage.
Among the most important writers who were born in the capitals of the regions (Athenaeus), the collector of al-Tarif, who was born in Naqratis, and (Plotinus), a neo-Platonic philosopher, born in a Roman family in (Lycopolis)