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The Economic Crisis in Egypt under Nero1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

H. I. Bell
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Extract

In a recent review of Professor A. C. Johnson's Roman Egypt to the Reign of Diocletian, Dr. J. G. Milne, after issuing a very apposite warning against too implicit reliance on the evidence of papyri and inscriptions, remarks:

‘The well-known rescript of Tiberius Julius Alexander is often quoted as proof of the misgovernment of Egypt under Nero and the reform under Galba: but the date of its issue, when news of the death of Nero could only have reached Alexandria by exceptionally speedy transmission … and certainly no communication could have been received from Galba, makes it probable that the rescript was really a manifesto of the anti-Neronian party at Alexandria, headed by the prefect, which was designed to paint the administration of Nero as black as possible and to hold out bright hopes for the future; and its value as economic evidence is about that of a modern election address.’

This verdict is so contrary to the impression I had formed when preparing my chapter for volume x of the Cambridge Ancient History that I felt bound to re-examine the evidence ; and this Congress offered a convenient opportunity for presenting my conclusions. I must confess that, apart from one unpublished papyrus, I have no new evidence to submit ; but a re-statement of existing knowledge may be useful.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , 1938 , pp. 1 - 8
Copyright
Copyright © H. I. Bell 1938. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

2 Journ. of Eg. Arch., xxii (1936), 113Google Scholar.

3 Trans. of Am. Phil. Ass., lxv (1934), 248–259Google Scholar.

4 Zeitschr. d. Savigny-Stiftung, Rom. Abt., xlii (1921) 144 ffGoogle Scholar.

5 In the quotations in the text I have used the translation by Prof. A. C. Johnson (Roman Egypt, 1936, 704–9). The italics are mine. In the Greek quotations I have ignored intrusive iota adscript and have not noted minor corrections and supplements.

Σχεδὸν δὲ ἐξ οὖ τῆς πόλεως ὲπέβην καταβοώμενος ὑπὸ τῶν ὲντυγχανόντων καὶ κατ᾿ ὀλίγους καὶ κατὰ πλήθη τῶν τε ὲνθάδε εὐσχημονεστάτων καὶ τῶν γεωργούντων τὴν χώραν μεμϕομένων τὰς ἔγγιστα γενομένας ὲπηρείας.

6 Προέγραψα ἀναγκαίως περὶ ἑκάστου τῶν ἐπιζητουμένων, ὅσα ἔξεστί μοι κρείνειν καὶ ποιεῖν, τὰ δὲ μείζονα καὶ δεόμενα τῆς τοῦ αὐτοκράτορος δυνάμεως καὶ μεγαλειότητος αὐτῶι δηλώσω μετὰ πάσης ἀληθείας.

7 Ἔγνων γὰρ πρὸ παντὸς εὐλογωτάτην οὖσαν τὴν ἔντευξιν ὑμῶν ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ ἄκοντας ἀνΡ ρώπους εἰς τελωνέας ἢ ἄλλας μισθώσεις οὐσιακὰς παρὰ τὸ κοινὸν ἔθος τῶν ἐπαρχειῶν πρὸς βίαν ἄγεσθαι.

8 Ἐξηλώθη γάρ μοι πολλάκις ὅτι ἤδη τινὲς καὶ ὑποθήκας ἐπείρασαν ἀϕελέσθαι ιομίμως γεγονυίας.

9 Ἐνετεύχθην δὲ καὶ περὶ τῶν ἀτελειῶν καὶ κουϕοτελειῶν.

10 Ὃ ὑμεῖς] πολλάκις μέν ἐπεζητήσατε.

11 Ἐνέτυχον γάρ μοι πολλάκις οἱ καθ᾿ ὅλην τὴν χώραν γεωργοῦτες.

12 Ἥδη δὲ τῆς πόλεως σχεδὸν ἀοικήτου γενομένης διὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν συκοϕαντῶν καὶ πάσης οἰκίας συνταρασσομένης.

13 Dittenberger, OGI 665.

14 Dittenberger, OGI 664.

15 For this cf., e.g., P. Tebt. ii, 289 (A.D. 23).

16 Journ. of Ec. and Business Hist. xi (1929), 353–5Google Scholar.

17 De Spec. Leg. ii, 92 ff.

18 Πρώην τις ἐκλογεὺς ϕόρων ταχθεὶς παρ᾿ ἡμῖν, ἐπειδή τινες τῶν δοξάντων ὀϕείλειν διὰ πενίαν ἔϕυγον δέει τιμωριῶν ἀνηκέστων, γύναια τούτων καὶ τέκνα καὶ γονεῖς καὶ τὴν ἄλλην γενεὰν ἀπαγαγὼν πρὸς βίαν, τύπτων καὶ προπηλακίζων, καὶ πάσας αἰκίας αἰκιζόμενος, ἵν᾿ἢ τὸν ϕυγόντα μηνύωσιν ἢ τὰ ὑπὲρ ἐκείνου καταθῶσιν οὐδέτερον δυνάμενοι, τὸ μὲν ὅτι ἠγνόουν, τὸ δ᾿ ὅτι οὐχ ἦττον τοῦ ϕυγόντος ἀπόρως εἶχον, οὐ πρότερον ἀνῆκεν ἢ βασάνοις καὶ στρέβλαις τὰ σώματα κατατείνων ἀποκτεῖναι κεκαινουργημέναις ἰδέαις θανάτου ………. οἱ δὲ μὴ ϕθάσαντες ὲαυτοὺς διαχρήσασθαι ….,. κατὰ στοῖχον ἤγοντο οἱ ἀπὸ τοῦ γένους πρῶτοι καὶ μετ᾿ αὐτοὺς δεύτεροι καὶ τρίτοι μέχρι τῶν ὑστάτων. καὶ ὁπότε μηδεὶς λοιπὸς ἔη τῶν συγγενων, διέβαινε τὸ κακὸν καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς γειτνιῶντας, ἔστι δ᾿ὅτε καὶ ἐπὶ κώμας καὶ πόλεις, αἵ ταχέως ἔρημοι καὶ κεναὶ τῶν οἰκητόρων ἐγένοντο μετανισταμένων καὶ σκεδαννυμένων ἔνθα λήσεσθαι προσεδόκων (Op. cit. iii. 159 ff.).

19 Papyri u. Altertumswiss., 14167.

20 P. Princ. Univ. 13, col. xvii, 34.

21 Wilcken, Chrestomathie 13; cf. Philo, In Fl. 11.

22 P. Oxy. 252, 253; cf. P. Oxy. 251 (A.D. 44).

23 Ἀπὸ τῶν ἔμπροσθεν πολυανδρούντων ἐν ταῖς προκειμέναις κώμαις νυνεὶ κατήντησαν εἰς ὀλίγους διὰ τὸ τοὺς μὲν ἀνακεχωρηκέναι ἀπόρους, τοὺς δὲ τετελεντηκέναι μὴ ἔχοντας ἀγχιστεῖς (P. Graux 2=SB 7462).

24 P. Ryl. Inv. no. 823.

25 The unread name in l. I of the Cornell papyrus ends in ίωνος, and it may be conjectured that there also Νεμεσίωνος is to be read; but, whereas he is there called λογευτοũ, in the Rylands papyrus his title is πράκτορος.

26 ἀπό appears certain, and there is no mark of abbreviation. I would suggest that the meaning is ‘(entered) in (the rubric) “of the first year.”’ Cf. the use of ὲξέδετο as a noun in P. Mich. Tebt. 121 verso, e.g. ἐξέδετο Ἠρᾶτο(ς) πρὸ(ς) Ηατοντῶν, col. xi, l. 13.

27 There are also entries on the verso of the roll, but I have thought it better to ignore them here, as there is still a good deal of work to be done on them, and the relationship of recto to verso is by no means clear.

28 It is always unsafe to argue from negative evidence, particularly when our material is so fortuitous; but it is at least possible that the comparative absence of such indications of unrest and distress as I have noted above from the surviving documents of the latter part of the first century may be due to the fact that Alexander's reforms were temporarily effective. [On the subject of this paper see also the article by C. B. Welles, below, pp. 41–9; and cf. Rostovtzeff's work, referred to ibid., p. 46, n. 16.]