"Étude sur les πρεσβύτεροι des villages de la χώρα égyptienne", A. Tomsin, "Bull. de la classe des lettres et des sciences morales et politiques", 5-e ser., T. XXXVIII, 1952 : [recenzja]

SURVEY OF LITERATURE 1952—1953

₃₇₅

treats about the office of strategos in, the kingdom of Seleucides

and later after its partition, in the ensuing states, then — in the

kingdom of Antigonides. The third volume is devoted to the office

of strategos in the kingdom of the Ptolemies.

The office of strategos was created by the Ptolemies after the

Macedonian and Greek patterns. The author is chiefly concerned

with the questions of circumstances and reasons for the

appoint-ment of the so called district-strategos, with the relation of the

office of district-strategos to the office of nomarch, the pharaonic

district-governor; then with the origin of the great

commander-in-chief in the Ptolemaic Egypt, the office of strategos of the

Thebaïs as well as with the office of epistrategos. Finally the author

deals with the office of strategos in the foreign possessions of the

Ptolemies. A special section is devoted to the organisation of Egypt

under Alexander the Great in the year 332 B. €.

A n d r é A y m a r d, Esprit militaire et administration

helleni-stique (Revue des Etudes anciennes, vol. LY, nr 1—2, [1953]).

This article discusses the work of B e n g t s o n on the office of

strategos, and contains numerous valuable observations, which the

papyrologists will find interesting.

A. Toms in, Étude sur les πρεσβύτεροι des villages de la χώρα é g y p

-tienne (Acad, royale de Belgique, Bull, de la classe des lettres et,

des sciences morales et politiques, 5-e série, tome XXXVIII,

Extrait, 1952).

The papyri concern the persons titled πρεσβύτεροι who since the

3rd century had lived in the villages of the Egyptian χώρα. This

title is often followed by further details relating to the descent or

social group of the bearer. The πρεσβύτεροι appear at the beginning

of the Lagide epoch as a body constituted spontaneously by the

native population outside the official administration. This

insti-tution held the peasant community under management and control.

In the course of the second half of the second century B. C. the

institution of πρεσβύτεροι had undergone an important

transforma-tion: their attributes remained apparently the same: the

admini-stration of the peasant's interests and the cooperation with the

La-gide authorities but their functions acquired an official character

with the responsibilities attached to it. The performance of their

376 JOURNAL OF PAPYROLOGY

office a s s u m e d t h e c h a r a c t e r of l i t u r g y . T h e responsibilities t a k e n over b y t h e πρεσβύτεροι caused necessarily t h e e x t e n s i o n of t h e i r c o m p e t e n c e so t h a t t h e y b e c a m e m o r e closely concerned w i t h t h e a d m i n i s t r a t i v e life of a village. As t h e g u a r a n t e e s of t h e yields of t h e c u l t u r e s t h e y were g r a n t e d t h e r i g h t of supervising r u r a l acti-vities; i n t h i s d o m a i n t h e y b e c a m e t h e a s s i s t a n t s of t h e L a g i d e clerks. F o r t h a t r e a s o n t h e y occasionnally p e r f o r m e d t h e d u t i e s of t h e police. T o w a r d s t h e e n d of t h e second c e n t u r y B. C. t h e πρεσβύτεροι b e c a m e t h e officially a p p o i n t e d g u a r a n t e e s f o r t h e le-vies a n d d u e s imposed on t h e c o m m u n i t y . T h e i r relations w i t h t h e village i n h a b i t a n t s b e c a m e essentially m o d i f i e d . F r o m t h a t mo-m e n t t h e πρεσβύτεροι ceased t o b e p r o t e c t o r s of t h e p e a s a n t class t o w h i c h t h e y belonged. T h e y b e c a m e t r u e a g e n t s of t h e f i s c .

Α. Ε . R . В о а к , Tesserarii and quadrarii as village officials in

Egypt in the fourth Century (Studies J o h n s o n , 322—335).

T h e a u t h o r e n d e a v o u r s t o p r o v e , t h a t t h e tesserarii a n d t h e

quadrarii i n t h e 4 t h c e n t u r y were village officials whose d u t y w a s

t o supervise t h e p a y m e n t of p u b l i c t a x e s .

D . C l a r k e , Alexandria ad Aegyptum (Bull. F a c . A r t s F a r o u k I U n i v . У , 99—102).

n o t seen.

C. R o e b u c k , The Organisation of Naucratis (CI. P h i l . , X L V I , 212—220).

n o t seen.

F . W . v o n В i s s i η g, Naukratis 1-е partie (Bulletin de la Société royale d'Archéologie d ' A l e x a n d r i e , X X X I X , 33—82, [1951]). T h e a u t h o r gives a detailed a c c o u n t of t h e h i s t o r y of t h e city, its origin a n d d e v e l o p m e n t a n d m a k e s f u l l use of epigraphical evi-dence.

J a c q u e l i n e L a l l e m a n d , La création des provinces d, Egypte

Iovia et d'Egypte Herculia (Académie royale de Belgique, Bull,

de la classe des l e t t r e s e t des sciences morales e t politiques, 5-e série, t o m e X X X V I , 1950).

Since M о m m s e η t h e historians of t h e reign of Diocletian a t t r i b u t e t o t h i s e m p e r o r t h e division of E g y p t i n t o t h r e e p r o v i n