Fragile Hierarchies: The Urban Elites of Third-century Roman Egypt (History and Archaeology of Classical Antiquity)

Fragile Hierarchies deals with the world of the urban elites of third century Roman Egypt. It discusses economic, social and demographic aspects of the position of the elites of the small towns that dotted the Nile. The work combines analysis of Greek papyri with modelling techniques used in ancient history. The first part of the book analyses patterns of urbanisation, property relations and their consequences for elite formation. The second part discusses demographic aspects, patterns of inheritance and their consequences for continuity and discontinuity. The central argument of the book is that a strong social and economic hierarchy occurred side by side with a dynamic pattern of elite renewal. FRAGILE HIERARCHIES: THE URBAN ELITES OF THIRD-CENTURY ROMAN EGYPT 3 CONTENTS 7 Preface 11 List of Maps, Tables and Figures 13 Introduction 15 An Urban World 15 CULTURAL URBANISATION 17 A Mixed Record 20 Delineating the Subject 24 Setting the Questions 26 Sources 27 Models 29 PART ONE HIERARCHIES 33 Part One Chapter One Population and Urbanisation 35 Creating a Model 35 Number Games 36 The Parameters of the Possible 43 Using the Equation 48 Part One Chapter Two The Urban System 51 Urban System Theory 51 Urban Population Size 53 Relative Rank 64 Testing the Model 70 Exploring the Urban System of Roman Egypt 79 Conclusion 82 Part One Chapter Three The Distribution of Inequality 83 The Estate of a Town Councillor 83 Economic Differentiation 84 Sources of Wealth 87 The Urban Economy 90 The Primitivist Postion 91 Revised Modernism 93 Middle Ground 100 Landed Wealth 102 The Number of Urban Landowners 106 Hermopolite Distribution Patterns 110 The Applicability of the Hermopolite Distribution Patterns 114 Female Landowners 121 Conclusion 125 Part One Chapter Four Elite Formation 129 Elite Status 129 The Composition of the Councils 132 Council Size 146 A Regional Elite 154 Consequences 164 PART TWO MOBILITY AND CONTINUITY 167 Part Two Chapter One Cyclical Mobility 169 An Hierarchical World 169 Roman Social Mobility 170 An Oracle Question 171 Cyclical Mobility 172 Demography, Property Transmission, Elites 174 Part Two Chapter Two Elite Demography 177 Matters of Life and Death 177 The Evidence from the Census 181 Mortality 186 Marriage 196 Fertility 207 Conclusion 217 Part Two Chapter Three Property Transmission 219 The Importance of Inheriting 219 Rules of Inheritance 223 Exploring Radical Partible Inheritance 225 Dowries and Inheritances 230 Testamentary Freedom 235 Conclusion 242 Part Two Chapter Four Continuity and Renewal 245 The Family of Sarapion-Apollonianos 245 Continuity 247 Marriage Patterns 256 Discontinuity 259 Renewal 266 Soldiers and Veterans 266 Freedmen and their Descendants 269 A Sub-Elite 272 Conclusion 275 Conclusion 279 Cessio Bonorum 279 Hierarchies 282 Mobility and Continuity 285 Egypt and the Roman Empire 288 Appendix The Councillors of Oxyrhynchos in the Third Century 291 Conventions 339 Bibliography 341 Index of Places 353 Index of Sources 354 Papyri and Ostraca 354 Inscriptions 362 Literary, Sub-Literary and Legal Texts 362 Index of Subjects 364