DOI article:
Kenyon, Frederic George: Progress of Egyptology, [3]: Greco-Egyptian Literary Discoveries
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10055#0051
GmeCO-EGYPTIATi LlTEEAET DISCOVERIES.
37
important duty was the preservation of the embankments for regulating
the inundations. For this (as always, apparently, in Egypt) some form
of corvee was in force, and we find certificates issued to individuals that
they have worked on the embankments for the statutory five days in
such-and-such a year. Payments are also made for the maintenance
of the embankments, perhaps as a substitute for personal labour.
The work was presumably conducted under the superintendence of the
j^cojjajeTTt,fj.eXT]Tai. But that much similar work was carried out by
private labour extending over many more days than five appears from
the farm-bailiff's account in the British Museum, mentioned in last
year's Report.
The labours of the census alone must have occupied a largo staff of
officials. Every fourteen j'ears each head of a house made a formal
return of the members of his household, with their ages, and the house
property held by any of them. Only those between the ages of 14 and
70 were liable to public burdens. In the intervals between these censuses
names were added to the lists on the report of the heads of families, and
those who died were struck off on the application of their relatives to
the Ka)/j,oypafj,fJ.cnevs or /3ao-i\t/cb<; ypa/xfiarev^. On the basis of these
supplementary returns interim lists were prepared (in towns by the
dfi<po8dpxr)c; of each street or quarter), no doubt for the purposes of
current taxation. In addition to these personal rolls, returns were made
annually by all owners of live-stock of the number of camels or asses in
their possession, and these might be requisitioned (subject to compensa-
tion) for the public service. All records of these descriptions seem to
to have been kept by the Jh£\io(pv\aKe<; in the Srjfioo-ia fii@\i,o6>}Kr), from
which copies could be obtained.
The above sketch makes no pretence to completeness, which is im-
possible in the space here available. Not all the officials have been
mentioned, nor all the taxes to which the individual was liable. Nor
have the legal documents been mentioned, nor the contracts of sale
and loan, nor the very interesting fragments of the official day-books
kept by magistrates such as the strategus, and probably by all the
rest of the public officers as well. The work of digesting the informa-
tion illustrating the internal life of Roman Egypt, not only in the Berlin
papyri but also in those of the British Museum and (when they are
published) at Vienna, will take much time.
Some points of legal and administrative detail have already been
elaborated in the philological journals, especially by Mommsen,1'
Wilcken," Krebs,15 Viereck,'" Grade.)witz,'7 and Hirso'afeld,ls aid
37
important duty was the preservation of the embankments for regulating
the inundations. For this (as always, apparently, in Egypt) some form
of corvee was in force, and we find certificates issued to individuals that
they have worked on the embankments for the statutory five days in
such-and-such a year. Payments are also made for the maintenance
of the embankments, perhaps as a substitute for personal labour.
The work was presumably conducted under the superintendence of the
j^cojjajeTTt,fj.eXT]Tai. But that much similar work was carried out by
private labour extending over many more days than five appears from
the farm-bailiff's account in the British Museum, mentioned in last
year's Report.
The labours of the census alone must have occupied a largo staff of
officials. Every fourteen j'ears each head of a house made a formal
return of the members of his household, with their ages, and the house
property held by any of them. Only those between the ages of 14 and
70 were liable to public burdens. In the intervals between these censuses
names were added to the lists on the report of the heads of families, and
those who died were struck off on the application of their relatives to
the Ka)/j,oypafj,fJ.cnevs or /3ao-i\t/cb<; ypa/xfiarev^. On the basis of these
supplementary returns interim lists were prepared (in towns by the
dfi<po8dpxr)c; of each street or quarter), no doubt for the purposes of
current taxation. In addition to these personal rolls, returns were made
annually by all owners of live-stock of the number of camels or asses in
their possession, and these might be requisitioned (subject to compensa-
tion) for the public service. All records of these descriptions seem to
to have been kept by the Jh£\io(pv\aKe<; in the Srjfioo-ia fii@\i,o6>}Kr), from
which copies could be obtained.
The above sketch makes no pretence to completeness, which is im-
possible in the space here available. Not all the officials have been
mentioned, nor all the taxes to which the individual was liable. Nor
have the legal documents been mentioned, nor the contracts of sale
and loan, nor the very interesting fragments of the official day-books
kept by magistrates such as the strategus, and probably by all the
rest of the public officers as well. The work of digesting the informa-
tion illustrating the internal life of Roman Egypt, not only in the Berlin
papyri but also in those of the British Museum and (when they are
published) at Vienna, will take much time.
Some points of legal and administrative detail have already been
elaborated in the philological journals, especially by Mommsen,1'
Wilcken," Krebs,15 Viereck,'" Grade.)witz,'7 and Hirso'afeld,ls aid