Petrie, William M. Flinders: Koptos (London, 1896)

3°

KOrTOS.

as this law shews, before its incorporation to Roman
governors {e.g. Corbulo in Nero's reign) for rulings
on points in dispute with regard to customs-dues.

The Tariff of Zarai, on the other hand, refers to
the douane at the port ; and was set up post discessum
cohortis, which fact implies, in the opinion of M.
Cagnat (Les impots, cit. supra, p. 116), that so long as
a garrison had remained in the town, there had been
no douane, soldiers being free from all such dues (Tac.
Ann. I.e.). This Tariff takes account only of a small
number of items, and those such as might be sup-
posed, reasonably, not to be determined by the
general Regulation of the Portorium for the province
of Numidia. It is in fact a local supplement to the
general Tariff of the province.

This Tariff of Coptos is wholly distinct from either
of the other two ; and can be compared with them
only so far as the motive of its erection is concerned.
Unfortunately for the commentator, it is unique in
almost every respect ; there exists no parallel to it as
a whole in any part of the Roman world, nor has it
mstructive points of contact in detail with the facts of
the financial organisation of the Empire as known to
us. It owes this singularity, no doubt, to the unique
constitution of Egypt, inherited by the Emperors
from the Ptolemies as a sort of private royal estate
(cf. Mommsen, Hist. vol. v., Eng. tr. vol. 2, c. 12), and
never organised or administered like any other
province, senatorial or imperial. In determining
therefore the nature of this Tariff, we must work
mainly from its own internal evidence.

The first and greatest difficulty arises from the fact
that the word o,tto(ttoKlov (1. 4), which describes the
nature of the whole Tariff, is not found elsewhere.
Its etymology suggests that it has reference to an
drr6<TTo\o'i, something despatched. Let us see if an
examination of other points in the inscription will
enable us to assign a more precise meaning.

51. This Tariff is set up at the immediate instance,
not of the epistrategos of the Thebaid, in whose
jurisdiction Coptos itself lay, but of the Prefect of the
Red Sea slope. It cannot, therefore, be a local octroi
of Coptos, but must relate to something outside the
territory of that town, and lying within the Ara-
barchia. The dues called wwo<jto\iov, whatever they
may be, are collected for convenience only in Coptos,
but are controlled by and paid over to the Arabarch.

Might it not be, however, like the Tariff of Zarai, a
supplement to the General Regulation of the Imperial
Portorium ? Be it noted, however, that, unlike the

Zarai Tariff this list at Coptos does not concern
itself with commodities. Except the mast and yard
(1. 29), and the prostitutes (1. 16), none of its items
could be called res venules. Furthermore, if it be a
Tariff of the Portorium of the Red Sea (for the
donanes on the littoral, see Pcripl. Mar. Erythr. p. 11 ;
Strabo, xvii. p. 798), why are not the dues men-
tioned in it collected, together with those on ordinary
commodities, at the Red Sea ports? Nor can
it well be referred to a second Portorium paid
on entrance to the Nile valley ; for what would
the Prefect of Mons Berenice have to do with
that ? and how could the merchandise, landed on
the bare shores of Berenice or Myos Hormos for
the sole purpose of being conveyed to Egypt, be
expected to pay twice over, before ever attaining
Egypt at all ? Had such a system been in force,
there would have been but little trade on the
Berenice-Coptos road.

The Arabarch was concerned simply with the Red
Sea ports and the roads leading thence to the Nile
valley. If this Tariff has not to do with the ports, it
must have to do with the roads. If we look down
the list of items, we note that, with the exception of
the mast and yard, it refers entirely to persons, beasts
for transit, vehicles for transit, and funerals, going up
to and returning from the desert—in short, to traffic
on a road.

These facts being taken together with the etymo-
logical meaning of the word, the conclusion suggests
itself that airocnoKiov must mean something like a
posting service, the despatch of caravans from point to
point under the protection of the imperial govern-
ment, and on a road made, maintained, and con-
trolled directly by the Arabarch. For the use of
this road, and for escort thereon, certain dues are
charged according to a scale (jvwficov) already
existent by custom, but now published for the first
time : and the collection of these dues is farmed out
to lessees, and made for convenience at Coptos rather
than at the ports.

The absence, however, of dues on merchandise, the
transport of which must have constituted the main
part of the traffic on the road, calls for some explana-
tion. I will suggest two possible reasons for the
omission, and of the two I prefer the second : First,
that, since commodities would be taxed in any case
at the port on entering or leaving, the claim of the
dirocnoXiov may have been satisfied out of the
portorium. Secondly, that commodities paid an ad
valorem duty, which (as in the case of the portorium