People and Power in Late Antique Fayyum

Late antiquity saw the emergence of a new landed aristocracy in the course of the 5 th century CE, promoted by imperial patronage, and contemporaneously arising great estates, large agrarian enterprises in the hand of these noble families, documented well into the 7th century. They were not only active as great landowners, but also functioned as state officials, up to the highest provincial positions. Prominent representative in Egypt is the noble family of the Apions whose members rose to the highest echelons of Byzantine society. While single studies have been undertaken for the elite of other regions in Egypt, the Arsinoite nome, located in the Fayyum oasis, has so far not been subject of a systematic study. The basis are the numerous published papyri from the Fayyum that are mainly kept in the papyrus collections of Vienna, Berlin, Paris, with the addition of new unpublished material, still unknown to the scientific community. Thus, after setting criteria for the definition of elite, relevant documents need to be collected and their affiliation established (via papyrological literature, search engines and datenbases); the unpublished papyri will have to be identified and edited in full or in their significant parts to make them accessible, before a synthesis will be ventured. This step can rely on preliminary work already undertaken. The study goes beyond mere prosopography by also contextualising the people in question and their role in the nome itself, their estates and offices, also in relation to other noble families and will greatly contribute to our knowledge of the Arsinoite nobility from the 5-7th centuries and their standing within the Middle Egyptian elite(s). Hence, a study of the Arsinoite aristocracy cannot work without defining its relationship to the Apion house with its complicated and uncertain family tree (increased by the use of the alternating names of Strategios and Apion over the course of two centuries), a hotspot of current research in Late Antiquity Studies. This noble family seems to have clear ties to the Arsinoite, as evidenced, among other things, by the attestation of a few Apiones and Strategii in 6-7th century Fayyum. Careful study and integration of the published material will also lead to new readings and dating suggestions for this data set, while the inclusion of the hitherto unknown material will bring new insights and further our understanding in the field of Papyrology and Ancient History, especially in the Viennese context from where the major part of these papyri originates. Of particular interest seems the office succession of the pagarchy, the highest position on nome level, so far of dubious accuracy and only known fragmentarily, whose incumbents and the time they held office could now be expanded and put in the right order.

The aim of the project was a systematic study of the Arsinoite aristocracy in Late Antiquity. The chronological frame is defined by the first emergence of this new landed bureaucratic aristocracy in 5th century Egypt, rising to power through imperial patronage, and its disappearance after the Arab conquest in the late 7th century. The Arsinoite nome is located in the Fayyum oasis and belongs to the Middle Egyptian province of Arcadia with its capital Oxyrhynchos. After careful consideration of all material featuring Arsinoite nobility, published as well as unpublished (and hence unknown to the public) in various institutions, around 50 papyri of the Viennese papyrus collection were chosen for publication in a volume of editions. By means of these texts the essential issues and questions are outlined and discussed alongside the editions. Those are, on the one hand, the careers of the highest officials who belong to the provincial elite, and on the other hand the personal relationships between those aristocrats. Another chapter is dedicated to women from the municipal elite as owner of real estate. At the top are the governors of the province of Arcadia and the pagarch as highest official on nome level (Arsinoites). In particular, the high number of sureties among those papyri, usually addressed to the pagarchs, yield new insights for the order of incumbents, the chronology of this office and the formulas of that text genre. A special focus lies on noble families owning great estates (endoxoi oikoi) - only a small percentage of people, but prominently represented among our evidence - and their relationship to the important Apion family, named after the practice of alternating the dynastic names of Apion and Strategios, absentee landlords in the neighbouring Oxyrhynchite nome with an endoxos oikos of their own, whose members rose to the highest echelons of Byzantine society. As one of the most interesting results it becomes clear that the most important of the noble families of the Arsinoite (and Heracleopolite) nomes do not only have personal ties to the Apions, but are also connected to the highest ranks of Arcadia's neighbour to the south, the province Thebais. A network of personal relationships of the aristocratic landowning class has taken over the administration of Egypt.