Roman Memphis. Nome capital and administrative centre

Memphis was the oldest capital city of Egypt and had served as the residence of the kings in the pharaonic time. Even during the periods when Memphis was not the official capital of pharaonic Egypt, it never lost its religious, economic, administrative, or military importance. Memphis was the sacral capital, the home of Ptah, creator god, and the centre for the cult of the Apis bull. It was an important river port and centre of crafts, as well as the headquarters of a large garrison. Already before the conquest of Egypt of the Alexander the Great, Memphis was a cosmopolitan city where different Mediterranean cultures met and mixed. People from the outside world, Herodotus, for instance, associated the whole land of Egypt with Memphis, and the conquerors of Egypt made the city their residence and administrative centre. The sacral authority of Memphis ensured its political relevance: the kings of the new dynasty of the Ptolemies came there to be crowned as pharaohs so that their power was legitimised according to the Egyptian customs. Memphis retained the second place among Egyptian cities after Alexandria during the three centuries of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic kingdom and was still a major centre of the countrys cult, culture, and economics when the Romans annexed Egypt in 30 BC. Under the Romans, Memphis continued to be one of the major Egyptian cities, the nome capital, and an important centre for administration in Middle Egypt. The present project focuses on the Roman period of the history of Memphis (IIV AD). How much change and continuity characterises this period? How did this city function under the Romans? How much Romanised did it become? How did the administrative system and socio-economic life change with the new rule? What was the role of Memphis in the life of the province Egypt in that time, compared to the exceptional religious and political standing of this city in the previous historical periods? To answer these questions, it is necessary to study in detail papyrus documents coming from Memphis and mentioning Memphis and/or the Memphite region. One large group of about 150 such documents dating from the first half of the III AD was found in Saqqara near Memphis. These documents were published in the 19thfirst half of the 20th century in several separate editions and have never been studied as a whole archive. About one third of the papyri from this archive have remained unpublished to the date; others need to be revisited and re-edited. In the framework of the project, these significant documents will be thoroughly studied as historical sources about the city of Memphis in that time. These and other relevant documents will be compiled into the corpus of papyrus sources that will be then compared with other available documentary, literary, and archaeological material. The following aspects of historical evidence will be given special attention: Roman public offices; Roman financial institutions, taxes and their collection; economic of landholding; court procedures in Roman Memphis; social status of inhabitants of the city; traditional Memphite cults and priests and Roman religious innovations; diversity in language, ethnic background, and culture.

The project studied new historical documents on papyrus that came from Memphis, one of the most important urban centres of ancient Egypt. These documents that date to the Roman period revealed new important evidence on economy and administrative structure of the city at that time. In particular, one document attests the special role of Memphis region in the process of artificial fertilising of the soil in Egypt, namely, collecting of silt in the arms of the Nile around Memphis which was used to fertilise soil of the vineyards. Fertilising soil was crucial for the economy of Roman Egypt, since the vineyard and orchard land did not get natural fertiliser from the flood of the Nile. During the Roman period vineyard land was extended due to the spread of irrigation machinery and to the rising demand for wine. The area near Memphis was heavily affected by the landscape change, including the move of the head of the Delta northwards and the migration of the river channel eastwards. At the same time islands were formed, dividing the stream into two channels, and sand and silt accumulated on the inside bend of the river. This outcome of the project contributes to the study of the economy of Roman Egypt and opens new questions about the climate and landscape change in the ancient world. Another significant result is the discovery of a fragment that contains a philosophical text on Epicurean themes on one side and an account of the Temple of Ptah in Memphis on the other side. This document is one of the rare pieces of evidence on the economy of Egyptian temples and salaries of priests in the third century. Additionally, it poses the question of the possible familiarity of cult personnel in Egyptian temples with the Hellenistic philosophical theories. The literary text contributes to the studies of reception of Epicurus and transmission of Epicurean works and ideas, whereas the temple account sheds new light on how Roman administration interacted with priests and temple economy in Memphis which was one of the most significant cultic centres of Egypt. These outcomes of the project are to be published in two journal articles (forthcoming 2023). Other papyrus documents from Memphis have been collected and analysed as historical sources, with special attention to financial institutions and taxes; land; law courts; social status of inhabitants of the city; traditional Memphite cults and priests and Roman innovations in the religious life of the city; diversity in language, ethnic background, and culture. This analysis will be published in a forthcoming book 'Roman Memphis between pharaonic and Hellenistic traditions and imperial innovations'.