Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

the cities of the east 223
purchased part of the land. 120 The houses differed greatly in size, from what
were no more than large peasant holdings to the estates of the Apions,
which were large even by senatorial standards. 121 The Apions were not the
only landowners on a grand scale, 122 but it is not clear how important these
very large landowners were in the economy and politics of Egypt as a
whole. Gascou argues that large estates had come into existence in the
course of the fifth century as a result of an arrangement between landowners
and the government precisely for the purpose of making it possible for
the taxes to be collected by them. Alternatively, estates may have grown
through patronage, as more and more peasants agreed to pay their taxes
through patrons powerful enough to protect them from the rapacity or the
officiousness of tax-collectors.
The administration of taxation continued to be city-based. Every city had
a financial office to keep the register up to date and to administer collection.
The accounting was presumably done by professionals. The director of taxation
was known as the pagarch. 123 This office was held by the biggest families
of the city in turn, sometimes by a woman, sometimes by one of the
family’s administrators. At Oxyrhynchus and Arsinoe the office was split
into several parts, each of which seems to have been run by one of the great
houses. 124 A pagarch had at his disposal considerable coercive power. 125 In
the actual collection, the ‘houses’ were once more prominent, for a large
part of the revenue, whether in gold or in kind, was actually paid in by them.
Some of it they paid in their own name, some on behalf of others. It is not
clear whether only tenants in the strict sense paid ‘through’ the great houses,
or whether, as Gascou thinks, each of the houses had been assigned responsibility
for collecting the taxes of a certain number of independent peasants.
126 Surviving accounts show that landowners collected both tax and
rent from peasants without clearly distinguishing which was which.
Civic duties, too, were assigned to ‘houses’. A consortium of them contributed
to the painting of the baths. 127 The riparius or police officer was
supplied by the principal ‘houses’ in turn in accordance with a rota drawn
up for many years in advance. 128 Similar rotas may have existed for other
civic functions too. Justinian ordered the notables to hold the office of
defensor in turn. 129 But the ‘house’ of Timagenes seems to have provided
staff for a taxation office for part of Oxyrhnchus over many years. 130 The
individuals representing the ‘houses’, and even the administrators of the
greatest of them, used high imperial titles. It looks as if the imperial administration
had lost control of the use of titles of rank. Many of the users of
120 Gascou (1985) is fundamental but not definitive.
121 For houses and their contributions: P.Oxy. 2020, 2040. 122 Johnson and West (1949) 49–65.
123 PLRE iii.2.1498–9. 124 Gascou (1972). 125 MacCoull, Dioscorus 24–8, 48–9.
126 Gascou (1985) 48–52 – controversial. 127 P.Oxy. 2040. 128 P. Oxy. 2039.
129 Nov. 15.1. 130 P. Warren 3 (c. 500); P.Oxy. 1887 (538); cf. P.Oxy. 125, house of Theon (572).
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