Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

622 21c. egypt
Antinoopolis had a stable, a word that suggests, at the very least, that
Theodore owned and kept horses; at most, that, like other landlords of dispersed
properties, he had his own ‘postal service’ (cursus velox). 37 He may
even have kept racehorses for the circus, a wildly popular entertainment,
not only in a megalopolis like Constantinople or Alexandria, but also in
Egyptian provincial capitals like Oxyrhynchus and, Theodore’s own hometown,
Antinoopolis. A unique codex leaf excavated there in 1914 contains
a fragmentary painting of five charioteers in Roman dress, wearing the
colours of three of the four circus factions (red, blue, green). The physical
remains of Antinoopolis’ circus suggest it was second in Egypt only to
Alexandria’s in size and magnificence. 38
More to the point in Theodore’s will, however, is its technical legal
vocabulary, which included loanwords like codicilli (‘codicils’), epistula
fideicommissaria (‘fideicommissary letter’) and peculium (‘nest egg’); but most
extraordinary among these words is the reference to a ius Falcidium
(‘Falcidian right’) based on a Roman law over six hundred years old, the Lex
Falcidia of 40 b.c., whose purpose was to limit legacies to three-quarters
the value of an inheritance. In his own will, Theodore seemingly envisages
his grandmother complaining that the will’s legacies were too great; but he
must also have sensed that in any litigation his will should have withstood
challenge because so much had been set aside for the kinds of ‘charitable
purposes’ ( piae causae) favoured in Justinian’s legislation. 39
Much time has so far been spent on Theodore’s will, but its value as a mechanism
for identifying phenomena typical of late antique Egypt has not
quite been exhausted. Three more items are worth remark.
First, in the will’s final clauses, Theodore manumits his slaves and establishes
trust funds for his nurse and her daughter. Apparent in these measures
is a fundamental characteristic of Egyptian slavery in this as in earlier
periods of history – that is, slavery was an urban rather than a rural phenomenon.
Egypt was a land whose agriculture, even as conducted on great
estates, depended on the toil of a large class of peasants, not the efforts of
gangs of agricultural slaves. What slaves there were – and these were seemingly
much fewer in late than in early imperial times – tended rather to be
domestic slaves owned by those in society’s higher reaches. 40
Second, some of the proceeds of Theodore’s estate were to be devoted
to the pious cause of ransoming prisoners. 41 The will does not specify, but
37 Esp. P.Oxy. i138(610/11), Apiones of Oxyrhynchus.
38 In general: Cameron, Circus Factions; Antinoopolis: Turner (1973) (the codex leaf); Humphrey
(1986) 513–16.
39 Berger (1953) 552 s.v. Lex Falcidia (citing Inst. ii.22, D. 35.2; 3; CJ vi.50) and 629–30 s.v. piae causae
40 (citing CJ i.3). In general: Hagemann (1953). Bagnall, Egypt ch. 6. Cf. Fichman [Fikhman] (1973).
41 Cf. Just. Nov. 65 (538), 120.9 (544); Shenoute, Opera ed. Leipoldt, iii.69–77. In general: Amirante
(1957).
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