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BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
ostendat. Et nulla tormentorum vis inveniri adhuc potuit, quae obdurato illius
tractus latroni invito elicere potuit, ut nomen proprium dicat.
(Trans. after Rolfe, Loeb)
105 See e.g., Herodian. 1.17.6. HA Tyr. trig. 22.1f.:
Est hoc familiare populi Aegyptiorum ut velut furiosi ac dementes de levissimis
quibusque ad summa rei publicae pericula perducantur; saepe illi ob neglectas
salutationes, locum in balneis non concessum, carnem et olera sequestrata, calceamenta
servilia et cetera talia usque ad summum rei publicae periculum in seditiones, ita
ut armarentur contra eas exercitus, pervenerunt.
(HA Quadr. tyr. 7.4)
106 On typical ‘bandit peoples’ of Antiquity see Shaw, ‘Bandits’ 42, with a list of
representative examples in n. 114. On the mechanisms of modern stereotyping,
which help cast light on ancient conditions, see the instructive treatment of F.K.
Stanzel, ‘Der literarische Aspekt unserer Vorstellungen vom Charakter fremder
Völker’, AAWW 111, 1974 Nr. 4, 63–82. Otherwise, see K.E. Müller, Geschichte
der antiken Ethnographie und ethnologischen Theoriebildung, 2 vols, Stuttgart 1972/
1980.
107 Explicitly stated in no. 129: strategos Arsinoeitou.
108 See the commentary to P. Ryl. II 124–52, p. 117, together with the studies on
Egyptian policing cited in n. 101 and P. Jouguet, La vie municipale dans l’Égypte
romaine, Paris 1911, 259–69, esp. 261.
109 It is possible that under him he still had regional strategoi. This derives from the
observation that the titles of officials who held several posts contemporaneously are
presented in Euhemerian papyri (no. 152 with 149) in rising order of importance,
with that of epistates phylakiton coming last.
110 Cf. R. Taubenschlag, Das Strafrecht im Rechte der Papyri, Leipzig 1916, 96ff. L.
Mitteis in Mitteis-Wilcken, Grundzüge (n. 101), Bd. II 1, 28ff.
111 The verb ephodeuo means ‘to go the rounds’, ‘to patrol’. The archephodos must therefore
be a sort of beat policeman, denoted the superior of his colleagues by the prefix
arche-. Apart from these papyri, the office is also referred to in P. Tebt. 90 (first
century bc); 331.15 (second century ad), cf. Jouguet, La vie municipale (n. 108),
260f.
112 Cf. Jouguet, La vie municipale (n. 108), 266; R. MacMullen, Soldier and Civilian
in the Later Roman Empire, Cambridge 1963, 52ff. In a further case (no. 133) the
petition is directed towards a priest of the imperial cult (hiereus Tiberiou Kaisaros),
though the closing formulation is neutral: ‘I therefore beg you to undertake the
case’. The priest could, of course, have acted as go-between between victim and
officials.
113 Ulp. Dig. 47.14.1 pr.; cf. Coll. 11.7.1.
114 Cod. Theod. 9.30.1 with Herz, ‘Latrocinium und Viehdiebstahl’ 232.
115 Ulp. Dig. 47.9.3.5: rapi autem sine vi non potest.
116 Sen. Benef. 4.17.3f.; Alciphron 1.8.2–4.
117 Drexhage, ‘Eigentumsdelikte’ 954f.
118 Heliod. 1.5.2–6.2; 6.7.4.
119 Dio 71.4. HA Marc. 21.2. Cf. below pp. 114, 121–3.
120 On the social and legal standing of Egyptian slaves under the Principate see A.I.
Pavlovskaja, ‘Die Sklaverei im römischen Ägypten’, in L.P. Marinovic et al., Die
Sklaverei in den östlichen Provinzen des Römischen Reiches im 1.-3. Jahrhundert, German
trans. by J. Kriz in collaboration with G. Prinzing and E. Herrmann-Otto
(Übersetzungen ausländischer Arbeiten zur antiken Sklaverei, 5), Stuttgart 1992,
(165–270) 223ff.
121 See the findings of Drexhage, ‘Einbruch, Diebstahl und Straßenraub’, and Drexhage,
‘Eigentumsdelikte’.
178