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BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
already cited verbatim, the historian Velleius Paterculus poured out praise of
the pax Augusta. 102 They serve to illustrate the social and economic contexts
of everyday criminality in Roman Egypt.
The texts comprise 29 papyri, almost all in good condition, kept in the
John Rylands Library, University of Manchester. 103 All of them come from
Euhemeria, a village in the Fayum Oasis, in the Arsinöite nome. Written in
the period ad 28–42, they can be described, in modern terms, as ‘sworn
depositions’. They were made by inhabitants of Euhemeria who had fallen
victim to theft and robbery. Most sheets record the identity of the victim
of the crime, his or her profession and social status, what was taken, the
circumstances of the crime and, in a number of cases, who was suspected of
having carried it out.
Given the poor state of the sources, already described, texts like these are
a godsend for the investigation of lawbreaking in the Roman period. If only
in respect of the close community of a single provincial village, and of an
equally narrow time span, we can resolve a list of socio-historical questions
that would otherwise remain unanswered. There are problems. Since, of
course, we have no idea of the population of Euhemeria under Tiberius, nor
of the total number of charges laid there, we can make no reliable statements
about the level of crime. In addition, as already touched upon, the possibility
of our drawing conclusions from the papyri as valid for other imperial
provinces is restricted by various factors, and these will become evident in
what follows. Finally, in the ancient literature, quite apart from its undeniable
idiosyncrasies in practically every aspect of public and private life,
Egypt was also seen as a land whose inhabitants were characterised by a
decidedly high inclination to commit crime.
Now the men of Egypt are, as a rule, somewhat swarthy and dark of
complexion, and rather gloomy-looking, slender and hardy, excitable
in all their movements, quarrelsome, and unwilling to take
no for an answer. Any one of them would blush if he did not, in
consequence of refusing tribute, show many lashes on his body; and
as yet it has been possible to find no torture cruel enough to compel
a hardened robber of that region against his will to reveal his own
name. 104
Ammianus’ scathing psychological profile of an entire people, clearly corresponding
to a widely held view in the Roman Empire, 105 is, of course, just
part of an established range of national caricatures. 106 However, prejudices
like this, anchored so deeply in the (sub-)conscious, often have at least some
justification. In the case of Egypt, this may have been the numerous disturbances
and rebellions – justified or not and whatever their cause – for which
the land on the Nile and, especially, its capital, Alexandria, became notorious
under Roman rule.
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