Loyalty and Dissidence in Roman Egypt: The Case of the Acta Alexandrinorum

264 Pages·2008·1.11 MB·English

by  Andrew Harker

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LOYALTY AND DISSIDENCE
IN ROMAN EGYPT
TheActaAlexandrinorumareafascinatingcollectionoftexts,dealing
with relations between the Alexandrians and the Roman emperors
in the first century ad. This was a turbulent time in the life of the
capitalcityofthenewprovinceofEgypt,notleastbecauseoftensions
betweentheGreekandJewishsectionsofthepopulation.DrHarker
haswrittenthefirstin-depthstudyofthesetextssincetheirfirstedition
halfacenturyago,andexaminestheminthecontextofothersimilar
contemporaryliteraryforms,bothfromRomanEgyptandthewider
Roman Empire. The study of the Acta Alexandrinorum literature,
which,asthisbookdemonstrates,wasgenuinelypopularinRoman
Egypt,offersadifferentandmorecomplexperspectiveonprovincial
mentalitiestowardsimperialRomethanthatofferedbythestudyof
themainstreameliteliteratureofthePrincipate.Itwillbeofinterestto
classicistsandancienthistorians,butalsotothoseinterestedinJewish
andNewTestamentstudies.
andrew harker studied for his doctorate at King’s College
LondonbeforelecturingattheUniversityofLondon.Henowteaches
ClassicsinHertfordshire.

LOYALTY AND DISSIDENCE
IN ROMAN EGYPT
The Case of the Acta Alexandrinorum
ANDREW HARKER
CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITYPRESS
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Cambridge University Press
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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
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© Andrew Harker, 2008
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First published in print format 2008
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ISBN-13 978-0-521-88789-2 hardback
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Contents
Noteonabbreviations page vi
1 Introduction 1
2 TheembassiestoGaiusandClaudius 9
3 TheActaAlexandrinorum:AugustustotheSeverans 48
4 TheActaAlexandrinorum:Thehistoricalbackground 99
5 Betweenloyaltyanddissent:TheActaAlexandrinorumand
contemporaryliterature 141
6 Conclusion 174
Appendixi:EditionsoftheActaAlexandrinorumandrelatedtexts 179
Appendixii:ThestatusoftheAlexandrianJews 212
Appendixiii:The‘dubiousorunidentified’fragments 221
Bibliography 225
Index 251
v
Note on abbreviations
Literary sources and journals are cited by their standard abbreviations, as
3
found,forexample,inOCD .Otherfrequentlyusedabbreviationsare:
Acta Musurillo,ActaAlexandrinorum,Lipsiae,1961.
AFA ActsoftheArvalBrethren.
Agr. Philo,Deagricultura.
Alex. Philo,Alexander.
APM Musurillo, The Acts of the Pagan Martyrs, Oxford,
1954.
Dio DioCassius.
GC J.H.Oliver,GreekConstitutions,Philadelphia,1989.
L.A. Philo,Legumallegoriarum.
2
Pack R. Pack, The Greek and Latin Literary Papyri from
Greco-RomanEgypt,2ndedn,AnnArbor,1965.
Prob. Philo,Quodomnisprobusliber.
Reg.etimp.apophth. Plutarch,Regumetimperatorumapophthegmata.
Spec. Philo,Despecialibuslegibus.
AllpapyriarecitedaccordingtothelatestversionoftheChecklistofEdi-
tionsofGreekandLatinPapyri,OstracaandTabletspublishedontheWorld
Wide Web. I have used the abbreviation CPJ rather than the Checklist’s
C.Pap.Jud.forthesakeofconvenience.
All citations of Eusebius, Chron. Hieron. are from the edition of Helm
1984. All citations from Byzantine sources (Georgius Syncellus, John
Malalas,theChroniconPaschale)arefromtheCorpusScriptorumHistoriae
Byzantinaeseries.
vi
chapter 1
Introduction
the actaalexandrinorumproper
and actarelated literature
Thevastmajorityofthemanythousandsofpapyrithathavebeenrecovered
fromancientEgyptaredocuments,butroughlyatenthareliteraryand‘sub-
literary’ texts. Some of these contain works which had survived anyway,
such as those of Homer and Thucydides, but others have yielded lost
pieces of ancient literature, e.g. Aristotle’s Constitution of Athens. Among
this latter group are a series of texts that have become known as the Acta
AlexandrinorumortheActsofthePaganMartyrs.
TheActaAlexandrinorumtellthestoriesoftheheroicdeathsofAlexan-
drianGreeknobles.Thefavouredformofthesestoriesisarecordoftheir
trial scene in the imperial court, usually presented as the official minutes
1
(acta), with only a small amount of narrative. The Acta Alexandrinorum
recyclethesamearchetypalstorywhereagroupofAlexandrianambassadors
traveltoRomeand,onarrival,faceahostileemperorwhohasalliedhimself
withtheirenemies,usuallytheJewishcommunityresidentinAlexandria.
AbitterexchangeofwordsfollowsbetweentheemperorandtheAlexandri-
ans,whobravelydefytheemperoronbehalfoftheirbelovedfatherland,and
scornfullyattributehishostilitytowardsthemtohislackofhighbirthand
culture.ThestoriesusuallyendwithatleastsomeoftheAlexandriansbeing
ledawaytoexecution,recallingastheydepartthelongandgloriouslineof
Alexandrianswhohavediedbeforetheminasimilarfashion.Thestories,
whichfeaturemostoftheemperorsfromAugustustoCaracalla,arewritten
toevokesympathytowardstheAlexandriansandinsistthattheydieasthe
innocentvictimsofimperialbiasandcruelty.Someofthestorieshavean
historical,andperhapsadocumentary,basisandusehistoricalpersonages,
butallsurvivingexampleshavebeenfictionalisedtosomeextent.
1 TheformofthestorieshasinspiredtheconvenientmoderntitleActaAlexandrinorum(‘theofficial
minutesoftheAlexandrians’).
1
2 LoyaltyandDissidenceinRomanEgypt
WhilethetermActaAlexandrinorumshouldbereservedsolelyforthose
textswhichrecyclethissameessentialstoryline(hereaftertheActaAlexan-
drinorum proper), in practice it has been extended to cover numerous
other pieces of related ‘literary’ and ‘documentary’ texts. Thus the cate-
gorisationhasbeenusedofimperialletterstoAlexandria,storiesofsecret
meetings between Alexandrians and Roman prefects, rhetorical speeches
delivered before emperors, accounts of imperial receptions in Alexandria,
andaccountsofAlexandriansprosecutingRomanprefects.Thesetextsdo
not conform to my definition of the Acta Alexandrinorum, but are often
extremely similar in theme and content. For convenience, I will refer to
them as the ‘Acta related literature’. I use the term ‘Acta Alexandrinorum
literature’tocoverbothcategories.
TheActaAlexandrinorumliteraturewasreadinEgyptfromtheAugustan
period to the mid-third century ad. Most of the extant texts come from
the late second–early third century ad, but this is unsurprising, as most
2
surviving papyri come from this period anyway. Nonetheless, the fact
that the older stories were being rewritten in this period and new stories
were being composed would suggest that the literature was particularly
popularintheSeveranperiod,beforedisappearingentirely.Ithadabroad
appealinEgypt.ExamplesoftheActaAlexandrinorumliteraturehavebeen
found both in urban centres, like Oxyrhynchus, Hermopolis Magna and
Panopolis,andinvillages,suchasKaranisandTebtunis,bothofwhichare
situatedintheFayum.ThemajorityofthetextscomefromOxyrhynchus
andthevillagesoftheFayum.Thisistobeexpected,however,asthesesites
haveyieldedthemostpapyri.Giventhisimpressivegeographicalspread,it
isreasonabletosupposethattheActaAlexandrinorumliteraturewasknown
andreadinEgyptwhereverpeoplecouldread.
the papyri of the actaalexandrinorum
Thestudyofaliteraturepreservedsolelyonpapyrus,theancientequivalent
ofpaper,carriesseveralintrinsicdifficulties.Onlyatinyproportionofthe
millionsofpapyricirculatinginantiquityhassurvived.Thesurvivingtexts
have been preserved in an uneven pattern and predominantly come from
EgyptandtheNearEastwheretheclimatesaredryandanhydrous.Mostof
thepapyrifromEgyptcomefromrelativelyfewsites,suchasBehnesa,where
the ancient metropolis of Oxyrhynchus once stood, and from the villages
oftheFayum.ConsequentlytextsfromthecoastalcityofAlexandria,where
theActaAlexandrinorumliteraturepresumablythrived,havenotsurvived.
2 Duncan-Jones1990:67–73;Habermann1998:144–60(especially157).