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A Propos of a Greek Inscription from Hermopolis Magna

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

Zaki Aly
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Extract

In honour of Professor Alan Wace, who has spent some fifty fruitful years in Greco-Roman archæology, I dedicate this paper. During that epoch his efforts in this sphere have been widespread. He has unearthed many finds and various archæological data of the utmost importance in Greece, particularly at Mycenae, and in Egypt both in Alexandria and Hermopolis Magna. By his discoveries and contributions, which have been recognised as worthy of highest esteem, he has shed much interesting light on various aspects of life in the Graeco-Roman world. As an ex-colleague in the Faculty of Arts, Farouk I University, I have been in close touch with him during the last seven years and he has always shown himself to be an indispensable source of information and a scholar of wide learning.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 46 , November 1951 , pp. 219 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1951

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References

1 Brugsch, H., La Géographie des Mimes, 1879, 1.Google Scholar

2 Schmitz, , ‘Zur Topographie von Hermopolis Magna in den griechischen Urkunden’, Mitteilungen füräg. Altertumskunde, Cairo, II (1932), 89Google Scholar; Méautis, , Hermo-polis-La-Grande, 1918, 50.Google Scholar Méautis devotes Chapter Two of his monograph to the topography of this metropolis with special reference to ancient authors, 42–55; Moharam Kamal, Annales XLVI, ‘Excavations in the so-called “Agora” of Hermopolis’, 289–295.

3 Vorläufiger Bericht über die deutsche Hermopolis-Expedition: Roeder, Balcz, Bittel, Hermann, Korten-beütel, Steckeweh, Werner, 1929–1935.

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8 Preisigke, Sammelbuch, 4152, line 1.

9 P. Ryl. 149. The plurality of office and the natural sequence places the strategos at the top of the three offices indicated above, then the exegetes followed by the high priest, and groups secular and priestly functions in one person. In P. Amh. 124 the high priest of the Augusti is equated with the exegetes whereas the high priest of the individual emperors or empresses is classed with the agoranomos.

10 P. Hib. 30, line 3.

11 P. Lond. III, no. 604, col. II, line 59; P. Lond. II, no. 192; P. Oxy. I, 97, VI, 929, VIII, 1153 and XII, 1234.

12 Lesquier, P. Magdola, no. 27, line 1: i.e. Hediste, wife of Nikanor, Mace donian. Lesquier in his note takes to be the feminine form of and refers to Mayser, Gram matik, Bd. I, Teil III, 23, line 48.

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15 Preisigke, Namenbuch, Anhang 3, col. 517; Preisigke, , Sammelbuch I, 4206Google Scholar, col. I, line 50 (date 80–69 B.C. even later according to Griffith, Mer cenaries of the Hellenistic World, 132). This particular Abdokos figures in three long lists arranged in three columns, all of settlers in Hermopolis, who chose to set up an altar. He is the son of a certain Achaios, conjectured to be a transliteration of the Semitic word Ach meaning ‘brother’ in Greek script with a Greek ending. This inference is supported by Lidzbar ski, M., Ephemeris für semitische Epigraphik, II 338, 40Google Scholar where he takes Achaios as derived from the Semitic word Ach and takes Abdokōs to correspond to the two forms ‘Abd and Qōs.

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23 J. Wellhausen, op. cit., 67, Qaus-Gabar, Qaus-Malak.

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28 Lesquier, Institutions Militaires, 92–93.

29 Ibid., 93 and 101.

30 was a common title of an association of fellow farmers whose assembly might equally be termed See Sammelbuch, no. 7457. 15.

31 P. Giss. 99, dated 80–79 B.C.; Taubenschlag, , The Law of Greco-Roman Egypt, II, chapter II, 65–74.Google Scholar

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37 Gueraud, O., ‘Décret d'une Association en l'honneur de son Président’, Bulletin Soc. Roy. d'Arch. Alex. X (1939), 21–40.Google Scholar The members of this par ticular association or synod were expressly designated by the words and pertaining to a village and grouped to defend their interests rather than establish a collective responsibility towards the State.

38 Taubenschlag, R., Law of Greco-Roman Egypt II, 67.Google Scholar

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43 Milne, Greek Inscriptions, no. 9283, pp. 35–37, dating from the first half of the second century B.C.