THE RIGHTS of RESIDENCE of ALEXANDRIAN JEWS in the ROMAN PERIOD Octavian, Later Augustus, Was the Agent of Many Changes in Egypt

CHAPTER THREE

THE RIGHTS OF RESIDENCE OF ALEXANDRIAN JEWS IN THE ROMAN PERIOD

Octavian, later Augustus, was the agent of many changes in Egypt and Alexandria,1 and the Jews were not excluded.2 Augustus changed Alexandria’s status and the city lost its governmental independence with the suppression of the boulē (Dio, 51.17, 2; cf. PSI X 1160 and P. Lond VI 1912 = CPJ II 153, ll. 66–68).3 Roman authorities replaced Alexan- drian authorities; the fact that the emperor was in charge of bestowing Alexandrian citizenship,4 a local prerogative in autonomous Greek cities of the eastern Empire, is the main evidence of this institutional reassessment.5 Citizens were organized around the gerousia and the gymnasium. Th e gerousia (P. Oxy. VIII 1089, ll. 35–36; P. Yale II 107, col. i) carried out functions that the available documentation does not

1 Th e main literature on the creation of the Roman province of Egypt is in A. Piganiol, “Le Statut Augustéen de l’Égypte et sa destruction,” MusHelv 10 (1953): 193–202; G. Geraci, Genesi della provincia romana d’Egitto (Bologna: CLUEB, 1983); more recent overview in Capponi, Augustan Egypt; particularly arguing for the transformation of the Egyptian administration are Bowman and Rathbone, “Cities” for a general overview of Roman Egypt from the institutional point of view see A.H.M. Jones, Th e Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces. Rev. by Michael Avi-Yonah et al. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1971), 295–348. 2 A very long and detailed discussion of the situation of the Egyptian Jews, largely devoted to Alexandrian Jews under Roman rule, is in Tcherikover and Fuks, Corpus, I 48–93. 3 Th e debate on the suppression of the Alexandrian boulē is based, in addition to Dio’s passage cited in the text, on an emblematic passage in SHA, Vita Severi, 17,2, which seems to state exactly the contrary to what Dio says; full discussion in Geraci, Genesi, 176–182, who argues for the Augustan suppression of the Alexandrian boulē; on the contrary, for a Ptolemaic suppression, see Bowman and Rathbone, “Cities,” 118–119 and Delia, Alexandrian Citizenship, 115–116. Even less is known of the Alexandrian ecclesia, whose existence is oft en assumed e silentio: Delia, Alexandrian Citizenship, 116–117. 4 See appendix 3. 5 Diff erently Bowman and Rathbone, “Cities,” 119, who hold that the Alexandrians enjoyed self-administration even without boulē and ecclesia. As for the other city-states in the empire, it must be noted that the Roman government increasingly interfered with their internal politics and administration; data are mostly from Asia Minor, for which see S. Dmitriev, City Government in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). 58 chapter three clarify, but very likely limited to representative and religious duties.6 Th e gymnasium retained only its athletic and educational prerogatives.7 Augustus certainly recognized and maintained the city’s territorial structure.8 Philo testifi es that the subdivision of Alexandria into five neighborhoods of the Ptolemaic period continued to exist into the Roman period as well (Flacc., 55). In papyri of the end of the fi rst century B.C.E./early fi rst century C.E., citizens still identifi ed themselves with demotic, confi rming the existence of territorial demes.9 Documents also indicate that the offi cial identifi cation of the residents did not change, for they continued to style themselves as Alexandreus.10 Th ere are several indicators that suggest that the politeuma survived, but with some changes. Th e existence of the politeuma of Alexandrian

6 M.A.H. El-Abbadi, “Th e gerousia in Roman Egypt,” JEA 50 (1964): 164–169 for a brief discussion of the status quaestionis and available documents; Delia, Alexandrian Citizenship, 163 maintains that the gerousia was a “social institution organized around a public cult . . . was not an administrative body and had no political status;” diff erently Bowman and Rathbone, “Cities,” 115–118, who attribute to the gerousia also administrative and political duties. 7 Alston, “Philo’s Flaccum,” passim, holds on the contrary that the Romans ele- vated the gymnasium in the name of the Greek origin of the polis Alexandria. Some Alexandrian Olympic victors are on record [inscriptions catalogued in L. Moretti, Olympionikai. I vincitori negli antichi agoni olimpici (Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1957), 198 (index): six in the Ptolemaic period, one in the Julio-Claudian period, seventeen for later periods; discussed and tabulated in T. Scanlon, Eros and Greek Athletics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) 45; 50–52; 56–57. Th ree athletic competitions are attested as taking place in Alexandria in the early Roman period: the Ἄκτια, the Βασίλεια, and the ἱερόν πενταετερικόν ἀγῶνα, probably the Σεβαστά; data in L. Moretti, Iscrizioni agonistiche greche (Roma: Signorelli, 1953) [= IAG], passim. As for athletes, see for example a Ti. Claudius Patrobius, who seems to hold both Antiochian and Alexandrian citizenship, in an inscription of ca. 60 C.E. in IAG 65. Source and references in Delia, Alexandrian Citizenship, 71–88. 8 Augustus’ sensibility to the control of the urban territory through its structural organization is also evident from his reform aiming at reinforcing the territorial structure of Rome itself; B. Lott, Th e Neighborhoods of Augustan Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). 9 Delia, Alexandrian Citizenship, 49–53; 63–70 for documents and literature. Th e Romans also introduced a more structured tribal division, also territorial, according to which Alexandrian citizens also identifi ed themselves in documents. Sources do not allow dating this process before the reign of Nero. 10 Th e texts in question are BGU IV 1101, Augustan period; 1165, 20/19 B.C.E.; 1176, 14/13 B.C.E.; 1167 i and iii, 12 B.C.E.; 1119, 6/5 B.C.E.; the latter document is particularly interesting inasmuch as it displays two kinds of identifi cation—Ptolemaios son of Antiaos of the deme of Temeneion, clearly a citizen, and Leon son of Th eodotos Alexadreus, a resident. Th e rare mention of astoi, considered by some a citizenship designation, does not allow any detailed argument; see Kasher, Jews in Egypt, 197–199 for summary of discussion; also Delia, Alexandrian Citizenship, 13–20 with documents tabulated p. 131.