Land tenure, rural space, and the political economy of Ptolemaic Egypt (332 BC-30 BC)
JG Manning (Stanford University )
Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics, May (2005)
Abstract
In this paper I argue that statist (or “despotic”) assumptions of royal power does not adequately describe the nature of political power in the Ptolemaic development of Egypt. I examine the process of Ptolemaic state formation from the point of view of the expansion and the settlement of the Fayyum, the foundation of Ptolemais in the Thebaid, and from the point of view of new fiscal institutions.
In this paper I argue three points: 1) the usual assumptions of the despotic power of the Ptolemies are built on the false assumptions of political power in ancient Egypt and do not fully describe political power in the Ptolemaic state, 2) the formation of the Ptolemaic state was a process that took close to a century to develop, and it evolved more rapidly in the Fayyum than it did in Upper Egypt, and 3) the effort of socio-economic consolidation during the reign of Ptolemy II suggests that the Ptolemaic state “credibly committed” to protect traditional property rights, which, by the second century BC, were enforced by legal institutions that had become incorporated within the new state structure. This political process, what I have described elsewhere as the “Ptolemaicizing” of Egypt (Manning 2003), did not occur solely through the command of the ruler, as the despotic, or strong state model of the state suggests, nor did it occur rapidly. Rather, Ptolemaic institutions developed by the active acceptance of the new rules by local populations, and this acceptance took time.1 It goes without saying that this acceptance was probably never universal or uniform across Egypt, but by the second century BC Ptolemaic state institutions had “captured” all of the important ancient institutions. This, in turn, also suggests that the assumption of Ptolemaic state decline should be reconsidered.
JG Manning (Stanford University )
Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics, May (2005)
Abstract
In this paper I argue that statist (or “despotic”) assumptions of royal power does not adequately describe the nature of political power in the Ptolemaic development of Egypt. I examine the process of Ptolemaic state formation from the point of view of the expansion and the settlement of the Fayyum, the foundation of Ptolemais in the Thebaid, and from the point of view of new fiscal institutions.
In this paper I argue three points: 1) the usual assumptions of the despotic power of the Ptolemies are built on the false assumptions of political power in ancient Egypt and do not fully describe political power in the Ptolemaic state, 2) the formation of the Ptolemaic state was a process that took close to a century to develop, and it evolved more rapidly in the Fayyum than it did in Upper Egypt, and 3) the effort of socio-economic consolidation during the reign of Ptolemy II suggests that the Ptolemaic state “credibly committed” to protect traditional property rights, which, by the second century BC, were enforced by legal institutions that had become incorporated within the new state structure. This political process, what I have described elsewhere as the “Ptolemaicizing” of Egypt (Manning 2003), did not occur solely through the command of the ruler, as the despotic, or strong state model of the state suggests, nor did it occur rapidly. Rather, Ptolemaic institutions developed by the active acceptance of the new rules by local populations, and this acceptance took time.1 It goes without saying that this acceptance was probably never universal or uniform across Egypt, but by the second century BC Ptolemaic state institutions had “captured” all of the important ancient institutions. This, in turn, also suggests that the assumption of Ptolemaic state decline should be reconsidered.
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