6. Cyrenean Agriculture in the Hellenistic Period
The view has been put forward that the Ptolemies did not at first treat the land of Cyrenaica as “spear-won land”, and it is doubtful if broad acres of βασιλικὴ γῆ were immediately gathered into their hands in their earlier period. Although an agrarian problem of hardship and land shortage is reflected in the events of the latter forty years of the 4th century, these events also took toll of the Cyrenean population, and echoes are heard in the Ptolemaic constitution of estates abandoned or burnt,[666] while the settlement of Ptolemaic mercenaries on the land is mentioned.[667]
We further perhaps read (although the text is doubtful) of the withholding of the franchise from Cyrenean citizens who join Ptolemy’s colonies[668] ([αἱ] οἰκίαι Πτολεμαϊκαί). New settlement schemes initiated by the sovereigns existed in all the Ptolemaic dominions, part of the land being allotted to serving soldiers or veterans (κληροῦχοι, κάτοικοι).[669] Most of the information on such settlement schemes in the Ptolemaic empire, indeed, begins in the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his successors,[670] but such projects would have been needed in Cyrenaica to repopulate deserted tracts and to strengthen Ptolemy’s control of the territory, a function also fulfilled there, on Josephus’ evidence, by Jewish settlers.[671] The areas made available to these new elements, by political confiscation or the death of their owners, would have constituted the first nuclei of the royal lands (βασιλικὴ γη) which were to assume wide dimensions in the course of time.
Available material is not such as to enable us to date certain important changes in the tenurial situation whose influence is discernible in Cyrenaica at the end of the hellenistic period. In the year 155, Euergetes II regarded the entire country as legally his own, as we have seen, and by the end of Ptolemaic rule the royal domains had become very extensive, for they were converted by the Romans to ager publicus populi Romani on the death of his son Apion in 96 B.C. Part of these tracts can be identified from literary sources, by archaeological observation, or by means of Roman boundary-stones such as have been found at various points near Cyrene,[672] at ‛Ein Targuna,[673] and at Marazig:[674] an area northwest of Safsaf, divided by a centurial grid, corresponds to the description of Hyginus,[675] which reports the division of Apion’s estates (agri Apionis) by this method. Not far to the east of this area occurs the name Hirbet Maga,[676] which supports the evidence for the existence of royal property in that district. Another such tract is indicated, apparently near al-Gubba- where air photographs reveal fields divided by the chessboard method of centuriation.[677] Other tracts of state land, probably to be located near Ptolemais,[678] were divided up by Roman surveying methods; Kraeling interpreted a boundary-stone west of the city in the same way.[679] More complicated is the question, whether the boundary-stones found near the walls of Cyrene also relate to Ptolemaic royal lands.[680] The payment of silphium as tribute to Rome[681] after the “liberation” of the country’s cities in 96 B.C., before the country became a Roman province (74 B.C.), has been taken to show that the silphium areas of southern Cyrenaica also became ager publicus, and had therefore been crown land before that, whence it is to be deduced that the plant had passed into the hands of the Ptolemies as a royal monopoly, its areas being regarded juridically as βασιλικὴ γή. Badian[682] does not think the silphium sent to Rome was tribute, but a normal purchase, yet does seem to admit that the silphium fields were state land in 73.[683] It would be entirely reasonable to expect that the first Ptolemies should appropriate this lucrative area for their revenue. Hyginus writes that Apion’s domains were divided by the Roman surveyors into units called plinthides, each of 6,000 foot-side and an area of 1,250 iugera.[684] These units are six times as large as those usual in measured tracts of the Roman Empire, hence it may be supposed that the dimensions of the agri Apionis were very large indeed, occupying no inconsiderable part of the entire country.[685] A second-century B.C. inscription from Cyrene, recording an edict of Ptolemy Neoteros Euergetes II or Ptolemy X Soter II,[686] mentions ownerless lands escheated to the government (ἀδέσποτα), so providing one instance of how the landed property of the monarchs expanded during the period. Another fragmentary inscription, published by Fraser,[687] refers to farmlands allotted to cover the expenses of the royal cult at Cyrene. A further interesting phenomenon is the location of a bloc of royal land near Safsaf, in an area which had been part of the territory of Cyrene in the 4th century according to Pseudo-Scylax.[688] This infringement of the city’s boundaries meant the restriction or division of Cyrene’s immense city land, and perhaps we should connect this with the establishment of Apollonia as an independent city. The objective necessity of such a reform will easily be understood in view of the disproportion between the territory of Cyrene (as revealed in papyrological statistics) and the territories of the remaining cities of Cyrenaica. If Heichelheim’s conclusion was correct these changes were carried out before the middle of the 3rd century B.C.
The Jewish inscription from Berenice,[689] recording the despatch of Sextus Tittius to the country “on public affairs” (ἐπὶ δημοσίων πραγμάτων), has been interpreted to indicate the proximity of public land to the city (see below, p. 170).
The existence of royal land in the form of plots leased for rent (γἢ ἐν ἀφέσει) is shown by the settlement of cleruchs. We shall see later that Ngharnes, east of Cyrene, was settled by such, and Rostovtzeff[690] held that the royal edict of the 2nd century B.C. found at Cyrene (above), related to landholders of this category. The inscriptions of Teucheira, most of which belong to the 1st century B.C., contain much evidence for the immigration of new settlers to the country, among those who record their origin being settlers from Didyma, Thrace, Egypt, Judaea, Demetrias (Thessaly?), Aksine (Sicily), Nysa and Bithynia. To the same period of immigration belongs the establishment of the Jewish community shown by the Teucheira epitaphs (see Ch. IV). Reasons will later be seen for thinking that this community began as a group of military settlers colonized by the government, and the places of origin of part of the non-Jewish settlers (Thrace, Thessaly, Bithynia) favour the supposition, since they were among the undeveloped countries from which mercenaries were frequently recruited in this period.
We have evidence, albeit indirect, for the relations of the Ptolemies with the temple estates of Cyrene. The Demiurgi steles testify to the existence of these estates in the period concerned, and Apollo’s revenues (οἱ τοῦ Ἀπολλώνος πρόσοδοι) are known in the Roman period, hence it is certain that they remained a unit in the Ptolemaic period as well. Their perpetuation is further indicated by the settlement of Ἀρτάμιτις κώμη recorded in the 2nd century A.D.,[691] but it is an important fact that both Magas and Euergetes II officiated as priests of Apollo,[692] and the desire to control the temple estates and revenues, or at least to introduce reforms in their administration, accords excellently with the wide organizational activities of Magas and with the aggressive and covetous character of Euergetes II. The political importance of the priesthood of Apollo has already been noted.[693] The steles of the Demiurgi, who were in charge of the revenues, at least part of which came from the estates in question, cease in the 2nd century B.C., while the absence of any later records and the silence of the Roman period on the subject, suggest that an important change had taken place in their administration. An examination of the steles which belong to the hellenistic period also reveals various hints of technical changes, probably introduced under royal supervision; these will be discussed below. Actual royal control of the temple property is disclosed in the edict of the 2nd century B.C.[694] in which the king orders the priests to draw from the temple revenues (πρόσοδοι) for the expenses of the royal cult; the creation of the cult of Arsinoe II in Egypt enabled the later Ptolemies to draw considerable sums from the temple revenues and to use the balance left over as they saw fit[695] after the holding of the cult ceremonies.
674
Goodchild,
678
Reynolds,
691
Ptol. IV, 4, 7. On internal evidence Ptolemy’s information on Cyrene derives from a time near to the conclusion of his work, i.e. c. AD. 150.