ヘレニズム期エジプトのethnic諸関係における法的側面

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Though ethnonyms for identifying people were multiple in the earlier Ptolemaic era, they declined in the course of time and, to the end, no more than a couple were to be observed in the period under the later Ptolemies : Μακεδων and Περση&b.sigmav;. Its cause might be reasoned as that the recruitment from overseas would have ceased before the third Ptolemy Euergetes, and hence followed less and less need to identify people by ethnicity. Why then were only the two ethnika, Περση&b.sigmav; and Μακεδων, preserved? Here we face a challenge to seek after some clue to the enigma of Περσαι, particularly Περσαι τη&b.sigmav; επιγονη&b.sigmav;, since these terms still remain obscure and inconsistent. The primary inconsistency is that such people appear well-to-do in documents from Pathyris in the second century B. C, for all that they were specified on their own ethnonymic pretence as such obligors as were detainable for personal execution(αγωγιμοι) as seen in a multitude of συγχωρησει&b.sigmav; from the latest period of the Ptolemies and the succeeding era under the Romans. So we assume with P. W. PESTMAN(Aegyptus 43) such transitions of Περση&b.sigmav; τη&b.sigmav; επιγονη&b.sigmav; in four runs as : I. (ca. 330 down to the earlier IIIrdc. B. C): Persians were one of the major elements in the Ptolemaic army. II. (IIIrd c. to ca. 150 B. C): Persian troops receive other non-Hellenic alien soldiers. The ethnonym Περση&b.sigmav; comes to lose its meaning, while the epithet "τη&b.sigmav; επιγονη&b.sigmav;" may have appeared during this time. III. (ca. 150 to 84 B. C): Pathyrite Περσαι, or Περσαι τη&b.sigmav; επιγονη&b.sigmav;, flourished. They were mostly garrisoned κληρουχοι, mingled with Hellenic and Egyptic elements, and so often aspirant Egyptians. IV. (ca. 84 B. C. to ca. A. D. 160): The epithet "Περση&b.sigmav; τη&b.sigmav; επιγονη&b.sigmav;" became fully fictitious, hence in no relation with the military, but with the qualification for bondage. Questionable but also suggestive is the demotic phraseology "Wynn ms n Kmy", the alleged equivalent for "Περση&b.sigmav; τη&b.sigmav; επιγονη&b.sigmav;", on one point that the "wynn" does not mean Persian but a Greek/Greeks(ionis) , while on the other, "ms n Kmy" revealed that "η επιγονη", utterly mistaken previously, should denote "born of the land(i. e. in Egypt)". As far as "ms n Kmy" concerns, the enchoric hand discerns minutely the local tribes such as Blemmyans, Megabarians, Rempilak and the like, though less against "Mdy/Mty" as well as " Wynn", both naturalized from foreign naming. None of these seem to have a definite category of its own ethnicity, as was the former sometimes the Mede, i. e. a Persian, otherwise a soldier, and the latter properly a Greek or Greeks, but also applied to Περση&b.sigmav;/Περσηαι, most likely confused with the genuine Persians. Leaving, therefore, the ethnic standpoint for the Περση&b.sigmav; τη&b.sigmav; επιγονη&b.sigmav;, our concern inclines to those natives aspirant towards the Hellenic level of status. Among Pathyrite as well as Oxyrhynchite Περσαι τη&b.sigmav; επιγονη&b.sigmav; we find a lot of hybrid families and double names as well of Hellenic and Egyptian elements. They supposedly provided bilingual services such as cadre in the garrison, notaries(κωμογραμματει&b.sigmav;)and so on. We are tempted to call these aspirants "Helleno-Egyptians", that is, their stock was Egyptian, but their habitude Greek, Περση&b.sigmav; τη&b.sigmav; επιγονη&b.sigmav; was one such as this, of which example was well-known Menches, a notary of Kerkeosiris, whose affiliation was far from Greek against common acceptance, but Egyptian(W. Clarysse, Aegyptus 65). The revision of the juridical competence promulgated in the famous Grand Amnesty by Ptolemaios VIII Euergetes II (PTebt 5 : 121/0-118 B. C), that the chrematists should be competent to the suit brought, not by Greeks, but in Greek, and likewise the laocrits to that in the demotic, hence lex fori granting an option of either court by the language(ll. 205-217), might have been a step to meet the increase of such bicultural population of so-called "Helleno-Egyptians" or, so to say, Περσαι τη&b.sigmav; επιγονη&b.sigmav;. In these people we may observe the disputed ""Ελληνα&b.sigmav;"(l. 209)whose restoration in the original text J.-M. Modrzejewski claims, demanding to come back to the original(in Symposion 1974 and Le monde grec. Hommages a Cl. Preaux). The favoured situation of Περση&b.sigmav;, equal to that of "Ελλην, is manifested well in his immunity from an unfamiliar "obolos-tax"(CPR xiii, n°2 : IIIc. B. C.) and this newest testimony convinces us again that the Περση&b.sigmav; might well be a Hellenized Egyptian, socially promoted, though the absence of the demotic equivalent for the αγωγιμια in enchoric texts may suggest that a Περση&b.sigmav; ο αγωγιμο&b.sigmav;, or otherwise a Περση&b.sigmav; τη&b.sigmav; επιγονη&b.sigmav;;, would have to stand before the chrematists as an un feigned Egyptian, even venturing the risk of bondage, and this never happened before the laocrits. In short, however, not only Περση&b.sigmav; but also all other ethnicities faded in the vague in the later period of the Ptolemies.
1996-03-15

ヘレニズム期エジプトのethnic諸関係における法的側面

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