Who pays the bill? Monetary aspects of royal cult in the Ptolemaic kingdom

Catharine C. Lorber

p. 167-193

Résumé

This chapter examines the agency and the multiple funding mechanisms of Ptolemaic royal cult. The state played a leading role in inducing or compelling the participation of subject polities, individuals, and Egyptian temples, while itself providing generous funding for royal cult. It thus created social pressures that encouraged private euergetism in service of royal cult. These Lagid policies are contrasted with the weaker commitment of the Seleucid monarchy to royal cult. A major emphasis of the chapter is on specific monetary payments attested in Egyptian documents. In some cases it is possible to compare payments from different time periods or from different regions of Egypt. The diachronic comparisons yield new information on the evolution of the funding of royal cult. The obligation of cleruchs to pay the stephanos or crown tax (which presumably financed the offering of actual crowns to the king on festal occasions) grew more onerous toward the end of the second century. The royal subsidy to Egyptian temples supported royal cult insofar as the deified Ptolemies were synnaoi theoi with the traditional gods; the cash portion of these subsidies apparently decreased over the course of the second century and the syntaxis was finally turned into a levy on the king’s subjects, at least in the Arsinoite nome. The apomoira, the tax on vineyards and orchards, derived the vast majority of its revenues from viticulture and was thus most valuable in the Arsinoites where vineyards were very numerous. But in Upper Egypt, where palm plantations were more the norm, the apomoira probably provided only weak support for sacrifices and libations to the deified Ptolemies. Other funding mechanisms treated are taxes and assessments for festivals of royal cult; temple taxes and the contractual payments of hierodules; the dues, special assessments, and penalties of religious associations; and penalties for breach of other contracts, which were often specifically designated for the sacrifices of the king.


Extrait

Introduction

1Royal cult had its roots in apparently spontaneous offers of honors from Greek cities, either as thanks for benefactions received, or in hope of encouraging future benefactions.1 The early Seleucids seemed content to accept offers of divine honors, but the early Ptolemies, beginning with Ptolemy II, took the lead in developing and promoting dynastic and royal cult. Thus in some cases, as in the documents issued by the League of the Islanders for the deceased Ptolemy I and the living Ptolemy II, the religious honors offered to the Ptolemies by cities in their foreign possessions may be understood as induced, or officially guided, or even as cooperative efforts with the Crown. In Egypt royal cult was largely an official enterprise, funded by direct subsidies from the treasury, by special assessments on the king’s subjects, and by dedicated taxes. Even when certain manifestations of royal cult appear to be the result of private agency, whether inside or outside Egypt

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