Apions

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The Apionen ( Flavii Apiones ) were an important and wealthy family that resided in Egypt from the 5th to the early 7th centuries in the late Roman period . Quite extensive papyrus finds from the so-called Apion Archive document their history exceptionally well. Several family members held high positions in the Eastern Roman administration and in the military and in some cases even settled church disputes.

history

The Apions were Christians and initially served in imperial provincial service, but rose to become wealthy landowners in the 5th century. They owned large estates , especially in the area of Oxyrhynchos, and had enormous influence, which they secured by cleverly marrying into the local aristocracy. Flavius ​​Apion II rose to consulate in the middle of the 6th century and also held other high posts, including the office of army master (556).

Their large estates were evidently more or less semi-autonomous, as both prisons and the presence of private house troops (see Bucellarius ), which the Apions themselves recruited and maintained, are documented. The Eastern Roman government usually tried to prevent both of these. The large Apionian estates, estimates assume around 75,000 acres of land, were mainly managed by coloni adscripticii (even if there were free tenants), who were in a dependent relationship with the large landowners. The ownership of the Apions was not limited to the region around Oxyrhynchos, but also included land with Herakleopolites, Arsinoites and Kynopolites, which is why the family set up a private administrative apparatus for organizational reasons, which also included a post office and a transport system. Ownership was by no means uniform: Vineyards, pastures and farmland are mentioned as well as real estate.

Because of these structures, modern research describes the late Roman Egypt of this time as quasi-feudal. The extent to which this occasionally led to conflicts with the Eastern Roman government is controversial, but the Apions certainly ensured that their influence (albeit limited regionally) was valid. On the other hand, a cooperation seems to have taken place during Justinian's time , even though Flavius ​​Apion I was promoted by Justin I and even functioned temporarily as Praetorian Prefect of the East. It is even possible that they supported the uprising of Herakleios against the largely unpopular emperor Phocas at the beginning of the 7th century.

A relative of Flavius ​​Apion III. from a branch of the Apions, the so-called Pseudo-Strategius III., at the Synod in Alexandria in 616 settled a dispute between the Miaphysite Church of Egypt and Syria. The traces of the family are lost with the beginning of the Persian invasion of Egypt, which began shortly thereafter .

literature

  • Averil Cameron et al. a .: The Cambridge Ancient History 14 (CAH) . Cambridge 2000.
  • Itzhak F. Fikhman: Economy and Society in Late Ancient Egypt: Small Writings . Edited by Andrea Jörgens. Steiner, Stuttgart 2006.
  • Peter Sarris : Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian . Cambridge 2006, especially p. 81ff.
  • Giovanni Roberto Ruffini: Social Networks in Byzantine Egypt . Cambridge 2008, pp. 94-146.

Remarks

  1. ↑ For the archive cf. Sarris, p. 29ff .; see also R. Mazza: L'archivio degli Apioni. Terra, lavoro e proprietà senatoria nell'Egitto tardoantico, Munera (Studi storici sulla Tarda Antichità 17) . Bari 2001.
  2. ↑ See introductory John Martindale: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire . Vol. 3, Cambridge 1992, pp. 96ff.
  3. ↑ Fikhman, pp. 125f.
  4. ↑ CAH 14, p. 629.
  5. ↑ On the term: Fikhman, pp. 190ff.
  6. ^ Fikhman, p. 124.
  7. ↑ See CAH 14, p. 631; Sarris, pp. 88f.
  8. ↑ To distinguish him from the son of Apion III, Flavius ​​Stragegius (III).