Leiden conventions rendered as EpiDoc: restorations as supplied(reason=lost), gaps as gap, abbreviations as expan(abbr+ex), omitted letters as supplied(reason=omitted), surplus as surplus, corrections as corr. Critical apparatus as listApp. The facing translation is div type=translation; the historical commentary is div type=commentary.
Iulius Demetrius, strategos of the Oasis of the Thebaid. I have appended for you the copy of the edict sent to me by the lord prefect Tiberius Iulius Alexander, that, knowing it, you may enjoy its benefits. Year 2 of Lucius Livius Augustus Sulpicius Galba Imperator, Phaophi 1, the day Iulia Augusta. — Tiberius Iulius Alexander proclaims: Taking every care that the city should continue in its proper good order, enjoying the benefits it has from the Augusti, and that Egypt, abiding in tranquillity, should serve cheerfully the food-supply and the fullest prosperity of these present times, not weighed down by new and unjust exactions — almost from the moment I set foot in the city I have been cried out to by petitioners, in small groups and in crowds, both the most respectable men here and the farmers of the countryside, complaining of the abuses lately committed; and I have not ceased, so far as lay in my power, to set right what was urgent. And, that you may be of better cheer and hope for everything — both for your safety and for your enjoyment — from the benefactor Augustus Imperator Galba, who has dawned upon us for the salvation of the whole race of mankind, and that you may know that I have taken thought for what concerns your relief, I have of necessity set out in writing my ruling on each of the matters in question, so far as it is permitted me to judge and to act; the greater matters, which need the power and majesty of the Imperator, I shall make known to him with all truth — the gods having reserved for this most sacred season the security of the inhabited world.
For I have learned, before all else, that your petition is most reasonable — that men should not be dragged unwillingly and by force into tax-farming or into other leases of the imperial estates, against the common custom of the provinces; and that it has done no small harm to affairs that many men, inexperienced in such business, have been brought to it under compulsion, the taxes being imposed upon them. I myself, therefore, have neither brought anyone into a tax-farming or a lease against his will, nor shall I, knowing that it is to the advantage of the imperial revenues too that capable men should transact business willingly and with zeal. And I am persuaded that for the future no one will force tax-farmers or lessees unwillingly, but will let the contracts out to those willing to come forward of their own accord — keeping rather to the perpetual custom of the former prefects than imitating the temporary injustice of any individual.
Since some men, on the pretext of public debts, have taken over also the private debts owed to others, and have committed certain persons to the debtors' prison and to other places of custody — which I know to have been abolished for this very reason, that the exaction of debts should be made from property and not from persons — following the will of the god Augustus, I order that no one, on the pretext of public debts, shall have made over to him by others debts which he did not himself lend in the first place; and that no one whatever shall shut up free men in any custody whatever, unless he be a malefactor, nor in the debtors' prison, except those liable to the imperial account. And, that the name of the public revenues may nowhere burden men's dealings with one another, nor that those who abuse the right of prior exaction where they ought not should undermine the common credit, I have of necessity made proclamation about this also. For it has often been reported to me that certain men have tried to take away hypothecs lawfully constituted, and to exact again, by force, debts already repaid, from those who had received the payment, and to make purchases void, tearing from the buyers the things bought — on the ground that they had dealt with men who had received transport-goods from the fiscus, or with strategoi, or with men of business, or with others liable to the public account. I order, therefore, that if hereafter any procurator of the lord, or any steward, holds suspect any of those engaged in public business, either his name shall be detained, or it shall be proscribed so that no one may contract with him, or parts of his property shall be detained for the debt in the public record-offices. But if anyone has lawfully lent money, taking a hypothec, to a man whose name has not been detained and whose property has not been seized, or has recovered in advance what he lent, or has bought something from him, the name and the property not being detained, he shall have no trouble. For the dowries, since they are another's and not the property of the husbands who received them, both the god Augustus ordered, and the prefects have ordered, to be repaid to the women from the fiscus — women whose right of prior exaction must be kept secure.
I was petitioned also concerning the tax-exemptions and the reduced assessments, among which are the revenue-lands, the petitioners asking that these be maintained — as the god Claudius granted release in his letter to Postumus — and saying that afterward the things done by private persons in the intervening time, after Flaccus had condemned them and before the god Claudius granted release, had been condemned. Since, then, Balbillus too and Vestinus granted these releases, I maintain the rulings of both prefects, they too having followed the grace of the god Claudius, so that whatever has not yet been exacted from these is released — it being clear that the exemption and the reduced assessment are kept for them for the future. And concerning the lands of the account of Caesar sold in the intervening time, on which rents had been condemned, as Vestinus ordered that the proper dues be paid, I too confirm it, having released whatever had not yet been exacted and ruling that for the future they remain on the proper terms; for it is unjust that men who have bought lands, and paid their price, should be required, like public farmers, to pay rents for their own ground. It is in keeping, too, with the graces of the Augusti that the native Alexandrians who dwell in the countryside for the sake of husbandry should not be drawn into any rural liturgy. This you have often requested, and I myself maintain it — that no one of the native Alexandrians be drawn into rural liturgies. And I shall take care to entrust the offices of strategos, after the assize, for a three-year term to those who shall be appointed.
And in general I order that, as often as a prefect has already, upon judging a man brought before him, acquitted him, the matter shall no longer be brought to the assize. And if two prefects have been of the same mind, then the accountant too is to be punished who brings the same matters to the assize — doing nothing else but leaving himself and the other men of business a pretext for extortion. Many indeed have asked rather to give up their own properties than to pay out more than their value, because at each assize the same matters are brought to trial. And I rule the same concerning the matters brought under the Special Account: so that, if anything once judged has been, or shall be, released by the official set over the Special Account, it shall no longer be permitted to that accuser to lay an information about it, nor shall it be brought to trial — or he who does this shall, without remission, be fined. For there will be no end of malicious prosecutions if matters already released are pursued until someone condemns them. And, the city having now become almost uninhabitable through the multitude of informers, and every household thrown into confusion, I order of necessity that, if any of the accusers in the Special Account brings in a case as advocate for another, he shall be required to produce the man who laid the information, so that he too be not without risk; and if a man, having brought three cases in his own name, fails to prove them, he shall no longer be permitted to accuse, but half his estate shall be confiscated. For it is most unjust that a man who brings dangers upon many, over their properties and their civic standing, should himself be for ever unaccountable.
And in general I shall order the rule-book of the Special Account to be deposited, having corrected the innovations made contrary to the graces of the Augusti; and I shall proclaim openly how I have punished, as was fitting, the informers already convicted. I am not unaware that you take great thought also that Egypt should continue in tranquillity, by which you are greatly burdened; what supplies you have, I have set right, so far as it was possible. For the farmers throughout the whole country petitioned me often, and made plain that many new condemnations had been laid upon them — not for crimes, but for payments in grain and in money — and that it is not lawful for whoever wishes to introduce, lightly, some new general charge. These and the like condemnations I found extending not over the Thebaid alone, nor over the distant nomes of the lower country, but reaching even the suburbs of the city — the territory called of the Alexandrians, and the Mareotis. I therefore order the strategoi of the several nomes that, if in the last five years anything not previously paid has been newly condemned — generally or collectively — against the farmers of nomes or toparchies, they shall restore these to their former order, remitting the exaction of them; and whatever has been brought to the assize, I release. I forbade, even before this, the immoderate power of the accountants, because all men cried out against them for entering most things by analogy — whence it came about that they made money for themselves while Egypt was being laid waste. And now I charge the same men to enter nothing by analogy, nor indeed anything else generally, without the prefect's judgment; and I order the strategoi also to take nothing from the accountants without the prefect's authorization. And the other men of business, too, if they be found to have entered anything false or contrary to what is due, shall both repay to the private persons whatever was wrongly exacted and pay an equal sum into the public treasury. Of the same malpractice is the so-called assessment 'by synopsis' — made not against the actual rise of the Nile, but by comparison with certain earlier risings — whereas nothing seems more just than the truth itself.
I wish men to take heart, and to farm with zeal, knowing that the exaction will be according to the truth of the actual rise of the Nile and of the land that has been flooded, and not by the malicious entry of those who assess 'by synopsis'. And if anyone be convicted of having falsified it, he shall pay back threefold what he held. As for those who took fright on hearing of a re-measurement of the ancient land in the territory of the Alexandrians and in the Menelaite nome — into which a measuring-cord was never brought — let them not be needlessly afraid; for no one has ever dared to make the measurement, nor shall any make it: the right of it, from of old, ought to remain. And I rule the same concerning the accretions added to these lands, that nothing be innovated upon them. As for the older declarations, with which you have been pressed — by which certain men, to exact or to assess, have many times gained nothing more than money for the men of business and the grinding-down of the people — I shall write to Caesar Augustus Imperator, together with the other matters, all that I make known to him, the one man able to cut off such things wholly, whose unceasing benefaction and forethought are the cause of the safety of us all. Year 1 of Lucius Livius Galba Caesar Augustus Imperator, Epeiph 12.
The inscription opens with the covering note of Iulius Demetrius, strategos of the Oasis of the Thebaid, who forwards the prefect's edict to his district so that its benefits may be known — the same provincial act of transmission seen across the corpus (Evelyn-White & Oliver 1938, no. 4; Chalon 1964).
The edict proper then opens with the formula légei, ‘proclaims’. Ti. Iulius Alexander, prefect of Egypt, sets out his programme: to keep Alexandria in good order and Egypt tranquil, not crushed by ‘new and unjust exactions’. He writes, pointedly, at the accession of Galba — the ‘benefactor’ whose dawn he invokes — and promises to redress what he can by his own authority and to refer the greater matters to the emperor (Chalon 1964).
The first concrete reform: no one is to be forced, against his will, into tax-farming or the leasing of imperial estates. The compulsory recruitment of unwilling and inexperienced contractors, the prefect observes, has damaged the revenues themselves — a careful argument that the abuse hurts the fiscus, not only the subject (Chalon 1964; Evelyn-White & Oliver 1938, no. 4).
Ti. Iulius Alexander frames the reform as a return to ‘the perpetual custom of the former prefects’, against ‘the temporary injustice of any individual’ — the rhetoric of restoration, not innovation, that runs through the whole edict and through the imperial pronouncements of the corpus.
The longest of the early sections protects the person and the contract against the fiscus. On the pretext of public debt, men had been having private debts assigned to them and were jailing debtors; the prefect, ‘following the will of the deified Augustus’, rules that debt is to be exacted from property, not from persons, and that no free man is to be imprisoned save a malefactor (Chalon 1964).
He then guards private credit: hypothecs, repaid debts and completed sales are not to be undone by officials claiming the fiscus's prior right of exaction. A man who has lent, recovered or bought from a person whose name and property are not under official detention ‘shall have no trouble’. The section is a small charter of legal security — and a precise window onto how the imperial treasury could prey on ordinary dealings (Evelyn-White & Oliver 1938, no. 4).
The prefect confirms standing tax-exemptions and reduced assessments, upholding the rulings of his predecessors Balbillus and Vestinus and the grace of the deified Claudius, and releasing whatever had not yet been exacted. The passage is a dense record of how a privilege, once granted, was defended down a line of prefects (Chalon 1964).
Two further reforms follow. The native Alexandrians who farm in the countryside are not to be dragged into rural liturgies — a protection the city had ‘often requested’. And the offices of strategos are henceforth to be entrusted for a fixed three-year term: a small but telling measure of administrative regularity, the same instinct for bounded tenure seen across the imperial documents (Evelyn-White & Oliver 1938, no. 4).
The prefect attacks the abuse of the assize — the periodic judicial review of the nomes. A matter once acquitted by a prefect is not to be re-opened at a later assize; an accountant who re-lists such matters is to be punished. The principle is, in effect, an early statement against double jeopardy in the fiscal courts (Chalon 1964).
He then turns on the informers who had made Alexandria ‘almost uninhabitable’. An accuser pleading for another must produce the man behind the charge; one who brings three cases in his own name and fails to prove them may accuse no more, and forfeits half his estate. The sanction is sharp — and a vivid measure of how far malicious prosecution had corroded civic life (Evelyn-White & Oliver 1938, no. 4).
The prefect promises to lodge a corrected rule-book (gnōmōn) of the Special Account and to publish how he has punished convicted informers. He then redresses the farmers of Egypt: new condemnations laid on them in the last five years — for grain- and money-dues, not for crimes — are to be cancelled, the strategoi restoring the assessments to their former order (Chalon 1964).
He curbs the accountants, whose ‘immoderate power’ and habit of entering charges ‘by analogy’ had enriched them while ‘Egypt was laid waste’. And he condemns the assessment ‘by synopsis’ — reckoning the land-tax not against the actual Nile flood but by comparison with earlier, higher floods. The whole section is among the most-quoted documents of the Roman fiscal administration of Egypt (Evelyn-White & Oliver 1938, no. 4).
The prefect quietens two standing fears. The land-tax is to be exacted ‘according to the truth of the actual rise’ of the Nile, with a threefold penalty for falsifying it; and the ancient land of the Alexandrian territory and the Menelaite nome will not be re-measured — ‘no one has ever dared, nor shall any’ — its immemorial right is to stand (Chalon 1964).
The edict closes with the limit of the prefect's own authority. The oldest grievances — the abusive ‘declarations’ — he will not settle himself, but will write to ‘Caesar Augustus Imperator’, the one man able to cut such things off wholly. The closing date, Epeiph 12 of Galba's first year — 6 July AD 68 — places the edict at the very hinge of the year of the four emperors (Evelyn-White & Oliver 1938, no. 4).