Landholding in the Hermopolite Nome in the Fourth Century A.D.

Abstract

There is no need to emphasize the fundamental importance of landholding patterns for the understanding of the ancient economy. The present article attempts to make a contribution to this aspect of the history of Egypt in the fourth century. But the importance of the major issue is not, of course, peculiar to Egypt. The notion of the growth of large estates in the later empire is a familiar one, and the fourth century A.D. is generally thought to be an important period for their development. But Roman historians conditioned to be wary of an unqualified application of the model of great slave-worked latifundia to Italy in the second century B.C. might now also think it appropriate to ask exactly how far our evidence for the fourth century will take us.