Papyrologists and historians have taken a lively interest in the Apion family (fifth through seventh centuries), who rose from local prominence in rural Middle Egypt to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the Eastern Roman Empire. The focus of most scholarly debate has been whether the Apion estate—and estates like it—aimed for a marketable surplus or for self-sufficiency. Getting Rich in Late Antique Egypt shifts the discussion to precisely how the Apions’ wealth was generated and what role their Egyptian estate played in that growth by engaging directly with broader questions of the relationship between public and private economic actors in Late Antiquity, rational management in ancient economies, the size of estates in Byzantine Egypt, and the role of rural estates in the Byzantine economy.
           
Ryan E. McConnell connects the family’s rise in wealth and status to its role in tax collection on behalf of the Byzantine state, rather than a reliance on productive surpluses. Close analysis of low- and high-level accounts from the Apion estate, as well as documentation from comparable Roman and Byzantine Egyptian estates, corroborate this conclusion. Additionally, McConnell offers a third way into the ongoing debate over whether the Apions’ relationship with the state was antagonistic or cooperative, concluding that the relationship was that of parties in a negotiation, with each side seeking to maximize its own benefit. The application of modern economic concepts—as well as comparisons to the economies of Athens, Rome, Ptolemaic Egypt, and Early Modern France—further illuminate the structure and function of the estate in Late Antique Egypt.

Getting Rich in Late Antique Egypt will be a valuable resource for philologists, archaeologists, papyrologists, and scholars of Late Antiquity. It will also interest scholars of agricultural, social, and economic history.


 

Family squabbles and fights over real estate were no less complex in sixth-century Egypt than they are in the modern world. In this unusual volume Peter van Minnen and Traianos Gagos investigate just such a struggle, as described in a two-part papyrus some five feet long. Composed by the ancient equivalent of a notary public, the papyrus describes the outcome (after mediation) of a family dispute about valuable real estate.
Traianos Gagos and Peter van Minnen offer an English translation and a clear Greek text of the two papyrus fragments, as well as an important discussion of the nature of such mediation, its role in contemporary society, a consideration of the town of Aphrodito and its social and political elite, as well as many other topics that spring from this kind of document.
The use of methodologies from modern jurisprudence and anthropology together with an accessible style of writing mean that Settling a Dispute will be of interest to persons in many fields, including history, Classics, and Near Eastern studies. All Greek is translated, and an extensive commentary offers much helpful information on the text.
Traianos Gagos is Associate Archivist of the University of Michigan's papyri collection. Peter van Minnen is Senior Research Associate in the papyri collection at Duke University.