Priester, Prokuratoren und Präfekten: Die Tempelverwaltung im römischen Ägypten

Abstract

This contribution offers a detailed critical discussion of Stefan Pfeiffer’s recent suggestion that the imperial cult had been officially introduced in Egypt already by Augustus and that the Kaisareia installed in the nomes for this purpose were under the control of an Alexandrian archiereus from the very beginning. A reexamination of the documentation from the Julio-Claudian period serves to test this hypothesis, with special attention being due to the well-known honorary inscription for Ti. Claudius Balbillus I.Eph. VII 3042. The results show that, while there are certainly early attestations of individual priests of the imperial cult for the ruling emperor, these are, like all other incidents of emperorworship in the 1st century AD, entirely due to private or at most local interests of individuals or groups. The procuratorial office of the archiereus, whose official title rendered him responsible for the cult of the emperor and Sarapis, as well as for the supervision of all sanctuaries and cultic institutions in Egypt, was only created as part of a great administrative reform under Hadrian in the early 120s. The reorganisation of the Alexandrinian centre was a reaction to the problems that had become apparent during the Jewish revolt, and consisted in the finances and affairs of the priesthoods being separated from the hitherto substantial responsibility of the prefect and placed under the charge of separate procurators.