Our slow and circuitous judicial procedure, moreover, is, as Englishmen will remember, somewhat as their own once was, and the expert and professional character of their police is of fairly recent acquisition. And as for the new dispensation or deprivation under which, according to the quality of our natures, we now groan or rejoice, they will remember the everyday laxity and indifference, the fundamental idealism and occasional emotionalism of Anglo-Saxon democracy; and comprehend how possible it is for the same great and honest people to be led by will-o'-the-wisps into the present morass, on the one hand, and hearing one clear call, enter the World War on the other; to hearken to the darkened counsels and loud promptings of zeal to-day, and to heed the still small voice of their common sense

to-morrow.

ELMER EDGAR STOLL

A GREEK ADVENTURER IN EGYPT

A Large Estate in Egypt in the Third Century B.C. By Prof. M. RostovtZEFF. University of Wisconsin Studies in the Social Sciences and History. No. 6. Madison.

1922.

MONG all the finds of Greek papyri in Egypt there is none which has been more productive of material rich alike in human interest and historical importance than the archive of Zeno, son of Agreophon, discovered in the Fayum, some time in the year 1915, by native diggers at Gerza, the ancient Philadelphia. Unfortunately the Egyptian fellah, though he knows only too well the commercial value of papyri, regards them merely as a source of income, and he finds it profitable to disperse his finds among many purchasers. Such was the fate of the Zeno archive, portions of which are now found in many libraries and museums, besides a fair number of documents still in private possession. The largest sharers are the Cairo Museum, the Italian Society for the Discovery of Papyri, and the British Museum. All those of the Italian Society have now been published in volumes iv to vii of the Society's series of texts. Mr. C. C. Edgar has edited in successive volumes of the "Annales du Service " over a hundred of the Cairo papyri, and is preparing to print a complete edition of all. Of the remainder only a few have appeared in various periodicals.

Though the archive is at present incompletely published, evidence of far-reaching importance can even now be derived from it on many matters of economic and social history, and Prof. Rostovtzeff did not act prematurely in devoting to it a special study. He deals primarily, though not exclusively, with the economic aspects of these papyri. That one of the greatest living authorities on the economic history of the ancient world should, on the basis of such material, produce a volume of unusual interest and importance was only to be expected, and though his conclusions may be modified in detail as new evidence comes to light, or even by different interpretations of that already existing, the main lines of his brilliant sketch will probably stand. The volume contains occasional blunders and misconceptions, one or

two of them a little surprising in a scholar of such eminence; they are due, no doubt, to haste in preparation. The study also in places marred by an excessive dogmatism on questions hardly admitting of a certain answer, but it is on the whole a masterly achievement.

As just stated, Prof. Rostovtzeff deals mainly with the economic aspects of these papyri, but they are not less rich in material for social history, and therefore it seems worth while to prepare, for those who cannot conveniently study the originals, a brief sketch of the more human and personal side of the life revealed in these documents.

Zeno, son of Agreophon, was a native of Caunus, in Caria, and was probably born (though we know nothing of his early life) not long, if at all, after 300 B.C. The world into which he came was one of profound and rapid change. Alexander's conquests had shifted the whole balance of the Hellenic State-system, diverting to the newly conquered lands of the Orient the energy for which the Greeks had previously found a sufficient outlet in the Aegean and its neighbouring coasts, or in the Hellenic colonies of the West. The city-states of older Greece, though for the most part free in name, had become overshadowed by the new monarchies of Alexander's successors, and had ceased to play a part of much importance in the world's life. Their local politics must have seemed very small beer to the eyes of adventurous youth, dazzled by the wonders of the East. Everywhere in the lands of Alexander's Empire Greek cities were springing up; everywhere Greek initiative and Greek intelligence were in demand to develop the latent resources of the new monarchies, whose armies moreover were recruited largely from among the Greeks or their Hellenized neighbours. And so, just as in the sixteenth century Spain and Portugal sent the flower of their youth to the new colonies in America or Asia, just as in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries eager adventurers set forth from the British Isles to try their fortune in North America or India, so in the third century B.C. a steady stream of emigration flowed from Greece eastwards and southwards.

Southwards; for Egypt was not less attractive to the adventurer than Syria, despite the different policy of its kings. Of Greek cities in Egypt there were but three-Alexandria, the older Naucratis, and the city of Ptolemais, the last-named being the

only Greek city ever founded in Egypt by a king of the dynasty. Yet openings for Greek fortune-seekers were plentiful. To maintain the power of Egypt mercenaries were required in great numbers; and in order not to lose their services when a war was over the Ptolemies offered to Greek mercenaries allotments in the fertile valley of the Nile. Greek engineers were needed for the great schemes of land reclamation on which Philadelphus had embarked; Greek experts for the scientific agriculture which he was trying to introduce; Greek administrators for the elaborate bureaucracy through which he exploited his rich inheritance; Greek financiers to provide the sinews of war; Greek merchants to develop the commercial possibilities of the great port of Alexandria and the trade-routes which it commanded. And to his court Philadelphus invited poets, scholars, men of science, artists, from the whole Greek world. The wealth and attractions of Egypt were proverbial; it is necessary only to refer to the old woman's rapturous if somewhat higgledy-piggledy catalogue in the first mime of Herodas :

Everything that is and comes into being anywhere is to be found in Egypt: wealth, athletics, power, a pleasant climate, glory, goddesses, philosophers, gold, young men, the precinct of the fraternal gods, the best of kings, the Museum, wine, every good thing heart can wish, women like the stars in number and as lovely as the goddesses Paris judged between.

It was to Egypt-or more exactly to Alexandria, which, technically, did not form part of Egypt proper-that Zeno made his way. When he arrived there we cannot say, and we know little about the early period of his residence in the country. The two earliest documents from his archive are dated in the twelfth year of Ptolemy Philadelphus, that is B.C. 274-3, but neither mentions Zeno, and they may have come into his possession later. A memorial addressed to him refers to the following year, but we cannot be certain that it was written near that date. It is not till the twenty-fifth year, B.C. 261-60, that we can definitely trace him. He was then on a journey to Syria; but, more important, we learn that he was already in the service of Apollonius, the dioiketes.

The dioiketes was the chief financial official of Ptolemaic Egypt; he was in fact the ancient counterpart of the modern finance minister or chancellor of the exchequer, and perhaps even

more important. In the States of the ancient world, the official responsible for finance wielded immense power. Certainly Apollonius, who was appointed to the office of finance minister between the years 263 and 261 and held it till after the death of Philadelphus, seems to have enjoyed a position second only to the king. Not only the finances of Egypt but those of Philadelphus's foreign possessions, in Syria, Asia Minor, and the Islands, even those of the nominally free Greek cities in "alliance" with Egypt, were under his charge. He maintained an almost princely state; his household was organized on the most elaborate scale, and his agents were to be met with everywhere, both in Egypt and abroad. As the king's chief minister and trusted adviser, he was of course approached by all who desired his master's favour, and his correspondence must have been enormous, necessitating a large secretarial staff. His position gave him excellent opportunities of forwarding his own interests, opportunities which he did not neglect; and his financial and mercantile operations were on a large scale. The bureaucracy, at least in the form it assumed under the Ptolemies, was still new and as yet not fully developed, so that it must often have been difficult to draw the line between private and public interests. There is no indication that Philadelphus objected to the commercial activities of his ministers; indeed, there is reason to believe that the employment of private capital and private enterprise was an essential point in his policy. Desirous to attract the best brains available, he required from his servants the punctual performance of the commissions laid upon them, but for the rest left them free to pursue their own interests.

It is then as a servant of the finance minister that Zeno meets us in B.C. 261-260. He was already in a position of responsibility, and he was soon the right-hand man of his employer, to whom he stood in much the same relation as Apollonius to the king. Just as Apollonius was the avenue of approach to Ptolemy, so approach to Apollonius had to be made through Zeno. And just as Apollonius used his position to promote his private interests, so did Zeno use his. But he seems to have given complete satisfaction. A petitioner, asking for his intervention in a legal case, writes to him: "To you, then, I flee for refuge, counting you equal to Apollonius." No wonder that his correspondence was large and included many letters requesting his patronage and good offices with the minister.

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