Dependent Labor: The Case of the Enapographoi Georgoi

Comp. by: C.BALAJI Stage: Proof Chapter No.: 8 Date:19/11/13 Time:00:00:08 Page Number: 425 Title Name: KEENANetal 8.3 Dependent labor 425 The seed(-corn?) shall be supplied by you – and you receive it out of the common funds – whereas the seed of the green-crop is supplied by us, and we receive it out of the common funds. And when the proper (i.e., harvest) time has come, the yield of the different crops and the chaff shall be divided between us and you in half shares, (one share) to us for our labors, (one share) to you for the rents. And you shall receive out of the common funds before the division of the green-crop at all the mowings (the yield) of half an aroura; and we shall supply to you fifty ripe good big cheeses suited for the landlord and six koloba of mustard; and we (shall) supply out of the common funds the price of the hurdles for the flocks without any ambiguity. The lease is authoritative and valid, and in answer to the formal question we gave our assent. The wages of the wooden (irrigation) plant and the expenses are supplied out of the common funds, and we shall perform the transport of your, the landlord’s, share of the crops and the chaff to the village and the threshing-floor from your own threshing-floor. (2nd hand ) † I, Aurelius Matheias son of Ponnis, the aforesaid, have leased as aforesaid. (3rd hand ) † I, Aurelius [. . .]bais son of Apollos, the aforesaid, have leased as aforesaid. Aurelius Phoibammon . . . 8.3 Dependent labor: the case of the enapographoi geôrgoi Brendan Haug This section discusses the enapographoi geôrgoi (coloni adscripticii) in Egypt from the mid-fifth through the early seventh centuries ad. It is not intended as an introduction to wider debates on the nature and extent of the later Roman colonate, a task that lies outside the scope of this volume and requires substantial engagement with both the law codes and a massive bibliography. The discussion has been epitomized as the opposition between two schools: one positing the coloni as a middle stage in the development from Roman tenancy to medieval serfdom; the second perceiving in the coloni a post-classical decline and the inflexible, bureaucratic stratification of late Roman society.25 More relevant for our purposes, a recent and essential contribution places the coloni adscripticii / enapographoi geôrgoi in the larger context of a supposed expansion of Byzantine agrarian capitalism and the attendant increase in direct exploitation and wage labor.26 The modest aim of this chapter is to illustrate the general characteristics of Egyptian enapographoi through a selection of four documents representative of the corpus in which they appear. 25 Sirks (2008: 122). 26 Banaji (2007). On this controversial issue, see Hickey (2012: ch. 3). Comp. by: C.BALAJI Stage: Proof Chapter No.: 8 Date:19/11/13 Time:00:00:09 Page Number: 426 426 Title Name: KEENANetal 8 Labor It is crucial to note at the outset that enapographoi appear only in the papyri of the Oxyrhynchite nome.27 Furthermore, the Oxyrhynchite documentation of our period is dominated by the papers of large landowners (geouchoi), especially the dossier of the Flavii Apiones (extensively documented from c. ad 540 on), a wealthy and powerful family whose history can be traced over six generations and which enjoyed close connections to the imperial house.28 Indeed, the family produced one of the empire’s final consules ordinarii in the person of Flavius Apion II (consul ad 539, died ad 579). It is from the documentation of the Apiones’ extensive Oxyrhynchite holdings that we draw the majority of our attestations of enapographoi geôrgoi.29 The smaller dossier of the contemporary local landowner Flavia Anastasia also preserves instances of enapographoi employed on her Oxyrhynchite holdings.30 The history of the “Egyptian” colonate is thus a closely circumscribed, wholly local history heavily influenced by the practices of a powerful and perhaps atypical family estate. Consequently it is hazardous, despite the temptation, to generalize from the Oxyrhynchite data in an attempt to describe the whole of Egypt’s agricultural labor regime. The documents presented below sketch in outline the features and evolution of the singularly strict, tightly controlled labor regime obtaining in the Oxyrhynchite nome. In the Roman-period 8.3.1, a lessee contracts to perform a precisely delineated schedule of tasks in a vineyard (cf. 8.2.10). The following three texts represent document types common in the Byzantine Oxyrhynchite. In 8.3.2, an enapographos acknowledges both the receipt of a waterwheel and his responsibilities on a piece of irrigated estate land. In 8.3.3, the enapographos receives an advance on his wages in the guise of a loan, while 8.3.4 preserves a deed of surety in which a second party agrees to stand liable for an enapographos and make good any arrears in the former’s dues. 27 28 29 30 One possible exception is SB xviii 13949 (ad 541), a deed of surety in which a Herakleopolite enapographos acts as surety for his brother, also an enapographos. See Sijpesteijn (1985: 145–48) and Fikhman (1991: 10). Gonis (2000: 95 and n. 8) on the corpus of Byzantine documents from Oxyrhynchos. Estimates of the size of Apionic holdings in the Oxyrhynchite range from 25,000 arouras to at least 112,000 arouras or roughly 35 percent of arable land in the Oxyrhynchite. On the issue see briefly Hickey (2008: 96–98). E.g., P.Oxy. lxix 4757 (late sixth century ad). For Anastasia see van Haelst (1958, 1966). For recent additions to the dossier see P.Oxy. lxix 4756–58. Other Oxyrhynchite landowners with enapographoi are Flavia Kyria (P.Oxy. xxxiv 2724 [ad 469] with Gonis 2002: 86–88), the Flavii Phoibammon and Samuel (P.Oxy. lxviii 4697 [ad 489]), Flavius Ioannes politeuomenos (P.Oxy. xlix 3512 [ad 492]), Flavius Dioscorus (P.Oxy. lxiii 4398 [ad 553]), Flavius Phoibammon a.k.a. Lamoson (P.Wash.Univ. i 25 [ad 530]), Flavii Philodemos and Ioannes (SB xviii 13949 [ad 541]), Flavius Ioannes vir clarissimus (P.Oxy. lxix 4755 [586]), Church of Saints [. . .] (SB xviii 14006 [ad 635]). Comp. by: C.BALAJI Stage: Proof Chapter No.: 8 Date:19/11/13 Time:00:00:09 Page Number: 427 Title Name: KEENANetal 8.3 Dependent labor 8.3.1 427 Contract for vineyard labor P.Oxy. xiv 1692 (tr. Kloppenborg 2006: 522) (Oxyrhynchos, 28 October ad 188) Although P.Oxy. xiv 1692 predates the first appearance of enapographoi in the papyri by over two and a half centuries, it is useful in this context to observe a preexisting regime of close control over labor in the Oxyrhynchite. The text is a so-called lease of work (misthôsis tôn ergôn), a document type that originated in the Oxyrhynchite and seems to have spread to the nearby Hermopolite nome.31 8.3.1 is the earliest surviving example while the latest, P.Oxy. l 3582, dates to ad 442, two years after the appearance of the enapographoi. The bulk of the extant leases of work concern vineyard labor (cheirika ampelourgika erga), while a further two contract for work in irrigation (hydroparochika erga). In form misthôseis tôn ergôn closely resemble leases; in our example Apion “leases” (emisthôsen) vineyard labor on an unspecified number of arouras to one Amois for single year. And yet these documents are more akin to labor contracts since the lessee does not pay rent ( phoros) on the plot in question but rather agrees to perform a meticulously delineated set of manual tasks in return for compensation (misthos, a wage). Although our text likely preserves the majority of Amois’ responsibilities, the clauses detailing his misthos are entirely lost. A fuller example is the virtually complete P.Oxy. xlvii 3354, 8.2.10 in this volume, a two-year lease of vineyard labor and irrigation work on about six arouras. The lessees Aurelius NN and his son Aurelius Hiereus are to receive their total cash wages of 360 drachmas per aroura in installments plus additional wine and wheat for pruning, at harvest and during the vintage. It is worth noting that 8.3.1 expressly excludes pruning from the list of Amois’ tasks. Insufficiently pruned vines will yield a large, poor-quality crop while leaving behind old unproductive wood, inhibiting future fruit production. It is likely that Apion left the responsibility to more experienced vinedressers. Apion son of Horion, ex-gymnasiarch of the city of Oxyrhynchos, has leased to Amois son of Amois, whose mother is Sambous, resident in Talao, for one year from the first of Hathyr of the present year 29, all the manual vineyard labor, apart from the pruning, from the vineyard and reed land belonging to him near Talao from the klêros of Ptolemaios son of Tryphon, however many arouras it is, both old and new. Tasks include the cutting of reeds and transporting them to the usual place; sweeping of leaves; the cutting 31 On misthôseis tôn ergôn see Jördens (1990: chapter 4; 1992). See also Rowlandson (1996: 228–36), and Hickey (2001: 97–100). Comp. by: C.BALAJI Stage: Proof Chapter No.: 8 Date:19/11/13 Time:00:00:09 Page Number: 428 Title Name: KEENANetal 8 Labor 428 and transporting of them outside the wall to the appropriate places; hoeing (around the vines); trenching; layering, in the places where it is required; cutting of new reeds for the reed-work; reed-work, with the landowner supplying reeds and sufficient bark; irrigation and continuous weeding; hoeing; thinning the shoots; separating of the leaves and raising the shoots, thinning the leaves. And (Amois) shall be present for the vintage and will mix the Pelousian (wine?), and will stand watch in the field, the accustomed [. . .] village [. . .] he will transfer(?) [. . .] the produce (?) as far as . . . 8.3.2 Receipt for a waterwheel SB vi 9503 (¼ S. Daris, Aegyptus 37 [1951]: 92) (Oxyrhynchos, 6 December ad 44032). Image in Montevecchi (1988), Plate 95. The following is a receipt (called a cheirographia, a deed or declaration) for a replacement wheel for an irrigator (Greek mêchanê; Arabic sâqîya) supplied to a geôrgos on an estate of the imperial house (domus divina).33 Used in areas not reached by the Nile’s annual inundation, sawâqî “were water-lifting devices . . . consisting of a pair of cog wheels at right angles, driven by one or two oxen.”34 Such mêchanê receipts are common in our period, the majority deriving from the dossier of the Apiones. Our text is, again, the earliest-known example of a type that is attested until ad 617 (P.Oxy. lxx 4801). Administrators on large estates, from whose context our receipts derive, provided replacement parts, e.g., wheels and axles, to peasants when irrigation machinery had broken down or had worn out. 8.3.2 adopts the form of a contract (homologia): the geôrgos acknowledges receipt of a wheel and agrees (homologô) to irrigate the plot under his charge, pay the rent due on it, and attend to all “appurtenant tasks ( panta ta anêkonta).” Only single copies of mêchanê receipts were made. They were likely kept on record in the files of estate managers.35 8.3.2 is often considered the earliest attestation in the papyri of an enapographos geôrgos in the person of the recipient Aurelius Paulos. While geôrgos is preserved in line four, the original editor in a lacuna of line five restored enapographos. In view of the similarity of 8.3.2 to other mêchanê 32 33 34 35 Bagnall and Worp (1978: 226–27) date the text to ad 441. I accept the critique of N. Gonis at P.Oxy. lxviii 4688, note to line 2. Tacoma (1998) provides a brief description of the document type and a table of the twenty-three examples then published. For the domus divina see now Azzarello (2012). Tacoma (1998: 123). For a more thorough discussion of the mechanics and technical vocabulary of waterwheels see Rathbone (2007a). Ibid. Comp. by: C.BALAJI Stage: Proof Chapter No.: 8 Date:19/11/13 Time:00:00:10 Page Number: 429 Title Name: KEENANetal 8.3 Dependent labor 429 receipts the restoration is widely if not universally accepted. N. Gonis has recently raised several concerns (P.Oxy. lxviii 4697, lines 6–7n.): It predates the earliest reference to an enapographos in the laws; the word order, with adjective following noun, is unusual;36 and there are no additional attestations of enapographoi of the domus divina. Even if the restoration is incorrect, 8.3.2 is useful in charting the evolution of the enapographoi and their strong link to irrigation. In seventeen of the twentythree mêchanê receipts listed in Tacoma (1998) the addressor is an enapographos. There are a further twelve enapographoi attested in the seventeen additional receipts published in P.Oxy. lxvii through lxx (in two additional texts the addressor is lost).37 Mêchanê receipts without enapographoi are: P.Oxy. xvi 1987 (fully published in the appendix to P.Oxy. lxx), and P.Oxy. lxx 4780, 4785, and 4789. There is no substantive difference between these receipts and those issued on behalf of enapographoi. In the consulship of Flavius Anatolius vir clarissimus, Choiak 10. To NN38 the worshipful counselor of the splendid and most splendid city of the Oxyrhynchites, most esteemed administrator of the affairs for our most divine and most noble mistress Arcadia, from Aurelius Paulos son of Apphous from the hamlet of Kalpounios (sic) of the same nome of the same most divine house, colonus [adscripticius], greetings. Need having now arisen for a large waterwheel for the irrigated estate plot under my charge,39 which is called “New” and waters vineland and arable land, I departed for the city thinking that this would be provided to me and when Your Excellency provided the required new wheel of 36 cogs [. . .] and of the current month of Choiak of the present ninth indiction [. . .] as completion of the machine parts [. . .] I acknowledge upon receipt of this (waterwheel) that I will provide for the irrigation, pay the rent, attend to all appurtenant tasks, and as certification of the receipt of this large waterwheel I have made this declaration, which is valid, one copy having been made and having been asked I gave my consent. 36 37 38 39 But see, e.g., the petition P.Oxy. xxvii 2479, line 9, for the word order geôrgos enapographos – itself an unusual case. P.Oxy. xvi 1987; lxviii 4696, 4697; lxix 4755; lxx 4780, 4781–85, 4788, 4796–4801. Most likely Flavius Strategius, the earliest identified member of the Apion family and curator of imperial estates in Egypt. The wording – tên hyp’ eme despotikên mêchanên – is vague. With reference to Apionic texts, Banaji (2007: 183–84) interprets the preposition hypo in similar contexts as “the assignment of individual (i.e., salaried) workers to specific plots” by the Apiones’ central administration. In our text, however, Aurelius Paulos agrees to pay the rent ( phoros, plausibly restored in line 12), which indicates a tenancy arrangement. See Hickey (2001: 111 with n. 144). Comp. by: C.BALAJI Stage: Proof Chapter No.: 8 Date:19/11/13 Time:00:00:10 Page Number: 430 Title Name: KEENANetal 8 Labor 430 (2nd hand ) Aurelius Paulos son of Apphous, the aforementioned, made the deed for the large waterwheel and agrees. I, [. . .] Sarapion (son of ) Horion,40 having been asked, wrote on his behalf, since he is illiterate. (3rd hand ) Stephanos(?), accountant(?) of the city of the Oxyrhynchites [. . .] Flavius Phanias(?), steward . . . 8.3.3 Advance on wages P.Oxy. i 194 (Oxyrhynchos, second half of sixth century ad). Image at Papyri.info. P.Oxy. i 194 was originally published only as a description. The Greek text will be published by Todd M. Hickey elsewhere. For comparanda see the descripta P.Oxy. i 192 and 206, each fully published in Montserrat et al. (1994) (texts reprinted as SB xxii 15362 and 15367). 8.3.3 preserves a nearly complete prochreia agreement (see also 8.2.3). The top of the papyrus is missing and the names of the addressor and addressee are lost, save for a patronymic and the name of the epoikion (estate residence) of Theagenes on the reverse. The epoikion is known from documents of the dossier of the Apiones, to which this text assuredly belongs. Prochreia agreements concern cash advances to agricultural laborers, often enapographoi,41 and indicate with little specificity the labor to be performed in return. Such advances are couched in the terminology of a loan and as such the advanced sum is not called a wage (misthos) but may be described as the principal (kephalaion), although this is not universal.42 Unlike true loans, prochreia agreements neither specify interest on the “principal” nor offer precise schedules for repayment. 8.3.3 concerns the advance of one solidus on condition that it be returned whenever the lender should wish, a common formulation. In contrast, the near-contemporary P.Oxy. lxxi 4835 (21 March ad 574) preserves a loan of one solidus less five carats without interest. The contract, however, stipulates that the sum be repaid in Pachon (26 April/25 May), only a month or two after the initial loan. In the fifthcentury P.Oxy. lxxi 4831 (ad 429) the debtor receives a single solidus to be repaid in about a month’s time, but with the addition of half a centenarium43 of “pure leafy woad” (isatis, indigo) as interest in kind.44 40 41 42 43 44 Following in part the restoration of Youtie (1975b: 220). E.g., P.Iand. 48 (582), P.Amh. ii 149 (sixth century ad). Although not strictly a prochreia agreement, see Stud.Pal. iii2 56 (sixth/seventh century) for an explicit advance of misthos. Centenarium (“a hundredweight”): for references, see Daris (1991): 53. For comparison’s sake, see the true loans published in P.Oxy. lxxii. Comp. by: C.BALAJI Stage: Proof Chapter No.: 8 Date:19/11/13 Time:00:00:10 Page Number: 431 Title Name: KEENANetal 8.3 Dependent labor 431 While the terms of prochreia agreements are relatively simple, their interpretation remains contested. They have been viewed as exploitative, in that the ill-defined repayment scheme placed recipients in a precarious position wherein the entire advance can be demanded back at will long after it had been spent on daily necessities. Additional advances would therefore increase ever further the dependency of heavily indebted laborers upon their employers.45 Less malevolently, these documents have been interpreted as salary advances to hired laborers (as in 8.2.3 introduction), representative of an expansion of agricultural wage labor and its sophisticated deployment on Egyptian estates.46 A further interpretation separates these documents from hired labor and connects them to lease contracts, as emerges particularly clearly in P.Berl.Zill. 7 (ad 574), in which one Aurelius Psaos leases an irrigated plot, its machinery, crops, and twelve dependent arouras while at the same time receiving an advance of one solidus. In the memorandum P.Ant. ii 92 (fourth/fifth century ad) a landowner reminds himself to expel the lessee Papnouthios from a plot and demand back the items stipulated in the misthôsis, including reeds and a prochreia of unspecified substance and amount.47 If prochreia advances are to be linked with contracts for lease one wonders why there was need of additional documentation to solidify the terms of the relationship. In terms of hired labor, prochreia agreements do not clarify the laborer’s expected duties in any real detail, in contrast with the precise delineation of tasks seen in a misthôsis tôn ergôn such as 8.3.1. Prochreai are thus critically deficient as actionable contracts since they lack the detail sufficient to lend them evidentiary force; this is clearly evident in the text presented here. It should be noted that our text references an earlier advance, perhaps recorded in a previous prochreia document. While cash advances could indeed be extended to lessees, it is less plausible that the prochreia agreement on its own had a concrete role in establishing the initial tenant–lessor or employer–employee legal relationship. In view of the nebulous terms of the agreements and the possibility of repeated advances, it is more likely that prochreiai were intended to provide the recipient with working capital to be spent in the completion of tasks more precisely enumerated in a separate agreement. 45 47 46 So Jördens (1990: 281). See also Jördens (1985). Banaji (2007: 183–88 and 198). Mazza (2007; 2001: 125–28). Mazza cites in addition P.Grenf. i 59, P.Amh. ii 149 (sixth century ad), P.Oxy. i 192 (¼ SB xxii 15362, ad 600/615), the latter two being advances to enapographoi. None of the three states explicitly that the recipients are lessees of the plots they farm and it can be argued that they are simply laborers. Comp. by: C.BALAJI Stage: Proof Chapter No.: 8 Date:19/11/13 Time:00:00:11 Page Number: 432 432 Title Name: KEENANetal 8 Labor As with the similar P.Oxy. i 192 (¼ SB xxii 15362), our text mentions only an advance to an enapographos for an irrigated plot farmed by him (eis tên hyp’ eme geouchikên mêchanên) either as a lessee or a wage laborer. No further elaboration is forthcoming and one cannot determine the recipient’s position on the basis of the prochreia alone. Adscript status is not necessarily of help as it is now certain that the ostensibly poor and landless enapographoi could undertake leases.48 Whatever the case, the close connection of enapographoi and water supply has been noted above and we see here in the deployment of enapographoi the continued desire on the part of landowners for ever-closer control over labor. [. . .] your colonus adscripticius, greetings. After the previous advance to me, yet again I acknowledge that I have received from Your Magnificence now immediately for the irrigated plot named Kariou farmed by me during the present first indiction on account of advances one solidus of gold at the private standard,49 equals 1 solidus of gold at the private standard, and I acknowledge that I will return this to your magnificence whenever you wish without delay. The document is valid, one copy having been written, and having been formally asked I gave my consent. (2nd hand ) Aurelius Ptollion son of Souros(?): this contract of one solidus on account of advances as written above is satisfactory to me. Papnouthios wrote on his behalf as he is illiterate. (3rd hand ) Through me Papnouthios, notary.50 Verso: [. . .] son of Sourous from the epoikion Theagenis in the account of advance, one solidus of gold at the private standard. 8.3.4 Deed of surety P.Oxy. xxvii 2478 (Oxyrhynchos, 25 November ad 595) The deed of surety (enguê eis parastasin) is another well-attested type from our period.51 The purpose of the enguê was to provide a landowner with the assurance that his laborers would remain on their plots and discharge their agricultural and financial responsibilities, neither fleeing their duties nor taking up positions under another employer. Since laborers paid their taxes 48 49 50 51 See P.Oxy lxvii 4615 (ad 505), the first published example of an enapographos as lessee. For the weight standards of solidi see P.Oxy. lxxii 4930.13–16n. A Papnouthios writes on behalf of Oxyrhynchite illiterates from ad 570/1 (P.Flor. i 65) and ad 609 (PSI i 61). For the texts he subscribes see P.Oxy. lxvi 4635.39n. and lxx 4794.24n. For a list see Palme (2003b: 531 n. 1); additional Oxyrhynchite examples in P.Oxy. lxviii through lxx. Comp. by: C.BALAJI Stage: Proof Chapter No.: 8 Date:19/11/13 Time:00:00:11 Page Number: 433 Title Name: KEENANetal 8.3 Dependent labor 433 through the intermediation of the landlord, the latter required a guarantee that he/she would not be left liable for the dues of absent individuals. In an enguê a guarantor or guarantors attest that the insured will perform his duties lest the guarantor(s) be obliged either to make up the ensured’s unmet dues or pay a fine in solidi. As in the example below the ensured party was often an enapographos. The guarantor might also be of adscript status, as in P.Oxy. lxx 4791 (ad 578), in which an enapographos provides surety for two brothers, both enapographoi.52 While enapographoi are common in the sureties, neither party to the surety need be of adscript status, as demonstrated in a document from the dossier of Flavia Anastasia (P.Oxy. lxix 4756 [ad 590]). Here Flavia Anastasia is acting in her capacity as pagarch while the parties to the surety are non-adscript villagers. It is thus clear that sureties are fiscal in nature; they exist to help protect the government’s revenue, not simply to control a semi-servile labor force. There is some confusion on the nature of the dues paid by the enapographos in our text, the phoros. Recently, Sirks (2008: 132), like the original editors, has understood phoros in our text to refer to tax payments, in this case reimbursement to the estate for capitation charges paid by it on behalf of the enapographos. More plausibly Banaji (2007: 97, cf. Hickey 2001: 87 n. 46) argues that since the orchard in question belongs to the estate (geouchikon pômarion) phoros must refer to a “rent” since it is unlikely that the enapographos would have been responsible for the taxes on a plot he did not own. This understanding of the phoros is reinforced by the use, later on in the text, of ekphoria (“produce”). Worth noting here is the private prison, the “jail of your honored house,” mentioned in the text. Where such institutions were once regarded as attributes of mighty semi-feudal estates that were beyond the reach of an impotent government powerless to abolish them, they become less iniquitous if one views the estates as semi-public institutions. From this point of view, such prisons are an inevitable result of an estate empowered by the government to collect the taxes of those under its purview and possessed of the appropriate coercive apparatuses. For references see P.Oxy. lxix 4756, note on line 20. In the fourteenth year of the reign of our most divine and pious master, our greatest benefactor, Flavius Mauricius, the new Tiberius, perpetual Augustus and Emperor; in the thirteenth year of the consulship of the same, our most pious master; the thirtieth of Hathyr, fourteenth indiction. 52 In P.Oxy. lxx 4790 (ad 578) two guarantors, one an enapographos, give surety for a second enapographos. Comp. by: C.BALAJI Stage: Proof Chapter No.: 8 Date:19/11/13 Time:00:00:12 Page Number: 434 434 Title Name: KEENANetal 8 Labor To Flavius Apion the most renowned and most extraordinary consular, landowner here also in the illustrious city of the Oxyrhynchites, through Menas, slave, putting the formal question and supplying for his master, the same most renowned man, the conduct of and responsibility for (the transaction): I, Zacharias, steward of the Church of the Holy Resurrection, son of Anastasius of renowned memory, originating from this same city of the Oxyrhynchites, having signed below in his own hand, greetings. I acknowledge with willing intent and from free choice, swearing the divine and august oath, that I give surety and pledge to Your Excellency through your representatives that Aurelius Pambrechios son of Paul and Thekla, your registered fruit-grower, originating from the hamlet Athlitou, the property of Your Excellency, on condition that he continually remain and abide on [. . .] estate-orchard and show all care and good cultivation to it without blame or hesitation or condemnation, and shall return the rent upon it every year and (perform) all the estate tasks usually presented by it; and if he is ever demanded from me by Your Excellency through your representatives on any day for any reason at all, I shall bring him forward and hand him over in a public place without recourse to any place of sanctuary or letter of safe conduct where I took charge of him, in the jail of your honored house; or if I do not do this, I acknowledge that I shall pay in full on his behalf from my own resources the rents of the same estate orchard at my own risk and that of all my property. The surety, of which there is one copy, is valid and having been formally asked I gave my consent. (2nd hand) Zacharias son of the blessed Anastasius, the above mentioned. The surety, as written above, is satisfactory to me. While there is little work devoted solely to the enapographoi there has been much recent work on agriculture and aristocracy in Byzantine Egypt in which appear discussions of coloni in Egypt. Research on the colonate from the literary and legal sources also shows no signs of slacking. The Egyptian adscript workforce was restricted to estate locales, the epoikia and ktêmata, with only four surviving texts referring to enapographoi in villages.53 While there was no complete ownership of villages by Egyptian elites, the deficiencies of the estate-centered Oxyrhynchos papyri do not allow us to describe village life in a depth sufficient to provide counterbalance to the mass of central estate archives that provide us with 53 P.Oxy. xliv 3204 (ad 588); P.Oxy. lxix 4757 (late sixth century ad); P.Oxy. lxx 4787 (ad 564): all refer to enapographoi in villages under the pagarchic control of Anastasia (3204 and perhaps 4757) or the Apiones, presumably residents of estate holdings in the villages in question. Comp. by: C.BALAJI Stage: Proof Chapter No.: 8 Date:19/11/13 Time:00:00:12 Page Number: 435 Title Name: KEENANetal 8.3 Dependent labor 435 the bulk of our evidence for the Byzantine Oxyrhynchite. Given these limitations we must attempt to gain a clearer sense of the numbers of the enapographoi and the extent and patterns of their deployment on large estates. One minimalist reading sees the enapographoi as drawn from the same pool as the “tenants” of leases of work and most commonly used by geouchoi in specific agricultural tasks, including irrigation and vineyard labor, where a tighter degree of control than was available in a lease was desired. This particular argument sees the enapographoi as supplemental to widespread leasing on the estate of the Apiones.54 If, however, the enapographoi are understood as “the mainstay of the Apion family’s agricultural workforce,”55 it follows that either the population of Byzantine Egypt was large enough to create a substantial pool of landless poor in search of work,56 or that the growth of large estates had subsumed the land of smallholders, who were reduced to tied tenancy in order to survive. More work must be done on the demographic conditions in Egypt, especially in light of the Justinianic plague, before the first claim can be substantiated.57 The extent of Apionic and other aristocratic holdings in the Oxyrhynchite is also a matter of dispute (8.3 introduction). This bears heavily upon the second issue, since the amount of land controlled by large estates directly correlates to the size of the adscript workforce. Finally, in spite of the limited evidence for tenancy, the surviving lease contracts are sufficient to balance the claims by some for all-pervasive direct exploitation and wage labor.58 Progress might be made on this front by attempting to locate enapographoi in the surviving annual accounts of the Apiones’ estate.59 Some fifteen entries survive for payment of a synteleia 54 55 56 57 58 59 Hickey (2001: 100–07). The author estimates that approximately 55 percent of the Apiones’ vineyard land was let out on fixed-rent cash leases and that 90 percent of the estate’s after-tax income ( 13,000 solidi) came from rents. See also Hickey (2007: 301–02). Sarris (2006: 62). Banaji (2007: 20) posits such a “demographic upswing” for the Byzantine East, although he ignores possible effects of the Justinianic plague. Rathbone (2001a) argues for a population no higher than 5 million in the Roman period, followed by a decline in the Byzantine period. For a recent assessment of urban population in Byzantine Egypt with consideration of the possible effects of the plague from comparative evidence see Alston (2001). Banaji (2007) and Sarris (2006). On tenancy and indirect exploitation see Mazza (2007) and Hickey (2001: 75–96). P.Oxy. xvi 2019 (ad 547/8 or ad 562/3); P.Oxy. xvi 1912 (ad 553/4–554/5?); P.Oxy. xvi 1913 (AD554/5?); P.Oxy. xvi 1914 (ad 556/7); P.Oxy. xvi 1911 (ad 556/7); P.Oxy. xviii 2204 (ad 565/6); P.Oxy. lv 3804 (ad 565/6); P.Oxy. xviii 2195 (ad 576/7); P.Oxy. xix 2243 (a) (b) (ad 590/1); PSI viii 954 (sixth century ad); P.Oxy. vi 999 (ad 616/7). Comp. by: C.BALAJI Stage: Proof Chapter No.: 8 Date:19/11/13 Time:00:00:12 Page Number: 436 436 Title Name: KEENANetal 8 Labor (tês) kephalês or capitation charge.60 While it has been asserted that there is no evidence for a pre-Islamic Byzantine capitation charge,61 the payment of taxes through a landlord as intermediary is a well-known attribute of the adscripticiate. If the synteleia kephalês is accepted as a pre-Islamic capitation charge, evidence for its payment is recorded from only seven of the fortyeight Apionic estate residences attested in the accounts, perhaps indicating a somewhat more restricted use of enapographoi. And yet this must confront the fact that enapographoi are attested on some fifty Oxyrhynchite locales, admittedly not all of them pertaining to the Apiones.62 As mentioned earlier, the history of the enapographoi is the history of agricultural labor in one nome, largely restricted to the extensive holdings of one family. While it would be imprudent to impose conclusions drawn from the Oxyrhynchite data upon the rest of Egypt or the later Empire as a whole, the papyri at least preserve descriptive, first-hand evidence for the use of coloni in late Roman agriculture. A thorough investigation into the numbers, spread, and employment of the enapographoi on large estates will surely provide a different and welcome perspective on the debates surrounding the “colonate” as documented in the prescriptive legal source. 60 61 62 Outside the accounts one receipt survives for payment of the synteleia tês kephalês, P.Oxy. x 1131 (fifth century ad). This still leaves us with the confusing situation of two recorded credits to an unspecified group for the synteleia kephalês: P.Oxy. xvi 1911, line 86 and P.Oxy. lv 3804, line 158. Both are credited to “those from [the epoikion] Trigêou.” So Sijpesteijn (2007: 446). Survey of documents in the DDBDP and P.Oxy. lxix–lxxii.