A Dossier of Seed Orders and Farmers’ Oaths from Karanis

Abstract

The farming of public and imperial land in Roman Egypt was the responsibility of local tenants under customary arrangements and various forms of collectivity whose details often escape notice. Yet the organization and activities of these farmers are of particular importance insofar as they highlight the contours of state power in the countryside and the customs underpinning rural society. The key instrument of this compact took the form of a cheirographia, a written oath sworn in the emperor’s name by public farmers in connection with the assumption of leaseholds and the receipt of seed loans, which “articulated their obligations and the conditions of their tenancy,” just as written contracts governed private tenancy arrangements. Few such oaths taken upon the receipt of seed have hitherto been identified and published.