nome

Map of the nomes of lower Egypt

Map of the nomes of upper Egypt

A nome (from Greek: Νομός, “district”) was a subnational administrative division of ancient Egypt. Today's use of the Greek nome rather than the Egyptian term sepat came about during the Ptolemaic period. In addition, the Greeks, fascinated with Egypt, left many historical records of the country easily accessible to Western historians.

Ancient Egypt

The division of ancient Egypt into nomes can be traced back to the Predynastic Period (before 3100 BC). These nomes originally existed as autonomous city-states, but later began to unify. According to ancient tradition the final unification was completed by a certain Menes ^[1].

Not only did the division into nomes remain in place for more than three millennia, the areas of the individual nomes and their ordering remained remarkably stable. Some, like Xois in the Delta or Khent in Upper Egypt, are first mentioned on the Palermo stone which was inscribed in the Fifth dynasty; a few, like the nome of Bubastis, appear no earlier than the New Kingdom. Under the system that prevailed for most of pharaonic Egypt's history, the country was divided into 42 nomes.

Lower Egypt, from the Old Kingdom capital Memphis to the Mediterranean Sea, comprised 20 nomes. The first was based around Memphis, Saqqara, and Giza, in the area occupied by modern-day Cairo. The nomes are numbered in a more or less orderly fashion south to north through the Nile delta, first covering the territory on the west before continuing with the higher numbers to the east. Thus, Alexandria was in the Third Nome, Bubastis in the Eighteenth.

Upper Egypt was divided into 22 nomes. The first of these was centered around Elephantine close to Egypt's border with Nubia at the First Cataract – the area of modern-day Aswan. From there the numbering progresses downriver in an orderly fashion along the narrow fertile strip of land that was the Nile valley. Waset (ancient Thebes or contemporary Luxor) was in the Fourth Nome, Amarna in the Fourteenth, and Meidum in the Twenty-First.

Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt

Some nomes were added or renamed during the Graeco-Roman occupation of Egypt. For example, the Ptolemies renamed the Crocodilopolitan nome to Arsinoe. Hadrian created a new nome, Antinoopolites, for which Antinoopolis was the capital.

The nomarch

At the head of each nome stood a nomarch. The position of the nomarch was at times hereditary, while at others they were appointed by the pharaoh. Generally, when the national government was stronger, nomarchs were the king's appointed governors. When the central government was weaker, however – such as during foreign invasions or civil wars – individual nomes would assert themselves and establish hereditary lines of succession. Conflicts between these different hereditary nomarchies were common during, for example, the First Intermediate Period – a time that saw a breakdown in central authority lasting from the sixth and eleventh dynasties, until one of the local rulers was once again able to assert control over the entire country as pharaoh.

Survival of the nomes

The nomes survived through the Ptolemaic period, into Roman times. Under Roman rule, individual nomes minted their own coinage, the so-called "nome coins," which still reflect individual local associations and traditions. The nomes of Egypt retained their primary importance as administrative units until the fundamental rearrangement of the bureaucracy during the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine.

From 307/8 CE, their place was taken by smaller units called pagi which eventually brought into prominence a powerful local official called a pagarch through whom all patronage flowed. His essential role was as an organizer of tax-collection, but later the pagarch assumed some military functions as well. The pagarchs were often wealthy landowners who reigned over the pagi from which they originated.

List of nomes

The nomes are listed in separate tables for Upper and Lower Egypt

Lower Egypt

Upper Egypt

References

Alan K. Bowman (1990). Egypt After the Pharaohs. Oxford University Press.

1. ^ Herodotus, Euterpe, 2.4.1 and 2.99.1ff.

External links

• Details of the nomes
• Archaeological survey of the nomes

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