A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

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1.3 Decrees

Decrees emanated from various authoritative bodies—the king or his

officials. Such decrees were made known very often by being engraved

on temple walls or upon free-standing stelae erected in temple precincts.

1.3.1 Royal Decrees^14

Royal decrees from the Ptolemaic period were written in Greek, were

termed “regulations” (prostagmata) and “orders” (diagrammata), and had

legislative force.^15 At the beginning of reigns and in order to restore

peace, the king could issue general amnesty decrees forgiving debt,

among other things.^16 Such decrees were common under the Ptolemies,

especially during the troubles of the second century B.C.E. The so-

called “Karnak Ostracon” dating to the mid-third century B.C.E. is

a Demotic copy of a royal decree issued in Greek ordering a survey

of the entirety of Egypt.^17

1.3.2 Priestly Decrees^18

In the Ptolemaic period, a national meeting or synod of priests occa-

sionally gathered at the temple of Ptah in Memphis or in Alexandria

and issued pronouncements stressing the close relationship between

the king and the Egyptian gods (and priesthoods). These decrees

emanating from a national gathering of priests were exclusively a

Ptolemaic period phenomenon and were issued within a limited

period of time. Many of these had the form of bi- and tri-lingual

decrees and were erected in front of temple precincts. There were

also local decrees issued by particular priesthoods.

(^14) For the Ptolemaic period, see the survey by Seidl, Ptolemäische Rechtsgeschichte,
10–15.
(^15) Collected by Lenger, Corpus.. .; cf. Bingen, “Les ordonnances royales...”
(^16) The most famous of these is perhaps P. Tebt I 5 (118 B.C.E.) issued after the
civil war between Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II, and the queens Cleopatra II and III.
For an English translation, see Austin, The Hellenistic World.. ., 382–88.
(^17) The official designation of the text is O. dem. L.S. 462.4. For the text, see
Bresciani, “Registrazione catastal.. .,” and “La spedizione di Tolomeo.. .”; Zauzich,
“Von Elephantine bis Sambehdet.. .” An English translation from the original
Italian translation of Bresciani is given by Burstein, The Hellenistic Age.. ., 122–23.
The historical context of the document is treated by Manning, Land and Power...
(^18) Huß, Synodel-Dekrete.. .; Simpson, Sacerdotal Decrees.. ., 1–24.
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