Nomarch
Anomarch(Ancient Greek:νομάρχης,[1]Ancient Egyptian:ḥrj tpꜥꜣGreat Chief) was a provincial governor inancient Egypt;the country was divided into 42 provinces, callednomes(singularspꜣ.t,pluralspꜣ.wt). A nomarch was the government official responsible for a nome.[2]
Etymology
[edit]The termnomeis derived fromAncient Greek:νομόςnomós"province, district".Nomarchis derived fromνομάρχηςnomárkhēs:"province" +-άρχης"ruler".
Egyptian history
[edit]The division of the Egyptian kingdom into nomes can be documented as far back as the reign ofDjoserof the3rd Dynastyin the earlyOld Kingdom,c. 2670 BCE, and potentially dates even further back to thePredynastic kingdomsof the Nile valley. The earliest topographical lists of the nomes of Upper and Lower Egypt date back to the reign ofNyuserre Ini,of the mid5th Dynasty,from which time the nomarchs no longer lived at royal capital but stayed in their nomes.[3]
The power of the nomarchs grew with the reforms of Nyuserre's second successor,Djedkare Isesi,which effectively decentralized the Egyptian state. The post of nomarch then quickly became hereditary, thereby creating a virtual feudal system where local allegiances slowly superseded obedience to the pharaoh. Less than 200 years after Djedkare's reign, the nomarchs had become the all-powerful heads of the provinces. At the dawn of theFirst Intermediate Period,the power of the Pharaohs of the8th Dynastyhad diminished to the extent that theyowed their positionto the most powerful nomarchs, upon whom they could only bestow titles and honours.
The power of the nomarchs remained important during the later royal revival under the impulse of the11th Dynasty,originally a family of Theban nomarchs. Their power diminished during the subsequent12th Dynasty,setting the stage for the apex of royal power during theMiddle Kingdom.
Later re-use of the term
[edit]The titlenomarchcontinued to be used into theRomanperiod.
The title is also in use inmodern Greecefor the heads of theprefectures of Greece,which were also titlednomos(pl. νομοί,nomoi;νομαρχία,nomarchiaalso being used to refer to the area within a nomarch's purview).[4]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Diodorus Siculus, Library, 1.73
- ^Grimal, Nicolas (1992).A History of Ancient Egypt.Blackwell Books. pp. 142, 400.
- ^Altenmüller, Hartwig(2001). "Old Kingdom: Fifth Dynasty". InRedford, Donald B.(ed.).The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt.Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. p. 597.ISBN978-0-19-510234-5.
- ^Jones, James Barry; Keating, Michael (1995).The European Union and Its Regions.Clarendon Press. p. 253.ISBN0-19-827999-X– via Google Books.
External links
[edit]
- "The Nomes (provinces) of Ancient Egypt".Philae.nu.Archived fromthe originalon 2 June 2010.
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