The Cleruchy in Hellenistic Egypt

Information from recently published papyri is combined with papyrological and epigraphical data already known to examine the current state of knowledge of the role of cleruchic land in Hellenistic Egypt. Over time, a system that started as a means of rewarding elite Macedonian cavalry forces and of tying them to their new home was extended to the infantry and different ranks of the police force. Furthermore, as Ptolemaic concerns developed in the second century BC, the institution was opened up and key local Egyptian families are found as recipients of cleruchic land, at least in Upper Egypt where the regime was subject to on-going threat. Members of such well-established families are shown to have been important in administrative and religious, as well as in the military sphere. Finally, attention is drawn to changing local differences in the fiscal relationship of cleruchic land to the central royal treasury.