ARABARCHES
ARABARCHES Under the Roman empire Egypt was divided into three
governments (
ἐπιστρατηγίαι), Upper,
Middle, and Lower Egypt. The governor (
ἐπιστράτηγος) of Upper Egypt, or the Thebais, was called also
ἀραβάρχης, the district between the
Nile and the Red Sea being known often as Arabia (
C. I. G.
4751). An
ἐπιστράτηγος Θηβαΐδος is
mentioned first in the fourteenth year of the reign of Augustus, when the
post was held by a certain
Πτολεμαῖος
Ἡρακλείδου, but after him the governors seem always to have
been Romans. Cicero, however (
Att. 2.17, 3), uses the word as
a nickname for Pompeius, as we might say “Nabob,” or
“Great Mogul.” We cannot take it here in its later
technical sense, and must therefore suppose that Cicero derived his use of
the word from some application of it no longer known to us. Orelli reads
Alabarches, but there is no MS. authority for this form (Tyrrell,
ad
Cic. l.c.). [
ALABARCHES] Juvenal (1.130) also uses the word in a connexion
which almost excludes the notion of referring it to an important Roman
official (
inter quas ausus habere nescio quis titulos
Aegyptius atque Arabarches).
[
A.S.W]
