necessary for the performance of all its magistracies.
It is not uncommon for men to be found performing two liturgies concurrently, though this does not have to mean that the city was short of candidates. It is quite possible that the individual concerned was easily rich enough to afford both, or
that both liturgies went well in combination together.2 Of
course, this was not always the case; men who felt that they had been saddled with a liturgy beyond their capabilities to perform might take legal action of some sort, or in truly desperate cases resort to flight. The wealthiest members could buy their way out of the performance of expensive council liturgies by elevation to a higher status that conferred immunity on them. Although it was the responsibility of pouXevTai to recall their illegally departed fellows, they might be reluctant for a number of reasons to do this. On the other hand, evasion of assigned duties placed the onus for their performance on the rest of the council; in one case in which
conveyers for the annona had fled, the pouXnf was reluctant to
nominate new liturgists lest they flee, too, apparently preferring to seize the sureties of the defaulters. One form of evasion of liturgies was not to flee but to absent oneself from the city - on one occasion the npvravis appealed to the Prefect for help since povXeuTav were trying to avoid nomination to the
duty of transporting the annona by staying away from town.
As npvTttvu, he had a strong vested interest in seeing the duties p e r fo r m e d .3 Occasional efforts were made to try to make people serve who were exempt from such service, and even those who volunteered once to perform a service for a needy council might find it difficult to regain their previously immune
2 P.Princ. 133 (AD303) nomination to a second post. P.Beatty Panop. 1, 1. 276-331. (AD298) nominations of men to two posts for a military assessment. P.Oxy. 2110 (AD370) successful resistance of a second n o m in a tio n .
3 For reluctance, P.Oxy. 1415 (late 3rd), cf. my section on Social Mobility, fnn. 10-12. Evasion, S.B. 9597 (late 4th), Bowman (1971), p. 81.
s ta tu s / This does not so much underline the need of certain cities for individuals but rather for wealth since what outsiders or volunteers had to pay for, the city saved. There were numerous appeals against nomination on the alleged grounds of lack of means.
Certain liturgies could be performed by substitution - presumably these were mainly ‘personal’ ones. Such a situation had to be approved by the council, and a legal contract was carefully drawn up by the liturgist and the substitute. The usual terms were that the substitute would perform the duties while the liturgist paid for his expenses and any others incurred in the execution of the liturgy.5 A wage must have been involved as well. This system helped both parties since the substitute made money with no liability should the liturgist default, and the liturgist did not have to waste his time on a
liturgy when he wished to be doing something more
productive. The employment of contractors by
magistrates, who then supervised their work, relieved the latter of directly performing the duty themselves, but this was not substitution; rather it was the employment of professionals under contract for a fixed salary. One example of this activity
was their use by in connection with the water supply.
The practice of hiring a professional to perform liturgical duty also appears in the Sixth century.6
4 P.Lond. Inv. 2565 (c.AD250) (Skeat and Wegener (1935)) one Apollonides denies responsibility for the appointment of villagers to city liturgies, claiming he had only been npvTav\9-designate at the time, cf. P.Oxy. 3064 (3rd). P.Oxy. 899 (AD200) a woman who voluntarily undertook a liturgy, although exem pt, experienced very serious problems in regaining her previously exempt status over a matter of y ea rs.
5 Contracts with substitutes; P.Cair.Isid. 80 (AD296), 81 (AD297), P.Oxy. 2859 (AD301).
6 P.Oxy. 2569 (AD265) serving for a fixed term, not the entire year. In
P.Oxy. 3173 (AD222) two request payment from the TTp\fT(tvT,3 for work
performed on the baths. M\<y0cüTa< seems to have been a general term for men performing contracts or undertaking loans: eg: tenant farmer in P.Michael. 47 (AD570), cf. Carrie (1984), p. 943f. Hiring professionals, cf. Gascon (1985), pp. 55-7.
Despite all these possible alternatives, it was frequently very difficult for councils to find enough candidates for all of the offices and liturgies. Some magistracies were revived
briefly (for example, the at Oxyrhynchus towards the
end of the Third century) but could not be sustained, and at other times it was a problem getting men to serve in some liturgies.7 As councils experienced more difficulty in reaching their quotas, so more interference was necessitated from outside, until new magistrates were permanently imposed on the beleaguered cities to make sure they were properly run.
7 P.Oxy. 1417 (early 4th) non-performance of the edetivxapyCct.
Before the sweeping reforms of Diocletian, there were two grades of official at city level, the magistrate and the liturgist. i They were both tasks performed on behalf of the state, whether directly for its benefit or for that of the city, generally without recom pense. M agistracies were performed by members of the municipality’s upper classes, and entry to this, the gymnasial class, was vetted by envxpxcyvs, in which a man’s birth, and that of his parents, was traced back as far as possible in order to see if he was of the right origins. As a result, there was a hereditary nature to membership under this system.
Liturgies were more diverse and numerous and there were
various grades. Bouleutic liturgies were performed by pouXeurai, sometimes of the same social class as those performing the apxaL Other ones were performed in the city by non-members of the povXq, while the most lowly were those requiring physical
labour, the XevToupy(&i ewp&Tix&(. In order to serve in a
magistracy it was necessary to pay an entry fee (crTeTTTvxdv) in order to obtain the right to wear the crown of office, while liturgies required the possession of adequate property (nopos)
to guarantee that the cost of the task could be met.2 Those
possessing inadequate property (the atropoi) had to perform the lowest liturgies. That magistracies and liturgies became harder to bear by the end of the Third century is borne out by the fact that some of the magistracies either no longer existed in some cities, or did so with difficulty for only part of the year, while the more important duties were performed by groups of men, sometimes doing stints of as little as one day each in rotation to spread the load.3
1 The distinction between liturgy and magistracy, Thomas (1983),
Drew-Bear (1984).
2 cf. Drew-Bear (1984), pp. 321-22.
3 P.Oxy. 1413 (AD270-5) problems finding candidates for the eÇTiyTiTeta. P.Oxy, 1252v col. ii (AD288-295) problems with the edeiriviapxxa.
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