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The Population of Syria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Franz Cumont
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Extract

The data which Beloch has collected for the population of Syria are very scanty, and his calculations are highly insecure. It is perhaps possible to reach a more certain result by a closer study of the most important piece of evidence on the topic that we possess. The census conducted by Sulpicius Quirinius as legatus of Syria in A.D. 6–7, which, owing to its mention in the Gospel of St. Luke (ii, I), has evoked endless controversy among commentators, is also referred to in an inscription, probably found at Beyrout and preserved since the eighteenth century at Venice, which supplies information of a precision unique of its kind. We read, in fact, in the epitaph of an officer, Q. Aemilius Secundus:—Iussu Quirini censum egi Apamenae civitatis millium hominum civium CXVII. To estimate the value of the figure 117,000, it is important to decide what the author of the inscription meant by homines cives.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , 1934 , pp. 187 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © Name of Author 1934

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References

1 Die Bevölkerung der griechisch-römischen Welt, pp. 242 ff.

2 Cf. Groag in P-W, s.v. ‘Sulpicius’ (30), cols. 838 ff.

3 See additional note below, p. 190.

4 Eph. Ep. iv, p. 537; CIL iii, 6687; ILS 2683.

5 Wilcken, , Grundzüge der Papyruskunde i, p. 189Google Scholar. P-W, s.v. Λαογραϕία, cols. 733 f.

6 On the κλῆροι named in the documents of the Seleucid period, cf. Fouilles de Doura, p. 290 f.

7 C.R. Acad. Inscr., 1931, pp. 240 ff.

8 C. Apion. ii, 4, 39.

9 Holleaux in Bull. Corr. Hell. lvii, 1933, p. 43.

10 Julian, Misop. 362 c. μυρίους κλἡους γῆς ἰδίας: cf. 370 D.

11 Homil. in Ignat. 4, Patr. Gr. l, 591, and Homil 85 (86), Patr. Gr. lviii, p. 762.

12 Storia economica, Ital. transl., p. 314.

13 Josephus, Ant. xiv, 6, 92, ἐν ἀριστοκρατίᾳ διῆγον, cf. Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung i2, pp. 210, 396.

14 Or. xxxiv, 21–3.

15 Epist. 42, Patr. Gr. lxxxii, p. 1220. Cf. Marquardt, op. cit. ii2, op. cit. ii2, p. 228, n. 1.

16 Epist. 113, ibid., p.1316: ἐν ὁκτακοσίαις ἐκκλησίαις ἔλαχον ποιμαίνειν. τοσαύτας γὰρ ἡ Κύρρος ἔχει παροικίας. This information has not been used by Beloch.

17 xvi, 752, χώρας εὐπορεῖ παμπόλλης εὐδαίμονος, δι΄ ἧς ὁ Ὀρόντης ῥεῖ.

18 Cf. Keune in P-W, s.v. Καπροςαβαίων Dussaud, Topographie, pp. 196 ff.

19 Eph. Ep. iv, 537 f. = CIL iii, 6687.

20 Waddington 2112; cf. P-W; s.v. ‘cohors,’ col. 248.