Description
Book SynopsisThrough new readings and interpretation of Cypriot inscriptions – written in Cypriot-syllabic Greek, Eteocypriot, Phoenician, and alphabetic Greek – Kypriōn Politeia, the Political and Administrative Systems of the Classical Cypriot City-Kingdoms is the first book which reconstructs in detail the political and administrative systems of the Classical city-kingdoms of Cyprus. The book investigates the bodies of government beyond the Cypriot kings and the roles played by magistrates and officials in local governments, it analyses accounts of the headquarters of the main administrative and economic activities – such as palace archives, and tax collection hubs –, and demonstrates that these systems were similar in all the city-kingdoms.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations Cypriot Chronology and Main Centres Introduction: In Search of the Lost Kypriōn Politeia 1 Nomina nuda 2 Basic Concepts 3 The Development of the Cypriot City-Kingdoms 4 Historiography 5 Epigraphic Sources: The Languages of Cyprus 1 Setting the Scene: King, Elite and People 1 The Persistence of Kingship and Royal Ideology 2 The Elite and the Wanaktes 3 Schooling the Elite, Cypriot Education and Political Leadership 4 A Cypriot Secret Police 5 Δῆμος and πόλις in the Cypriot City-Kingdoms 5 ‘I Do Solemnly Swear …’: An Oath of Allegiance as Testimony of Cypriot Royal Supremacy 2 The Idalion Bronze Tablet: Cypriot Political and Administrative Institutions in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC 1 Establishing the Chronology 2 The Eponymous Magistrate and the Polis: Institutional Representatives beyond the King 3 Territories, Land-Registers and Legal Owners in the Cypriot City-States 4 The Cypriot Land of the King 3 The Administration of the Central Palace 1 The Rab Soferim, Chief of Scribes, and His Staff in Kition 2 RB ḤZ‘NM and RB SRSRM, Other Palace Officials? 4 The Role of Carians and Their ‘Interpreter’ in the Kition Administration 1 The Cypriot Epigraphic Attestations of KRSY and MLṢ (H)KRSYM 2 The KRSYM in the Mediterranean and Near East 3 Carians in Cyprus 4 The MLṢ HKRSYM, Not Only an Interpreter 5 Administrative Officials on the Periphery of the Cypriot City-States: The Bulwer Tablet 6 Religious-Civil Officials between the Centre and Periphery in Cypriot Syllabic Greek and Phoenician Inscriptions 1 Hunting for Wolves: A Civic-Religious Magistracy in the Central Administration of Paphos 2 Civic-Religious Governors in the Peripheral Territory of the City-States, the Cases of Paphos and Lapethos Conclusion: The Kypriōn Politeia Regained 1 The Consistency of the Cypriot Administrative System 2 The Development of the Classical Cypriot Political System between Achaemenid and Greek Influences Appendix Plates Bibliography Index
