The duties of the epistrategos

Abstract

In contexts which are of value for establishing what his duties were the epistrategos nearly always has the title έπιστράτηγος και στρατηγός της Θηβαίδος, hardly ever that of έπιστράτηγος alone. If we must suppose that whenever he has the former title he acts in his capacity as strategos of the Thebaid, we are left with very little evidence for the duties he performs in his capacity as epistrategos¹. Clearly we must at some point seek to establish as far as we can which functions these officials perform by virtue of their office as epistrategos. Nevertheless such nice distinctions are hardly likely to have troubled the Ptolemaic administration or its subjects, who would naturally have been liable to refer to the holder of the posts of έπιστράτηγος και στρατηγός της Θηβαίδος as έπιστράτηγος for brevity², and it will be of interest for comparison with the Roman epistrategos to form as full a picture as possible of his Ptolemaic predecessor. Therefore I propose to examine in this chapter all functions known to have been performed by officials bearing the title έπιστράτηγος, whether by itself or in combination with other titles. However, I shall also indicate those functions performed by officials holding the office of strategos of the Thebaid only, so that we may attempt in the next chapter to establish what real power the epistrategos qua epistrategos possessed.