Notes on Absentee Landlordism at Aphrodito

Abstract

In two recent articles, I tried to establish the existence in 6th-century Aphrodite of a cadre of local worthies who, in the system of village land management, while owners and acquirers in their own right, served also as middlemen for absentee landowners and for landowning churches and monasteries. One article centered on Aurelius Phoibammon, son of Triadelphus, the other, on Apollos, son of Dioscorus; but it was suggested in the second article that more than just these two Aphroditans filled this middleman role. A more limited case--because there is less evidence--might be made for Apollos' brother, Besarion; a stronger case, on more extensive evidence and fuller study, can (and should) be made for Apollos' son, Dioscorus, the ancient keeper of most of the surviving Byzantine-period Aphrodite papyri. Nevertheless, Besarion and Dioscorus are not the objects of direct attention here, however often their names arise in the pages that follow. Instead, this article will attempt a discussion, still tentative, incomplete and disconnected, of the processes and personnel employed in managing land owned by secular absentees, by churches and monasteries, both in Aphrodite and in the territory of its neighboring village, Phthla. Left out of consideration, for the time being, will be the shadowy figure of Count Ammonius, reputedly Aphrodite's greatest landlord, someone who merits separate and distinct treatment of his own. Rather, the prototypical (secular) landlord in mind here is the middle-level absentee who, owning land in more than one venue, operates locally through agents (προνοηταί) . 4 The agents stand responsible to their landlord for collecting yearly rents and dues. They rent out the landlord's land to local middlemen. In their turn, the middlemen oversee, and may even assist in, the land's farming, but the land is principally worked by sub-lessees and by work-contract and day-labor hirelings. 5 What is envisaged, in sum, is a structure of relationships--or a chain, not all of whose links are, for Aphrodite (to whose evidence I propose to restrict myself), evidenced as clearly and completely as one would like.

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