Una gerarchia delle magistrature civiche in Egitto? Tipologie di fonti e criteri di analisi

The present paper deals with the long discussed question of the hierarchy of municipal offices in Roman Egypt (2nd–3rd century A.D.). It focuses on methodological issues. Firstly, in dealing with honorary magistracies one should distinguish prestige (axioma) from the financial burden and the actual administrative role. Secondly, honorific titulatures, epistolary prescripts and municipal accounts should be examined according to different analysis criteria. In this way one can shed some light on the problem of preminence of the gymnasiarch or of the exegetes among municipal archai.