The Rhetoric of aikia in Petitions from Roman Egypt

Abstract

This article discusses the rhetorical usage of the verb αικίζεσθαι (‘abuse’, ‘thrash’, ‘brutalize’) and its derivatives in petitions from Roman Egypt. Curiously, this description of violence only appears in petitions from the Roman period. Using theories of conflict resolution and social control, it is argued that the writers of these petitions, the majority of whom lived in villages in the Arsinoite nome, used the concept of aikia in an attempt to overcome the inefficiency of the Roman Egyptian legal system by augmenting the severity of the crimes they suffered. The usage of the verb αικίζεσθαι (often paired with the noun πληγαις) emphasized the brutality and socially transgressive nature of the attack and presented it as something that needed to be addressed by the authorities immediately, as it affected the entire social order. Over time the phrase πληγαις αικίζεσθαι became formulaic in its expression, suggesting that it was not just contained to a handful of petitions. Rather it was a linguistic phenomenon in itself that reveals the effects of the social and legal environment of Roman Egypt on the language of petitions.