Politikoi Nomoi Again

The following paper studies the much-debated term politikoi nomoi (‘civil laws’), as recorded in P.Gur. 2.44‒45 = Sel.Pap. II 256 = CPJ I 19 (226 BCE, Crocodilopolis). The term is used here in the context of a diagramma, which allows the consideration in court of the politikoi nomoi – a body of law subsidiary to royal legislation, applicable whenever matter at dispute is not addressed by the latter. I argue that the term is used here for the designation of city laws of Alexandria. In P.Gur. 2, in a case heard by Greek dikasts outside Alexandria, the diagramma is introduced in order to allow one of the litigants to draw upon the Alexandrian dikê erêmos. However, it is quite plausible that in its original context of conception, the diagramma was meant to serve as guideline in Alexandrian courts of law only, not elsewhere in Egypt. Its usurpation, and ultimate admission by non-Alexandrian dikasts is indicative of the proliferation of Alexandrian laws and regulations in Ptolemaic Egypt at large.