A nomarch ( grc, νομάρχης, egy,
ḥrj tp ꜥꜣ Great Chief) was a provincial governor in
ancient Egypt; the country was divided into 42 provinces, called
nomes (singular , plural ). A nomarch was the government official responsible for a nome.
Etymology
The term ''nome'' is derived from grc,
νομός ''nomós'' "province, district". ''Nomarch'' is derived from ''nomárkhēs'': "province" + "ruler".
Egyptian history
The division of the Egyptian kingdom into nomes can be documented as far back as the reign of
Djoser of the
3rd Dynasty in the early
Old Kingdom
In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2700–2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourt ...
, c. 2670 BCE, and potentially dates even further back to the
Predynastic kingdoms of the Nile valley. The earliest topographical lists of the nomes of Upper and Lower Egypt date back to the reign of
Nyuserre Ini, of the mid
5th Dynasty, from which time the nomarchs no longer lived at royal capital but stayed in their nomes.
The power of the nomarchs grew with the reforms of Nyuserre's second successor,
Djedkare Isesi, which effectively decentralized the Egyptian state. The post of nomarch then quickly became hereditary, thereby creating a virtual feudal system where local allegiances slowly superseded obedience to the pharaoh. Less than 200 years after Djedkare's reign, the nomarchs had become the all-powerful heads of the provinces. At the dawn of the
First Intermediate Period, the power of the Pharaohs of the
8th Dynasty had diminished to the extent that they
owed their position to the most powerful nomarchs, upon whom they could only bestow titles and honours.
The power of the nomarchs remained important during the later royal revival under the impulse of the
11th Dynasty, originally a family of Theban nomarchs. Their power diminished during the subsequent
12th Dynasty, setting the stage for the apex of royal power during the
Middle Kingdom.
Later re-use of the term
The title ''nomarch'' continued to be used into the
Roman period.
The title is also in use in
modern Greece
The history of modern Greece covers the history of Greece from the recognition by the Great Powers — United Kingdom, Britain, France and Russian Empire, Russia — of its Greek War of Independence, independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1828 ...
for the heads of the
prefectures of Greece, which were also titled ''nomos'' (pl. νομοί, ''nomoi''; νομαρχία, ''nomarchia'' also being used to refer to the area within a nomarch's purview).
See also
*
Haty-a
*
Pepi II Neferkare
References
External links
*
{{Ancient Egyptian royal titulary
Ancient Egyptian titles
*
Ancient Greek titles
Gubernatorial titles
Government of the Ptolemaic Kingdom