Toparchy

Hellenistic usage

The term originates in Hellenistic times, when topos (τόπος, "place, locale") was established as an administrative unit, most notably in the Ptolemaic Kingdom, but also among the Seleucids and Attalids, although less well attested in comparison to Ptolemaic practice. The Ptolemaic topos comprised a number of villages (komai, sing. komē) under a toparchēs and was in turn a subdivision of the nomos (nome or province), which was governed by a strategos. In Ptolemaic Egypt, the toparches was usually an Egyptian, and was responsible for the collection of revenue and administration, much as the nomarchēs for the nomos and the komarchēs for each komē. In an account, the toparchies constituted the hyparchies such as Gaulanitis, Galilea, Samaria, Judea, Perea, and Idumaea during New Testament times. The title remained in use under the Roman Empire in the Greek East, for the governor of a district. Such districts were then called "toparchies" (sing. toparchy, from Greek τοπαρχία, toparchia).