This document analyzes landholding records from a village in Roman Egypt in 216 CE. It contains charts ranking individuals' holdings of grain land and olive groves. Most land was held by villagers, though urbanites owned the largest olive grove plots. When factoring in olive grove productivity, urbanites monopolized 23% of total land value despite owning only 40% of the land. The data also shows the distribution of wealth levels among villagers, with most families being subsistence farmers while a small percentage were very wealthy landowners.

1. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
Grain holding of a male villager
Grain holding of a female villager
Grain holding of a male Arsinoite
Grain holding of a female Arsinoite
Grain holding of a male Alexandrian
Orchard holding of a male villager
Orchard holding of a female villager
Grain holding of a male Arsinoite
Grain holding of a female Arsinoite
Orchard holding of a male Alexandrian
Orchard holding of a male villager
Grain holding of a male villager
Grain holding of a female villager
Orchard holding of a female villager
Sample Charts from Philadelphia Land-Register (216/17 CE) Analysis
Locations of the village of Philadelphia, the
metropolis of Arsinoe, and major city of
Alexandria.
Map: People from all three locations owned land near the village. Chart 1: Grain-Land Holdings (Arouras), All Owners, Ranked
Chart 2: Olive- Grove Holdings (Arouras),
All Owners, Ranked
Chart 3: Ranked Net Productive Capacity (Artabas) of Holdings after Taxes and Seed Grain are Deducted, In Grain Equivalent (Olive-Groves Weighted Double) Villagers Only
By far the 3 largest olive- grove holdings
belonged to urbanites; but the 3 largest
villager holdings were still quite large.
Villager holdings (60% of land)
Urbanite holdings (40% of land)
When one weights the net productive capacity of olive-grove land at double
that of grain-land, the urbanite monopoly of net productive capacity of
private land stands at 23%.
Villager holdings (85% of land)
8 of the 10 largest grain- land holdings owned by villagers.
Urbanite holdings (15% of land)
16% of grain-land
owners were women.
15% of orchard-grove
owners were women.
26% = Infra-subsistence
families which are partially
dependent on market
exchange / sale of their labor
25 % = Families which live
at subsistence or just
above subsistence- level
and would best fit the
“peasant” model
19% = Families which
are well above
subsistence-level, and
fairly comfortably off.
= 3% = Families as wealthy
and even wealthier than
the average elite family.
13% = Families
which are quite
comfortably off.
**Let the net
productive
capacity be αs,
where s is the
minimum
subsistence
requirement for a
family of four in
artabas of grain
equivalent.
1 ≤ α ≤ 2.03 2.03 ≤ α ≤ 4.03 4.03 ≤ α ≤ 6.09
6.09 ≤ α ≤ 15.5
For the top
six holdings,
17.01 ≤ α ≤ 38.69
14% = Families which
are well-to-do but not
as rich as the average
urban elite family.
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
550
600
650
700
750
800
850
900
950
1000
1050
1100
1150
1200
1250
1300
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
0.12 ≤ α ≤ 1