A nomarch (, Great Chief) was a provincial governor in
ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
; 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 ''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
Djoser (also read as Djeser and Zoser) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 3rd Dynasty during the Old Kingdom, and was the founder of that epoch. He is also known by his Hellenized names Tosorthros (from Manetho) and Sesorthos (from Euse ...
of the
3rd Dynasty in the early
Old Kingdom
In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning –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 Fourth Dynast ...
, 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
Nyuserre Ini (also Niuserre Ini or Neuserre Ini; in Greek language, Greek known as Rathurês, ''Ῥαθούρης''; died 2422 BC) was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, king, the sixth ruler of the Fifth dynasty of Egypt, Fifth Dynasty during the Ol ...
, 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
Djedkare Isesi (known in Greek as Tancheres; died 2375 BC) was a king, the eighth and penultimate ruler of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt in the late 25th century to mid-24th century BC, during the Old Kingdom. Djedkare succeeded Menkauhor Kaiu ...
, 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post of nomarch then quickly became hereditary, thereby creating a virtual feudal system where local allegiances slowly superseded obedience to the pharaoh.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 First Intermediate Period, described as a 'dark period' in ancient Egyptian history, spanned approximately 125 years, c. 2181–2055 BC, after the end of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. It comprises the seventh Dynasty, Seventh (altho ...
, 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
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of Roman civilization
*Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
period.
The title is also in use in
modern Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
for the heads of the
prefectures of Greece
Until the Kallikratis reform in 2010, the prefectures () were the second-level administrative regions of Greece. They are now defunct, and have been approximately replaced by regional units.
They are called departments in ISO 3166-2:GR and b ...
, 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