ローマ時代のエジプトにおける送金方法 : エピテーケーに関する考察

抄録

In Egypt under the Roman Empire, people used επιθηκη for the transfer and payment of money. When it was difficult to pay in cash, for example when the payee was not present, Egyptians could send money by επιθηκη without moving the coins. However, little is known about what επιθηκη was and how it worked, because there remain only four examples of it. So, since Preisigke's work, no study has treated it as the main subject. Nevertheless, επιθηκη is important for the understanding of the nature of the Roman economy. For the spread of transactions on credit can be thought as reflecting the sophistication of Rome's monetary economy. The author discusses first the relation of επιθηκη to the banking system, and reaches the conclusion that banks had nothing to do with επιθηκη. He then searches how it worked, and concludes that επιθηκη was sent by the issuer to the payee, and then handed over to the payer. By committing payment to a thirdparty, επιθηκη functioned like a bill of exchange. There is even a possibility that both the issuing and the paying of επιθηκη was committed to third persons who enjoyed more trust than the clients themselves. Therefore, even retail merchants could use επιθηκη. Finally, the author proposes the idea that επιθηκη performed a function that had once been performed by banks.