Nome (subnational division)
Nome is a word of
Greek origin that means
district.
Nomes in Egypt
\nThe division of Ancient Egypt into nomes can be traced back to the Predynastic Period (before 3100 BC). \nIt was these nomes, previously existing as autonomous city-states, that were first brought together as a united kingdom under Pharaoh Menes of the First Dynasty.\nFor a system that remained in place for more than three millennia, the order and area of the individual nomes remained remarkably stable. \nUnder the division system that prevailed for most of pharaonic Egypt's history, the country was divided into 42 nomes.
Lower Egypt, from the Old Kingdom capital Memphis to the Mediterranean Sea, comprised 20 nomes. The first was based around Memphis, Saqqara, and Giza, in the area occupied by modern-day Cairo. \nThe numbering system then spread out in a more or less ordered fashion through the Nile delta, first covering the territory on the west before continuing with the higher numbers to the east. \nThus, Alexandria was in the Third Nome, Bubastis in the Eighteenth.
Upper Egypt was divided into 22 nomes. \nThe first of these was centered around Elephantine and Egypt's border with Nubia at the First Cataract – the area of modern-day Aswan. \nFrom there the numbering progressed downriver in an orderly fashion through the narrow fertile strip of land that was the Nile valley. Waset (ancient Thebes or contemporary Luxor) was in the Fourth Nome, Amarna in the Fourteenth, and Meidum in the Twenty-First.
The Nomarch
\nAt the head of each nome stood its nomarch. \nThe position of the nomarch was at times hereditary, while at others they were appointed by the pharaoh. \nGenerally, when the national government was stronger, nomarchs were the king's appointed governors. \nBut when the central government was weaker, at times of foreign invasion or civil war, individual nomes would assert themselves and establish hereditary lines of succession. \nConflicts between these different hereditary nomarchies were common during, for example, the First Intermediate Period – \na time that saw a breakdown in central authority lasting from the sixth and eleventh dynasties, until one of the local rulers was able once again to asset control over the entire country as pharaoh.
Survival of the Nomes
\nThe nomes survived through the Ptolemaic period. During Roman times, individual nomes were minting coins, the so-called "nome coins," which still reflect individual local associations and traditions. The nomes of Egypt retained their primary importance as administrative units until the fundamental rearrangement of the bureaucracy in the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine. From 307/8 CE, their place was taken by smaller units called pagi which eventually brought into prominence a powerful local official called a pagarch through whom all patronage flowed. His essential role was as an organizer of tax-collection, but later the pagarch assumed some military functions as well. "It is significant" says Alan Bowman, "that many of the pagarchs whom we know held office in their home regions and were often wealthy and influential landowners."
Reference
\nAlan K. Bowman, Egypt After the Pharaohs
Nomes in Greece
\nModern Greece, under its 1975 Constitution, is divided into 51 nomoi (Greek: νομοι). \nThese are most commonly translated into English as prefectures.\nEach nomos is headed by a prefect (nomarch), who is elected by direct popular vote.
See: Prefectures of Greece
