Toparchy

TOPARCHY.—A compound word from Greek topos (place) and archç (rule), found only in 1Ma 11:28 (cf. 1Ma 10:30; 1Ma 10:38; 1Ma 10:11-34) among the sacred books, but very many times in the papyri of Egypt (with reference to that country). It means a very small administrative division of territory. Three toparchies were detached from Samaria and added to Judæa in Maccabæan times.

A. Souter.

tō´par-ki, top´ar-ki (τοπαρχία, toparchı́a): the King James Version renders this Greek word by “government” in 1 Macc 11:28 (the King James Version margin and the Revised Version (British and American) “province”). It denotes a small administrative district corresponding to the modern Turkish Nahieh, administered by a Mudı̄r. Three such districts were detached from the country of Samaria and added to Judea. Elsewhere (1 Macc 10:30; 11:34) the word used to describe them is nómos. Some idea of the size of these districts may be gathered from the fact that Judea was divided into ten (Pliny v. 14) or eleven (BJ, III, iii, 5) toparchies.