The poll-tax (λαογραφία as it was called in Greek), was one of the most important of the many taxes levied by the Romans on their Egyptian subjects. In his work on Taxation in Egypt, Mr. S. L. Wallace states: ‘There are more receipts for payment of λαογραφία extant than for any other tax paid in money.’ The view prevailing among papyrologists during the earlier years of the present century was that it was an impost which marked the inferior status of the Egyptians. They were dediticii, subdued by force of arms, and moreover excluded from the possibility of obtaining the Roman citizenship except in so far as they could succeed in first procuring admission to the citizen body of Alexandria. Thus, in his Grundzüge, published in 1912, Wilcken writes: ‘[Die Ägypter] wurden wieder zurückgeworfen in die niedrige Stellung, die sie unter den ersten Ptolemäern eingenommen hatten. Zwar hatten sie auch damals schon eine kopfsteuerartige Auflage zahlen müssen, aber abgesehen davon, dass die von Augustus eingeführte Kopfsteuer (λαογραφία) neu und wahrscheinlich strenger organisiert wurde, waren die Ägypter jetzt als peregrini dediticii als die Pariaklasse gebrandmarkt.’ When, therefore, P Giss. 40 restored to us, though in an unfortunately fragmentary form, the actual text of the Constitutio Antoniniana, and one clause of this famous edict was construed by the editor as excluding the dediticii from Caracalla's gift of the Roman citizenship, it was naturally concluded, alike by the editor and by all other scholars, that the Egyptians as a mass did not receive the citizenship but continued as (to use Wilcken's expression) a pariah class.