ABSTRACT
Hadrian founded Antinoopolis in AD 130 in Middle Egypt and set it up as a Greek polis. He offered prospective citizens several privileges, some of which were specifically aimed at families, while a special alimentary fund was set up for their children. Focusing on Antinoopolis, this chapter examines how such privileges were used by the imperial government as instruments of policy and evaluates how they complied with imperial ideology. To that end, Antinoopolis is compared to similar cases that are known from other parts of the empire.
