Unpublished Greek Documentary Papyri from the Egyptian Museum

Abstract

In this dissertation, I edit twelve previously unpublished Greek documents, offering for each papyrus a transcription of the Greek text, English translation and extensive commentary. The texts span the late 2nd through the 6th century A.D., and thematic similarities allow me to elaborate on certain topics related to late Antique such as: grain transport, property, loans, deposit of money, petitions, receipts, letters, orders, taxes, leases, and estate management. The abstracts of twelve papyri are as follows: 1- Loan of Money: This papyrus is from Oxyrhynchus and dates back to 27 march 160 A.D. (the twenty-second year of the reign of the Emperor Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius). The text is a loan in the form of the epistolary opening. The debtor is a son of Agathos Daimon from Oxyrhynchus city. The creditor called Castor, son of Clemens. The debtor declares that he received together with his sons and his wife three thousand four hundred silver drachmae, as a loan, registered in the record office, and that they would return back the mentioned sum together with the legitimate interest rate without diminution. 2- Contract of Deposit: This papyrus dates back to the second half of II century A.D., it belongs to Philadelphia village. This document is a παραθήκη (a deposit of money). It is an acknowledgment of deposit of money that has been contracted between Puplius Valerius Vestinus a Roman citizen and a woman, who acknowledges that she has received the deposit. The deposit is 2500 drachmae of silver. The relation between the Roman citizen, the deposit owner, and the woman, deposit recipient, is obscure; therefore I assume that Puplius Valerius Vestinus was a Roman soldier and the woman was his illegal wife, and he ordered his steward (affairs manager) Deius to deliver money to his wife, and may be also to his children, for daily expenses, because Puplius Valerius Vestinus himself was absent (ἀπόντι in the lines 11-12). The steward Deius tried to circumvent the law, because of the illegal marriage; so he delivered the money to the wife as a deposit. 3- A petition: This papyrus dates back to the early III century A.D. and belongs to Theadelphia village. The text is a petition filed by the children of Hercules against their father’s former wife concerning a property of the house. The accused wife is a member of the petitioner’s family. In this case the petition results from a family dispute, where the parties could not sort out their differences (matrimonial property) within the domestic context, and the petitioners turn to the authorities to assert their rights. 4- Receipt for Delivery of Chaff: This papyrus dates back to 246-249 A.D. it belongs to Theadelphia village. The text is a receipt for delivery of chaff; the receipt records the arrival of loads (three hundred liters) of chaff. The papyrus refers to a person described as κεφαλαιωτής, who was known in Egypt from the Roman period to the Arab conquest. In his capacity as a foreman (κεφαλαιωτής) he used to be credited with delivery to a bakery, presumably military, of a specified quantity of wheat entrusted to him by receiver (ἀποδέκτης) of grain. 5- Letter Concerning a Naubion: This papyrus dates back to the third century A.D., it belongs to Oxyrhynchites. In the third century A.D. the river-workmen (ποταμῖται) were employed as a guild to clean canals at a fixed rate for payments of a naubion (ναύβιον) see P.Oxy. XII 1427 (III cent. A.D., an order to workmen on delta embankments). The letter may have been sent by a tax- collector (πράκτωρ) or the guild of river-workers (ποταμῖται) to higher ranking official concerning canal cleaning. 6- A List of Names: This papyrus dates back to the third century A.D., it belongs to Senao in the Oxyrhynchite nome.. The text is a list of names. In the surviving text the names of five persons were given (four men and a woman). The names weren’t given in alphabetical order. The list probably was of the necessary in the course of the lease / tax collection records. It may be one of the numerous shorter or longer lists of possible which were compiled and revised. 7- An Order to the Dekaprotoi: This papyrus dates back to the third century A.D., it belongs to Theogonis (Arsinoite nome). The text is an order (πρόσταγμα) to the δεκάπρωτοι of the Heptanomia and Arsinoite nome. Since the papyrus was broken off at all sides,