claytor 2013_a schedule of contracts and a private letter p.fay. 344, basp 50.pdf

8/12/2019 Claytor 2013_A Schedule of Contracts and a Private Letter P.Fay. 344, BASP 50.pdf

1/49

HE

BULLEINOF HE

AMERICAN SOCIEYOF

PAPYROLOGISS

Volume 50 2013ISSN 0003-1186E-ISSN 1938-6958


2/49

Te current editorial address for the Bulletin of the American Society ofPapyrologistsis:

Peter van MinnenDepartment of ClassicsUniversity of Cincinnati410 Blegen LibraryCincinnati, OH [email protected]

Te editors invite submissions not only from North-American and other

members of the Society but also from non-members throughout the world;contributions may be written in English, French, German, or Italian. Manu-scripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the addressabove. Submissions can be sent as an e-mail attachment (.doc and .pdf) withlittle or no formatting. We also ask contributors to provide a brief abstract oftheir article for inclusion in L Anne philologique, and to secure permission forany illustration they submit for publication.

Te editors ask contributors to observe the stylesheet available at http://pa-

pyrology.org/index.php/guidelines. When reading proof, contributors shouldlimit themselves to correcting typographical errors. Revisions and additionsshould be avoided; if necessary, they will be made at the authors expense. Teprimary author(s) of contributions published in BASPwill receive a copy ofthe pdf used for publication.

Back issues are available online at http://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/basp.

Copies of books for review can be sent to:

Arthur Verhoogt Department of Classical Studies University of Michigan 2160 Angell Hall 435 S. State Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003

John Wallrodt, aylor Coughlan, and Kyle Helms provided assistance withthe production of this volume.


3/49

A Schedule of Contracts and a

Private Letter: P.Fay.3441

W. Graham Claytor University of Michigan

AbstractTe recto and verso of P.Fay. 344 descr. are published here in full.

Te rectopreserves a lengthy fragment from a schedule of contracts() registered in the village of Polydeukeias writing office() in the late first century CE. Te verso of the papyrus waslater re-used for a lively and idiosyncratic letter from a woman namedPtolemais to her brother Papirianus in Arsinoe.

Tis papyrus was discovered during B.P. Grenfell and A.S. Hunts excava-tions at Batn el-Harit (Teadelpheia) during the 1898-1899 season.2On its

rectois a 47-line fragment of an , a schedule of contracts registeredin the writing office of Polydeukeia and Sethrenpaei in the month of ybiduring the latter half of Domitians reign.3Tis document gives us a vivid snap-

1Tis papyrus was edited as part of the International Seminar on Unpublished Papyriin the Egyptian Museum, sponsored by the Association Internationale de Papyrologues(AIP), in cooperation with the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, the Center for the ebtunisPapyri at the University of California, Berkeley (which digitized photographs originallytaken several decades ago by the AIPs International Photographic Archive of Papyri),

and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University. Funding forthe seminar was provided by the ianaderrah Foundation and a private donor. I thankthe seminar professors Rodney Ast, Roger Bagnall, Alia Hanafi, and Cornelia Rmerand my fellow students for their advice in editing this papyrus. An early version of theletter was presented at one of Roger Bagnalls evening receptions. I thank in particu-lar the host and Raffaella Cribiore for their thoughts during that enjoyable occasion.Nikolaos Litinas and Arthur Verhoogt also provided expert guidance, for which I amgrateful. Finally, I am indebted to the journals anonymous reviewers for their carefulcriticism, which has greatly improved these editions.

2See Grenfell and Hunts brief report on their three-week papyrus dig at Batn el-Harit

(P.Fay., pp. 51-54).3Te heading is preserved in l. 1 of the recto. Te presence of the honorary month

Soterios in the contracts limits the date to the latter half of Domitians reign: see l. 9 n.

Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 50 (2013) 77-121


4/49

78 W. Graham Claytor

shot o the village economy in the lean period beore the harvest. Afer sittingor decades in the archives, part o the original roll, now worn and scarred

by a ew holes, was cut to orm a single sheet and used to draf a private let-ter whose idiosyncratic hand and orthography present interesting challenges.Most striking is the writer Ptolemais rustration, vented in lively language,with the reewheeling behavior o a certain albaeis, who goes out and doeswhat she wants (l. 4). Unlike the administrative text, the contents o the letterare quite ephemeral and the sheet, now used on both sides, was likely soondiscarded, eventually settling in whichever corner o the village Grenell andHunts workmen discovered it over seventeen centuries later.

In order to put the new in context, I begin by outlining the

institutional arrangements o the Roman , which are relatively wellknown rom the archive o Kronion and other sources, but which are now inneed o a thorough study that takes into account newer documents in bothGreek and Demotic. I then turn to an analysis o the s contents, o-s contents, o-s contents, o-cusing primarily on the types o contracts recorded and what these contributeto our knowledge o the village economy. Te editions o both the and the letter on the versothen ollow.

Te Writing Offices o Roman EgyptTe operation o the Roman can be studied in some detail,

thanks to the vast quantity o texts produced through these offices. 4Treesources are particularly inormative. Te first and most important is the ar-chive o Kronion, consisting o nearly 200 texts that span the first hal o thefirst century CE, when Kronion and his ather Apion beore him were succes-sive heads o the o ebtynis.5Almost equally important is Chrest.

4Some o the key discussions are: R.H. Pierce, Grapheion, Catalogue, and Library

in Roman Egypt, Symbolae Osloenses43 (1968) 68-83; E.M. Husselman, Procedureso the Record Office o ebtunis in the First Century A.D, in D.H. Hobson (ed.), Pro-ceedings o the welfh International Congress o Papyrology(oronto 1970) 223-238;W.E.H. Cockle, State Archives in Graeco-Roman Egypt rom 30 B.C. to the Reign oSeptimius Severus,JEA70 (1984) 106-122; F. Burkhalter, Archives locales et archivescentrales en gypte romaine, Chiron20 (1990) 191-216; B. Muhs, Te Grapheion andthe Disappearance o Demotic Contracts in Early Roman ebtynis and SoknopaiouNesos, in S. Lippert and M. Schentuleit (eds.), ebtynis und Soknopaiu Nesos: Lebenin rmerzeitlichen Fajum (Wiesbaden 2005) 93-104. Important comments can also beound in H.J. Wolff, Das Recht der griechischen Papyri gyptens in der Zeit der Ptolemerund des Prinzipats 2 (Munich 1978), especially 30-31.

5See B. Van Beek, Kronion Son o Apion, Head o the Grapheion at ebtynis, www.trismegistos.org/archive/93, or an overview o the archive.


5/49

A Schedule o Contracts and a Private Letter 79

Mitt. 183 (= P.Grenf. 2.41), an application to lease the o SoknopaiouNesos rom 46 CE, because it succinctly lays out some o the key duties o the

manager. Finally, Chrest.Mitt. 184 (= P.Flor. 3.357), an Oxyrhynchite managers subscription rom 208 CE attesting to the submission orolls to the state archives, gives us valuable evidence rom outside the Fayumand suggests broad continuity into the third century. In addition, the mass ocontracts and other documents written in the , when analyzed village-by-village, can reveal important details about local practice.6

Te was both a writing office or the public, where anyone couldgo to have a document written or a ee o course and a government-sanctioned record office, where archival material o interest to the state was

created. Te Roman grew out o Ptolemaic administrative practice,7and by the first century CE such offices were ubiquitous in the larger villageso the . A single office ofen served more than one village,8although itwas physically located in the largest, which was named first, as in the presentdocument.9

A was run by a , also called .10We know most about the o ebtynis and Soknopaiou Nesos inthe first century CE. Both were run as amily businesses,11with son ofen suc-

6An excellent example is S. Lippert and M. Schentuleits discussion o the o Soknopaiou Nesos in Demotische Dokumente aus Dime III: Urkunden(Wiesbaden2010) 103-110.

7A new source or the study o the Ptolemaic is the archive rom ebtunis(www.trismegistos.org/archive/368), which is in the process o being published. SeeMuhs 2005 (n. 4), B. Muhs, A Late Ptolemaic Grapheion Archive in Berkeley, in .Gagos (ed.), Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Papyrology(Ann Arbor2010) 581-588 and F. Hoogendijk, Greek Contracts belonging to the Late PtolemaicGrapheion Archive, in C. Arlt and M.A. Stadler (eds.), Das Fayym in Hellenismus und

Kaiserzeit. Fallstudien zu multikulturellem Leben in der Antike(Wiesbaden 2013) 63-74.8Pierce 1968 (n. 4) 68-69.9Te o Polydeukeia and Sethrenpaei was clearly in Polydeukeia, as evi- o Polydeukeia and Sethrenpaei was clearly in Polydeukeia, as evi-o Polydeukeia and Sethrenpaei was clearly in Polydeukeia, as evi-

denced by the extant contracts drawn up in this village, including one in which the placeo payment and delivery was actually Sethrenpaei (P.Meyer 7). Similarly, the o ebtynis and Kerkesoucha Orous was located in the larger town o ebtynis, alsonamed first.

10Other phrases occasionally appear which seem to indicate the same position: e.g., at P.Mich.5.232.1 (ebtynis, 36 CE) and () in Chrest.Mitt.184 (= P.Flor.3.357).

11Te same practice prevailed in the ebtynis in the second century aswell: R. Smolders, Apollonios, alias Lourios, Head o the Grapheion o ebtynis, www.trismegistos.org/archive/351.


6/49


ceeding ather, as had been the practice in the older system o hereditary templescribes.12B. Muhs argued recently that the managers were helleniz- managers were helleniz-managers were helleniz-

ing Egyptians who wrote both the Demotic and Greek contracts drawn upin their office,13but S. Lippert and M. Schentuleit have argued convincinglyor a certain division o labor and partnership between scribes o Greek andEgyptian, who o course had help rom assistants.14Te was run asa concession whereby the lessee paid rent to the state or the exclusive rightto collect the , or writing ee, in the s service area.15Tepapers o Kronion and the unpublished o Karanis show attempts tokeep track o finances and ensure that the office was run profitably.16

Te state duties o the head o the included writing up and sub- included writing up and sub-included writing up and sub-

mitting at regular intervals , , and :17

A contains the original contracts (with sub- contains the original contracts (with sub- contains the original contracts (with sub-contains the original contracts (with sub-scriptions) or exact copies, with the sheets pasted together into a single roll.

A , such as the present text,is a schedule o abstracted ver-sions o these contracts.

A is a day-by-day register o contracts with one-line sum-is a day-by-day register o contracts with one-line sum-maries, which served as an index to the corresponding .

12But see C. Arlt, Te Egyptian Notary Offices in the Ptolemaic Fayyum, in S.Lippert and M. Schentuleit (eds.) Graeco-Roman Fayum Texts and Archaeology (Wi-esbaden 2008) 15-26,who complicates this traditional view.

13Muhs 2005 (n. 4).14S. Lippert and M. Schentuleit (n. 6) 103-110.15Writing ee (): U. Yifach-Firanko, Te Grammatikon: Some Con-

siderations on the Feeing Policies o Legal Documents in the Ptolemaic and Roman

Periods, in D. Kehoe, D.M. Ratzan, and U. Yifach-Firanko (eds.), Transaction Costs inthe Ancient Economy (orthcoming; I thank the author or sharing a draf o this work).Rent (): Chrest.Mitt. 183.9 and BGU 13.2214.4. In Kronions papers, the rent isconceived o as a , likely because it was a bank transer made into the accounto the appropriate official in the metropolis.

16A.E.R. Boak, P.Mich. 2, pp. 4-6. Te Karanis is written on the versos othe rolls ound in the threshold between rooms D and E o house 5026 (P.Mich. inv.4382-4388 and 4390-4391). Te author is preparing an edition o these texts.

17As per the offer to lease the o Soknopaiou Nesos, Chrest.Mitt. 183.15-19: (l. ) (l. ) (l.

) (l. ) (l. ) . C. Chrest.

Mitt. 184.


7/49


Te regular period or which these documents were drawn up, at leastin the first-century Arsinoite nome, was every our months.18In the present

document, the clear reading o [ in the first line would thereore suggestthat this originally covered the second third o the year, rom ybithrough Pharmouthi (see l. 1 n.). Chrest.Mitt. 184 (Oxyrhynchite nome, 208CE), however, is a submission o one months worth o documents, and thereis evidence rom the Karanis or monthly submissions in the earlysecond century Fayum,19so it cannot be excluded that this originallycovered only the single month o ybi.

Tere are numerous extant examples o , and B. McGing providesa convenient catalogue o these and related texts.20Most are extremely rag-

mentary, and only a handul preserve the documents heading, as the presentragment does (see l. 1 n.). Te extant examples vary in style and ormat, butall record more-or-less extracted versions o the contracts registered in the, ordered by day.

Te from Polydeukeia

In our , a standard entry consists o the ollowing: a verb sig-, a standard entry consists o the ollowing: a verb sig-, a standard entry consists o the ollowing: a verb sig-niying the nature o the transaction (lost);21 the names, patronymics, and

signalments o the parties; the object and terms o the transaction; the signa-tories o the contract (i applicable); and the phrase ,

18Chrest.Mitt. 183 (quoted in n. 17); this practice is corroborated by the papers oKronion.

19E.g., P.Mich. inv. 4385, col. 2.12: () () () .For the phrase , submission o books, c. Chrest.Mitt. 183.20-21.Lines 15-19, quoted in n. 17, make it clear that reer to the ,, and .

20P.Dubl. 7, pp. 33-34, with the authors caveat that without a heading or the tell-talephrase and/or , it is ofen difficult to tell whether a collection oabstracts stemmed rom a or were abstracts o bank .P.Hamb. inv.87 has been published as P.Hamb. 4.251. Add: P.Hamb. 4.252, P.Fay. 294 descr., P.Mich.inv. 6843 (perhaps rom Dionysias; a letter is also written on the back); remove: P.Mich.2.126 (mostly an , with one summary/abstract o another contract, and someunrelated notes); correct: P.Stras. 4.225 (not 3.225).

21C. P.Mich. 2, pp. 20-21: In recording the abstracts the copyist began with the keyword or words corresponding to the designation o the type o contract entered in the, making the initial letter a capital and projecting it and several ollowing

letters into the margin to mark the beginning o a new contract. Te same practicecan be seen in the large capital omicrons oP.Fay. 294 descr., col. 2 (Euhemeria, secondcentury CE).


8/49


9/49

A Schedule of Contracts and a Private Letter 83

Instantly noticeable is the high number of loans and advance sales, whichI interpret as functionally equivalent to loans in most cases (see below). Tere

are 21 contracts of these types compared with only four others (c, f, m,and p)and one that is completely unidentifiable (q).24Te high number of loans andadvance sales certainly cannot be taken as representative of economic activityin and around Polydeukeia throughout the year, but rather gives us a glimpseinto the flurry of transactions in the months before the harvest; for these con-tracts were all made during the month of ybi (see l. 1 and n.), when the grainharvest was still a few months away and farmers looked to borrow to covernecessities during this lean period. Nearly every loan for which the repaymentdate is preserved specifies the month Soterios (= Payni) of the present year for

repayment,25by which time the harvest of grain and other produce was largelycomplete and the loans could be repaid from the new yield.26

But, given the time of year, is this representative? Is this howthe village economy of Roman Egypt generally operated in the months beforethe harvest? Our evidence is admittedly limited, but worth investigating. Tearchive of Kronion naturally provides the best comparandum: P.Mich. 2.123ris a complete covering virtually the entire Egyptian calendar yearof 45/6 CE. Unlike P.Mich. 2.121v, referred to above, this lists docu-ments for which the , the writing fee, was paid or was still due, and

thus includes non-contractual documents, such as petitions and memoranda,that were drawn up in the . Te month of ybi begins at col. 9.27 andis mostly complete. While it is difficult to precisely categorize every contract,it is clear that a much greater variety of contracts were recorded in ebtynis during ybi of this year.27Another important point of comparison is

24Tree of the loan contracts, moreover, refer to the borrowers pre-existing debtsto the creditor with the formula /-: d(l. 9), g(l. 16), andt(l. 38).

25Te two exceptions are contracts k, an advance sale of wine whose repayment dateis Kaisareios (= Mesore), reflecting the later onset of the vintage, and v, a money loanto be repaid in Germanikeios (= Pachon). On the equation of Soterios with Payni, thusdating the to the second-half of Domitians reign, see l. 9 n.

26Tis is explicitly spelled out in contractr, l. 35: [] (sc. ) . See further J. Herrmann, Studien zur Bodenpacht im Recht der graeco-aegyptischen Papyri(Munich 1958) 107-108, and H.C. Youtie and O.M. Pearl, P.Mich.6.375, p. 41.

27Among the more frequent types of contracts, there are seven labeled andone , while there are also nine and seven . Certainly, going by

theformof the contract might mislead as to itspurpose, but since we lack the associ-ated for this year, it is difficult to say more about the individual contracts.Te prosopographical approach outlined by M. Langellotti offers a promising method


10/49


11/49


o 12% interest on cash loans.33Te advance sales in the present documentsupport this hypothesis, since the produce is almost always to be returned in

Soterios (= Payni), just like the loans in kind, and the advance sales are ofenpaired in the same transaction with regular cash loans.

As ar as can be determined rom the extant clauses, the structure o theseadvance sales ollows Bagnalls type 4, where the amount o produce to bereturned is specified, but not the price received, that is, the cash advanced.34ake the relevant part o contract w(l. 42) as an example: () () () () () () ( ) () () () (), (he agrees that) he has receivedrom him, by hand, the price o two artabas o mustard and one o beans, both

new, pure, and unadulterated. Te price (), under this interpretation, isthe cash that the armer received in advance, while the quantity in artabas iswhat must be returned afer the harvest (the exact month is lost in this case, butwas likely Soterios). Tis stated quantity o goods would thus include the inter-est, thereby masking what is effectively a cash loan that is to be repaid in kind.

One advance sale, contract k, has some interesting and rare eatures, whichdeserve mention here. It is an advance sale o wine, best paralleled by P.Athen.23 (Teadelpheia, 82 CE).35In both o these contracts, the advance sale o wineis made by a ,36who was the purchaser o an unharvested crop

or the harvest or or the general cultivation o which he had to provide thelabour,37an arrangement known as a .38In such an arrangement,the assumed all o the risk a bad harvest, problems with labor or- assumed all o the risk a bad harvest, problems with labor or-assumed all o the risk a bad harvest, problems with labor or-ganization, inability to market the produce, etc. in exchange (one presumes)

33Bagnall 1977 (n. 30). C. A. Jrdens, Kaupreisstundungen (Sales on Credit), ZPE98 (1993) 263-282.

34Bagnall 1977 (n. 30) 94.35On such advance sales, see E. Jakab, Risikomanagement beim Weinkauf: Periculum

und Praxis im Imperium Romanum(Munich 2009) 127-130, and E. Jakab, Kau oderDarlehen? Lieerungskue ber Wein aus dem rmischen gypten, in. Gagos (ed.),Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Papyrology (Ann Arbor 2010) 335-344.

36I indeed my interpretation o the verb in l. 21 is correct: see n.37D. Rathbone, Economic Rationalism and Rural Society in Tird-Century A.D. Egypt:

the Heroninos Archive and the Appianus Estate(Cambridge 1991) 193. D. Kehoe, how-ever, notices differences between the o the Laches archive (now known asthe archive o Patrons Descendants, www.trismegistos.org/archive/66) and those othe Heroninos archives: D. Kehoe,Management and Investment on Estates in RomanEgypt during the Early Empire(Bonn 1992) 84-85.

38R. aubenschlag, Te Law of Greco-Roman Egypt in the Light of the Papyri, 332B. C.-640 A.D, 2nd ed. (Warsaw 1955) 340, and Pringsheim 1950 (n. 30) 305-309, butHerrmann (n. 26) 228-229 has reservations.


12/49


or a discount or wholesale price on the crops. In contract kand in P.Athen. 23,we see the using an advance sale to secure a price or his expected

yield, thereby limiting the risk he assumed by entering into the .Contract k and its uller counterpart thus offer a glimpse at the intricate riskmanagement strategies available to villagers in Roman Egypt.

Te other contracts are a receipt o rent paid in advance (c), a service orapprenticeship contract(f), a sale on credit including a rare clause o delayedpayment (m), and a complicated sale o crops (p). Tese are discussed indi-

vidually in the notes.Tis text also makes a significant contribution to the prosopography and

onomastics o Polydeukeia and its environs, although I have not been able to

securely identiy any o the numerous individuals appearing in this documentwith known persons. A ew individuals, however, appear more than once inthese 26 contracts, and we can thereore glean a little more inormation aboutthem.39

Philippos son o Philippos, a 54-year old man, appears as lender or nomi-nal purchaser in no less than five contracts, and our out o a succession o six(b, t, u, w, andy). Clearly he was a man o some substance who was eager toadvance unds to the villagers in exchange or a hefy return afer the harvest.He also spread out his investments, lending money and making advance pur-

chases o a variety o crops, including wheat, mustard, and beans. Nothing ocourse can be said o his background, but such active lenders usually have linkswith the metropolis or are indeed metropolites themselves.40

Maronis and her son Didymos appear in three contracts, two in connec-tion with apontos daughter o Papontos. In c, with Didymos acting as her, Maronis acknowledges the receipt o rent paid in advance by apontos.Contract g then records Didymos as a lender, while the very next contract (h)records apontos receiving a loan o money and wheat rom Maronis. It islikely that Maronis and her son Didymos went into the together on

the same day to register both o their contracts. Given their activity in thesecontracts and the act that Maronis owns a granary (g, l. 16), the mother andson should be counted among the village elite.

Finally, a certain Herakleides son o Ptolemaios, all o 67 years old, appearsas in back-to-back contracts (qand r) and possibly in x. Becausehis identity is only certain in the back-to-back contracts, he could simply be

39Tere are also a number o homonyms; in the commentary I have only noted thosewhom I have identified as the same individual.

40A link with the amily o Aphrodisios son o Philippos (www.trismegistos.org/archive/294) based in nearby Teadelpheia is unlikely, but gives a good sense o themilieu in which this Philippos was likely active.


13/49


a riend or relative o the different contracting parties, but i he does indeedreappear inx, he is more likely to have been a employee, who received

a ee or subscribing contracts or those unable do so themselves. Te loss omost ends o the abstracts prevents us rom saying anything urther about theand literacy patterns at this .

1.Schedule of Contracts from the Writing Office of Polydeukeia and Sethrenpai

P.Cair.10862 4 ragments Batn el-Harit (Teadelpheia)P.Fay.344 recto (rag. d: H x W = 25 x 20.8 cm) 88-96 CE

Tere are five ragments that appear in the photographs o P.Cair.10862(= P.Fay. 344 descr.). Te papyrus itsel is held in the Conservation Center othe Grand Egyptian Museum (as o April 24, 2012), which is under construc-tion, and I have not been able to inspect it. I lettered the raments a-e, romlef to right, top to bottom, in the image available at the Photographic Archiveo Papyri in the Cairo Museum.41Te largest (ragment d) measures 25 x 20.8cm according to the description in P.Fay. Fragments a-c fit neatly along the lefside o ragment d, with a small gap. Tis was likely caused by a tear along aold line, and the tears on the main ragment can be seen to correspond to old

lines as well, roughly 3-3.5 cm apart. Fragment e, although similar in content,is written in a aster hand and cannot be joined to any o the other ragments.All ragments preserve writing along the fibers. Te top and bottom margins(ca. 1.5 and 2 cm respectively) are preserved, but neither side margin is pre-served, because the papyrus was cut to draf the letter on the back. Tere aresmall holes throughout the papyrus and larger ones along oldlines. Splotcheso ink appear throughout, apparently dripped rom the writers pen. Te hando the rectois a small, proessional cursive, characteristic o the mid-to-late 1stor early 2nd century CE: the main hand o P.Athen. 23 (Teadelpheia, 82 CE;

see VIII) is extremely similar. Te versocontains the private letter thatis also published below.Te scribe usually marks abbreviations with a raised final letter, which is

sometimes so flattened as to resemble a raised abbreviation line. Occasionally,there is a dash through the final letter, or the abbreviation is not indicated atall. Te precise orm o abbreviation on the papyrus has not been noted inthe apparatus criticus, but can be checked on the image. Te scribe is ond oabbreviating afer certain syllables, such as ( ), which is resolved in manydifferent ways in this text: l. 3 (); 19 (); 24 [](); 26

41 http://ipap.csad.ox.ac.uk/Fayum-bw/300dpi/P.Fay.344r.jpg. Accessed December30, 2012.


14/49


(); and 46 (). has two distinct forms, one written out, and theother abbreviated: see the examples in l. 32.

Besides the usual L-shaped symbol, two other symbols occur repeat- symbol, two other symbols occur repeat-symbol, two other symbols occur repeat-edly, one denoting the status or and the other.

(l. 8) (l. 40) (l. 25) and

Te last two examples are ligatured with the following (). Te samesymbol was used in the of ebtynis for and other terms withapifollowed by a rho, or occasionally a lambda. It perhaps developed froma monogram ofpiand rho(P.Mich. 5.293, intro.) and its origin can be tracedto the Ptolemaic (P.Mich. 5.241.17 n.).42Note the two verticals in theexample from l. 8, while l. 25 seems to exhibit the version with one vertical,as is most common in the ebtynis examples (but again see P.Mich. 5.241.17n.). Te second vertical either developed out of the common ligature with (), or is a remnant of the pi. In these abstracts, the symbol precedes the

personal description when one individual is designated , but followsthe personal descriptions in the case of multiple individuals. Tis is also thepractice in P.Mich. 2.121r.

Its meaning is confirmed by the context and a comparison of the identicalpersonal descriptions in l. 5, where the word is written () and -

[]() and l. 15, which has the symbol in both places. Tis symbol wasalso used in the neighboring of Teadelpheia.43Perhaps one can seein this symbol in extremeVerschleifung.

42Te symbol is found in SB 5.7532.2 (Nilopolis, 74 BCE) for , recognizedby Youtie in his re-edition: H.C. Youtie, P.Mich. inv. 6051 = Sammelbuch V 7532, ZPE12 (1973) 169 (repr. in Scriptiunculae Posteriores1 [Bonn 1981] 87).

43 P.Reinach 1.42.10 n.: Le signe imparfaitement rendu par signifie peut-tre [sic]. Any doubt is erased by the present text. See also P.Berl.Leihg. 1.22

(Teadelpheia, 155 CE), 1.27 (Teadelpheia, 167 CE), and 1.29 (Lagis, 164 CE), wherea symbol similar to the aroura symbol seems to stand for , andBGU 15.2477(Arsinoite nome, first century CE).


15/49


Fragments a+b+c+d 1 [ ] . .

()

()

()

()

[ . . ] . . [ . ] . . . . . [][a 2 ]( ) . . . [ ca. 10 ] . [ . ] . [ . . . ] ()

() []() () [ () ]() [ ca. 3] . [

3 ] () [ ] (). [] () []() () () . [ ca. 8 ], []() [

b 4 ] [] () () () ()

() () () () []( ) ()

() []() () () [ Xc 5 ] o

() () () () () ()() [()] [] ()[ () () () () () NN

6 ] (- ) () []

[

7 ] () () () () () [()]

() () [

d 8 ] ( ) [] () () () () () () () () . [

9 ] [ ] [] () () () .

[-e 10 ] []() ()

() () () () ()() () [ ()

11 ] [ ]() ()() () () ()(). (- ) [() NN

f 12 ] . . [( )] [] [] () () () () () ()

[]

() [ ]

()

[ (?)


16/49


13 ] [] ()(), () () ()

() , \/ () () [() 14 ] []() [] (),

() () () , () () [

g 15 ] [] () () () () () () () [] []() () () []() () [

16 ] () () ()() [][()] ()

() () () () . [

h 17 ] [ ] () () () () () () ()() () () () [

18 ] () () [] () () () () () () () () [

i 19 ] . [] () ()

() () () () () [] () () ()() () ()() () () [()

j 20 ] . ( ) [ . . ] . . () () ()() () () () () () () () () ()[()

k 21 ] M[] [] () () () ()

[ 22 ] () [] () ()

() () , () () . [.

l 23 ] . . [] () () () [()] ()() () [] () () () () () ()[

24 ] [](). ()

() () . () ()() . . . . ( ) () . . ( ) [


17/49


m 25 ] . [] () () () () . [ 3-4 ] . ( ) () []() []()

() () () () () [

26 -] [] [] () () ()() () () . . [

27 ] [() ] [] [] () [

n 28 ] . . () [] [] ()

() [- ](- ) (-) ( )() () ()(?) ()(?) [

o 29 ()] () () [()] () () () () [] (). () [()

p 30 ] () () () () []() () [ ] () ()

() () () ()() () ()(?) . . ( ) . ( ) [

31 ] [ . . ]( ) (- ) (- ?) (/-) () () () () , () () () () () . [

q 32 () ] [()] () () () () () () () []() () () () () ()

() () () () [()] [] [

33 ] () () () () () () (), ()

() () (). [].vacat

r 34 ] () () ( ) () () . [ . ] . . [ . . ] [


18/49


35 ] () () ()() [] (). [] []

() () () [()][]() (), [

s 36 ] () () () () () () () [][][] () [()] () () () [

t 37 ] . . . . () [] () () () ()() ( )? []() () () () () () [][]() [

38 ] () []() ()() . . vacat

u 39 ] . . . . . . . [](-) () () () () () () () () () () () () () [

v 40 ] . . . ( ) () ()() () [] () ()[] () () () () [

41 ] . . . []() [] (). . vacat

w 42 ] [()] () () ()() []() () () ()() () () ( ) () ()() () . [

x 43 - ] () () () [] () () () () ()() () () ()

() [()44 ]() () () [] () (- )

() () () (). (- ) (- ) [

y 45 ] (- ) [] . . . ( ) () () . []() . [3-4]. () ()() [] () () () () () () () [

z 46 - ] . . . [ . ][ . . ] () ()

() () () () ()() () . . . . ( )(?) . . . . [


19/49


47 ] . . () []() () () () () () ()()

(). () ()

(- )

[

1 l. (), ] [], () Preisigke 2passim l. 4pas-sim l. 6 l. , 7 l. 8 passim l. 11, 44l. 19, 36 l. 24 l. 27 l. , -. 19, 36 l. 24 l. 27 l. , - 19, 36 l. 24 l. 27 l. , -19, 36 l. 24 l. 27 l. , -l. 24 l. 27 l. , -. 24 l. 27 l. , -l. 27 l. , -. 27 l. , -l. , -. , - 31 l. , l. (- ?)

Fragment e

] . [ ] . . . . . [

] . . [

] [

5 ] [

] . [

] ()(?) ()(?) . . . [

] [

] . . . . . . [

10 ] . . . . . [

] . . . [

] . . . . . . . . [

] . . . . . [

15 ][

] . . . [

[Year X of Imperator Caesar Domitianus Augustus Germanicus ] thewriting office of Polydeukeia and Sethrenpaei of the Temistos meris themonth ybi [

a Horos acknowledges] to Sansneus son of NN, about 50 years old,scar below his right cheek, that he has received [from him by measure] a loanof wheat [ and that he will repay in the month of X ] of the present year [atthe village] of Sethrenpaei. Signatories, for Horos: Harpokration son of Herak-village] of Sethrenpaei. Signatories, for Horos: Harpokration son of Herak-village] of Sethrenpaei. Signatories, for Horos: Harpokration son of Herak-] of Sethrenpaei. Signatories, for Horos: Harpokration son of Herak-of Sethrenpaei. Signatories, for Horos: Harpokration son of Herak-Sethrenpaei. Signatories, for Horos: Harpokration son of Herak-Sethrenpaei. Signatories, for Horos: Harpokration son of Herak-. Signatories, for Horos: Harpokration son of Herak-Signatories, for Horos: Harpokration son of Herak-for Horos: Harpokration son of Herak-for Horos: Harpokration son of Herak-Horos: Harpokration son of Herak-Horos: Harpokration son of Herak-: Harpokration son of Herak-Harpokration son of Herak-son of Herak-son of Herak-of Herak-of Herak-Herak-Herak-

leides, about X years old ... ; and for Sansneus: the aforementioned [b NN acknowledges] to Philippos son of Philippos, about 54 yearsold, scar on his right eyebrow, that he has received from him, by hand, an


20/49


interest-bearing loan o orty (?) drachmas o silver and the price o [Xartabas] o resh, clean, unadulterated wheat [

c Maronis with her guardian], her son Didymos the son o Hierax,about 22 years old, scar on his lef knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-22 years old, scar on his lef knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-years old, scar on his lef knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-old, scar on his lef knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-old, scar on his lef knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-, scar on his lef knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-scar on his lef knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-on his lef knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-on his lef knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-his lef knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-his lef knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-lef knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-lef knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-knee and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-and a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-a prominent lef eye, [acknowl-prominent lef eye, [acknowl-prominent lef eye, [acknowl-lef eye, [acknowl-lef eye, [acknowl-eye, [acknowl-eye, [acknowl-, [acknowl-acknowl-edges] to apontos the daughter o Papontos, about [53] years old, [scar onthe lef side o her jaw, with her husband NN as guardian ] on the lef (?) that she has received rom her an installment o rent and additional contri-that she has received rom her an installment o rent and additional contri-she has received rom her an installment o rent and additional contri-she has received rom her an installment o rent and additional contri-has received rom her an installment o rent and additional contri-has received rom her an installment o rent and additional contri-received rom her an installment o rent and additional contri-received rom her an installment o rent and additional contri-rom her an installment o rent and additional contri-rom her an installment o rent and additional contri-her an installment o rent and additional contri-her an installment o rent and additional contri-an installment o rent and additional contri-an installment o rent and additional contri-installment o rent and additional contri-installment o rent and additional contri-o rent and additional contri-o rent and additional contri-rent and additional contri-rent and additional contri-and additional contri-and additional contri-additional contri-additional contri-contri-contri-butions or the (property) that apontos is leasing, with her aorementioned[husband] as surety [ ] up to and including the month o Mecheir o thepresent year and that Maronis will bring no legal action against apontos norher aorementioned husband concerning [

d NN and NN] son o []on, Persians o the epigone, mutual sure-ties or ull repayment, [acknowledge] to Deios son o Sambas, about 22 yearsold, scar below the right side o his jaw, that they have received rom him aninterest-bearing loan o thirty drachmas o silver [ and that they will repay]in the month o Soterios o the present year, regardless o other debts whichthe acknowledging parties have with Sambas, the deceased ather o Deios.Signatory/-ies [

e NN ] and his wie Termoutharion daughter o another Ptolemaios,about 30 years old, scar on her lef arm, with her aorementioned husband as

guardian, mutual sureties [or ull repayment, acknowledge to Eudaimon ]and one tenth by the public our-choinixmeasure o the granary that Eudaimonis leasing, and that they will repay in the month o Soterios o the present year.Signatory or the acknowledging parties: [

f Papontos ] on the right [ acknowledges] to Dioskoros son oDemetrios, tailor, about 32 years old, scar on the little finger o his lef hand,that he, Papontos, will provide his son Onnophris, likewise a tailor (?) [ ev-ery] day without cause or punishment wherever Dioskoros orders him. otalpay: or the first year, 40 drachmas; or the second year, which is the last year

[ ] with Dioskoros being responsible or the taxes on the trade. For eachday on which he (the boy) is not present, let him (the ather) pay a 1-drachmapenalty. Afer the expiration o the contract, let Dioskoros present [

g NN acknowledges] to Didymos son o Hierax, about 22 years old,scar on his lef knee and a prominent lef eye, that he has received rom him,at once, an interest-bearing loan o twelve drachmas o silver and the price obeans [ ] by the public our-choinixmeasure o Didymos mothers granary,the one in Polydeukeia, and that he will repay in the month o Soterios o thepresent year, regardless o other debts which NN [has with Didymos

h NN and] his mother apontos daughter o Papontos, Persian, about53 years old, scar on the lef side o her jaw, with her aorementioned son as


21/49


guardian, mutual sureties or ull repayment, [acknowledge] to Maronis [ that they have received rom her] a loan o sixty drachmas o silver and five

artabas o pure, unadulterated wheat, by Maronis public six-choinixmeasure,and that they will repay in the month o Soterios o the present year [

i NN acknowledges] to Herakleides son o Herakleides, about 40years old, without distinguishing marks, that he has received rom him bymeasure a loan o twenty-our artabas o pure, unadulterated wheat, by thepublic our-choinixmeasure, and that he will repay in the month o Soterioso the present [year

j NN ] on his right [acknowledges] to the aorementioned Ision , about 31 years old, scar on the little finger o his lef hand, that he has received

rom him by measure a loan o five and a quarter artabas o pure, unadulteratedwheat, by the public measure [

k NN acknowledges] to Mystarion son o Akousilaos alias Mystes,about 21 years old, without distinguishing marks, that he has received romhim the price o newly pressed wine rom the produce that Si[] has pur-chased () [ ] ten Arsinoite jars by the measure o the same vineyardand that he will repay at the winepress in the month o Kaisareios o the presentyear, with Mustarion providing the jars. Te rest accordingly.

l NN acknowledges to NN] son o Ptolemaios, about 35 years old,

scar on the little finger o his lef hand, that he has received rom him, by hand,sixty drachmas o silver and in lieu o interest, as well as necessities and cloth-ing, that he will provide [ the slave NN ] all the things ordered. For eachday she (the slave girl) is not present, let him (the son o Ptolemaios) pay a1-drachma penalty. Afer the expiration o the contract, let him pay back theX drachmas and NN will give or the slave girl [

m NN ] and his wie Hero daughter o Horion, Persian, about 23years old, prominent scar and a noticeable squint, with her aorementionedhusband as guardian, mutual sureties or ull repayment, [acknowledges to

Dionysios that they have received rom him -]ty eight or the price o barleywhich they, the acknowledging parties, bought and received rom Dionysiosby measure at the village o Autodike in the same meris[ ] that they, theacknowledging parties, will make repayment to Dionysios within the graceperiod that they asked or, in the month o Soterios o the present year, withoutdelay [

n NN and NN ] both sons o Ischyrion and Chairas son o Ptol-NN and NN ] both sons o Ischyrion and Chairas son o Ptol-emaios, about 45 years old, scar near his right eyebrow, all three Persians o theepigone, mutual sureties or ull repayment, [acknowledge] to Ploution son o

Ploution, assistant, that they, the acknowledging parties (?) [


22/49


o NN acknowledges to NN about] 44 [years old], scar on his rightcal, that he has received rom him, by hand, rom the house, an interest-bear-

ing loan o one hundred drachmas o silver, and that he will repay in the montho Sotereios o the present year. Signatory or the [acknowledging parties:

p NN acknowledges] to Dionysios son o Deios, about 30 years old,scar on his lef cheek, that he has sold to him or the purpose o cutting anddrying, rom the katoikic land belonging to the acknowledging party nearPhilagris, two arouras with a sufficient crop o unadulterated grass [ onbehal ] o the deficit public registration (?) the crops o the previous year,40 drachmas o silver, and on behal o the pious offering and the dike tax orthe fields belonging to him, the remaining 16 drachmas. NN is guarantor [

q Panesneus son o NN ] about 64 years old, scar by his lef (?) knee andArtemas son o Ischyrion, about 35 years old, scar on his nose, and Ischyrasson o Anoubion, about 36 years old, scar on his lef knee, and Quintus son oDionysios, about 39 years old, scar on the right side o his jaw, the 4 men [ ]Signatories, or the acknowledging party: Herakleides son o Ptolemaios, about67 years old, scar on the lef side o his jaw; and or Panesneus and company:the aorementioned Ischyras son o Anoubion. And the rest accordingly.

r NN ] eyebrow, and Lykas, also known as Socrates, son o Harmo-NN ] eyebrow, and Lykas, also known as Socrates, son o Harmo-dios, about 25 years old, without distinguishing marks, the 2 men Persians o

the epigone, mutual sureties or ull repayment, [acknowledge] to Apolloniadaughter o Artemidoros, about years old, with NN as her guardian[ ]by the public our-choinixmeasure and that he will make repayment rom thenew (crops) in the month o Sotereios o the present year. Signatories, or theacknowledging parties: Herakleides son o Ptolemaios, about 67 years old, scaron the lef side o the jaw; and or [

s ... acknowledges] to NN son o Ebenos, about 78 (?) years old, scaron his right cal, that he has received rom him, by hand, an interest-bearingloan o orty-our drachmas o silver and the price o new, pure, unadulterated

wheat [t NN ] and Herakles son o Tithoes, about 33 years old, scar on the

side o his right wrist, the 2 men Persians o the epigone (?), mutual sureties orull repayment, [acknowledge] to Philippos son o Philippos, about 54 yearsold, scar on his right eyebrow, that they have received rom him the price [ and that they will repay in the month o X] o the present year, regardless oother debts that the acknowledging party Herakles, the loom-master, owes toPhilippos. And the rest accordingly.

u NN ] on the lef [acknowledges] to the aorementioned Philip-NN ] on the lef [acknowledges] to the aorementioned Philip-

pos son o Philippos, about 54 years old, scar on his right eyebrow, that he has


23/49


received rom him, by hand, the price o three artabas o new, pure, unadulter-ated mustard [

v NN acknowledges] to []ron son o Maron, Persian o the epigone,about 34 years old, scar on his right cal, and to his wie Ptolema daughter oAneiketes, Persian, about 29 years old, without distinguishing marks, withher aorementioned husband as guardian[that he has received rom them x drachmas] at an interest rate o one drachma per mina each month and thathe will repay in the month o Germanikeios o the present year. And the restaccordingly.

w NN acknowledges] to the aorementioned Philippos son o Philip-NN acknowledges] to the aorementioned Philippos son o Philip-pos, about 54 years old, scar on his right eyebrow, that he has received rom

him, by hand, the price o two artabas o mustard and one o beans, both new,pure, unadulterated [

x Apollo- ... ], scar over his right knee, [acknowledges] to Herakleidesson o Sarapion, about 31 years old, without distinguishing marks, that he hasreceived rom him, by hand, an interest-bearing loan o orty drachmas osilver and the price o new, pure beans [ and that he will repay in the montho X] o the present year, regardless o Apollo- s other debts to Herakleides,and with his lease o a plot o land remaining valid under the terms therein.Signatory or Apollo- : Herakleides [son o

y NN scar] on the lef ... and his wie NN daughter o []apion, Per-NN scar] on the lef ... and his wie NN daughter o []apion, Per-sian, about ... years old, scar ... with her husband as guardian, mutual suretiesor ull repayment, [acknowledge] to Philippos son o Philippos, about 54 yearsold, scar on the right eyebrow, that they have received [rom him

z Askl- son o] NN and NN son o Hekaton, about 55 years old, scaron the middle o his nose, [acknowledge] to Aphrodisios son o Apion, about77 years old, scar on his right wrist, that they have received rom him [ ] the price o three artabas o new, pure, unadulterated wheat by the publicour-choinixmeasure and that they will repay in the month o Sotereios o the

present year. Signatories or Askl- : Quintus [son o ...

1 Only a ew ragments o preserve the documents heading.In its barest orm it was simply the ull date o the first contract registered inthe during the particular period. For instance, P.Mich. inv. 947.1has , ollowed by twocontracts, then the day date beore the third contract.44Sebastos (Toth) wasthe first month o the Egyptian year and thereore one presumes that this docu-ment originally covered the first our months in ull.P.Mich. 5.241 has a similar

44Husselman (n. 4) 227, confirmed on autopsy.


24/49


heading, but the day is lost in a lacuna. Te present , however, clearlypreserves a uller heading than these examples and a better parallel is P.Mich.

2.121v, the completely-preserved : () / . ()() () (). / () .

() . (ll. 1-3).From this parallel, we might expect the imperial dating ormula to have

stood in the lacuna to the lef, perhaps ollowed by ] 45()() . Ten, in our papyrus, the merisis indicated, afer whichthe nome designation perhaps ollowed, though it would have been heavily ab-breviated, especially i was indeed written out in ull: e.g. ()

() or even simply ().46Finally, ollowing []

[, we

would expect the day o the first contract i we ollow the Michigan parallels.47

- : Located near Polydeukeia and Teadelpheia.48Tis exactspelling o the village name is ound elsewhere only in P.Meyer 7, an advancesale o black beans also drawn up in the o Polydeukeia during Domi- o Polydeukeia during Domi-o Polydeukeia during Domi-tians reign (95 CE: BL 3.106) and the most important parallel or many o thecontracts abstracted in the present document.49Tis contract requires thatdelivery be made (l. 16), which is ound in the first

contract o our document (l. 3).

a 2 From to the beginning o there are traces o ink above the line;on the photograph it is difficult to tell i these are intentional or not.

- [ () ]() [: Given the space in-() [: Given the space in-) [: Given the space in-) [: Given the space in-[: Given the space in-[: Given the space in-: Given the space in-: Given the space in-Given the space in-volved and comparison with the other loans in kind, the previously unattestedphrase (see l. 19 n.) ought to be supplied here.

45Preisigkes ] is also possible: see n. 47.46Perhaps written like () in l. 22.47 F. Preisigke read the first line as ollows: ] [] []()

() () [ . . . . . . ] () [ x () . (F. Preisigke, Girowesen im griechischen gypten, enthaltend Korngiro,Geldgiro, Girobanknotariat mit Einschluss des Archivwesens. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichtedes Verwaltungsdienstes im Altertume[Strasbourg 1910] 432). is possible, but I can- is possible, but I can-is possible, but I can-not see his .

48rismegistos Geo, s.v. Sethrempais (http://www.trismegistos.org/place/2122).49Unortunately, this document was destroyed during World War II (http://www.

trismegistos.org/text/11961), so the handwriting and physical eatures cannot be com-pared with the present text.


25/49


3 [ ] (), indicating where the wheat should be re-[ ] (), indicating where the wheat should be re-[ ] (), indicating where the wheat should be re- ] (), indicating where the wheat should be re-] (), indicating where the wheat should be re-] (), indicating where the wheat should be re-] (), indicating where the wheat should be re- (), indicating where the wheat should be re-(), indicating where the wheat should be re-(), indicating where the wheat should be re-(), indicating where the wheat should be re-), indicating where the wheat should be re-), indicating where the wheat should be re-turned: c. P.Meyer 7.16 (Polydeukeia, 95 CE), discussed above in l. 1 n.

- [](): A dative does not make sense here and I presume thedark spot above the iota, i meaningul ink, indicates an abbreviation.

b 4 Tis Philippos son o Philippos also appears as lender/purchaser in t(l. 37),u (l. 39), w (l. 42), andy (l. 45). See discussion above.

- (ofen with ) effectively signifies a private cash trans- (ofen with ) effectively signifies a private cash trans- (ofen with ) effectively signifies a private cash trans- (ofen with ) effectively signifies a private cash trans- (ofen with ) effectively signifies a private cash trans-(ofen with ) effectively signifies a private cash trans- ) effectively signifies a private cash trans-) effectively signifies a private cash trans-) effectively signifies a private cash trans-) effectively signifies a private cash trans-action, as opposed to a bank transaction.50

- []( ): Given the range o the loan amounts in this document

(12-100 drachmas), []() is preerable to []

(),even i the latter cannot be absolutely excluded.

- () (): Bearing the conventional interest.51

c 5-7 Contract c is a receipt or two months rent paid in advance. Te typeo property leased is missing or omitted, but was likely an olive or date-palmorchard (see note on (), l. 7). Te contracts finds a close parallel inP.Soter. 7 (Teadelpheia, 91 CE), a receipt or rent o a date-palm grove.52Terental payment in such prodomatic leases has been understood either as alegal fiction, designed as a means or the lessor to pay off some obligationto the lessee,53or as effectively a covert loan rom lessee to lessor,54in eithercase sometimes indicative o financial stress on the part o the lessor.55Giventhat Maronis later extends a loan o 60 drachmas and five artabaso wheatto apontos (h, ll. 17-18), and that her son is also a creditor (g, ll. 15-16), herfinancial position seems to be secure.

5 []: Almost certainly the same woman as in h,based on the patronymic and her association with Maronis (see introductionabove). Her here is her husband, as one can deduce rom l. 7. In h,

apontos son acts as her , since he is also party to the contract.

50H. Khnert, Zum Kreditgeschf in den hellenistischen Papyri gyptens bis Diokle-tian(Freiburg 1965) 145, and H.-A. Rupprecht,Untersuchungen zum Darlehen im Rechtder graeco-aegyptischen Papyri der Ptolemerzeit (Munich 1967) 29-31. On the develop-ment o this phrase, see Pringsheim 1950 (n. 30) 74-77.

51See P.W. Pestman, Loans Bearing No Interest?JJP16 (1971) 11.52See generally Herrmann (n. 26) 229-235.53Kehoe (n. 37) 154.54Herrmann (n. 26) 232.55J. Rowlandson, Landowners and Tenants in Roman Egypt: the Social Relations o

Agriculture in the Oxyrhynchite Nome(Oxord 1996) 264-266. C. Pringsheim 1950(n. 30) 302.


26/49


6 : Properly, in installments, but here as an installment,indicating that this is only a partial payment of rent. It is not found in other

receipts for rental payments, but occasionally in similar documents: cf. P.Mich.18.792.15 n. (Oxyrhynchos, 221 CE).

- (): Extra payments made in-kind. In der Regel kommen-Abreden bei der Verpachtung von Fruchtgrten, inbesondere vonOliven- und Palmengrten vor.56

7 Te beginning of the line can be restored: (or ) ] ()() , meaning, up to and including the month Mecheir of thecurrent year. Since this contract was made in early ybi, two months advance

rent was paid. - (): Here and elsewhere one might be tempted toread () (), but the shape of the final sigmais influenced bythe following year sign (somewhat similar final sigmas can be seen in [l. 6] and [l. 16]). In any case, the honorary month Soterios was onlyintroduced in Domitians 8th year (see l. 9 n.).

d 8 ] ( ): he end of a patronymic (cf. the end of, l. 43), before which stood or , indicating that the

borrowers were brothers. For the symbol, see the description above.Since the next line continues this contract, we expect an advance sale, a loanin kind, or the terms of interest (cf. contract v, l. 41) to follow in the lacunabetween ll. 8 and 9.

9 [: Tis honorific month equates to Pharmouthi un-: Tis honorific month equates to Pharmouthi un-der Nero57and to Payni under Domitian.58In Pharmouthi, the grain harvesthad just begun, while Payni is the normal month for the return of loans ofwheat and barley in the Arsinoite nome, when the grain harvest was wrappingup;59we should therefore equate Soterios with Payni and accordingly date this

to Domitians reign. But we can further refine the dating: Soterios

56Herrmann (n. 26) 115. See also the fundamental note of A. Berger, Die Straflauselnin den Papyrusurkunden. Ein Beitrag zum grko-gyptischen Obligationenrecht(Leipzig-Berlin 1911) 156, n. 2, and for a recent analysis of such extra payments in Byzantinepapyri, K.A. Worp, Deliveries for in Byzantine Papyri, in . Gagos and R.S.Bagnall (eds.),Essays and exts in Honor o J.David Tomas(Oakville 2001)51-68.

57 C. Balconi, Su alcuni nomi onorifici di mesi nel calendario egiziano, ZPE 59(1985) 88.

58Balconi (n. 57) 87-88; K. Scott Greek and Roman Honorific Months, Yale Clas-sical Studies2 (1931) 258.

59Herrmann (n. 26) 107-08 and H.C. Youtie and O.M. Pearl, P.Mich.6.375, p. 41.


27/49


(along with Domitianos) was only introduced in Domitians 8th year,60so this can be dated to the fairly narrow window of 88-96 CE.

- : Found also in g (l. 16) and t (l. 38), theformula ensures that previous debts are not affected by the new transaction(see P.Mich.12.633.30-31 n. for parallels).

e 11 [ ]() ()() () () : For leases of granaries, see Chrest.Wilck. 192 (Soknopaiou Nesos,94 CE) and the petition P.Mich. 5.226 (ebtynis, 37 CE), as well as Hussel-mans discussion of these texts in relation to the physical remains of granariesat Karanis.61A leased granary was previously unattested in the measurement

standards clause of contracts. One wonders if the common granary of so-and-so encompassed granaries both rented and owned. For another specific andpreviously-unattested description of granary, see contract g, l. 16, and on thedifferent types of measures, see R. Mairs typological study.62

f 12-14 Contract f is a service or apprenticeship contract in which Pa-pontos provides his son Onnophris to the tailor Dioskoros for two years at awage () of 40 drachmas for the first year (the next years salary is lost).Dioskoros is to cover the tax on the tailoring trade63and Papontos faces a one-drachma fine for each day his son is absent from work (cf. l, l. 24). Te possiblereference to the son already as a tailor (()

[ (?), l. 12) and the use

of in the same line, point to a regular service contract, while the(presumably) rising pay scale, which anticipates the boys improved skill and

value, is characteristic of an apprenticeship contract.64

12 []: Restored with reference to the end of line.

60D. Hagedorn, Entsprach der Monat Domitianos in gypten dem Phaophi oderdem Hathyr? ZPE159 (2007) 263-264.

61E.M. Husselman, Te Granaries of Karanis, TAPA83 (1952) 66-67.62R. Mairs, An Early Roman Application for Lease of a Date Crop (P. Duk. inv.85)

and the Six-Choinix Measure of the Hermeneus, ZPE172 (2010) 186-189.63On the , see S.L. Wallace, Taxation in Egypt: from Augustus to Diocletian

(Princeton 1938) 191-213 (pp. 202 and 212 on the meager evidence for taxes specificto tailors), and F. Reiter, Die Nomarchen des Arsinoites. Ein Beitrag zum Steuerwesen imrmischen gypten (Paderborn 2004) 111-112.

64On the close relationship between these types of contracts, see B. Adams, Para-mon und verwandte Texte. Studien zum Dienstvertrag im Rechte der Papyri (Berlin1964) 125-144.


28/49


- : Te avored term in service contracts o different types,65but ound rarely in apprenticeship contracts as well.66

- Afer we are clearly looking or a relation (amily or slave)and name in the accusative. Te ending -, which seems secure, can hardlybe anything but the name (and the trace between the two gaps isprobably the first nu), but this leaves little room or . A comparison with() in l. 17 suggests that the trace o ink raised above line afer the first lacunais a raised omicron, probably giving us .

13 : A small piece o the main ragment is not in the correctposition and has been raised in the ollowing image to align the two parts o

the omega.

Te boy must appear or work every day without cause or punishment.Tis sense o , which usually means in an undisciplined manner,licentiously, is not recorded in LSJ or DGE67(both s.v. ), but theconstruction can be paralleled with, e.g., .

- (): Te papyrus is also misaligned here. o clariy thisreading, here is an adjusted image o this word, along with the previous lineto show that the alignment is correct:

in general relative clauses in contracts is more usual in the Ptolemaicperiod and is rare afer Augustus reign, occurring thereafer only in Chrest.Wilck. 443.16 (receipt, 15 CE), P.Oxy. 2.278 (lease o a mill, 17 CE), and P.Mich.

65E.g., nursing (C.Pap.Gr. 1.33), service in a pottery (P.Mich. 5.241.25-28), weaving(P.Mich. 5.355), general service o slave (C.Pap.Gr. 1.4).

66P.Oxy.Hels. 29.7 and SB 20.15162.6. Te usual verb is : c. M. Bergamasco,Le nella ricerca attuale,Aegyptus75 (1995) 99-100. also appearsin the clause o apprenticeship contracts requiring daily attendance: Bergamasco (this

n.) 128, n. 100.67F.R. Adrados (ed.), Diccionario Griego-Espaol (Madrid 1989-2009) via DGE en

lnea (http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge/).


29/49


5.266 (conveyance, 38 CE) and 276 (sale, 47 CE). Te use o the middle voicewith the same meaning as the active order is rare: P.Mich. 5.276, P.Dion.33.9,

and PSI 10.1098.24 are the only other parallels that I have ound. Te editoro the last text did not have parallels at the time, which presumably promptedhis emendation o the verb to the active voice; the evidence now allows us toaccept this middle meaning.68

- : In leases, the phrase / is common, but I have not ound this exact phrase elsewhere.

14 (): Te reading is difficult, but I believe secure. C.contract l (l. 24), P.Tebt. 2.384.32 (ebtynis, 10 CE, apprenticeship contract),

and P.Mich. 5.355.12 (ebtynis, ca. 48-56 CE, service contract). - () (): Te use o this verbhere does not find precise parallels in the surviving service and apprenticeshipcontracts.69Te clause seems to ensure that the boy will be returned (present-ed) to Papontos at the end o the contract or, i indeed this is an apprenticeshipcontract, presented as having learned the skill.

g 16 [][()] () () (): Another unparalleled description o a granary (c. contract e,

l. 11). Tis level o specification perhaps suggests that Didymos mother ownedmore than one granary in the vicinity.

h 17-18 Tis is almost certainly the same Maronis who acknowledged thereceipt o rent paid in advance rom apontos in contract c: see introductionabove.

18 () () () () must reer to thesame granary as in l. 16.

i 19 (): Also inj (l. 20) and m(l. 26), where it is written out in

the genitive, and restored in a (l. 2). As ar as I can tell, this phrase is unattestedin published documentary texts, although it also appears in the P.Fay. 294 descr., col. 1.11, rom Euhemereia, images o which are availablethrough the Photographic Archive o Papyri in the Cairo Museum.70It showsup occasionally in literature, but the meaning in meter is o course irrelevant

68On other uses o , see J.D. Tomas, A note on SB X 10728 and some useso , ZPE160 (2007) 208-210.

69 in contracts is more ofen ound in Ptolemaic leases in the clause

guaranteeing that the land be returned in suitable condition (e.g., P.Tebt. 1.105.25).70http://ipap.csad.ox.ac.uk/4DLink4/4DACION/IPAPwebquery?vPub=P.Fay.&v

Vol=&vNum=294, accessed August 29, 2013.


30/49


here. Alternatively, one could read . Te word , however,appears in only our texts, all rom the third century BCE, and none offers a

promising parallel.71In our papyrus, the phrase appears only in in-kind loansand in each such loan that has this part o the abstract preserved. In this con-tract, j, and where I have restored it in a, it appears afer , whichis where we find the common phrase in money loans and advancesales. I thereore suggest that is emulating this well-known ormulaand indicates the manner o delivery. We might also compare the collation o and in in-kind loans rom Oxyrhynchus (e.g., P.Mert.1.14, 103 CE).

j 20 Since the contract began on this line, it is difficult to see how Isioncould already have been mentioned. Was he the ather o the borrower? Is thisa mistake? Or perhaps a reerence internal to the ? C. Philippos sono Philippos, involved in five contracts, who is described as aorementionedin ll. 39 and 42, in the same position o the contract as here.

k 21-22 Contract k is an advance sale o wine, a close parallel or which isP.Athen. 23 (Teadelpheia, 82 CE). See the general discussion above.

21 () (): C. P.Athen. 23.11-12. Te adjective is rare, securely attested only in this parallel passage and twice in abstracts obank rom the second-century Arsinoite (P.Ross.Georg. 2.18.262andP.Ross.Georg. 2.36.10). It should be connected to the more common phrase , which is attested in all periods.72Te editor o P.Athen. 23 inter-preted as (ll. 11-12 n.) andthe editor o the bank offered Fasswein (?). Tese interpretationsrest on the assumption that ofen denoted a storage vat o some sort,distinct rom the press, but D. Rathbone has made a strong case or interpret-ing it as the area with a raised border in which the grapes were trodden orpressed, by extension meaning the wine-press as a whole, and even the winethererom.73For technical and economic reasons, most Egyptian wine was

71P.Hib. 1.110.14; P.Cair.Zen. 3.59333.31 and 75; P.Cair.Zen. 4.59669.12; and P.Corn.3. Te editors o the first text pointed to Plut. Vit.Dem. 40, where the word means sol-diers rations, but settled on difference o measure, an equivalent o . Teeditor o P.Cair.Zen. 3.59333 noted that in his examples, it cannot reer to a differencebetween two standards o measure, because both quantities received those given outare measured by the (l. 31 n.). Finally, the editors o P.Corn. 3, returnedto the original parallel in Plutarch and tentatively interpreted as a payment

or police protection.72On such contractual descriptions o wine, see Jakab,Risikomanagement(n. 35) 125.73Rathbone (n. 37) 254.


31/49


transerred straight rom the press into jars and not aged or very long at all(an aged Egyptian wine that had not become sour or spoiled was a rare and

valued commodity).74In the present case, then, wine that is new and romthe should speciy the common process by which the vintage, reshrom the treading or pressing vat, was put straight into (l. 22), and notstored away in an intermediate stage.

- [: C. P.Athen. 23.12-14. On the ar-rangements o a , see the discussion above. Te verb is ound only inP.Athen. 23, P.Oxy. 4.728, and PSI 7.814. In the latter two cases, the active ormo the verb means to sell the produce o, with as its object (P.Oxy.

4.728.1-8), and the middle orm means to purchase the produce;

75

but inP.Athen. 23 the subject o is the party selling the produce in advanceand thus he must have rights to the produce. Te editors interpretation (ll. 12-14 n.) that the role o the active and middle voices has been switched in thiscase, however, I believe is not quite satisactory. Te other examples employpast tenses o the verb, indicating that the transaction has been completed (asis natural in contracts that give legal validation to agreements already made).Te present orm in P.Athen. 23, then, would have to mean that the agreementwas being transacted at that very moment (whether buying or selling), which is

not possible, since the subject o is agreeing to dispose o a crop thathe already has rights to. Te verb in the Athens text and the current example,thereore, should mean be a over, have rights o over.

22 ] (): A poorly attested measure. See P.Sijp. 44.7n., where the editor suggests the possibility that it equals the six-/ o the Ptolemaic period. In the Roman period, we find theOxyrhynchite our- (PSI 12.1249.20) and a our-measurein P.Oslo. 2.43.1, SB 6.9569.14, 18, and 26, and SB 16.12515.37.

- () (): C. P.Athen. 23.15. Te pouring o thewine into is to take place at the same vineyard (named

74 Rathbone (n. 37) 253-258. C. the labor contract P.Oxy. 47.3354.16-17 (257CE), where the tasks include testing the jars destined or the annual wine ( ), which is mentioned just aferwork relative to the (ll. 15-16) and just beore the filling o the jars with wine (l.17), suggesting that the jars were filled directly rom or at the . Te jars are thenplaced in the (or ermentation and decanting: see Jakab, [n. 35, 2009]24-27) and watched over until disposed o (ll. 17-18). A urther stage o the process or

wines destined or more distant markets is reflected in P.Sarap. 56.27-28: ()() () () () .

75C. Pringsheim (n. 30) 305-306.


32/49


in the lacuna, or at least in the original contract: c. P.Athen. 23.13-14). Tisprotects the contracting parties with an additional layer o precision and can

be paralleled to the mention o a specific afer the measurein grain contracts.76For in the sense o liquid measurement, c. PSI12.1249.26-27 and 1250.5-6, where isparallel to ., as the editor notes (PSI 12.1250, pp. 52-53). Teeditor o P.Athen. 23 arrived at the meaning o measurement by comparingthe phrase 77with , , etc. C. also CPR14.4.11 (sixth century CE), (l. ) with theeditors note.In another advance sale o wine, perhaps rom the Delta, we finda personal : P.Oslo 2.43.3-4 (140-141 CE, Prosopite ?).

- : Equals Mesore,78the usual month or the vintage.

- , () () : C. P.Athen.23.18-19. Ensuring that there were enough containers or the vintage was aperennial problem.79 is a collective singular, as is common or rawmaterials and products thereo.80

- [: C. ll. 33, 38 and 41, where the empty spacesafer the phrase indicate that new contracts were begun on a new line. Tephrase means and the rest accordingly, indicating that urther clauses o thecontract have not been included in the abstract, but are still valid. Tis phraseends most contract abstracts in P.Mich. 2.121r (see p. 21).

l 23-24 Contract l provides or the service o a slave girl in exchange orinterest on a sixty-drachma loan.81Te employer/lender must provide neces-sities and clothing or the duration o the contract, the girl must do everythingordered o her. For every day the girl is absent, the owner/borrower has to pay aone-drachma fine. Te stipulations at the end o l. 24 present some difficulties.

76Pace BL 3.217: bezeichnet die Qualitt des zulieernden Weins.

77Te editor notes the occurrence o this phrase in a handul o Byzantine documents,but it also appears in the second-century Arsinoite at P.Ross.Georg.2.36.11 (mentionedabove, l. 21 n.).

78Scott (n. 58) 253-54.79Jakab (n. 35, 2009) 13-17.80Mayser, Gram.2.1.44-45.81For a detailed discussion o contracts, see Adams (n. 64) and J. Hengstl,

Private Arbeitsverhltnisse freier Personen in den hellenistischen Papyri bis Diokletian(Bonn 1972) 9-34. For a good example o a nearly-complete contract o this type, seeP.Mich.10.587.


33/49


m 25-27 Contract m is a sale o barley on credit with an extension to thedate o repayment. Beore the Byzantine period, sales on credit generally re-

solved into two separate contracts, the cash sale with a fictitious receipt or theprice and the loan contract with a fictitious receipt or the money lent.82Tepresent contract likely took the orm o a loan, but ll. 26-27 shows that Heroand her husband purchased and received barley rom Dionysios and thatthe price (the fictitious loan) was to be paid afer the harvest. Tis later dateo payment was granted as an indulgence o the due date ([]), i.e., a grace period or repayment, a contractual arrangementor which there is only one exact parallel (see l. 27 n.).

25 () () . [ 3-4 ] . ( ) () [](): appears only in two early Ptolemaic documents (CPR 18.14.296 and P.Petr.2

1.24.14). Probably the scar is near the eye or perhaps () was written outo habit and only a prominent or bulging eye is meant. C. P.Mich.5.321.2-3: [] | .

26 ()(): Autodike in the Temistos meris, probably in thesouthern part o the meris, near the border with the Polemon.83It is listed im-mediately beore or afer Polydeukeia in two Ptolemaic administrative texts

(P.Petr.3.81;P.Teb.3.2.1028) and a Roman land cadastre o 216 (P.Strasb. 7.688,col. 1), and had a granary in both the Ptolemaic and Roman (SB 10.10528)periods.

27 [] [] :P.Mich. 9.568-569, re-edited with the aid o new ragments by P. Heilporn,84offers a direct parallel. Lines 9-12 in the new edition o 569 read: [][] |[][ ] [] | [][] [] |[.85Te editor offers a clear description o thearrangement: une est un dlai accord pour le remboursementdune dette de par la bonne volunt et lindulgence du crditeur (l. 11 n., withadditional reerences), although I do not think the word alone had acquiredsuch a technical sense, even in these contracts, because in both cases an objec-

82Pringsheim (n. 30) 245. See pp. 244-268 generally or sales on credit.83rismegistos Geo, s.v Autodike (http://www.trismegistos.org/place/383).84P. Heilporn, Une vieille dette. P. Mich. IX, 568-569 et autres papyrus du grenier

C123 de Karanis, Cd85 (2010) 249-262.85 C. BGU 1.50.9-11 (Arsinoite, 115 CE), where the extension o the

is rendered: | | .


34/49


tive genitive ( , ) is added to speciy what exactly the reers to. Te word should thus have retained its ethical meaning

and connotations. Legally, only the new was pertinent, but reer- was pertinent, but reer-was pertinent, but reer-ence to the creditors generosity was considered important enough to includein these two contracts.86

n 28 Ploution is described as a , an assistant o a tax official87oron a private estate.88

- ()(?) ()(?): Given the position o ( ), we mightexpect it to be the subject o the indirect statement, reerring back to the thethree described in the previous line. Te infinitive verb would

ollow in the lacuna. Te symbol preceding ( )does not, however, resem-( )does not, however, resem-( )does not, however, resem-ble the common abbreviations o the oblique cases o the article, which ofenconsist o a quick, v-shaped tauollowed by a raised omicronor a two-strokeeta.89

p 30-31 Contract p might at first glance appear to be a sale o two arouraso klerouchic land ( ... () ), but since one does not sellbut rather concedes () such land, and on account o the reer-) such land, and on account o the reer-) such land, and on account o the reer-ences to labor ( () [) and the quality o the crop (() () ()), it becomes clear that it is actually the cropthat is being sold.90Green crops seem to be especially prone to such contractual

Mischtypen:91e.g., P.Hamb.1.71 (Philadelpheia, 149 CE),P.Tebt. 2.379 (128 CE),

86Tis added narrative might be compared with the clauses ound in cheirog-

rapha, giving the causa or the transaction. See D.M. Ratzan, A Draf o a Rider to aCession Contract in R. Ast, H. Cuvigny, .M. Hickey, and J. Lougovaya (edd.), Papy-rological Texts in Honor of Roger S. Bagnall (Durham 2013) 267-276 (P.Bagnall 47) ora discussion and list o such clauses.

87Wallace (n. 63) 306 and 309-311.88Rathbone (n. 37) 62.89See the P.Dubl. 7.10 (plate 7) or in this position. I

the ( ) is indeed part o the accusative subject, other possibilities to consider are , , and .

90On the classificatory difficulties that Greek law had with such advance sales o

crops and the concomitant intermixture o legal orms, see Pringsheim (n. 30) 296-309,especially 303. C. the P.Oxy. 4.728, discussed above in l. 21 n.

91On which see in general Rupprecht (n. 30).


35/49


and P.Oxy. 4.728 (Tosbis, 142 CE).92Te present contract seems to mix theorms o the latter two documents: the ebtyniscontract has

... | [] (ll. 6-9), while the Oxyrhynchite text has] ... (ll. 1-8).93Te reerences in the nextline to payments or arrears and taxes, combined with difficult readings in bothlines, urther complicate the picture.

30 ]... (): Scil. or .

- (): A village in the south o the Temistos meris, identifiedwith modern-day Hamuli.94

- : Grass or green crop in general, generally grown or dry

odder, as here.95

31 : Ofen associated with shortalls related to the collections o (BGU 3.908.27 and 976.19), but it also appears in the context oestate management (P.Vind.Tand. 10.48; BGU 2.650.16).

- (- ) (- ?): Perhaps () () (l.). Alternatively, we may take the raised letter in second word asa rhowith almost no head (c. that o (), l. 40) and read ()(). Both phrases would reer to the public registration o a pre-

existing cheirographbetween the parties.96

- : One is tempted to read , so commonly paired withthe , but the reading is clear. Not discussed in Wallace (n. 63), thepoorly attested , or piety levy, seems to have been irregularly raisedor the benefit o the temples. See the evocative letter P.Mert. 2.63, in whichHerennia inorms her ather that certain people are trying to collect romall directions or the Piety o the temple o Souchos, rom everyone, evenRomans and Alexandrians and settlers in the Arsinoite.97

- (): A common money tax assessed on different classes o landor the upkeep o dikes: Wallace (n. 63) 59-61.

92All discussed with relevance to the present text at Pringsheim (n. 30) 301-307.93 C. also the abstract o a similar contract, ramed as a lease, in the Michigan

: P.Mich. 2.121r, col. 3.x.94rismegistos Geo, s.v. Philagris (http://www.trismegistos.org/place/1766).95M. Schnebel, Die Landwirtschaf im hellenistischen Aegypten (Munich 1925) 212.96On this procedure, see Wolff (n. 4) 129-135.97ranslation: R.S. Bagnall and R. Cribiore, Womens Letters rom Ancient Egypt, 300

BC-AD 800(Ann Arbor 2006) 127.


36/49


- [: Te first party guarantees the agreement, likely ensur-: Te first party guarantees the agreement, likely ensur-ing that the land is free from public and private dues not accounted for in the

contract. Cf., e.g., P.Mich. 5.311.22-24: (the lessor) | | . Te abstractsP.Mich. 2.126.27 and P.Mich. 2.121r, col. 3.x.2 retain only , as in thepresent example.

q 33 () (): Te same man as in r, the next contract,and perhaps x. See introduction above.

r 35 : Scil..

- () () [()] []() (

). Te personal description in this line is much obscured, but likely

the same as that in l. 33, as a comparison suggests.

(l. 33)

(l. 35)

t 38 () () . Te word order is strange.Perhaps the purpose of mentioning a title is to distinguish this Herakles fromhis partner, Herakles son of ithoes. If the resolution is correct, this is theearliest datable reference to a , whose role vis--vis the state and

the textile economy is still unclear.98

v 41 []() : Te regular 12% in-() : Te regular 12% in-) : Te regular 12% in-) : Te regular 12% in- : Te regular 12% in- : Te regular 12% in- : Te regular 12% in-: Te regular 12% in-: Te regular 12% in-: Te regular 12% in-terest rate; elsewhere only appears.

- : Equals Pachon.99

98See K. Dross-Krpe, Wolle Weber Wirtschaf. Die Textilproduktion der rmisch-

en Kaiserzeit im Spiegel der papyrologischen berlieerung(Wiesbaden 2011) 160-163,for a list of attestations, along with discussion and earlier literature.

99Scott (n. 58) 249-251 and Balconi (n. 57) 84-87.


37/49


x 43-44 Herakleides and Apollo- clearly have a close financial relationship:besides the present loan and advance sale (l. 43), Apollo- has other debts to

Herakleides and is leasing a plot o land rom him (l. 44).

44 () (): C. the in l. 30; the iotaand epsilonmust havebeen squeezed together unless the scribe simply wrote or . On thephrase, see P.Mich. 18.792.23-24 n. or discussion and reerences.

y 45 () . : Te two hastas o the nuare visible. C. () , im-) , im-) , im-, im-, im-mediately below in l. 46.

2. She Does What She Wants: A Letter Between Siblings

P.Cair. 10862 4 ragments Batn el-Harit (Teadelpheia)P.Fay.344 verso (rag. d: 25 x 20.8 cm) II CE

Te versopreserves writing only on the main ragment (d). Te papyruswas already in poor condition at the time o writing, as evidenced by the holesavoided by the writer.100Te hand is a thick semi-cursive that, while not com-pletely unpracticed, certainly lacks rhythm and regularity. Its irregularitiesstrongly mark it as a personal hand,101rather than that o a trained scribe. Te

beginnings o the two lines o the address affect some flair102

and are writtenmore careully, but by the ends o both lines the hand is indistinguishablerom the bulk o the text. Later lines show a similar pattern o careul begin-nings and progressing haste. Te uniqueness o the hand makes it difficult todate palaeographically. It has some similarities to that o BGU 2.602 (secondcentury CE), though written more quickly and with more irregularities, and itevokes some possibly later hands, such as that o P.Fay.130 (third century CE).Te language o the letter is lively and colloquial, with much direct quotation.Phonetic spellings abound, most prominently in the interchange o or ,103

which occurs in a variety o positions, most requently as the past augment (ll.

100Te tear between the muand omicrono in l. 14 is avoided in this and thenext two lines and was thereore present at the time o writing. Lines 22-23 are slightlyindented because o a tear in the papyrus. Te hole afer is also ancient, break- is also ancient, break-is also ancient, break-ing into two in the next line as well. In l. 11, the raised omegasuggests that therewas perhaps a (smaller) hole here originally.

101On which see Bagnall and Cribiore (n. 97) 45.102Te stylized alpha in the second line strongly resembles the opening alpha in

P.Giss. 20 (ca. 117-118), and, while there are some other similarities, the Giessen handis much more fluid and practiced.

103Gignac, Gram. 1.193.


38/49


3, 8, 9, 14). Other common features are vowel quantity interchanges (omicronfor omega), iotacism, and superfluous iotaadscript.

Because of its orthographic and palaeographic irregularities, the letterpresents many challenges of reading and interpretation. Te basic outlineis clear enough: Ptolemais writes about personal and business affairs to herbrother Papirianus, who has gone upcountry (l. 8) to the metropolis (l. 21)of the nome, Arsinoe. Te pair had a close working relationship and sharedinterests, since Ptolemais refers to instructions that Papirianus had given (ll.3 and 9), either in a previous letter or orally, before leaving, and updates himon matters of family business. Teir shared interests and the general tone ofthe letter prompt the suspicion that Ptolemais and Papirianus were perhaps

united in a sibling marriage.104Foremost in Ptolemais mind is the behavior of a certain albaeis, refer-

ence to whose recalcitrance opens and closes the letter. Ptolemais is clearlyannoyed with albaeis independent behavior she does what she wants (l. 4) but only gives vague reference to the circumstances. albaeis position withinthe family remains elusive. Is she a misbehaving daughter? A stubborn slave?It has even been suggested to me that albaeis is not a person at all, but rathera domestic animal.105Te only thing that can be said with certainty is that herbehavior was not matching Ptolemais expectation of obedience. Business with

three other individuals occupies the middle portion of the letter and one of theconcerns here seems to be raising funds, a perennial problem among villagers.

Ptolemais comes off as a strong-willed, opinionated woman, who hadclearly taken on a degree of authority over family business while Papirianuswas out of town, a common enough scenario for wives in Roman Egypt (ifindeed they were married). Her focus on albaeis behavior is fascinating, buttantalizing since we know nothing further about their relationship.

\/ ., \[]/ , ,

5 .

104Tat this is an actual sibling relationship I believe is confirmed by the third-partyreference in l. 13 (see n.).

105Named animals of course do appear in documents (e.g.,P.Abinn.60), and a horse isgreeted by name in P.Mich. 8.482. Te vocabulary used in regard to albaeis (especially

and the word beginning ) does prompt the suspicion that an animal isbeing discussed, but I think the instructions referred to in ll. 3-4 all but exclude thisinterpretation.


39/49


. . . . , ,

. . . . . [] ,

10 [ . . ] . . (), . .

15 . , () .

[] (). () {}. . . . ,

20 . . -. \/ () \/ . . .

(), .

1 pap. 3, 9 l. 4 l. , 5 l. , 6 l. 7 l. 8. l. , 10 l. 11 pap. 12 l. , 14 l. 19 l