in the household of the archiphylakites Philon (cf. on λειτουργία', my Law II 40/1 ff.). No. 2 is an affidavit of a legionary, T. Fla-vius Longus, an optio of the Legio III Cyrenaica, with the sworn support of his guarantors that he is of free birth and a Roman ci-tizen and has the right to serve in his legion. Tlifc declaration may suggest that his right to serve in the legion had been called in que-stion. The third document is a petition to an eirenophylax by a Ro-man citizen Ulpia Herois with her guardian granted her κατά τα 'Ρωμαίων εθη (cf. mv Law I 13Li) who complains that one Aba-bikis, evidently a tax-collector has attempted to extort payment from a man who is a cripple and therefore exempt from certain charges, certainly from poll-tax by ruling of the prefect (cf. Wal-lace, Taxation in Egypt p. 114). It is presumably from motives of benevolence to her protégé that the application is made. It may be mentioned that the tax-collector was at other times cha-stised for shameless extortion (cf. on corporal punishment my Law I 424). The collector tries to fasten the responsability for his illegal demands upon the village elders. For the responsabilities of the latter in the matter of tax collection see the passages listed by W a l l a c e op. cit. ind. s. v.
Sammelbuch Griechischer Urkunden aus Ägypten, V Bd. 3 Heft No. 8245-8963 (bearbeitet von FRIEDRICH BILABEL, fer-tiggestellt und herausgegeben von EMIL KIESSLING, Wiesba-den 1950).
This volume contains papyri and inscriptions published till 1939. The next volume which is to be expected will contain further texts and indices for the whole volume Y.
P A P Y R I F R O M T H E P T O L E M A I C , R O M A N A N D B Y Z A N T I N E P E R I O D
II. IDRIS BELL and C. H. ROBERTS, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Greek Papyri in the Collection of Wilfred Merton F. S. A. vol. I, London 1948.
The collection consists of 50 documents. No. 4 (III cent. B.C.), a letter of Aristomachus alludes to a sale on delivery (v. 3 ff.) 'Από τώμ πυριδίων ων κατέλιπον ύμϊν δότε Δ'.φίλοл άρτάβην πυρών άποκέ-χρημαι γάρ παρά τοϋ πατρός αύτοΰ τήν τιμήν (cf. my Laiv I 254). No. 19 (173 A.D.) is a sale of a river boat (πάκτων ποτάμιος) with a rudder
and two oars, all of willow-wood (cf. the Byzantine sale of boat P. Mon 4 and 5 verso and the μισθοπρασίαι see my Laiv I 20328, 205). No. 6 (77 B.C.) is a loan of wheat (cf. my Law I 258). No. 14 (103 A.D.) is a loan of corn : its chief point of interest are the men-tions of the θέμα (cf. note 9 : θέμα was used not only of a hank account (Giroguthaben) as a whole hut of any item in it), further (v. 15) the clause regarding a previous loan to the creditor's deceased brother and the fact that the borrower, though described as a Persian of the epigone, is an exegetes or a former exegetes. No. 25 (214 A. D.) is a loan of money (cf. my Law I 258). No 37 (373 A.D.) is a deed of loan of 27 seven art. of wheat. No. 10 (21 A. D.) is a lease of a κλήρος at Philadelphia for three years. In the last year grass is to be sown εις κατάβρωμα και κοιτασμον προβάτων (cf. my Law I 268 note 1) : the contract contains the clause άνυπόλογον παντός υπολόγου (cf. my Law I 271). No. 17 (158 A. D.) is also a lease of land; on the [σπονδή υπέρ της των] δλων μισθώσεως cf. my Laiv 303 ; on άλληλεγγύων εις έκτισιν cf. my Law I 231 ; the lessor retained the ownership of the crop until he recovers the rents (cf. Law I 271). No. 18 (cf. my Laiv I 233) is a contract known as συστατικόν by which three ex-gymnasiarchs of Oxyrhynchus, two of whom had also been high priests, appoint a freedman named Sarapion to act as their representative in a case before the prefect at Alexandria. The case has arisen out of a report submitted to the prefect at the conventus ; it is fair to suppose that this report was in some way connected with the official activities of the three principals, who may be assumed to have ended their term of of-fice recently. The document is not an έκδόσιμον but an original contract; the entry at the top (v. 11) μωλ() τούτ(ου) το ί'σο(ν) έγδ(ο-θήτω) is a direction to prepare an έκδόσιμον. It may be noted that Ammonius, a man who had been gymnasiarch, had a mother with formerly Egyptian name (cf. Bell, Archiv VI 108). No. 26 (274 A.D.) refers to guardianship. It is an extract from the minutes of an exegetes. The point at issue is the appointment of a guardian for a young orphan, Aurelius Pekusis, and the petitioner is his aunt, Aurelia Didyme ; she applies for the appointment of her brother, the boy's uncle Aurelius Severus, who is present at court. The case had first been taken to the epanorthotes who had dele-gated it to municipal officials : the nearest parallel is not Tebt. 326 = M. Chr. 325 as the editors suppose but Bend. Harr. No. 68
(cf. my Law I 121) where a Roman desired to be appointed guar-dian of his sister's three children on the ground that there were no close relative left (cf. Merton No. 26 v. 13 ίνα κατά τό συγγενικον δίκαιον κηδεμονίαν άποσώση προς αυτόν (ν. 18) είς την [έπ]ιτροπείαν τοΰ παιδιού διά τε το συν[γ]ενικόν cf. Rend. Harr. 689 ουδείς αυτοί ς
ύ[π]άρχει έγγυτέρω γένι ή εγώ [Λουκρήτι]ος Διογένης κτλ.); on the meaning of κηδεμονία see note 13 duties as a kinsivoman ; on the v. δοκιμάζω in 1. 12 (perhaps selected for approval) see note 13; here we find the principle explicitly stated, which had already been inferred from the documents by J o u g u e t , Vie municipale p. 317 that the exegetes as curator minorum was simply the repre-sentative of the άρχοντες as a whole in whom the real authority was vested. No. 36 (360 A.D.) is a lease disguised as the acknow-ledgement of indebtedness of the part of the lessee. The 'debt' has not really been incurred at the time document was drown up ; here it is simply the rest 2 % artabes of wheat — to be paid the following summer to the lessor for the farming of his land and the next year's harvest. On such disguised leases see C o m f o r t , Prolegomena to the Study of Late Byzantine Land-Leases (Aegyptus X I I 1932, 589 ff.), my Gesch. d. Rezeption des röm. Rechts in Ägyp-ten (Studi Bonfante I 419) and Law I 2997 and the literature p. 298. The contract runs : ομολογώ όφείλειν σοι και έ'χειν παρ' έμαυτοϋ ύπέρ
γιν(ομένου) φόρου αποδώσω σοι τω Έπείφ ; see however S a n -N i c o l ô , Beitr. z. Rg. im Bereiche der keilschriftlichen Rechtsquellen 167. N0. 34 (346/7 A . D . ) is an order for payment. No. 41 (406 A. D.) is another order for payment made by a bailiff of a large estate; in v. 12 is a πρεσβύτερος της άγιας εκκλησίας τοΰ Καισαρ(είου) mentioned ; on the meaning see note 12 the church of the quarter of Oxyrhynchus named after the temple. No. 44 (V cent. A.D.) con-tains the clause and I will see to it that the receipt is made out cf. my Law I 229. No. 33 (344 A.D.) is a receipt for rent. No. 35 (348 A.D.) is a receipt issued by the collector of gold at Oxyrhynchus for payment received from a certain Koprias ; the interest of the text lies in the meaning of the term πρεσβευτικόν for which see the note to 1. 2 : the term might mean advocate's fee, or court fee. No. 47 (late VI to YII cent.) is a receipt of quit-rent. No. 48 ( V I — V I I cent.) is a receipt issued by the owners of the land to a tenant who held it as security for a debt but paid presumably part of the produce to the debtors ; on (v. 5) ένέχυρον = υποθήκη see my Law
I 215s6. No. 13 (98—102 A.D.) is a return by a widow of the pro-perty left b y her late husband. It is to be noted that the only item in the list which is preserved is described as συνθέσεως μου, hence it is possible that the καταλειφθ-έντα were (or included) the wife's φερνή. The return is directed to the έξηγητής and on his request: έπερωτωμ[έ]νη υπό σου τίνα έστίν τα καταλειφθέν[τα] ύπο τοϋ γενομέ-νου και μετη[λλ]αχότος [μου] άνδρος "Ηρωνος Επιμάχου κτλ. The .present pap. shows that the competence of the έξηγητής extended
to questions of inheritance and succession, thus confirming the inference to be drown from BGU 388 II 23 ff. (cf. similar inven-taries K r e l l e r , Erbr. Unt. 129); on πεπραμένα in v. 14 see the ed. Evidently Thaesis had had an auction of the wardrobe or had sold it privately; but though the goods were καταλε κρθέντα b y her husband the dress is described as hers, and it is not clear why on her husband's death she should sell her own clothing. Apparently, however, in that case it Avas only some apendages of the dress that she sold. The inventory in No. 39 of various articles of wood and stone has nothing common with inheritance. No. 5 (135 B.C.) is a petition to the strategus of the Thebaide. The subject is a dis-pute as to boundaries : a woman named Berenice, an άστή, (see note on I. 2 and my Laiv I 124β ; II 20re ; 20гб) accuses a κάτοικος ΐππεύς named Andronicus of having removed boundaries (627) (see on πα-ρορίζεσθαι my art. in Sav. Z. 55,287) and thereby added to the royal land leased by him, certain municipal land, γη πολιτική (see note on 1.5) on her possession bought by her from Panas. This shows that municipal land of Ptolemais was not necessarily held by citizens. The document adds to our evidence of the judicial functions of the epistates as a delegate of the stratèges ; v. 25 shows further that the άπαρχή to the Theos Soter was paid not by holders of municipal land onlv, but b y tenants of royal land in the area of Ptolemais or rather perhaps by residents or κάτοικοι of the city holding such land. The papyrus brings (cf. 30 ff.) also some details on retrial of a case, already decided by a iudex de-legatus (cf. m y Laie I 398) and to our knowledge on res iudicata (cf. my art. Archives d'hist. du droit orient. I l l 299 ff.). No. 8 (3/4 A.D.) is a petition to the strategus from a tenant of public land at Theadelphia, who had obtained, perhaps by a sublease, twenty five arouras of public land from another δημόσιος γεωργός but had had them taken from him b y the secretary of the κωμογραμμα-τεύς who transported them to his own tenancy; the transfer may
h a d been d u e t o a higher bid. No. 11 (39/40 A.D.) is a p e t i t i o n t o t h e s t r a t e g u s of T h e m i s t e s concerning a dispute over w a t e r (cf. m y Law I 374, 414). I t seems t h a t t h e persons c o m p l a i n e d of d i v e r t e d t h e w a t e r t o t h e a l l o t m e n t of S y m b a s , which a d j o i n e d t h e c o m p l a i n a n t ' s land (cf. m y Law I 348). No. 43 (Y cent A . D . ? ) c o n t a i n s petitions t o a praeses. T h e petitioners are p r o b a b l y t h e προπολ'.τευόμενοι, of some city — p e r h a p s O x y r h y n c h u s — a n d their c o m p l a i n t a p p e a r s t o be t h a t certain individuals or classes, b y t h e i r refusal t o bear t h e i r p r o p e r share of t h e b u r d e n s a n d b y relinquishing their posts, are e n d a n g e r i n g t h e existence of t h e city. T h e p e t i t i o n on t h e verso is concerned with t h e annona militaris a n d is addressed b y an i n d i v i d u a l who p e r h a p s claims t h a t an u n f a i r share of t h e b u r d e n has been inposed u p o n h i m a n d w h o has either t a k e n or is c o n t e m p l a t i n g legal action. T h e r e is m e n t i o n e d (v. 4) t h e t e r m έπιβολή which refers t o t h e forced c u l t i v a t i o n of a b a n d o n e d l a n d s imposed on c u l t i v a t o r s b y t h e g o v e r n m e n t . (The sense of t h e passage a p p e a r s t o be t h a t some m e m b e r s , or classes of t h e c o m m u n i t y , h a v e a t t e m p t e d t o e v a d e t h e i r p r o p e r responsibi-lities w i t h disastrous results for t h e city). I n v. 10 a t e r m έποστα-σία = authority occurs ; on v. 18 Θηβαίων έθνος see n o t e s ad h. v. No. 29 (IV cent. A.D.) is a n order for arrest (cf. m y Law I 414). No. 45 is an order to an official, κομμωνιτώριον (see B e l l , P . L o n d . Y p p . 74—6). O u r t e x t is d e f i n i t e l y concerned w i t h t h e collection of t a x e s : t h e k n o w n instances are i n s t r u c t i o n s t o officers, in t w o cases t o b r i n g t h e o f f e n d e r before a c o u r t , in t h e t h i r d t o see t o t h e pro-t e c pro-t i o n of a village, while L o n d . 1679 ipro-tself is a n order p r o b a b l y pro-t o t h e κοινόν of πρωτοκωμηται t o send an offender before t h e c o u r t . No. 9 (12 A.D.) is a n o t i f i c a t i o n of d e a t h (cf. m y Law I I 64). No. 21 (188 A.D.) is a receipt for poll-tax. No. 16 (149 A.D.) is a receipt for c o r n - t a x . No. 31 (307 A.D.) concerns an e x t r a - t a x which was levied b y imperial d e c r e e : κατά θείαν πρόσταξιν ύπέρ της κτήσεως or p e r h a p s b y t h e general edict of Diocletian p r o m u l g a t e d in 297 reorganizing t h e t a x - s y s t e m of E g y p t (see t h e edict of t h e p r e f e c t of E g y p t a n n o u n c i n g t h a t p u b l i s h e d b y В o a k , Etudes de Papy-rologie I I 1 ff.). No. 15 (114 A.D.) a n d 20 (184 A.D.) are c u s t o m s receipts. No. 12 (58 A.D.) is a l e t t e r t o a p h y s i c i a n : t h i s is an in-stance of a consultation b e t w e e n doctors, b y correspondence. No. 23 (late sec. cent.) is a business l e t t e r . T h e main p u r p o s e of t h i s l e t t e r is t o ask t h e w r i t e r ' s c o r r e s p o n d e n t t o p a y t h e bearer, a w o m a n f r o m a village in t h e O x y r h y n c h u s n o m e , t h e s u m of f i v e h u n d r e d
d r a c h m a s for two a r o u r a s of l a n d ; it is a m a n d a t e (see m y Law I 298, I I 93/4). T h e i n t e r e s t is t o b e collected f r o m , n o t paid t o , t h e w o m a n t o w h o m t h e m o n e y is paid. I t would a p p e a r , t h e r e f o r e , t h a t t h e t r a n s a c t i o n is really a m o r t g a g e (cf. m y Law I 216) or ra-t h e r a loan on ra-t h e securira-ty, a n d w i ra-t h i n ra-t e r i m use b y ra-t h e lender of t w o a r o u r a s . Since no i n t e r e s t can h a v e accrued a t t h i s stage, t h e directions for it m u s t refer to t h e f u t u r e : Dionysius is t o ar-r a n g e foar-r its collection w h e n due, a n d is b i d d e n n o t t o ar-receive less t h a n a y e a r ' s i n t e r e s t i. e. n o t t o t a k e p a y m e n t a t shorter inter-vals t h a n one whole y e a r . F o r t h e e x o r b i t a n t i n t e r e s t c h a r g e d , see n o t e on 1. 10 ff. N o . 24 (200 A.D.) is a business l e t t e r p e r h a p s w r i t t e n to a p a r t n e r in a μίσθωσις. T h e l e t t e r in No. 32 (early f o u r t h cent.) m a y p e r h a p s allude t o an ώνή έν πίστει (cf. m y Laiv I 206). N o . 38 ( I V cent. A.D.) is a l e t t e r t o a landlord, a n n o u n c i n g , t h a t he p a i d t h e messengers a c t i n g on behalf of Sabinus a n d N a r a o u s t h e i r wages in full u p t o t o - d a y ( m a n d a t e ) . No. 46 (VI cent. A. D.) is a l e t t e r of a t a x collector, addressed t o his superior b y a h a r a s s e d tax-collector, in arrears of m o n e y a n d h a r d pressed for t i m e owing t o a colleague's d e a t h . No. 27, 40, 42, 50 are a c c o u n t s . I n N o . 40 t h e t e r m γενέθλια is u s e d . T h e edition ends w i t h an a p p e n d i x : Claudius F i r m u s Έπανορθχοτης (cf. m y Law I 372).
D A V I D S. C R A W F O R D , Fuad I University Papyri (Publication de la Société Fouad I de Papyrologie. Société des P u b l i c a t i o n s égyptiennes, Alexandrie 1949).
T h e p a p y r i published in t h i s edition belonged previously t o t h e l a t e P r o f . G r a d e n w i t z . No. I (227/6 B.C.) is t h e beginning of a legal d o c u m e n t . No. I I = SB 6286. No. I I I ( I I I c e n t . B.C.) con-t a i n s con-t h e p h r a s e Lecon-t us decide before Heracleides ( a r b i con-t r a con-t i o n ? ) . No. I V (181 B.C.) r e s e m b l e ! SB 5675. No. V (I cent. B.C.) consists a l m o s t entirely of village a n d personal n a m e s . No. V I ( I I I c e n t . A.D.) a p r i v a t e l e t t e r , similar t o t h a t in O x y . 1069 (v. 6) m e n t i o n s ολίγα ξένια και έγγαρέας. No. V I I ( I I cent. A.D.) is an i n v i t a t i o n t o d i n n e r on t h e occasion of t h e w r i t e r ' s d a u g h t e r w e d d i n g . No. V I I I ( I I cent. A . D . ? ) shows t h a t t h e writer or his c o r r e s p o n d e n t (per-h a p s (per-his wife) is in need of cas(per-h a n d t (per-h a t t (per-h e writer is suggesting m e a n s of raising it, m e n t i o n i n g a n u m b e r of articles of some v a l u e t h a t could be sold. No. I X ( I I I or I V c e n t . A . D . ? ) m e n t i o n s βι-βλείδια — [έ]σφραγισμένα. No. Χ (217/8 A.D.) p r e s u m a b l y refers t o t h e s u b s t i t u t i o n of m o n e y , or objects of equal value, for t h e
