Graeco-Roman Memoirs – serie

Papyri nos 13511404

Papyri nos 2999-3087

A catalogue of the Greek and Latin papyri, tablets and ostraca in the library of Mr. G. A. Michailidis of Cairo

A record of the discussions and presentations at the XIV International Congress of Papyrologists, held in Oxford from July 24-31, 1974.

This volume makes available the letters, petitions, and such accounts as bear on land and taxation at Kerkeosiris in the numerous and extensive papyri briefly treated in the Descriptions at the back of Tebtunis Papyri I.

Papyri nos 3316-3367

Including a collection of papyrus texts, literary and documentary, in honour of Eric Turner.

Papyri nos 3695-3721

The volume offers a mixture of literary texts (including a commentary on Anacreon) and other documents.

Papyri nos 3963-4008

Papyri nos 4093-4300

Papyri nos 4639-4704

Papyri nos 4803-4843This volume adds to previously published early Christian texts four new papyri of the Gospel of John and also includes fragments of a lost play by Sophocles (Epigonoi), two prose works on Hellenistic historians and Hellenistic kings, a rhetorical exercise on speeches in Thucydides, and a lost novel with an Ionian setting. A further group of papyri of Iliad and related Homeric texts, including a paraphrase of Iliad I (its texts transmitted verbatim by at least two other papyri), scholia minora to Iliad I, and commentaries on Odyssey III and XV with scholarly credentials. Documentary texts include declarations of livestock, loans, leases, and other contracts. Finally it records publication of a group of drawings that appeared outside the series but assigns Oxyrhynchus publication numbers to them for the first time. Images of the drawings were prepared for and will be published in the volume Oxyrhynchus A City and its Texts (GRM 93) and Egyptian Archaeology 22.

Oxyrhynchus was a vibrant ancient city and a remarkable archaeological site. Oxyrhynchus: A City and its Texts immerses the reader in its rich material culture and captivating art objects, from sculptures to draftsmanship, all set against the backdrop of numerous papyrus texts. It offers an exploration of the site itself – its city plan, topography, monuments and art architecture – and delves into the history of the excavations carried out in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Ultimately, it weaves together a compelling synthesis of the social, cultural and intellectual life under Greek, Roman and Byzantine rule, igniting a deeper appreciation for this fascinating chapter of Egyptian history.

This volume publishes a selection of texts prepared to highlight recent work on the Oxyrhynchus Collection. Part I includes papyri of the Old and New Testaments. Part II offers Comedy Old and New: Aristophanes, a sizeable chunk of Menander's Epitrepontes and Georgos . Part III presents previously unknown Greek literature, including a new papyrus of Empedocles, a work by Thrasyllus (Tiberius' court astrologer and philosopher in residence) on the classification of Plato's dialogues, as well as Dictys of Crete's account of the Trojan War in unpretentious prose, complete with its 'author's' own subscription. These add two new papyri of the Greek original to the two already known. They show more clearly the relation of the Greek original to the Latin version, casting doubt on the status of the letter as a straightforward translation. Part IV showcases texts of previously known Greek literature of the Roman period uncommon among the papyri, while Part V presents texts at the subliterary level. On the documentary side, Part VI includes: themes of extortion in petitions; a military muster, in Latin; a letter on recovery from illness in high-flown Greek; a certified copy of a petition to a prefect, which besides its impressive format has interesting though enigmatic implications for the use of Roman Law.

Papyri nos 4968-5019

Includes devotional texts which reflect the practice of Egyptian Christians in the early Byzantine period (hymns and prayers), fragments of unknown prose and other fragments of extant authors.

The volume contains Greek prose fragments referencing the lost Cyclic poem Cypria and Demetrius of Skepsis. Dating of the fragments ranges from the late second to early third century CE based on script analysis.

Graeco-Roman Memoirs 98This volume presents Oxyrhynchus Papyri nos. 5101-5126, which include an early and textually valuable copy of the Septuagint Psalms, five hexameter poems and diverse documents from the Roman and Byantine periods.5101, probably the earliest extant copy of the Septuagint Psalms, is of considerable textual interest, including use of the Tetragrammaton for the divine name.5102 includes tantalising fragments of a Hellenistic mythological poem echoing Callimachus and Apollonius Rhodius, possibly depicting Hermes and Artemis in a pastoral setting. 5103, if correctly attributed to Dionysius’ Bassarica, offers a new, earlier, chronological marker. 5104 and 5105 feature later narratives centered on Aphrodite; notably, 5105 depicts her descending to Earth to retrieve Poppaea Sabina from Nero, who must reluctantly bid farewell to her husband and take her place among the stars. 5106 exemplifies hexameters used for moral exhortation, emphasising moral purity and the afterlife.5111 is a perplexing petition from temple officials with notable realia. 5114 publishes a new Severan consitution on intervals between successive appointments. 5116 records the earliest mention of Saloninus Caesar. 5118 reports proceedings at a Nile-god sanctuary. 5119 documents a man from Eleutheropolis, Palestine, residing in the Oxyrhynchite nome. 5123 reveals the estate of Apion purchasing wine from two of its coloni adscripticii before harvest, indicating more complex economic relations between estate and labourers than traditionally allowed.

This volume includes fragments from three Christian texts, two lost classical works, prose texts and utilitarian literature.5128 combines biblical excerpts within a larger text, perhaps a hymn. 5129 represents the first text of Justin Martyr to appear among the papyri. 5127 is a miniature parchment copy of Psalm CIX, a favourite text for amulets.5130, an excerpt from Alcidamas, the once famous sophist and rival of Isocrates, proves that he wrote, or was thought to have written, a paradoxical ‘Praise of Poverty’. 5131 provides a central scene of Greek Tragedy, with a corpse borne onto the stage in the presence of Athamas.5132 adds an early witness to the tradition of Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae. 5133–5147, from speeches of Isocrates, exemplify various dates, formats and levels of production. 5148–5152 contain fragments of speeches of the Demosthenic corpus rarely represented in papyri. 5153–5158 contain works from Plutarch’s Moralia.5159 is a rare example of a metrical handbook. 5160 presents a commentary, learned and detailed notes on an Old Comedy. 5161–5163 belong to another uncommon type, glossaries for Greek-speakers learning Latin.Documentary texts 5164–5172 date from the earliest years of Roman rule in Egypt, when the new régime set out to increase revenue. 5178 and 5179 are letters sent to officials dating to the second century. Other items touch everyday crises including the employment a wet nurse for a foundling from the dung-hill and an under-age girl working as a servant, against a loan made to her father and brothers.

The volume presents unpublished papyri from Oxyrhynchus related to the theme of public games. Oxyrhynchites had a wide range of spectacles to watch: plays and mimes in the theatre, athletic and musical competitions at gymnasial and higher levels, chariot racing and other circus entertainment.

P. Oxy. LXXX contains texts studied in the course of the project New Medical Texts from Oxyrhynchus (2007-10), funded by the Wellcome Trust. These include known medical texts by Hippocrates, Dioscorides and Galen, but also new material: texts from 1st to 3rd/4th centuries on acute diseases, medical recipes, surgical texts, and doctors' reports.

A collection of assorted 'firsts', GRM 102 publishes fragments of Pauline literature (Ephesians, 1 Timothy, the Hymn of the Cross) until now not known from Oxyrhynchus, along with parts of the Sesonchosis novel, Theognis, Polybius and the incipits of Euripides' lost Dictys and Danae.

The core of this volume is the biggest concentration of magical papyri published in some 25 years, giving a fascinating insight into approaches to averting and treating illnesses, and attracting a partner. Further material contains theological texts (Philo), extant classical texts (Menander, Theocritus, Euclid, Polybius, Plutarch), and a new classical text (Sophokles).

Volume LXXXIII of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri continues our publication of biblical texts, including what is only the second Egyptian witness to the Epistle of Philemon as well as further early witnesses to the text of Mark and Luke, and an amateur copy of excerpts from Ezekiel’s Exagoge. Other sections offer new fragments from two popular genres: trials from the Acta Alexandrinorum, notably the trial of the former Prefect Titianus before Hadrian (an event sensational enough to reach the Historia Augusta); and adventures from the Greek Novel, including the Crimean narrative of Calligone and the Amazons. There is also a glimpse of the anonymous copyists to whom we owe our texts, practising the various graphic styles from which their customers could choose. Other documents contribute a mass of detail to the social and economic history of Roman and Byzantine Egypt, such as an official letter about the tax-grain destined to supply Rome; a tax-receipt that attests a Jewish community at Oxyrhynchus in the late fourth century; and, quite an extraordinary object, part of a ceremonial painted with a laurel wreath and a Latin inscription that celebrates the twentieth anniversary of some fourth-century emperor. The final section of the volume contains art: a fine pen-and-ink drawing of a rampant goat, and seven sketches on a single sheet, including a cockerel and a peacock, a wild boar, and a unicorn. As the Artemidorus papyrus has renewed discussion of drawing as an art in the Greek world, with some finding its own spread of drawings so striking as to suggest forgery, the new examples from Oxyrhynchus now demonstrate comparable technique and similar subject-matter in papyri of undoubted authenticity.

Papyri nos 5404-5476 P. Oxy LXXXIV marks a new departure for the series: it is the first to publish texts in Egyptian. One is a Greek-Coptic paraphrase of Homer's Iliad, the other a sale of house property in Demotic accompanied by a Greek tax receipt. Section I presents extensive remains of a set of codices of the Septuagint. Section II includes a miscellany of new literary and subliterary texts: remnants of post-Classical hexameter poetry, a possible fragment of Middle comedy with an Anacreontic theme, and a cento of Homeric verses on the myth of Daphne. The seventeen papyri of Apollonius Rhodius published in Section III, providing some two dozen variant readings, confirm the Argonautica's status as the most popular epic poem in Roman Egypt after the Homeric and Hesiodic classics. The papyri of Apollonius are complemented by a painting of a wheeled float carrying the Argonauts, perhaps an llustration of a local spectacle. Section IV publishes the remaining (readable) declarations of livestock so far identified in the collection; and the largest number of accounts published from the 'Apion archive' since vol. XVI, a focus of intensive debate in the last two decades. The global figures for the estate's income, expenditure, and tax payments in the new texts offer fresh 'hard data' to steer and inform this lively discussion.

This volume contains the first editions of 55 Greek literary and documentary papyri. The theological texts include fragments of Genesis and Luke, both assignable to the third century. Pride of place among the new literary texts is given to a retelling of Egyptian mythology, in which Isis writes to Arianis, appealing for his help in locating the body of Osiris. Two others are philosophical (Peripatetic and Stoic). Among the extant classical texts, large fragments of Plato's Laches offer readings of particular interest. A paraphrase of Justinian's Digest shows a professor explaining the relationship between written law and custom in a mixture of Greek and Graeco-Latin. The documents include a group of ten private letters and an elaborate first-person account of a failed attempt to buy camels for the state.

Papyri nos 5532-5572. This volume contains editions of forty-one texts, theological, literary, subliterary, and documentary. The theological section includes large fragments of the First Apocalypse of James (5533), an early Christian narrative of conversations between Jesus and his brother, James, before and after Jesus' death. The Greek text is otherwise lost and scholars have depended on two often conflicting Coptic versions. The first of seven magical papyri is a second-century exorcism manual (5542), with the divine name written in Palaeo-Hebrew letters. A series of potted lives of the Successors of Alexander the Great illuminates the history of ancient life-writing before Plutarch (5535). A fragment of commentary on Aristophanes (5536) and five grammatical texts (5537-41) complete Section II. The twenty-four documents in Section III provide a mass of new evidence concerning slavery in the Roman world. Various aspects of the lives of the enslaved come to the fore, including slavery from infancy, repeated sales, displacement across the Mediterranean, employment in weaving and wet-nursing, and manumission. The photographs show all the new theological, literary, and subliterary texts, and eleven of the documents.

Papyri nos 5573-5631. This volume includes editions of fifty-eight papyri and one text on parchment. Among the theological texts, three are of exceptional interest. 5575 is an early copy of sayings of Jesus corresponding in part to the canonical gospels of Matthew and Luke and in part to the apocryphal gospel of Thomas. Jesus is also the speaker in 5576 and apparently in 5577, where Mary is addressed. Both pieces may be loosely called 'Gnostic'; the latter appears to be Valentinian. Of the new literary items, the most extensive is 5584, a collection of short biographies of eminent Romans, written a century earlier than Plutarch. Plutarch's own Homeric Studies, now mostly lost, may be recognized in 5585. Early Greek philosophy is represented by 5583, a full column of what appears to be Antiphon's On Truth. The extant literary texts are fragments of two papyrological rarities, the historical work of Aristodemus (5586-7) and the astrological poetry ascribed to Manetho (5588-90). The documentary section illustrates social and economic realities of late antique estates, mostly that of the Apions; there is new evidence on the handling of wine distributions, on the pricing of equipment and materials, and on the more mundane relations of the Apion estate to monasteries.