Greek Papyri from the Collections of Freiburg, Vienna and Michigan.

Abstract

The edition comprises fourteen documentary and subliterary Greek papyri from the collections of the University of Freiburg, the Austrian National Library and the University of Michigan. The eleven papyri from the University of Freiburg (Section I) are all documentary and range in date from the first century B.C. to the third century A.D. They have been chosen to illustrate different aspects of the civilization of Egypt in the Greco-Roman period. Some of these texts shed new light on parts of the complex system of taxation in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. No.I.1 is a private memor and um of the first century B.C. which, in addition to presenting a number of rare words, contains an account of the payment of a tax called the naubion katoikon. No.I.5 of the second century A.D. provides a rare attestation of a trade tax on specialized professions in the textile industry. No.I.6 is a receipt for the tax known as arithmetikon katoikon. Among the documents are two private letters, the one dealing with agricultural matters (No.I.4) and the other with business matters (No.I.10). Aspects of various important institutions in Roman Egypt are illumined by the following texts: No.I.7, which concerns a police officer called the nomophylax; No.I.8, which provides a rare attestation of the bodyguard of the prefect of Egypt; and No.I.11 in which a gymnasiarch acknowledges receipt of chaff for the heating of the baths of the gymnasium in Arsinoe. Two lists have been included: No.I.2, a list of (mostly Egyptian) names, and No.I.9, a short list of foods. The papyri from the collections of Vienna and Michigan are subliterary. The Vienna papyrus (No.II) of the fifth or sixth century A.D. preserves a Christian hymn which is also contained on a paper fragment of the tenth or eleventh century, P.Ryl.Copt.33. From the Michigan collection come two texts. No.III.1 is an example of medical magic which reflects various syncretistic trends in late Greco-Egyptian religion. No.III.2 transmits a hexametric school poem which deals with mythological subjects. Each edited papyrus is provided with an introduction designed to set the text in its historical setting. Most texts are followed by a critical apparatus, translation and line-by-line commentary.