William H. Willis

Receipt Issued to a Practor for the Taxes Transferred by Him to a Bank

The collectors of money-revenues of Roman Egypt were responsible for exacting money from individual tax-payers and transferring it to the local banks. Both of these operations are well illustrated by documents issuing from the collectors’ offices.

Mumienbegleitbrief in Dreifacher Ausfertigung

Die rechteckige Tafel aus hellem Holz war etwa auf der Halfte ihrer Breite nach in zwei Teile zerbrochen. Am oberen Rand befinden sich zwei Bohrungen im Abstand von 3,8 cm zueinander.1

Liste von Tagen: Arbeitsabrechnung?

Das Papyrusfragment ist nur auf einer Seite beschrieben. Die Schrift lauft parallel zu den Fasern. Etwa in der Mitte war der Papyrus vertikal gefaltet. Der linke und der obere Rand sind erhalten; mit Ausnahme von Z. 4–6 fehlen rechts 1–2 Buchstaben. Die Schrift last sich am ehesten dem 2. Jh. n.Chr. zuordnen, vgl. etwa P.Mil. I 35 mit Taf. XIII (27. Nov. — 26. Dez. 108 n.Chr.).

Abrechnung von Künstlerlöhnen

Das Papyrusblatt ist nur auf einer Seite beschrieben; die Schrift verlauft mit den Fasern. Drei Rander sind erhalten; nur oben ist der Papyrus abgebrochen. Zur Datierung der Schrift vgl. P.Heid. IV 297 mit Tafel V (171–176 n.Chr., vgl. BL IX 103) und P.Turner 32 mit Tafel XIII (201–211 n.Chr.). Die Vertauschung von λ und ρ in Z. 8, welche oft im faijumischen Dialekt vorkommt, weist moglicherweise auf eine Herkunft des Textes aus dem Arsinoites hin, vgl. Gignac, Grammar I, 102–107, bsd. 106–107; ferner C. Milani, λ/ρ nei papiri: un aspetto dell’interferenza linguistica in E. Bresciani — G. Geraci — S. Pernigotti — G. Susini (Hgg.), Scritti in onore di Orsolina Montevecchi, Bologna 1981, 221–229, bsd. 227.

Quittung über Eine Darlehensrückzahlung

Aus Mumienkartonage gewonnen. Der rechte Rand ist verloren, an den ubrigen Seiten sind die Rander nahezu vollstandig erhalten. Das Verso ist unbeschrieben. Die Schrift, eine Kursive des 2. Jahrhunderts v.Chr., ist teilweise abgerieben. Eine genauere Datierung der Quittung wird dadurch moglich, das der Darlehensvertrag, auf den in Z. 5–8 verwiesen wird, in einem 38. Regierungsjahr abgeschlossen wurde, wofur im 2. Jahrhundert nur das Jahr 133/2 in Betracht kommt.

Draft 2 (marginal fragments)

Two small disconnected fragments bearing six consecutive lines, the left having a preserved narrow left margin, a lacuna of about 13 to 15 letters between the left and right fragments, the right extending to within 3 or 4 letters of the lost right margin. Between lines 2 and 3 on the right and lines 3 and 4, 5 and 6 on the left are interlinear insertions. The text is closely written in a small version of Ammon’s draft-hand, characteristic of the insertions and addenda he has inscribed in the margins of drafts 7 and 13, to neither of which can 8 belong. It apparently was added in the margin of still another draft not otherwise represented or recognized in the Duke and Koln collections.

Horion II’s Petition through Ammon to the Prefect

Through 3 we learn of Ammon’s intervention with the high-priest of Alexandria and All Egypt in the attempt to secure for his nephew Horion II appointment to the propheteia of the Panopolite nome in succession to his father Horion I, Ammon’s elder half-brother now deceased. Although the required fee (eίσκριτκόν) seems to have been paid, it appears that neither Ammon’s efforts nor Harpocration’s appeal to the emperor have been successful, for the following petition of Horion II apparently to the prefect, composed and written for him by Ammon in his best formal hand, seeks the prefect’s authority to overrule the high-priest. Obviously this copy of the petition was not submitted, for reasons that can be only speculated, perhaps because the high-priest complied in the meantime.

Draft 6 (on the verso of 5)

This is the first surviving draft to contain the fully elaborated preamble to the petition, which would have been preceded only by the address in a final copy. The text is further revised and expanded by 13.

Draft 7 (on the verso and recto margins of 6)

This draft is the fullest form of the petition preserved in the archive, although it does not start at the beginning nor reach a conclusion at the end. Written in Ammon’s draft hand, it fills the verso of the complete document no. 6 and continues onto the left, bottom, right and top margins of the recto, still lacking space to complete the text. Here only among the drafts (except at 7.65) Ammon resorts to frequent suspension, curtailing word-ends especially in phrasing already familiar from earlier drafts.

Draft of a Petition, Perhaps to the Prefect

There are four disconnected fragments of the draft of a different petition concerned with this case written by Ammon not to Sisinnius, since he is mentioned in lines a.4 and a.7, but possibly to the prefect himself, Flavius Nestorius, although no trace of the addressee survives. In fr. a Ammon speaks of himself in first-person (a.10) and and of Eugeneios in third-person (a.12). It cannot therefore be part of a subjectively or objectively styled agreement between these two parties. The prefect may be conjectured as the addressee, for Ammon had already thought of approaching him as revealed at 5.13ff.