Culture and Society in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Egypt

The Ptolemaic ‘Auction of Pharaoh’, whereby rights of possession were transferred between parties has seen increased scholarly attention over the last two decades (Cf. Manning, 1999; Armoni, 2007, 2009, 2012; Jakab, 2013 [twice]; Arlt, 2015; inter alia), but much work and revision remains to be done with respect to both the workings of the auction processes and how this institution played a larger role within the Ptolemaic state and broader trends within the long-term history of the Mediterranean.

In the 160s, a politically unstable decade marked by the revolt of the Maccabees in Judea, the leading member of the Oniad family of high priests and his followers fled to Egypt. The status and the settlement of this new wave of migrants, largely soldiers and their families, from Judea to Egypt, has often been interpreted as the reflection of a Ptolemaic policy that favored (Greek-speaking) non-Egyptian populations, employing them as loyal officials, soldiers and police officers in order to control the native population.

This paper examines the use of legal documents and dispute resolution procedures within the chancery of Abraham of Hermonthis, a seventh century bishop from upper Egypt. It does so using a dossier of Coptic ostraca, which the author has examined in person, that have so far only appeared in a mid-twentieth century unpublished dissertation.

(Coauthor: Lincoln Blumell, Brigham Young University)

In Hellenistic scholarship, the study of lyric poetry was intrinsically connected with attempts at reconstructing the lives of its authors. For example, the peripatetic and Alexandrian scholars used Athenian archon lists, later linked to Olympiads (Timaeus FGrHist 566 F 12), as does the author of Pindar’s biography in P.Oxy. 2438 (see De Kreij 2017). In addition, they may have had access to information transmitted in manuscripts or local inscriptions.

In this paper, I will present six ostraca containing seven horoscopes written in a mixture of Demotic and hieratic/cursive hieroglyphs. The pieces date to the period between 48/47 BC and AD 1/2. Only one of these texts has been published previously: O.Ashm.Dem 633 (Neugebauer & Parker, JEA 54 [1968], pp. 231-4). The ed. princ.

The expression Cα<π>φώιουc ἐξ ὀά<ρ>ων ὀάρουc in Posidippus’ epigram 55 Austin-Bastianini, transmitted in P.Mil.Vogl. VIII 309 (P.Mil.Vogl. inv. 1295r), could indicate a real musical performance of Sappho’s poems in the Hellenistic period, inasmuch as ὄαρος can mean ‘song’. The expression is found in the first couplet of an epigram describing all the things that Moira prematurely took away from a girl who used to work daily at the loom: πάντα τὰ Νικομάχηc καὶ ἀθύρματα καὶ πρὸc ἑώιαν | κερκίδα Cα<π>φώιουc ἐξ ὀά<ρ>ων ὀάρουc (cfr.

I advance a new interpretation of two papyrus amulets from Byzantine Egypt by adopting a different comparative approach, applying evidence from later Byzantine medical recipes. In the process I identify an incantation motif that remained in use for nearly a millenium, comparable in contruction and purpose to the well-known narrative analogues (historiolae) employed in many magical texts. Both amulets are included in the collection of Preisendanz and Henrichs (Pap.Graec.Mag.

This paper consists of an introduction to and presentation of the edition of an unpublished late Byzantine contract for the surrender of property from Hermopolis, held in the Firestone Library at Princeton University. This contract is significant because it is the most complete ἐκχωρητικὴ ὁμολογία from this period, and its structure makes its constitutive clauses and formulae clear in a way that is useful for conceptualizing legal practice in late Byzantine Egypt.

Using papyrological evidence, my paper argues that through the tax system the late Roman state and Roman citizens reached a consensus that there existed something akin to a legal contract between the state and Roman citizens. In accordance with this “contract,” Roman citizens would pay taxes on the property cultivated by and registered to them, as well as perform the relevant services, and the Roman state would guarantee that citizens would pay only the amount required by their registered property. This consensus was reached through a cumulative process.