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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022695096
GREEK
PAPYRI
IN THE
MUSEUM
BRITISH
CATALOGUE, WITH TEXTS
EDITED BY
KENYON,
F. G. M.A., D.Litt.
ASSISTANT KEEPER OF MANUSCRIPTS, BRITISH MUSEUM
VOL.
II
PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES
SOLD AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM
And by Longmans and Co., 39 Paternoster Row
Bernard Quaritch, 15 Piccadilly; Asher and Co., 13 Bedford Street, Covent Garden
Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., Paternoster House, Charing Cross Road
AND Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press Warehouse, Amen Corner
London
1898
\All rights reserved^
r
HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
PREFACE.
*" I ^HE second volume of this catalogue describes the Greek papyri acquired by the Museum
-*- from the end of 1890 (where the first volume closed) to the middle of 1895, and gives
the texts of all the more important documents of a non-literary character obtained within that
period. The printing of it was begun in the middle of 1896, but was suspended early in
1897, when twenty sheets had been finally printed off, in order to allow of more rapid progress
with the edition of the odes of Bacchylides, published in that year. But for this delay, the
volume would have appeared about a year earlier than the present date.
As in the case of the first volume, it is accompanied by an atlas of facsimiles, in which
is given a selection of the most important and best preserved papyri, especially those which,
having precise dates, are of most value for palaeography. The number of plates is one hundred
and twenty-three, containing reproductions of one hundred and thirty-two papyri, ranging from
the second century b. c. to the seventh of the Christian era.
EDWARD
SCOTT,
L,
J.
Keeper of MSS.
British Museum,
August 25, 1898.
a 2
— —
CONTENTS.
PACE
PREFACE
iii
INTRODUCTION v
ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA
xi
TABLE OF PAPYRI xiii
TEXTS:—
A. Ptolemaic Period . i
B. Roman Period
;
1. The Census and Poll-Tax 17
2. Death Certificates 65
3. Taxation 69
4. Miscellaneous Official Documents . . 148
5. Petitions ........... ..... 163
.................
6. Sales and Leases 176
7. Receipts 200
.................
8. Loans . .217
Accounts ..... 222
9.
10. Private Letters 252
11. Miscellaneous Documents 257
C. Byzantine Period:
1. The Correspondence of Abinnaeus . . . . . . . . . . . .267
2. Miscellaneous Fourth-Century Documents 307
3. Late Byzantine Documents 323
INDICES:—
INTRODUCTION.
THE
present volume of the Catalogue of Papyri differs in some points of detail and
arrangement from the first. The first volume dealt with the papyri acquired by the
Museum up to the year 1890, and every such papyrus, with the exception of the merest scraps
(and not excepting some even of them), was included in it, both in the texts and in the
accompanying atlas of facsimiles. Since that date, however, the number of papyri discovered
in Egypt has increased to such an extent that it is no longer either possible or desirable to
publish the texts of all in full. In the present volume, therefore, which covers the acquisitions
of the Museum from the beginning of 1891 to the middle of 1895, a selection has been
made, and only the texts of the more perfect and important papyri are given in full. By
way of compensation, however, the numerical table prefixed to the texts, which in the first
volume gave merely the briefest possible description of each papyrus, has been enlarged into
a full descriptive catalogue, so as to provide an adequate amount of information with regard
to those papyri ofwhich the full texts are not printed^. In all, about 410 papyri are included
within the range of this volume; and the texts of 262 distinct documents are printed in full.
A
similar principle of selection has been applied to the facsimiles, the best and most important
papyri only (especially those which have precise dates) being selected for reproduction.
The scope of this volume has been determined, so far as the lower limit of time is
concerned, by the date (May, 1895) at which the British Museum received its share of the
Petrie Papyri. To have included descriptions of these (amounting to about 120 in all), together
with the texts of those which have not hitherto been published, would have swelled considerably
the size of a volume already much larger than its predecessor. The Petrie papyri, therefore,
together with all subsequent acquisitions of the Museum, are excluded from its survey.
It so happens, however, that nearly all the more important papyri acquired since the date at
which it closes have already been published elsewhere ; the Petrie Papyri in the two volumes
edited by Prof. Mahaffy ^ and a large proportion of the more recent acquisitions in the two
volumes edited by Messrs. B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt^ With a few exceptions, therefore,
all the Greek papyri in the British Museum are now accessible to scholars.
' Even in the case ofpapyri ofwhich the texts arepublished hbraries ofthe British Museum, Oxford, and Dublin, has been
in full, the details relating to dimensions, character of hand- pvihWsh.&d.mXh^ArchaeologicalReportoftheEgyptExploration
writing, &c., will be found in the numerical catalogue, not in FundioT 1894-5, p. 55.
the introductory notes prefixed to thetexts. ° AnAlexandrianEroticFragmentandother GreekPapyri,
" The Flinders Petrie Papyri, by. the Rev. J. P. Mahaffy, chiefly Ptolemaic (Greek Papyri I), by B. P. Grenfell, M.A.
D.D., F.T.C.D. (Royal Irish Academy, Cunningham Memoirs, (Oxford, 1896): New ClassicalFragmentsandotherGreek and
nos.viii.andix). Two Parts, 1891and 1893,withAppendix,1894. Latin Papyri {Greek Papyri II), by B. P. Grenfell, M.A.
A table showing the distribution of these papyri between the and A. S. Hunt, M.A. (Oxford, 1897).
vi INTRODUCTION.
In point of chronological distribution the papyri now published form a fitting supplement
to those in vol. i, being strong in the periods where that was weak, and weak where that
was strong. The first volume (apart from magical papyri, which stand by themselves) dealt
mainly with the Ptolemaic and late Byzantine Periods, with only a few documents (though
these were long and important ones) from the Roman period. The present volume, on the
other hand, gives little from the Ptolemaic and late Byzantine periods, but has a long series
of Roman documents (many of them precisely dated) ranging from B.C. lo to a. D. 275 ^
while the early Byzantine period, which hitherto has contributed almost nothing to the stock
of extant papyri, is represented by a large group of documents from the middle of the fourth
century. It may be added that the gaps still remaining in the chronological sequence of the
Museum papyri, namely the later part of the Ptolemaic period and the years about A, d. 300
and 400, are to a considerable extent filled by the documents since acquired from Messrs.
Grenfell, Hogarth, and Bevan, which have been published in the volumes of Messrs. Grenfell
and Hunt. The periods as to which more light is still principally needed are the middle
of the first century b. c. (with the transition from the Ptolemaic to the Roman period) and
the fifth century of the Christian era.
Thesame remarks apply to the purely palaeographical side of the subject, which is represented
in the atlas of facsimiles by which this volume is accompanied. The atlas to the first volume
contained 150 plates, giving facsimiles of 96 different documents, of which 48 belonged to the
Ptolemaic period, 16 to the Roman (10 being magical papyri, which form, palaeographically
as well as in content, a somewhat separate department), and 32 to the late Byzantine. The
atlas to the present volume contains 123 plates, giving facsimiles of 132 different documents,
of which ID belong to the Ptolemaic period, 91 to the Roman, 27 to the early Byzantine
(fourth century), and 3 to the late Byzantine. Nearly all the papyri now reproduced possess
exact dates, and they may be regarded as providing a characteristic representation of the
course of non-literary palaeography during the centuries over which they extend.
The papyri of the Roman period were, for the most part, acquired before the introduction
to vol. i was written, and the palaeographical conclusions derivable from them were utilized
in the sketch of the history of Greek writing upon papyrus which is there given (pp. xi, xli).
The fourth-century papyri, however, were acquired too late to be more than briefly alluded
to in that place (p. xli, note) ; and to them attention may now be directed as the most novel
portion of the present publication from the palaeographical point of view. Three of them
have already been published by the Palaeographical Society and two or three other documents
;
of the period were previously known (see vol. i, p. xli) ; but the twenty-seven facsimiles now
produced obviously place our knowledge on a much wider and sounder basis. The most
marked feature which distinguishes the writing of this century from that of the Roman
period is its great increase in size. The letters are larger, broader, and often thicker.
Several of them, notably k, fi, and in many cases o, stand out conspicuously by their size ;
and the fondness for long projecting strokes in such letters as e, i, X, p, which characterizes
the later Byzantine period, is found in many documents of the fourth century, especially those
which make a greater attempt at elegance of writing (e.g. Papp. CCXXXII, CCXXXIV).
' Most ofthese come from the great find made about 1892, has furnishedthousands ofpapyri tothe Berlin collection, while
at or in the neighbourhood ofSocnopaei Nesus (Dimeh),which many havefound theirway to Vienna, Geneva, and elsewhere.
