This volume publishes a selection of texts prepared to highlight recent work on the "Oxyrhynchus Collection" in Part I, papyri of the Old and New Testaments. Part II offers "Comedy Old and New: Aristophanes", a sizeable chunk of Menander's Epitrepontes and another from his 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 - together with 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. In 4939, a distraught lover laments his girlfriend's untimely passing at considerable length in hexameter verse. A glimpse of the sleek, dark underbelly of Greek culture is afforded by a slice of Lollianos' novel "Phoinikika"; a fragment of Hellenistic history may be the earliest textual attestation of the histories of Timagenes.
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, in part VI we find 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. 4965 is a Manichaean letter. 4956 is a census declaration, written in a standard scribal book-hand; 4967 contains a new but unread notarial signature. In 4966 we get what is possibly the first Egyptian member of the senate at Constantinople; and in 4967 the terms of employment of a public herald.
- ISBN10 0856981826
- ISBN13 9780856981821
- Publish Date 1 June 2009
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Egypt Exploration Society
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 215
- Language English