Author Description

This volume publishes a selection of texts prepared to highlight recent work on the Oxyrhynchus Collection. Part I includes papyri of the Old and New Testaments. Part II offers Comedy Old and New: Aristophanes, a sizeable chunk of Menander's Epitrepontes and 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, as well as 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. 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, Part VI includes: 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.