A Roman Property Declaration from the Michigan Papyrus Collection

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Ancient European Civilization, Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

The present research is an edition of an unpublished Greek documentary papyrus from the Michigan University collection; it was acquired from Nahman and formed a part of a consignment that reached the University of Michigan in 1923. The document is fragmented into two pieces, and it is a property declaration for a Catoecic land through the records office of the Arsinoites during the second century, it partly preserves the names of the parties, the description of the land, in addition to other clauses which represents the main items of such documents. The verso of the papyrus is a part of a land sale but not the same land.

Keywords


  1. Resources:

    BGU              = Aegyptische  Urkunden  aus  den  Königlichen (later Staatlichen) Museen zu Berlin, Griechische Urkunden, Berlin, 1895 ff.

    CPR               =Corpus Papyrorum Raineri, ed. by Wessely. C.,Vienna, 1895 ff.

    P.Bas.            = Papyri of the University Library of Basel, ed. E. Rabel, Berlin 1917 ff.

    1. Berl.Leihg. = Berliner Leihgabe griechischer Papyri. ed. T. Kalén and the Greek Seminar at Uppsala. Uppsala 1932 ff.

    P.Col.                 =Columbia Papyri, ed. by Westermann,  W.L., New York, 1929.

    P.Eirene.            = Studia Graeca et Latina (Papyrologica) ed. J. Bazant and R. Pintaudi with many others. Prague 1998 ff.

    P.Fam.Tebt.       = A Family Archive from Tebtunis, ed.  Van Groningen, B.A., (Pap.Lugd.Bat.  VI), Leiden, 1950.

    P.Flor.                =Papiri greco-egizii, Papiri Fiorentini (Supplementi Filologico-Storici ai Monumenti Antichi), ed. by Vitelli G., Comparetti, D.,Milan, 1906 ff .

    P.Leipz.             = Die   griechischen   Papyri   der   Leipziger Universitätsbibliothek, ed. by Wessely, C., Leipzig 1885.

    P.Lond.              = Greek Papyri in the British Museum, ed. by Kenyon, F.G., London, 1893 ff.

    P.Louvre            = Griechische Papyri der Cahiers P. 1 und P. 2 aus der Sammlung des Louvre, ed. by A. Jördens and P. Schubert, Bonn, 2005.

    P.Mert.           = A Descriptive Catalogue of the Greek   Papyri in the Collection of Wilfred Merton, ed. By Bell, H.I., Roberts, C.H., Rees B.R. and Barns, J.W.B., London, 1948 ff.

    P.Mich.          = Papyri in the University Michigan Collection, ed. by Edgar, C.C., Ann Arbor, 1931 ff.

    P.Münch.           = Die Papyri der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek München, Byzantinische Papyri der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek München, ed. by Heisenberg, A., Hagedorn, D., and Wenger, L., Stuttgart, 1986 ff.

    P.Oxf.                = Some Oxford Papyri, ed. by E.P. Wegener, Leiden, 1942.

    P.Oxy.                = The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Published by the Egypt Exploration Society in Graeco-Roman Memoirs, ed. by B.P. Grenfell and Hunt, A.S., Bell H.I. and others, London, 1898 ff.

    P.Petaus.           = Das Archiv des Petaus, ed. by Hagedorn, U., Hagedorn, D., Youtie, L.C., and Youtie, H.C., Opladen, 1969.

    P.Prag.               = Papyri Graecae Wessely Pragenses, ed. R. Pintaudi, R. Dostálová and L. Vidman. Firenze 1988 ff.

     

    P.Ross.Georg.    = Papyri russischer und georgischer Sammlungen, ed. by Zereteli, G., Krüger, O., Jernstedt, P., Tiflis, 1925 ff.

    P.Ryl.=                Catalogue of the Greek and Latin Papyri in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, ed. by Johnson, M., Hunt, A.S., Roberts C.H. and Turner, E.G., Manchester— London, 1911 ff.

    P.Stras.             = Griechische    Papyrus    der    Kaiserlichen Universitäts und Landes- bibliothek zu Strassburg, ed. by Preisigke, F., Leipzig, 1912 ff.

    P.Wisc.            = The Wisconsin Papyri, ed. P.J. Sijpesteijn, 1967.

    PSI                     = Papiri greci e latini. (Pubblicazioni della Società Italiana per la ricerca dei papiri greci e latini in Egitto), ed. by Vitelli, G. and Norsa, M. and others, Florence, 1912 ff.

    SB                  = Sammelbuch Griechischer Urkunden aus Aegypten, Begun by Preisigke, F. in 1915, continued by Bilabel, F. Kiesslin, E., Strassburg Berlin, 1913 ff.

    W.Chr.           = Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde, I Bd. Historischer Teil, II Hälfte Chrestomathie. Ed. by L. Mitteis and U. Wilcken, Leipzig-Berlin, 1912.

    ZPE                = Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. Published currently in four or five issues a year by Dr Rudolf Habelt, Bonn, 1967 ff.

    References:

    Avogadro, Sandra, “Le ΑΠΟΓΡΑΦΑΙ di proprietà nell' Egitto greco-romanoAegyptus, no. 15 (1935): 131-206.

    Bowman, Alan and Rathbone, Dominic, "Cities and Administration in Roman Egypt",  JRS l.82 (1992): 107-127.                                                     

    Benaissa, Amin,  “Sixteen Letters to Agoranomi from Late First Century Oxyrhynchus”, ZPE 170 (2009): 157-185

    Claytor, Graham, “The Central Manager of the Arsinoite Notariate in the Late Second CenturyAPF 66 (2020): 323-338.

    --------------------, The Municipalization of Writing in Roman Egypt, in A. Kolb (ed.) Literacy in Ancient Everyday Life. Boston: de Gruyter, 2018.

    Cockle, W. E. H.,  “State Archives in Graeco-Roman Egypt from 30 BC to the Reign of Septimius Severus”, JEA 70 (1984): 106-122.

    Daris, Sergio, “I quartieri di Arsinoe: Addenda”, ZPE 157 (2006): 143-146.

         “I quartieri di Arsinoe in età romana”, Aegyptus 61 (1981): 143-154.

    Derda, Tomasz, A Roman Province in the Eastern Mediterranean, in Katelijn Vandorpe (ed.) A Companion to Greco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2019.

    Fischer-Bovet, Christelle, Army and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

    Gignac, Francis,   A Grammar of the Greek Papyri of the Roman and Byzantine Periods, vol.1. Milano: Istituto Editoriale Cisalpino-La Goliardica, 1975.

    Hobson, Deborah,  “The Inhabitants of Heraklia”, BASP 23 (1986): 99-123.

    The Village of Heraklia in the Arsinoite Nome”, BASP 22 (1985): 101-115

    Agricultural Land and Economic Life in Soknopaiou Nesos”, BASP 21 (1984): 89-109.    

    Huebner, Sabine, et al.,   Papyri of the University Library of Basel (P.Bas. II). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2020.

    Jördens, Andrea, “Öffentliche Archive und römische Rechtspolitik.” in Katja Lembke et al. (eds.) Tradition and Transformation: Egypt under Roman Rule. Boston: Brill, 2010.

    Kiessling, Emil, “Ein Beitrag Zum Grundbuchrecht Im Hellenistischen Ägypten”, JJP 15 (1965): 73-90.

    Kruse, Thomas,  Archives and Registration Roman Egypt.  in James G. Keenan et al. (eds.), in Law and Legal Practice in Egypt from Alexander to the Arab Conquest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

    Langellotti, Micaela, Record-Offices in Villages in Roman Egypt, in Micaela Langellotti and Dominic Rathbone (eds.), Village Institutions in Egypt in the Roman to Early Arab Periods. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.

    Lerouxel, François, Marriage and Asymmetric Information on the Real Estate Market in Roman Egypt, in Cristina Rosillo-López and Marta García Morcillo (eds.) Managing Information in the Roman Economy. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

    -------------------, The βιβλιοθήκη ἐγκτήσεων and Transaction Costs in the Credit Market of Roman Egypt (30 B.C.E. – ca. 170 C. E.), in Dennis Kehoe et al. (eds.) law and Transaction Costs in the Ancient Economy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2015.

    Lewis, Naphtali, A Note on the Recruitment of 'bibliophylakes enkteseon' in Naphtali Lewis (ed.) On Government and Law in Roman Egypt. Atlanta/ Georgia: Scholars Press, 1995.

    -------------------, The Compulsory Public Services of Roman Egypt. Firenze: Edizioni Gonnelli, 1682.

    -------------------, Inventory of Compulsory Services in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt. New Haven/ Toronto: American Studies in Papyrology 3, 1968.

    McKay, Kenneth, “On the Perfect and Other Aspects in the Greek Non-Literary Papyri”, BICS 27 (1980): 23-49.

    -----------------, “The Use of the Ancient Greek Perfect Down to the Second Century A.D.”, BICS 12 (1965): 1-21.

    Monson, Andrew,  From the Ptolemies to the Romans Political and Economic Change in Egypt. Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 2012.

    Mueller, Katja, “Places and Spaces in the Themistou Meris (Fayum / Graeco-Roman Egypt: (Locating Settlements by Multidimensional Scaling of Papyri)”, Ancient Society 33 (2003): 103-125.

    Ratzan, David, Contract Norms and Contract Enforcement in Graeco-Roman Egypt, Ph.D., Columbia University, 2011.

    Römer, Cornelia, et al.  The Fayoum Survey Project the Themistou Meris. Leuven: Peeters, 2019.

    Rowlandson, Jane, Landowners and Tenants in Roman Egypt. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

    Sijpesteijn, Pieter Johannes and Worp, Klaas, “Einige Papyri aus den Giessener Papyrussammlungen IV”, Aegyptus 56 (1976): 19-46.                         

    Yiftach-Firanko, Uri. Metepigraphê: Ptolemaic and Roman Policies on the Alienation of Allotment Land, in E. Jakab (ed.) Sale and Community: Documents from the Ancient World. Individuals' Autonomy and State Interference in the Ancient World. Trieste: Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2015. 

    Sites:

    https://papyri.info/

    https://www.trismegistos.org/