chapter one INTRODUCTION We’re trackers and what we seek are fragments of papyri in ancient Greek. We’ve lled a few crates full already this week. Here are treasures crated, waiting to be shipped from Egypt back to Oxford where we work out each script. First we dig, then we decipher, then we must deduce all the letters that have mouldered into dust. – Beginning of Grenfell’s Monologue, ll. 1–7, Trackers of Oxyrhynchus1 Located on the western edge of the Nile Valley, some 180km south of Cairo on the bank of the Bahr Y¯usuf(Joseph’s Canal),2 lies the modern village ˙ of al-Bahnasa, the ancient site of Oxyrhynchus or city of the Sharp-Nosed Fish.3 Though relatively little is known about this ancient city and its admin- istrative district (nome) prior to the era of direct Roman rule in Egypt in 30bce,4 from this point until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the seventh century the city is exceptionally well documented. During this period the city became a prosperous centre that came to be regularly described by its 1 Tony Harrison, The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus (Contemporary Classics V) (London: Faber and Faber, 2004), 27–28. 2 As a branch of the Nile Joseph’s Canal runs north and empties into the Fayum oasis and Lake Moeris. 3 The city was named after a species of the mormyrus sh (Elephant-snout sh) that was found in abundance in both the Nile and the Bahr Y¯usufand was subsequently worshipped by the residents of the city. In Egyptian mythology˙ it was believed that this species of sh was the one that had eaten the penis of Osiris after Set (Seth) had dismembered Osiris’ body and scattered it throughout Egypt. In this myth when Isis later went about collecting the various body parts of her half-brother/husband she was unable to nd his penis because the sh had already eaten it. On the Oxyrhynchite veneration of the Oxyrhynchus sh see Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 353C. 4 Oxyrhynchus (Per-Medjed) is rst attested in the seventh century bce as a nome capital. Though it gained prominence in the later Ptolemaic period and is considerably better documented in this period than in former times the overwhelming majority of the documentation from the city comes from the Roman period. See Roger S. Bagnall and Dominic Rathbone, eds., Egypt from Alexander to the Early Christians: An Archaeological and Historical Guide (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004), 158–159; Graham Shipley, The Greek World: After Alexander 323–30BC (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), 197. 2 chapter one residents in the third century ce as “the illustrious and most glorious” (λαµ- πρὰ καὶ λαµπροτάτη) city.5 It contained a large agora with many shops,6 a number of administrative buildings, a massive theatre that could hold as many as 12,000 spectators,7 numerous shrines, temples, and churches,8 and quays where various goods were both imported and exported. At its height its population may have even exceeded 30,000 residents.9 When 5 There are literally hundreds of attestations of the designation in the papyri. For its potential signi cance see Revel Coles, “Oxyrhynchus: A City and Its Texts,” in Oxyrhynchus: A City and Its Texts, ed. A.K. Bowman, et al. (London: Egypt Exploration Society, 2007), 3; Géza Fehérvári, “Introduction,” in The Kuwait Excavations at Bahnas¯a/Oxyrhynchus(1985–1987): Final Report, ed. Géza Fehérvári, et alii (Kuwait: Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, 2006), 5–6. Eric Turner observed that from the Ptolemaic period to the end of the second century ce the city was usually identi ed as, “Oxyrhynchus city of the Thebaid”; whereas, in the third century ce the adjectives “illustrious and most illustrious” often accom- panied its name. See E.G. Turner, “Roman Oxyrhynchus,” JEA 38 (1952): 78. 6 For the most up-to-date and comprehensive listings of the various topographical fea- tures of the city see: Herbert Verreth, ed., A Survey of the Toponyms of Egypt in the Graeco- Roman Period (Köln/Leuven: Trismegistos Publications, 2008), 749–751. See also: S. Daris, “I quartieri di Ossirinco: materiali e note,” ZPE 132 (2000): 211–221; Julian Krüger, Oxyrhynchus in der Kaiserzeit: Studien zur Topographie und Literaturrezeption. Europäische Hochschul- schriften III, 441 (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1990), 64–109. 7 W.M.F. Petrie who conducted a partial excavation of the remains of the theatre in 1922 believed that it could hold about 11,200 persons. See W.M.F. Petrie, Tombs of the Courtiers and Oxyrhynkhos (London: British School of Archaeology in Egypt and Bernard Quaritch, 1925), 14. Drawing on Petrie’s measurements and notes for the theatre Donald M. Bailey has recently argued that the theatre probably held over 12,000 persons, perhaps even more than 13,000. See Donald M. Bailey, “The Great Theatre,” in Oxyrhynchus: A City and Its Texts, ed. A.K. Bowman, et al. (London: Egypt Exploration Society, 2007), 89. Assuming these calculations are correct this theatre could well have been one of the largest in Egypt. 8 John Whitehorne, “The Pagan Cults of Roman Oxyrhynchus,” ANRW 2, no. 18.5 (1995): 3050–3091; Krüger, Oxyrhynchus in der Kaiserzeit, 101–103; Timm I 287–292; L. Antonini, “Le chiese cristiane nell’Egitto dal IV al IX secolo,” Aegyptus 20 (1940): 172–183; L.G. Modena, “Il cristianesimo ad Ossirinco secondo i papiri: chiese e conventi e loro condizione economica,” BSAA 9 (1936–1937): 254–269; Georg Pfeilschifter, “Oxyrhynchos. Seine Kirchen und Klöster,” in Festgabe Alois Knöpler zur Vollendung des 70. Lebensjahres, ed. J.B. Auauser, et al. (Freiburg, 1917), 248–264. 9 Coles, “Oxyrhynchus: A City and Its Texts,” 8; I.H. Fichman, “Bevölkerungszahl von Oxyrhynchos in Byzantinischer Zeit,” APF 21 (1971): 111–112. For the later Roman Period Fich- man suggests a population between 15,000–20,000 (p. 120). Rodney Stark has estimated that the population of the city was somewhere near 34,000 inhabitants in the Roman period. See Rodney Stark, Cities of God: The Real Story of How Christianity Became an Urban Movement and Conquered Rome (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), 46–47. Dirk Obbink suggests a smaller urban population in the Roman period somewhere around 20,000 inhabitants. See Dirk Obbink, “Imaging Oxyrhynchus,” EA 22 (2003): 3. While Eric Turner never ofered a speci c guess on the population of the city in the Roman period he noted that it must have been substantially higher than 6,000 residents. See Turner, “Roman Oxyrhynchus,” 81. Julian Krüger has argued that the population of the entire Oxyrhynchite (city and nome) in the Roman Period may have exceeded 300,000 residents at its height. This calculation.