DOCUMENTARY PAPYRI FROM ROMAN AND BYZANTINE OXYRHYNCHUS by MARGARET MOUNTFORD UCL Submitted for the degree of PhD in Papyrology 1 DECLARATION I, Margaret Mountford, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. .............................................................................................. ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis is to publish and so make available for scholars and others interested in Roman and Byzantine Egypt 32 documentary papyri, dated from 107 AD to the early 7th century, which are part of the Oxyrhynchus collection belonging to the Egypt Exploration Society. The papyri cover a range of subjects. The summonses (03 to 09) and declarations of uninundated or artificially irrigated land (010 to 014) are documents of which many examples have already been published; they confirm, clarify and expand information gleaned from other documents. Contracts between private individuals for irrigation works (01) and leasing a workshop and mill (02) are more unusual, as is the agreement under which town councillors share out their liturgical duties (017). A letter concerning the corn dole (015) and a complete list of Oxyrhynchite praepositi pagorum (016) also relate to Oxyrhynchite administration. Three circus programmes (018 to 020) double the number of such documents known and include a number of words not previously attested in papyri. The last twelve papyri relate to aspects of administration and life on the large estates of Byzantine Egypt, mainly those of the well-attested Apion family; they include contracts of employment of a door-keeper and a rent-collector (021 and 022) and documents relating to the collection of rents (023 and 024) and payment for wine (025). 026 to 031 concern monasteries, two of which, Abba Petros and Abba Castor, are previously unattested; the latter is also listed as a payer in 032. All contribute to the picture of social and economic conditions in Roman and Byzantine Egypt built up by previous scholarship. The conventions used are those required for publication in the P. Oxy. series, although the commentaries which follow are much more detailed than is usual in such volumes. 2 CONTENTS Acknowledgements 5 01 Contract for the provision of irrigation services 107 6 02 Sub-?) lease of a workshop containing a mill 138-160 20 03-09 Summonses 39 03 Summons to an archephodos 2nd century 45 04 Summons to an archephodos to appear 2nd/3rd century 49 05 Summons from a beneficiarius mid 3rd/early 4th century 52 06 Summons from a canaliclarius 245-275? 55 07 Summons from a canaliclarius mid/late 3rd century 58 08 Summons from a decurio mid/late 3rd century 60 09 Summons from a decurio mid/late 3rd century 63 010-014 Declarations of uninundated or artificially irrigated land 66 010 Declaration of uninundated and artificially irrigated land 212 75 011 Declaration of uninundated land 225 83 012 Declaration of uninundated land 225 85 013 Declaration of uninundated land 225 89 014 Declaration of uninundated land 240 93 015 Letter regarding the corn dole 272? 98 016 List of assistants of praepositi pagi 338-340? 103 017 Agreement concerning irrigation administration 358 117 018-020 Three circus programmes 128 018 Circus programme 6th century 136 019 Circus programme 5th/6th century 141 020 Circus programme 6th century 143 021-032 Documents relating to estates 145 021-022 Two employment contracts 160 3 021 Contract of a door-keeper 569 161 022 Contract of a rent-collector 596 170 023 Letter to a pronoetes 6th century 182 024 Receipt for rent 507 193 025 Receipt from a zygostates to a wine steward 552 198 026-032 Documents relating to monasteries 206 026 Receipt for wheat paid to the monastery of Abba Andrew 548 212 027 Receipt for wheat paid to the monastery of Abba Petros 553? 219 028 Receipt for wheat paid to the monastery of Abba Castor 6th century 235 029 Receipt for ropes from the monastery of Abba Castor 549 238 030 Receipt for ropes from the monastery of Abba Castor 583 243 031 Order to the monastery of Abba Castor to supply ropes 6th century 247 032 List of payments of money early 7th century? 249 Bibliography 256 APPENDIX 274 Plates of papyri 01 to 032 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I joined UCL in 1999, after 25 years as a lawyer, with some trepidation; more than 30 years had elapsed since I had studied any Latin or Greek. I was reassured by an interview with a very enthusiastic Robert Ireland and it was a delight, after the City, to be with so many scholars with a great knowledge and love of their subject. My thanks are due in particular to Simon Hornblower, Alan Griffiths and Michael Crawford, three exceptional scholars and teachers, who made my BA in Ancient World Studies and MA in Classics such enjoyable and intellectually stimulating experiences. I am fortunate to have studied with two outstanding papyrologists. For my interest in the subject I owe thanks to Cornelia Römer, whose MA classes I attended as an “extra” and who showed me that in the study of documentary papyri I could combine my interest in history with the challenge and fun of deciphering and interpreting new material. When Cornelia left UCL the baton passed to Nick Gonis, to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude for his patient, expert and inspiring supervision. I am grateful to Riet van Bremen for her support as my second supervisor. Thanks to the “new” friends whom I met during my studies at UCL for their encouragement: Caro Schofield, Jools Newton, Maggie Robb, Netti Farkas and Fiona Haarer. And thanks to my “old” friends, from my earlier undergraduate days at Cambridge, who alternated between telling me to do more work and complaining that I was boring when I did, and particularly to Zarine Kharas, for their constant support. 5 01 Contract for the provision of irrigation services 45. 5B/F(2-5)a 12 x 19.5 cm 26 May to 24 June 107 Introduction 01 contains a contract for the provision of irrigation services by Amois, a zeugelates or teamster, who agrees to supply to Harthoönis the necessary oxen and workmen to irrigate a newly-planted vineyard, using a saquiya owned by a third party. The contract is in the form of a private protocol (see p. 21). The last few lines, including the signatures, are missing. The papyrus is interesting because few Roman period contracts for the provision of services have been published, and because it adds to our knowledge on the tending of vineyards. The nature of the contractual relationship Amois is not an employee of Harthoönis and his services are not engaged full-time; he is an independent contractor. There have been a number of attempts to classify “work contracts”. Montevecchi distinguished “contratti di lavoro propriamente detti” (which included agreements for the performance of agricultural tasks, like harvesting, and for services of craftsmen) from “contratti di servizio”; in the former, the engaged person was not at the disposal of the other, whereas in the latter he was—the emphasis was on the obligation to παραμένειν, 1 remain, with the employer. The contract in 01 would have fallen into her first category. In the standard work on the topic, Private Arbeitsverträge freier Personen in den hellenistischen Papyri bis Diokletian, Hengstl divided “work contracts” into two broad categories: those which involved “Personenrechtliche Beziehungen”, by which he appears to παραμένειν, mean some form of service relationship involving the obligation to and those which did not; “Dienstverträge”, which included contracts of service, were in his first category and “Werkverträge”, which in his view usually involved an object which was to be worked on and then returned to the owner, were in the second.2 Jördens identified problems with Hengstl’s stress on an “object” in her work on contracts from the Byzantine period.3 The contract in 01 does not fall happily into any of Hengstl’s categories. It is closer παραμένειν to a “Dienstvertrag” than a “Werkvertrag” but there is no obligation to and the “personal” relationship aspect which Hengstl finds important is absent; someone engaging 1 Montevecchi 1973/1988, 219-220. 2 Hengstl 1972, 35-60. 3 Jördens 1990, 148-151. 6 an artist (or a wet-nurse or a long-term employee) might want to ensure the exclusive services of a particular individual, but I cannot see why Harthoönis would care who irrigated his vineyard or how many other jobs that person undertook at the same time, as long as his irrigation was done properly. Hengstl’s classifications are in my view unnecessarily complex; this contract constitutes simply what we would call a contract for services, rather than a contract of service. Amois is to be paid a fixed fee of 220 drachmas plus one keramion of wine in return for watering the property at set intervals for a period of up to three months, from a date in Pauni to shortly after the start of the new year. The obligation was probably to water every four days until 26th August and twice thereafter, a total of some 24 or 25 times. I have been unable to find an exact parallel. Harvesting contracts tend to involve groups of workers who are occupied full-time while they are engaged, and are paid in kind (e.g. P. Flor. I 101 (78-91), P. Sarap. 49-51 (123, 124 and 125 respectively). In some ways this papyrus is not dissimilar to LI 3641 (544), where a millstone cutter contracted to supply millstones for his lifetime but was not prevented from carrying out work for others, or to III 498 (2nd century), a contract with stone-cutters, and P.