I. LETTERS

1829. LETTERS TO FLAVIUS STRATEGIUS AND HIS WIFE.

Two letters are contained on this sheet of papyrus, both from the same writer and addressed, the one to a member of the Apion family (line 24, note), the other to his wife. If the explanation adopted in line 2, note, is correct, the writer, a confidential agent of the family, had been attending the production before the praeses governor/presiding official of the will of Strategius’ father. There may have been some legal dispute necessitating the production of the will as evidence; but it is also possible that we have here an instance in Egypt of the production of a will for its insinuatio apud acta registration into the public record in order to authenticate it, for which see Steinwenter, Beiträge zum öffentl. Urkundenwesen der Römer Contributions to the Public Document System of the Romans, pp. 70-4, 83-92, v. Druffel, Papyrol. Studien Papyrological Studies, pp. 48 ff.; cf. Kreller, Erbr. Untersuchungen Inheritance Investigations, p. 335. It must, however, be added that the reference to a dialalia discussion/investigation of the prosfora legacies/offering gives some support to the other view.

The letters are also of interest for their contribution to the history of the Apion family; see note on line 24.

On the verso of the papyrus are fourteen lines of shorthand, in addition to the address.

On the tenth of the current month it was written to me by the most magnificent governor that the dispositions of your father of renowned memory, the pagarch local administrative official, had been exhibited, and the legacies were discussed in them, and in order that your lordship may know that your command was not neglected but was immediately fulfilled upon the arrival of the most magnificent governor
5 the Heracleopolite, and if not as much as my master commanded
and that if not as you commanded and as you wished
Your esteemed brother was not given to the collectors.
to the collector, I used the letters. I hope therefore in the Lord God that when the most illustrious tribune Paul also reaches the Oxyrhynchite, the things commanded by your lordship for the sake of his most illustrious sister will also be fulfilled.