The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part XVI

6-7. The alteration has caused a confusion. In the first version there was nothing to go with pros ton praktēra to the collector, in the second the sentence has no principal verb. The words tois gr. echr. to the scribes were used/employed are required to complete it, and should not have been deleted.

praktērsin to the collectors: praktēr and praktēs are variants of praktōr and are glossed (e.g., Loewe-Goetz, Corp. Gloss. Lat. ii. 415. 4, 5) as actor, exactor, coactor. For praktōres collectors in the sixth century, cf. e.g., P. Brit. Mus. 1676. 23 “of the public collectors,” Cairo Masp. 67295. i. 9.

14. [p]rosforou of the provision/offering: rather more like prosforou, but the first stroke of the last letter comes lower than is usual with υ, and the plural is used in l. 4.

18. Above the line between oti that and the next word is a f written in fainter ink and apparently unrelated to the present text; but no other traces of previous writing are visible hereabouts.

19. endoxe( ) : the e seems clear, but endoxou illustrious or endoxotatēs most illustrious is obviously meant. Kyras may = kyrias lady/mistress, as in l. 21, the name being accidentally omitted, but since despoinēs mistress/lady has already been used it is more probably the name.

24. [Fl]auiō Stratēgiō to Flavius Strategius: that this is a member of the Apion family there can be no doubt, but to determine which member he is requires an investigation into the family history, for which the present volume offers valuable evidence enabling us to advance appreciably beyond the results attained by Spohr in his introduction to P. Iand. 48. Even so, many points must remain obscure or be left in the region of conjecture; but some facts, at least, can be established.

The earliest member of the family known to us, with one possible exception, is Apion, apo hypatōn ex-consul, father of the Fl. Strategius who occurs in 1982 (A.D. 497). The possible exception is the Fl. Strategius mentioned as praeses governor of the Thebaid in P. Amh. 140 (A.D. 349) and P. Leipz. 487 (Mélanges Nicole, p. 372, A.D. 368, but Strategius is referred to as a former praeses). There is indeed nothing to connect this person with the Oxyrhynchus family, to which the name Strategius is not confined (a Stratēgios Eustathiou occurs in P. Flor. 71. 778), but the name is sufficiently uncommon to suggest a possible connexion. With 1982 we reach firmer ground. Fl. Strategius is there addressed as comes devotissimorum domesticorum count of the most loyal domestics. He had not yet attained the consular dignity, and is described as geouchounti entautha landowning here, without the kai and usual in later documents, which might suggest that the family's possessions did not then extend beyond the Oxyrhynchite nome. As Strategius is the geouchos landowner, his father Apion might be thought to be dead, but he is not so described, and he might well have settled part of his estates on his son in his lifetime (see below, Apion III). This is supported by P. Stud. Pal. xx. 129, also dated in 497, where a paralē[mp]tou ousias Apionos tou endox(otatou) kai hyperphuestatou apo [hypat]ōn of the inherited estate of Apion, the most illustrious and most magnificent, ex-consul (so no doubt to be restored) occurs at Heracleopolis; for the omission, in two contemporary documents, of all reference to Apion's death is improbable. The absence of kai before entautha in 1982 is therefore inconclusive. Apion is apo hypatōn; since no Apion occurs in the fasti consulares consular records of the fifth century the dignity was honorary merely. This Apion may, as suggested by Spohr, conceivably be identical with the “Apion the Egyptian... a man among the patricians, illustrious and very active” of Procopius, Bell. Pers. i. 8, 40 B (cf. Malalas, p. 398 B “the patrician Appion... Praetorian Prefect of the East”), who was made Quartermaster-General (so that he might have the authority to manage the expenses as he wished, Proc. l. c.) in the Persian expedition of A.D. 503; but the identification is not very likely. Strategius occurs again, this time as stratēlātēs general and apo hypatōn, and geouchōn kai entautha also landowning here, in 1984, the date of which is doubtful but may be 508; his latest occurrence, with the further title of patricius patrician, and prōteuōn leading citizen at Heracleopolis and Oxyrhynchus, is in 535 (1983). He probably died between that date and 539, when his son Apion was consul ordinarius ordinary consul (Liebenam, Fasti Consulares, p. 56, C. I. L. ii. 2699, Flavius Strategius Apion).

The first occurrence of Apion II in a papyrus is in A.D. 543 (1985), the latest in 577