The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part 8

PREFACE

The delay, for which I must beg the indulgence of subscribers, in the publication of this volume, is chiefly due to the lengthy preliminaries which were necessary for the production of two of the new classical texts, the Meliambi satirical poems of Cercidas (1082) and the fragments of an anonymous Satyric drama (1083). Those papyri, with 1091-2, are derived from the second of the large literary finds made in 1906 (cf. the Archaeological Report for that year, p. 12), which was at once more extensive, more scattered, and in worse condition than the first. Before any text from it could be dealt with, some thirty thousand pieces of various sizes had to be flattened and examined, a task which occupied several weeks of last year. Possibly some further small fragments may yet be identified; but the great bulk of the find, at any rate, has now been prepared for sorting and copying; and that serious additions will be made is a contingency not sufficiently probable to justify a further postponement.

In editing the new classical fragments (1082-7) I have once more enjoyed the great advantage of the assistance of Professor U. von Wilamowitz-Möllendorff, to whom I am deeply indebted, especially with regard to 1082 and 1086. Professor U. Wilcken was again kind enough to look through the proof-sheets of the non-literary section and to contribute a number of valuable comments. Occasional suggestions received from other friends are recorded in connexion with the texts concerned. To all my helpers, including the Proof-reader of the University Press, I here return hearty thanks.

Another instalment of Oxyrhynchus papyri is designed for the next volume, which I hope to issue early in 1912.

ARTHUR S. HUNT.

Queen's College, Oxford,
May, 1911.