Fragmentary official letter
created: Transcription (Reynolds).
source date: Perhaps second century CE
language: ar; en; fr; de; grc; grc-Latn; el; he
availability: Creative Commons licence Attribution UK 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/) All reuse or distribution of this work must contain somewhere a link back to the URL http://inslib.kcl.ac.uk/

Bibliography

[...], a, b, c, p. 47, fig. I, p. 48, whence [...] 1967.533 a-c, whence [...] 015148, [...] 015151, [...] 015154 [...], 46. Mentioned [...], 92

[...] [...]instrumentum [...] [...]as nostrarum [...]proprium negotium [...] ut inspiciant et fidem [...]s de is quae adversus [...]int huius epistulae in foro [...]tionibus claris litteris [...]rum quotiens [...] [...]s in po[...] [...]

[...]exv inplici[...] [...]ientes d[...] [...] noto p[...]

[...]rumus[...] [...]m de eo [...] [...] qu[...]

Apparatus

Translation

[a+b]: [ . . . ] document [ . . . ] of our [? affairs . . . ] own transactions [ . . . ] that they may examine and the trust [ . . . ] about those who might be against [ . . . ? publish a copy ]of this letter in the forum [ . . . ] in clear characters [ . . . ] as often as [ . . . ] and in [ . . .

[d]: . . . ] ?15 [ . . .

[d]: . . . ] about it [ . . . ] which [ . . .

Commentary

The document is an official letter (fragment a+b, line 6); it probably came from an emperor though possibly from a governor. i]nstrum[entum standing for document is the most likely restoration.

a+b, line 6: foro: the writer no doubt used the word of the principal public place of any city and without reference to local usage at Ptolemais; of this we only know from Synesios, who has ἀγορά (Ep. 57.195c) as is to be expected. It is clear, however, that the text creates a strong presumption that earlier suggestions for the location of the agora should be rejected (so Goodchild). The findspot suggests the identification of the porticoed square, 30 metres away, with the principal public place of the city. On the area see Goodchild, loc.cit.

Line 7: 'clear characters': Similar formulae providing for efficient display are common in analogous texts (see a collection of instances by M.W. Frederiksen (1965) p.184f.) but we have found no other instance of the wording used here.