OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

–

Size:

8.7 x 14 cm.

Lines:

21

Publication side:

Recto

Palaeographic description:

One hand. Roman period cursive.

State of preservation:

Medium brown papyrus. Upper margin 2 cm., left margin 1,7 cm. Clean cut on the right, breaks off before the date at the bottom - otherwise complete. Black ink.

Content

Date:

April 17-25, 96 CE

Origin:

Behnasa (ancient Oxyrhynchus), Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Documentary

Author:

Theon, physician

Title / Type of text:

Report of physician / Document

Content:

A physician of Oxyrhynchus has been directed by the strategus to examine the injuries of a female slave and delivers a report of her condition and treatment.

Subjects:

Report Physicians Injuries Treatment Hyperetes

Named people:

Peisis, strategus of the Oxyrhynchite Theon, son of Harpaesis, physician Harpaesis Lochus, servant of Onnophris Onnophris Alexandra, slave of Claudia Dionysia Claudia Dionysia

Named places:

Oxyrhynchus

English translation:

To the strategus Peisis from Theon, son of Harpaesis, physician from the city of Oxyrhynchus. On the twenty-first of the current month Pharmouthi, Dies Augusta, of the fifteenth year of the Imperator Caesar Domitianus Augustus Germanicus, I was commissioned by you through Lochus, the son of Onnophris, hyperetes, to examine Alexandra, the slave of Claudia Dionysia. Accordingly, having examined her in the presence of the huperetes, I found a wound in the middle finger, which I treated, and a clot of blood in her breast, and she was vomiting and feverish.Therefore I make (this) report [in the 15th year of Imperator Caesar Domitianus Augustus Germanicus , Pharmouthi 21st.]

Provenance:

Oxyrhynchus, Egypt

Acquisition:

Purchased by Leiv Amundsen from Ali Mahmud Derballah (Behnasa) at Beni Masar

Acquisition year:

1929

Editions

• Hengstl, J., C. Pap. Hengstl, 1978, p. 103-104 (no. 37)
• Eitrem, S. and Amundsen, L., P.Oslo III, 1936, pp. 99-103 (no. 95), picture: Pl. VII c

Further Literature

Catalogues

TM 21537

Translations

• Metzger, (1974). Nachrichten aus dem Wüstensand (p. 31, no. 32). (German)
• Hengstl, J. (1978). Griechische Papyri aus Ägypten (pp. 103-104). München. (German)
• Straus, J. A. (2020). L'esclave dans l'Égypte romaine. Choix de documents traduits et commentés. Presses Universitaires de Liège. Translation into French on p. 107.

Discussions

• Nanetti, O., (1941). Ricerche sui medici e sulla medicina nei papiri. Aegyptus, 21, pp. 301-314.
• Kupiszewski, H. (1952). Surveyorship in the Law of Greco-Roman Egypt. The Journal of Juristic Papyrology, 6, pp. 263-265.
• Boswinkel, E., (1956). La médicine et les médecins dans les papyrus grecs. Eos 18 (=Symbolae Raphaeli Taubenschlag dedicatae, Varsovia), pp. 181-190.
• Modrzejewski, J. and Kupiszewski, H. (1957-58). UPHRETAI: Etude sur les fonctions et le rôle des hyperètes dans 1'administration civile et judiciaire de l'Egypte gréco-romaine. Journal of Juristic Papyrology, 11-12, p. 163, nn. 171-172.
• Nutton, V. (1977). Archiatri and the Medical Profession in Antiquity. Papers of the British School at Rome, 45, p. 214.
• Hengstl, J. (1978). Griechische Papyri aus Ägypten (pp. 103-104). München.
• Amundsen, D. W. and Ferngren, G.B., (1978). The forensic role of physicians in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt. Johns Hopkins Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 52, pp. 336-353
• Jones, B. W. and Whitehorne, J. (1983). Register of Oxyrhynchites 30 B.C.-A.D. 96 (p. 238, no. 4937). American studies in papyrology, 25.
• Harrauer, H. (1987). Corpus Papyrorum Raineri. Band XIII. Griechische Texte IX. In Kommission bei Verlag Brüder Hollinek (p. 91, no. 39). Wien.
• PUG II (p. 34) note to line 3 (BL 8, p. 229)
• Strassi, S. (1997). Le funzioni degli ὑπηρέται nell’Egitto greco e romano (p. 202, no. 190). Heidelberg.
• Manfredi, M. (2004). "Qualche osservazione sui referti medici nei papiri". In Andorlini, I. (ed.) Testi medici su papiro. Atti del Seminario di studio (Firenze, 3–4 giugno 2002), Florence, 153-170 (esp. pp. 159-160 and 163-170 passim).
• Whitehorne, J. (2006). Strategi and Royal Scribes of Roman Egypt: (Str.R.Scr.2) (p. 93). Rev. ed. Firenze: Edizioni Gonnelli.
• Hirt Raj, M. (2006). Médecins et Malades de l'Egypte romaine. Étude socio-légale de la profession médicale et de ses praticiens du Ier au IVe siècle ap. J.-C (pp. 102-119, 318-319 and tableau III). Studies in Ancient Medicine, 32.
• Mitthof, F. (2007). "Forensische Medizin im römischen Ägypten". In Froschauer, H and Römer, C. (eds.), Zwischen Magie und Wissenschaft. Ärzte und Heilkunst in den Papyri aus Ägypten (pp. 55–63 (esp. p. 61 III 7)). Wien.
• Hanson, A. E. (2010). "Doctors' Literacy and Papyri of Medical Content (p. 190, n. 12)". In Horstmannshoff, M. (Ed.), Hippocrates and Medical Education. Leiden.
• Ricciardetto, A. (2021). "La réponse du médecin: les rapports d'inspection médical écrits en grec sur papyrus (Ier-IVe siècles)." In M. Meeusen (Ed.), Ancient Greek Medicine in Questions and Answers. Diagnostics, Didactics, Dialectics, pp.133-153 (esp. 135n. 7, 139, 141n. 28 and 29, 144n. 43, and 146). Leiden.