34
R.S. Bagnall - K.A. Worp
ueT& TV TateCav.
Stein proceeds to treat the reign of Tiberius. There is only
one secure instance of the phenomenon in this reign, viz. p.Oxy. I
144, where the consular number 2 is used in the year after the consulate. But Stein includes along with this document a group of papyri in which we find noterT Tr1IV cnarcLav plus years by consular
count (i.e. New Style), but rather bucaT da, "in the consulate"
followed by these consular years (323 n.5). In CSBE 126-27 we largely followed Stein in designating these as New Style. But this is
incorrect, for in fact the phenomenon is different from that of New
Style: instead of UET& Thv nacLTeLa plus consular numbering, we have
bnaTeCac plus consular numbering.
Stein, having established the existence of New Style under
Justinus II and Tiberius, concludes that consulate and postconsulate became interchangeable in the documentary parlance of this period. This conclusion is unwarranted and has had bad results, for
it results in a muddling without distinction of two different systems. Once this lumping together is rejected, however, the problem
of New Style under Mauricius needs reexamination in full.
One document under Tiberius seems to have the reverse of New
Style: PSI VII 786 is dated to regnal year 6, 6naTEcaC year 2, Tybi
7 of indiction 14. There is some error here (cf. CSBE 66 n.24), as
the regnal year and indiction do not match. It seems likely that
the date is 3.i.581 (the indiction is confirmed by lines 13-14) and
that the scribes forgot to change the regnal year in December and
the consulate early in 581. In this case the consular date gives in
fact the number by postconsular reckoning, which is the reverse of
New Style. (The postconsular numerals in SPPXX 217 and SB VI 9592
are lost, and the method of reckoning used there cannot be determined.)
A group of four documents early in Mauricius' reign refer to
the postconsulate of the deceased emperor Tiberius. Three of them
are examples of New Style reckoning: P.Oxy. I 136 and 137, and P.oxy.
XVI 1976. All refer to ~eTs Tiv rOnaTeLav but use consular count. In
P.Genova I 31, the numeral for the postconsulate is lost.
3 Aegyptus 56 (1976) 69 also belongs to this group, as does P.Grenf. I 60,
cf. CNBD II 17. So also does P.Ant. II 103. The reader is asked to delete N.S.
in CSBE except for the examples justified in the discussion below.
