Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 43 (2006) 199-203
John Matthews, The Journey of Theophanes: Travel, Business, and Daily Life in the Roman East. New Haven and London: Yale University
Press, 2006. xvii + 244 pages. ISBN 0-300-10898-2.
In 1906 H. Bresslau published in APF 3 (pp. 168-172) a Strasbourg papyrus
containing a letter of recommendation in Latin (now CPL 262) in favor of one
Theophanes, a scholastikos from the city of Hermopolis in the Thebaid. Years
later this letter found a much damaged twin in a papyrus housed in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, providing the essential link in what is now referred
to as "the Theophanes archive." The Rylands papyrus, PRyl. 4.623 (now CPL
263), was published in 1952 along with 34 other documents that make up the
archive's major portion (PRyl. 4.616-651; perhaps add 607). A second, smaller
portion, five letters belonging to the Egypt Exploration Society, was published
in 1964 (PHerm.Rees 2-6). A succinct register of the archive's documents, including one more letter found among the EES papyri, is set out in the present
book, pp. xv-xvi. A detailed publication history of the archive, or archives,
including references to stray pieces from what may be called Theophanes' dossier, is given by H. Cadell, "Les archives de Theophands d'Hermoupolis: documents pour l'histoire," in L. Criscuolo and G. Geraci (eds.), Egitto e storia antica
dall'ellenismo alleti araba (Bologna 1989) 315-323.
The book under review simply begged to be written; for despite its inherent interest, notice of Theophanes' early fourth-century archive, "one of the
richest... of the period" (R. S. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity [Princeton
1993] 271), has been sporadic and limited to article-length treatments, some
of which are difficult to obtain. As the author (M.) points out, the archive is
ignored in the standard works on Antioch. Nor, I might add, was its Rylands
portion, though available and relevant, used in A.H.M. Jones's Later Roman
Empire (Oxford 1964), a work that strikes its readers as having exploited just
about every likely primary source.
For those unfamiliar with Theophanes, the basics are that in his capacity
as a scholastikos he served in the early 320s on the staff of Egypt's chief financial
officer (KcdoXOK6 in Greek, rationalis in Latin). A magnate of regional note
(see the fragmentary domestic accounts, PRyl. 4.640-65 1), in the 'teens he had
served as a strategos-exactor. The chief interest of his papers lies in their record
of his journey, on an unspecified mission, from Hermopolis (or Antinoopolis)
to Antioch. This he, with traveling attendants, free and servile, undertook in
322 or 323 (Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity 271, n. 76), presumably "enjoying the privileges of the public post" (L. Casson, Travel in the Ancient World
[new edition, Baltimore and London 1994] 190). Significantly, the documents
