ï~~38
George Bevan
16 ptcYv ot Kcai.. [ ca. 12 ]..... [...]...... [ca.10]
qgq.... [ca. 18 ]
on..... [ca.17]
20...... [ca.16]
"... to the bibliophylakes from Orsenouphis (?), son of Epharmostos, son of
Orsenouphis and his mother being... from Talao. I declare for the first time in
accordance with the decree the property that has devolved upon me from my
father Epharmostos, son of Orsenouphis, son of Epharmostos, his mother being Euterpe, from the same village, without him having declared the property,
in accordance with the testamentary covenant which he made through the
registry office of Talao in the month of Kaisareios, in the twelfth year of our
Lord Trajan, unchanged at the time of his death, that which he apportioned
to me and..."
1 PLPto] PU.(): The bottom of a lambda is visible at the end of 1. 1, as well
as the faintest traces of two other letters. Since the names of the bibliophylakes
are expected before the ctapd that begins 1. 2, an abbreviated form of the dative
plural is very likely. For a parallel to this opening, see P.Harr. 1.74.1-4.
2.qp.t ['Opo~vo6ptoc (?): The supplement is not certain. The son's name
may be that of the grandfather's, but not necessarily.
3 TaXacb was a village (Kwtqf) in the Oxyrhynchite nome near Sinary and
is attested in a number of documents (e.g., POxy. 55.3778.1+8, 10.1285.131,
3.514.2, 5). POxy. 50.3560.5 has a ypay iov at Talao, a registry also referred to
in POxy. 44.3166.14 and 3.637. See P. Pruneti, I centri abitati dell'Ossirinchite
(Firenze 1981) 193-194. For general discussion of this toponym, see E Lasserre,
"Laos et Talaos (Strabon VI,1,1)," La Parola del Passato 18 (1963) 355-364.
3-4 Kait] Ta npooTcTayTva: For this expression in other returns, see
POslo 2.24.6; PHarr. 1.74.10; POxy. 2.249.6, and PSI 8.942.8. It indicates that
this return was made under the order of the prefect. For discussion of an earlier
property declaration in 60/1, see R. Caldwell, "A Declaration of Property from
the Michigan Collection", BASP 39 (2002) 7-11.
Grenfell and Hunt's oitweg was corrected to updtrw in BL 1:326. For a
parallel use of the adverb rcpcbtw see PHarr. 1.74.9-10. Harmon (n. 8) 177 -182 argues that the adverb means that the person making the declaration has
never before declared any property. Whether or not this is true, in the present
0