~48
Philip Katz
strokes and few ligatures. The second (lines 22-26) is faster, with smaller letters that incline to the right. The verso, meanwhile, contains a one-line docket
written either by a third hand or by the first, but with thinner strokes.
Dating to 345 CE, the text, which is drawn up in the form of a cheirograph,
contains an acknowledgement from Aurelius Didymus, of the Oxyrhynchite
village Pakerke, that he has received 30 talents of silver as a loan; the full name
of the lender, from Oxyrhynchus, is not preserved.3 The period of the loan was
to be a single month, beginning on the first of Thoth (August 29) and ending
on the thirtieth (September 27), and interest was to be paid at a rate of 3,000
drachmas per month, or 20% per annum. Interestingly, the two parties had
done business previously, and if the loan was not repaid on time, the borrower
was to pay a fixed amount of interest, rather than a penalty. The purpose of the
loan is not given, and it is uncertain whether it was ever fully repaid.
In many ways, the document is highly typical of its period in both structure and content, following the normal pattern for loans contracted between
a city-dwelling creditor and a village debtor and finding its closest parallels in
P Oslo 2.41 and SB 14.12088, dating to 331 and 346 respectively.4 The present
text, however, is among a very small body of fourth-century loans whose term
is known to have lasted only a single month. Worp, in his 1995 edition of the
Greek papyri from Kellis, discovered only five such loans: P Oslo 2.41, PSakaon
64, PSakaon 96, PSelect 7, and PStras 4.278.5 To these must also be added the
more recently published PNYU 2.23, P Oxy. 61.4124, and P Oxy. 61.4125. Of
this corpus, the present text is unique in explicitly stating a rate of interest in
cash.6 This rate, however, is only given in abbreviated form on the verso, with
3For the prevalence and development of the cheirograph in Oxyrhynchus, see U.
Yiftach-Firanko, "The Cheirographon and the Privatization of Scribal Activity in Early
Roman Oxyrhynchos," in E. Harris and G. Thir (eds.), Symposion 2007: Vortrdge zur
griechischen und hellenistischen Rechtsgeschichte (Durham, 2.-6. September 2007) (Vienna 2008) 325-340.
4 The topic of loans in the papyri, and in the fourth-century in particular, has given
rise to a significant bibliography: see, for instance, H.-A. Rupprecht, Kleine Einfihrung
in die Papyruskunde (Darmstadt 1994) 118-121; O. Montevecchi, La Papirologia, 2nd
ed. (Milan 1988) 225-229. Though not directly addressing the period at hand, see also B.
Tenger, Die Verschuldung im rbmischenAgypten (1.-2. Jh. N. Chr.) (St. Katharinen 1993).
5 PKellis 1, pp. 115-120.
6 P Oxy. 61.4124 (and possibly 4125) and PNYU 2.23 belong to a body of loans that
were ostensibly extended "without interest" (&vEv ToKov). This phrase, however, was
likely used in order to conceal "loan sharking practices" on the part of the lender. See
P.W. Pestman, "Loans Bearing No Interest?" JJP 16-17 (1971) 7-29; J.C. Shelton, "Two
Contracts of Loan from the Michigan Papyrus Collection," JJP 18 (1974) 157-162.
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