Liturgy list

Description

If N. Lewis (op. cit., introduction to text no. 2) is correct in his assumption that this papyrus should be dated to the latter part of the IInd century A.D., year 6 mentioned in line 28 could be the sixth year of the reign of Septimius Severus (15.10.197 A.D.). However, the sixth year of the reign of Alexander Severus (15.10.226 A.D.) cannot be excluded. The text is a nomination of every time two men to superintend the irriügation of the fields. First two men of each six toparchies of the Oxyrhynchite nome are nominated (lines 6 - 27); from line 29 onwards at least 15 more men are nominated. These men are living in certain villages of the Oxyrhynchite nome. It is possible that each village contributed two men as well (it is not absolutely certain that line 37 was directly followed by line 38 = the beginning of the second London fragment). Anyhow, one village must have contributed either one or three nominees. The text is in all probability a draft. The addressee is not named; the text is written on the back of another document (our text no. 49), and the entries are all different and far from complete. I have in most instances refrained from resolving the abbreviated proüper names when there was more than one possibility.