The Jews of Oxyrhynchos address the strategos of the nome: An early fourth-century document

• Authors: Balamoshev Constantinos
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In August 309 the Jews of Oxyrhynchos addressed the strategos of the Oxyrhynchite nome. If the interpretation is correct, the people who filed the document on behalf of the Jews appear to represent a koinon, which is a term also used for professional associations but here seemingly applied to the town’s Jewish community as a whole. A scholarly consensus has yet to be reached on whether the Jewish communities could be classified as collegia according to Roman law but various pieces of evidence adduced here indicate that this was possible. Another issue that is addressed here is the nature of the document and why it was addressed particularly to the strategos of the nome, who is known to have changed duties after Diocletian’s administrative reforms. Finally, this papyrus furnishes another important piece of information, as it records a further year-in-office of Dioskourides alias Ioulianos, a member of a prominent family of councillors and officials, whose origins can be traced back to Alexandria and who are known to us through (at least) three successive well-documented generations. The history of the family’s career (as evidenced by the hitherto published material) is offered in a nutshell in the form of an appendix.

Keywords

EN

Jews; Jewish community; koinon; Oxyrhynchos; fourth century; Beinecke library; Dioskourides alias Ioulianos strategos

• Publisher: Fundacja im. Rafała Taubenschlaga
• Journal: The Journal of Juristic Papyrology
• Year: 2017
• Issue: 47
• Pages: 27-43

Dates

published

2017

Contributors

author

Balamoshev Constantinos

• University of Warsaw Institute of Archaeology Department of Papyrology Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28 00-927 Warsaw

Identifiers

ISSN

0075–4277