Two petitions concerning civic magistracies by a gymnasiarch and son of a veteran

Journal article

P.CtYBR inv. 505, housed in Yale University’s Beinecke Library, is a rectangular piece of papyrus preserving on its two sides the ends of two respective petitions by the same individual, Quintus Marinus Claudianus, who was a gymnasiarch of Oxyrhynchus and the son of a veteran. The front carries a draft petition concerning appointments to municipal magistracies addressed to a prefect of Egypt. On the back was copied another petition concerning the financing of spectacles by magistrates for a local festival, together with the official response. This petition was probably also submitted to a prefect, but he referred it to the deputy epistrategus for a decision. The draft and copy on the respective sides are written in different hands, and as far as we can tell from what survives, there does not seem to be any obvious connection between the subjects of the two petitions.These texts provide an interesting window on some of the challenges facing civic magistracies in the towns of Roman Egypt in the late second century CE and state authorities’ responses to them as well as new evidence for related imperial constitutions. They also present us with the son of a veteran who held an unusually high status compared to most veterans and their descendants in Roman Egypt.

Authors: Benaissa, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Journal: Chiron
• Volume: 48
• Pages: 53–76
• Publication date: 2018-11-19
• Acceptance date: 2018-01-16
• DOI: 10.1515/9783110613759-004
• ISSN: 0069-3715
• ISBN: 9783110613759
• Keywords: Article