Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae:

The Papyrological Evidence Peter Arzt-Grabner A recently published ostracon (O.Did. 412), inscribed before the year 140

CE in Didymoi in the Eastern desert of Egypt, preserves a letter addressed to Ammonios from a sender whose name is lost and who—among other things—asks Ammonios to bring him a jar of filtered Laodicean wine, if he comes and has a donkey.1 Alas, this ostracon does not provide evidence that Laodicea in the Lycus Valley exported wine to Egypt but rather that this wine had been transported from the famous port Laodicea in Syria,2 south to Egypt. The Syrian port is also mentioned in a register of merchant ships that was drawn up in Alexandria in second century CE (P.Bingen 77 with BL 12:36), registering ships bringing into Alexandria different goods from different ports, among them a ship3 from Laodicea bringing wine (ll.

17–18). Several days later—we are informed by the register—a ship from 1. See lines 7–9: ἐὰν ἔρχῃ καὶ ὄνον | ἔχῃς καὶ δύνῃ ἡμεῖν τῆς τειμῆς ⟦. ⟧ ὑλισ|τὸν ἐνένκαι (read ἐνεγκεῖν) Λαδικηνοῦ (read Λαοδικηνοῦ), καλῶς ποιήσις (the ed. translates: "if you come, and if you have a donkey, please, if you can, bring a jar of filtered

Laodicean wine—you will be reimbursed").

2. Or does λαδικηνόν in line 9 refer to a type of jar? On the discussion see the references and bibliography given by A. Bülow-Jacobsen in "Private Letters," in Les textes, vol. 2 of Didymoi: Une garnison romaine dans le désert oriental d'Égypte, ed. Hélène

Cuvigny, FIFAO 67 (Cairo: Institut français d'archéologie orientale, 2012), 347; and Hans-Joachim Drexhage and Kai Ruffing, "P. Bingen 77 und der Handel zwischen Asia

Minor und Ägypten," in Vom Euphrat bis zum Bosporus: Kleinasien in der Antike; Festschrift für Elmar Schwertheim zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Engelbert Winter, Asia Minor

Studien 65 (Bonn: Habelt, 2008), 154 note 5. P.Bingen 77.17–18 (see below) refers to a cargo of wine brought into Alexandria from Laodicea in Syria.

3. Of the ship's name only the first part ("Hope," Ἐλπίς) is preserved in line 17, the cargo of wine is mentioned in line 18.

Peter Arzt-Grabner Side in Asia Minor named "Hope (and) Ourania" (Ἐλπὶς Οὐρανία̣), owned by the Roman citizen Gaius Ulpius Iason, arrived after twenty days at sea bringing in wood, and 216 half-jars (about 700 liters) of oil from Aspendos

(ll. 21–23).4

In the year 142 CE, a certain Pamphilos aka Kanopos was traveling the same route from Side to Alexandria. He was an Alexandrian slave dealer carrying with him the ten-year-old slave girl Abaskantis who was of Galatian origin and whom he had just bought at the slave market in Side.5 We learn this from the slave sale contract P.Turner 22 (with BL 12:284),6 which was written by the city scribe of Side in the forum of that very city. The slave dealer carried the contract with him to Alexandria where he obviously sold the slave girl to an Egyptian who was living in the Chora where the papyrus was found in modern times. The structure, formulae, contents, and details of this contract as well as of two other contracts from Asia Minor7 are well comparable with other slave sale contracts from different places throughout the Roman Empire: with contracts from Syria, Dacia Superior (modern

4. See Drexhage and Ruffing, "P. Bingen 77"; Peter Herz, "Beiträge zur Organisation der Getreideversorgung Roms," in Ad fontes! Festschrift für Gerhard Dobesch zum fünfundsechzigsten Geburtstag am 15. September 2004 dargebracht von Kollegen,

Schülern und Freunden, ed. Herbert Heftner and Kurt Tomaschitz (Wien: Eigenverlag der Herausgeber, 2004), 612–13; on the trade between Side and Egypt, see also HansJoachim Drexhage, "Die Kontakte zwischen Side, Alexandria und Ägypten in der römischen Kaiserzeit (1.–3. Jh. n. Chr.)," in Studien zum antiken Kleinasien: Friedrich

Karl Dörner zum 80. Geburtstag gewidmet, ed. Anke Schütte, Daniela Pohl, and Jutta

Teichmann, Asia Minor Studien 3 (Bonn: Habelt, 1991), 75–90 5. On the archaeological, literary, epigraphic, and papyrological record concerning Side, including its port and commerce, see Johannes Nollé, Geographie–

Geschichte–Testimonia–Griechische und lateinische Inschriften (1–4), vol. 1 of Side im

Altertum: Geschichte und Zeugnisse, IGSK 43 (Bonn: Habelt, 1993); Nollé, Griechische und lateinische Inschriften (5–16)–Papyri–Inschriften in sidetischer Schrift und

Sprache–Ergänzungen und Berichtigungen–Konkordanzen–Epigraphische Indices, vol.

2 of Side im Altertum: Geschichte und Zeugnisse, IGSK 44 (Bonn: Habelt, 2001); Peter

R. Franke, et. al., Side: Münzprägung, Inschriften und Geschichte einer antiken Stadt in der Türkei; Beiträge zu einer Ausstellung in Saarbrücken, Homburg, München, Kiel,

Wien, Augsburg und Aalen. 2nd ed. Saarbrücken: Landesbank Saar Girozentrale; Institut für Alte Geschichte der Universität des Saarlandes, 1989.

6. See the new edition by Nollé, Griechische und lateinische Inschriften (5–16),

613–17.

7. BGU 3.887 (with BL 1:77, 350; 3:15; 7:16; 8:36; Side/Pamphylia; July 8, 151 CE) and BGU 3.913 (with BL 1:82; 4:6; Myra/Lycia; June 12, 206 CE).

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

Romania), Italy, Rhodes, and, of course, Egypt. Most of these contracts are preserved on papyrus, some on waxed tablets.8

They all give clear evidence that Egypt can no longer be seen as a "Sonderfall"—a special case—within ancient studies but that the papyri from Egypt provide us with a more or less accurate view of private, business, and administrational life that should be valid throughout the empire. Egypt has ceased to be the only locus of papyri and other perishable documents from the Roman Empire, although about 98 percent of the edited documents still come from Egypt. About 2 percent have been excavated outside

Egypt: in Israel and Jordan, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Crete, Romania, Italy, Switzerland, Great Britain, and Spain.9 Additionally, documents that 8. The references for slave sale contracts from outside Egypt are given in the following notes.

9. The most recent list published is still Hannah M. Cotton, Walter E. H. Cockle, and Fergus G. B. Millar, "The Papyrology of the Roman Near East: A Survey," JRS 95

(1995): 214–35 (listing 609 papyrus documents from outside Egypt). Several more can be added meanwhile: Israel and Jordan: P.Murabba'ât (most of them second century CE), P.Masada (Papyri and Ostraca, most of them 66–73/74 CE), P.Yadin 1 and 2, P.Hever (archives of two Jewish women, Babatha and Salome Komaïse, daughter of Levi; documents written in Maḥoza/Roman province Arabia; the women brought these archives with them when moving to En Gedi during the Jewish revolt under the leadership of Bar Kochba; both early second century CE), P.Jud.Des.Misc. (Jericho)

4–6; 16–19; (Naḥal Ḥever) 4; (Naḥal Mishmar) 2; (Naḥal Ṣe'elim) 4 und 5, P.Petra

(152 carbonized papyri found in a room near byzantine basilica; sixth century CE).

Syria: P.Dura (from Dura Europos; second–third centuries CE), P.Euphrates (documents from Roman province Syria Coele, especially from Beth Phuraia, on papyrus or leather; 232–256 CE [no. 1–5 = SB 22.15496–15500]), Palmyra (ca. sixty unpublished papyrus fragments in Greek and Palmyrene, found in the tower of Kitot, built in 40

CE; according to the writing dating to second–third centuries CE). Afghanistan: SB

22.15765: tax receipt on leather from Bactria; second century BCE. Iran: Two deeds on parchment from Avroman (Kopanis): Jur.Pap. 36 (October 20–November 18, 88

BCE); JHS 35 (1915): 22–65, no. 2 (ed. Ellis H. Minns; 22–21 BCE). Libya: O.BuNjem:

Latin ostraca; third century CE. Rodney Ast, to mention only one recently started project, is about to edit and reedit all ostraca from Northern Africa outside Egypt that have been found so far, among them ostraca from Gigthi in Libya and Carthage in modern Tunisia. Crete: O.Cret.Chers.: Greek ostraca from Chersonesos (second century CE). Romania: T.Dacia: wax tablets from Alburnus Maior/Dacia Superior; second century CE; two slave sale contracts (tablets 6 and 7) reprinted as CIL 3.6

(139 CE); 3.7 (142 CE). Italy: Tablets from Pompeji: T.Jucundus and T.Sulpicii (written in Puteoli; no. 42 and 43 are slave sale contracts), wax tablets from Herculaneum:

T.Hercul. (no. 60 and 62 are slave sale contracts), Ravenna: Ch.L.A. 12.547 (after Feb-

Peter Arzt-Grabner had been written in Asia Minor, Syria, Rhodes, or Italy were sent or brought to Egypt in antiquity and preserved there until the nineteenth or twentieth century.10 Thus, the material from Egypt can now be collated with similar material originating from elsewhere.11 ruary 22, 433 CE) and P.Rain.Cent. 166 (sixth–seventh centuries CE). Switzerland:

T.Vind. (= C.Epist.Lat. 16–71): wax tablets; first half of first century CE. Great Britain:

Vindolanda (Hadrian's Wall): T.Vindol. (wooden tablets, late first/early second century CE), Luguval(l)ium (Carlisle): C.Epist.Lat. 3.88bis.1–43 (wooden tablet, Flavian time), Londinium: C.Epist.Lat. 1.87–88. The discovery of more than four hundred

Roman waxed tablets from Londinium was announced in 2016 by the Museum of London Archaeology; the tablets are written in Latin and can be dated to the second half of the first century CE, among them notes, bills, and contracts. Spain: Christian tablets on stone (fifth–seventh centuries CE), edited by Isabel Velázquez Soriano: Las

Pizarras Visigodas (Entre el latín y su disgregación: La lengua hablada en Hispania, siglos VI–VIII), Colección Beltenebros 8 (Madrid: Real Academia Española; Brugos:

Instituto Castellano y Leonés de la Lengua, 2004).

10. Asia Minor: As already mentioned, from Side/Pamphylia: P.Turner 22 (with BL 12:284; 142 CE; sale of slave), and BGU 3.887 (with BL 1:77, 350; 3:15; 7:16, and 8:36; July 8, 151 CE; sale of slave); from Myra/Lycia: BGU 3.913 (with BL 1:82 and 4:6; June 12, 206 CE; sale of slave); further from Bithynia: P.Münch. 3.63 (May 8, 248

CE; fragment with date of Philippus Arabs and Philippus II), Pompeiopolis/Paphlagonia: P.Mich. 9.546 (with BL 7:113 and 9:162; 207 CE; copy of sale of slave, original drawn up in Pompeiopolis), Caria: especially three letters to Zenon: P.Cair.Zen.

1.59037 (after June 12, 258 BCE; business letter); 59036 (with BL 3:37; February 1,

257 BCE; letter); 59056 (March 14, 257 BCE; private letter), Cappadocia(?): Ch.L.A.

11.477 (first–third centuries CE; letter[?] of a veteran in Latin), Mysia–Kyzikos(?):

SB 3.6260 (with BL 8:324; before June 13, 230 CE; administrational[?] letter). Syria:

P.Lond. 2.229 (p. XXI) (Seleucia Pieria; May 24, 166 CE; sale of slave). Rhodes: P.Oxy.

50.3593 (238–244 CE; sale of slave); 3594 (prob. 238–244 CE; subject not clear). Italy:

Rome: P.Mich. 8.487, 491 and 501 (all second century CE; private letters); BGU 1.27

(with BL 12:10; second–third centuries CE; private letter); P.Mich. 8.490 (Portus Ostia; second century CE; private letter); SB 6.9557 (with BL 6:155; Rome; 264–282 CE; business letter by a Christian), Misenum: BGU 2.423 (with BL 8:27 and 9:20) and probably

632 (with BL 1:58; both second century CE; private letter), Puteoli: P.Oxy. 18.2191

(with BL 5:81; second century CE; private letter), Nea Polis: P.Lond. 3.1178 (p. 214)

(with BL 1:290; 3:96; 8:186 and 9:141; 200–212 CE; diploma), Ravenna: SB 3.6304

(wax tablet; ca. 151 CE; sale of slave).

11. About 102,500 clay impressions of seals were found in the Agora Archives in the rescue excavations at Zeugma in 1998–2000; some of them have papyrus or leather traces preserved on the reverse side, thus confirming the use of papyrus for documents filed in Zeugma and, moreover, the cultural interrelations between Egypt and other provinces as several clay impressions carry the images of Sarapis or Isis; see

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

Concerning the Lycus Valley, none of the three major cities (Hierapolis, Laodicea, Colossae) is mentioned in any documentary papyrus or ostracon of the Ptolemaic or Roman period, yet it is worth mentioning that the region of Phrygia is attested in two papyri: the other slave sale contract from Side, besides P.Turner 22, deals with the purchase of the twelve-yearold slave girl Sambatis who is of Phrygian origin (cf. BGU 3.887.3–4 and 14–15 with BL 3:15 [July 8, 151 CE]).12 SB 22.15538 (with BL 11:238; Alexandria; March 27–April 25, 13 BCE) is a contract by Gaius Iulius Philios who is apprenticing his slave Narcissus to Gaius Iulius Eros to learn to play with several kinds of flutes, among them also with "Phrygian flutes"

(l. 4: Φ̣ρ̣υ̣γ̣[ιαυλίοις]), which are thus attested to have been well-known in Egypt.13 Only in a Byzantine anonymous letter from Oxyrhynchus, PSI

4.311 (first half of the fourth century CE), we find the note that there are two Laodiceas, one in Phrygia (i.e., in the Lycus Valley) and one in Syria.14

Due to the ever-increasing evidence from papyri, ostraca, and tablets from outside Egypt, we learn more and more, and the information obtained from the Egyptian material serves also to illuminate various aspects of Roman government and society elsewhere in the Roman Empire. Of course, we can find regional and local differences already between Egyptian nomes and villages, and the more detailed something is, the more different it might be locally or regionally. But the basics of life are, nevertheless, the same everywhere: people were born, and if a child survived the first five years, she or he had a good chance to live thirty, forty, or fifty

Mehmet Önal, "Deities and Cultures Meet on the Seal Impressions in Zeugma," Bolletino di archeologia online 1 (2010): 25–53.

12. See also the new edition by Nollé, Griechische und lateinische Inschriften (5–16), 617–22 (concerning the name Sambatis and its attestation, see pp. 621–22; in the note on lines 3 and 14 in BL 12:16, Σαμβτίς has to be corrected to Σαμβατίς).

13. On this contract, see Annie Bélis and Daniel Delattre, "À propos d'un contrat d'apprentissage d'aule ète (Alexandrie; an 17 d'Auguste = 13a)," PapyLup 2 (1993):

103–62; Angela Bellia, "Una regione e la sua musica: Il caso della Caria," Bollettino dell'Associazione Iasos di Caria 19 (2013): 25–26.

14. The context of this note are orders to deliver a letter (this letter?) to Theodotos, the bishop of Laodicea in Syria. Se AnneMarie Luijendijk, Greetings in the Lord:

Early Christians and the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, HTS 60 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008), 81 n. 1; see also the new edition of this letter by Lincoln H. Blumell,

"PSI 4.311: Early Evidence for 'Arianism' at Oxyrhynchus?," BASP 49 (2012): 277–

96; Blumell, Lettered Christians: Christians, Letters, and Late Antique Oxyrhynchus,

NTTSD 39 (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 139–49.

Peter Arzt-Grabner years, some even up to their seventies, eighties, and nineties. Perhaps the son or daughter received some education, maybe some training in a craft, or a son joined the army or navy. Several years later they probably married and founded a family, ran a business, paid taxes, suffered from diseases or the difficulties of life, joined an association, took part in a cult group, made a career in the Roman administration or in their business affairs, and finally died.

In the following I will present the papyrological evidence of three major events in the life of an average family: the birth of a child, the census, and marriage. After concluding what the papyri from Egypt may teach us about birth, census, and marriage in Colossae, I will briefly deal with the issue15 of the place of Philemon's household, before presenting the papyrological evidence on two topics that are well represented in both letters: slavery and textile industry (in particular the weaver's craft).

Birth Returns The first papyrus document that we may encounter at the beginning of the life of a Greco-Egyptian relates to his or her birth.16 Most recently, the documents in question have been called "birth returns," but in former days also the terms "declarations of birth," "birth certificates," or "applications to register a child" had been in use.17 There is no specific term that 15. To comment on all possible details of Philrmon and Colossians that could be illuminated by documentary papyri, ostraca, and tablets would by far exceed the length of this article. Concerning Philemon, see Peter Arzt-Grabner, Philemon, PKNT

1 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2003); the Colossians volume of the series

Papyrologische Kommentare zum neuen Testament will be published in due time by its newly appointed author.

16. In this short overview, I will not include a different type of birth returns that is covered by Latin documents of which some are explicitly submitted by Roman citizens

(an early example is P.Mich. 3, p. 154–56 [wax tablet; Alexandria; July 23, 62 CE]).

17. On the discussion, see Carlos Sánchez-Moreno Ellart, "Ὑπομνήματα ἐπιγεννήσεως: The Greco-Egyptian Birth Returns in Roman Egypt and the Case of P.Petaus 1–2," APF 56 (2010): 94 (with bibliographical references in n. 8), who uses the term birth returns. The designation "application to register a child in a privileged order" was first brought forward by Bo Frid in his edition of P.Ups.Frid. 6 (see also

Andrea Jördens using the term "Registrierungsgesuch" for P.Bingen 105); the term explains best the function of the Oxyrhynchus documents. On the administrational procedure concerning birth returns, see also especially Thomas Kruse, Der Königliche

Schreiber und die Gauverwaltung: Untersuchungen zur Verwaltungsgeschichte Ägyptens

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

is applicable to all sorts of these documents as they differ in some details from one nome to the other nome of Egypt.18 What is common to all of them is the fact that they are typically Roman, the earliest are dating back to the mid-first century CE.

By submitting P.Tebt. 2.299 (with BL 11:278) to the village scribe (κωμογραμματεύς) of Tebtynis in the Arsinoite nome, the priest Psyphis registered the birth of his son Pakebkis, born in the tenth year of Claudius

(i.e., 49–50 CE). The text reads:

Ἀρείωι Λυσιμά[χου κωμο-] γραμματεῖ Τεβ[τύνεως] παρὰ Ψύφιος19 το[ῦ Ἁρπο-] κρᾶ̣ τοῦ Πακή[βκιος μη-]

τρὸς Θενμαρσ[ισούχου] τῆς Ψύφιος μη[τρὸς Κελ-] λαύθιος τῶν ἀ[πὸ τῆς κώ-] μης πέμπτη[ς φυλῆς] ἱε̣ρέ̣ος20 τῶν ἐν̣ [τῇ κώμῃ] 10 θεῶν Κρόνου [θεοῦ μεγίστ(ου(?))] καὶ Εἴσιδος21 κα[ὶ Σαράπιδος] θεῶν μεγάλ[ων ἀπολυσί-] μ[ο]υ ἀπὸ ἀνδ[ρῶν πεντή-] κοντα. ἀπογρ[άφομαι] 15 τὸν γεγονώτ[α22 μοι υἱὸν] Πακῆβκιν μ[ητρὸς(?) Τα(?)-] ασ̣ι̣είους τῆς [ … ] μητρὸς Ταώ[πεως τῶι] in der Zeit von Augustus bis Philippus Arabs (30 v.Chr.–245 n.Chr.), 2 vols, APF Series

11.1–2 (Munich: Saur, 2002), 171–76 (with bibliography on 171 n. 326).

18. For complete lists, see tables 1–3 in Peter Arzt-Grabner, "Census Declarations, Birth Returns, and Marriage Contracts on Papyrus and Paul's Ideas on These

Matters," in Second Annual Meeting of Bertinoro (1–4 October 2015), vol. 2 of Texts,

Practices and Groups: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Jesus and the History of His Followers in the First Two Centuries, ed. Adriana Destro and Mauro Pesce with Andrea

Annese (Turnhout: Brepols, 2019); see also nn. 24, 30, and 37 below. On the different features, see Sánchez-Moreno Ellart, "Ὑπομνήματα ἐπιγεννήσεως," 98–114; on different remarks made by public officials in the birth returns, see 128.

19. Read Ψοίφιος here and in line 6.

21. Read Ἴσιδος.

22. Read γεγονότ[α].

Peter Arzt-Grabner δεκάτωι ἔτ[ει Τιβερίου] 20 Κλαυδίου Κα[ίσαρος] Σεβαστοῦ Γε[ρμανικοῦ] Αὐτοκράτορ[ος, καὶ ἀξιῶ] ταγῆναι τὸ [τοῦ προκει-] μένου μο[υ υἱοῦ Πακήβ-] 25 κιος ὄνομα [ἐν — ] – – – – – – – – – – To Areios, son of Lysimachos, village scribe of Tebtynis, from Psyphis, son of Harpokras, the son of Pakebkis, his mother being Thenmarsisouchos, daughter of Psyphis and Kellauthis, inhabitants of the village, priest of the fifth tribe of the gods at the village, Kronos the most great god, and Isis and Sarapis, the great gods, and one of the fifty exempted persons.23 I register Pakebkis, the son born to me and Taasies daughter of N.N. her mother being Taopis in the tenth year of Tiberius Claudius

Caesar Augustus Germanicus Imperator, and request that the name of my aforesaid son Pakebkis be entered on the list [here the papyrus breaks off].

Unfortunately, this earliest preserved birth return breaks off before we get the date of the document, which makes it impossible to learn about the age of the boy at the time he was registered. So far, seventeen birth returns from the Arsinoite nome have been edited,24 and they all follow, more or less, the same pattern. Most documents are submitted by both parents, only a few either by the father or the mother of the child who—at the time

23. Fifty priests at the temple of Sokneptynis were exempt from ordinary taxes, especially the poll-tax (see also P.Tebt. 2.298.11 and 292.6).

24. Besides the document from Tebtynis, we can list: from the Arsinoite nome without any further (preserved) specification: P.Warr. 2 (July 11, 72 CE) and BGU

11.2020 (with BL 6:19–20; December 24, 124 CE); from Nilopolis and Soknopaiou Nesos: SPP 22.37 (with BL 11:268; February 25, 184 CE); from Ptolemais Euergetis:

CPR 15.24 (with BL 11:72; 119 CE); BGU 1.110 (with BL 1:21; 138–139 CE); 111, col.

2 (with BL 1:21; after October 1, 138 CE); P.Gen. 4.162 (138–143 CE); 12.33 (September 9, 155 CE); SB 26.16803 (second century CE); from Ptolemais Hormu: P.Petaus

1 and 2 (February 14, 185 CE); from Soknopaiou Nesos: SPP 22.100 (with BL 11:268 and 12:279; 147–148 or 170–171 CE); 18 (with BL 2.2:116, 8:479, and 11:268; April 14,

149 CE); 38 (with BL 8:481; September 3, 155 CE); P.Berl.Cohen 12 (= SB 26.16074;

178–179 or 210–211 CE); BGU 1.28 (with BL 1:9 and 6:10; October 11, 183 CE); from Theadelphia: P.Fay. 28 (150–151 CE). See also table 1 in Arzt-Grabner, "Census

Declarations."

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

of the birth return—is between one and eight years of age. The description of the parents follows the usual form how a person is generally identified, giving the person's name, the names of parents and grandfathers, the age of the person, and if this person had scars or marks on his or her body.

The birth returns from the Arsinoites are addressed to the responsible local official: in Ptolemais Euergetis and Theadelphia to the scribes of the metropolis, in Soknopaiou Nesos, Ptolemais Hormu and Tebtynis to the village scribe, and in one case that cannot be attributed to a particular village or city (P.Warr. 2) to the amphodarch, the head of a quarter. Until mid-third century CE, the documents are more or less clearly related to the house-to-house census (κατ' οἰκίαν ἀπογραφή, see below),25 thus being used to update the census records. But as there are several birth returns that register daughters26 and, thus, testify that fiscal privileges were not the only issue of those applications (as females were generally exempted from the poll tax, see below). Also because almost all preserved birth returns are filed by privileged people, these documents most probably also intended to register the privileges for the child.27 What privileges or rights were addressed in these cases is not clear.28

25. A clear reference to the census is, e.g., preserved in BGU 1.111, col. 2.12–15

(Ptolemais Euergetis; after October 1, 138 CE): ἀπογραφόμεθα [τ]οὺς γεννηθ(έντας) ἡμεῖν | με[τ]ὰ τὴν τοῦ ις (ἔτους) θεοῦ Ἁδ[ρι]ανοῦ | κατ οἰκ(ίαν) [ἀπο]γραφὴν ἐξ ἀλλήλ(ων) υἱοὺς | τῷ μὲν κ (ἔτει) θεοῦ Ἁδριανοῦ ("we register the sons, who were born to us jointly after the house-to-house registration of the 16th year of the God Hadrianus in the 20th year of the God Hadrianus").

26. See two documents from Soknopaiou Nesos (P.Berl.Cohen 12 [178–179 or 210–211]; BGU 1.28 [with BL 1:9 and 6:10; October 11, 183 CE]), and one from Ptolemais Hormu (P.Petaus 1–2 [February 14, 185 CE]); another document from the Arsinoites, BGU 11.2020 (with BL 6:19–20; December 24, 124 CE), returns the births of two sons and of twins, one male and one female.

27. From P.Mich. 11.603 (Ptolemais Euergetis; February 4, 134 CE) we learn that scribes were not only drawing up the registration from the census but also lists of katoikoi, lists of minors, and of those excluded from the tax estimate (l. 6–10: συν|θ̣εῖναι μόνα ἀντίγραφα λαογραφιῶν | [κ]α̣τ̣' ἄνδρα καὶ λόγους κατοίκων καὶ | ἀ̣πολογισμοὺς ἀφηλίκων καὶ ἐκτὸς̣ | συνόψεως). See Roger S. Bagnall and Bruce W. Frier, The Demography of Roman Egypt, Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past

Time 23 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 102–4.

28. John R. Rea (in P.Oxy. 43, p. 109) refers to girls who were often required to prove their privileged status before marriage, or parents could have been interested in registering the child's legitimate status (see, e.g., Kruse, Der Königliche Schreiber, 173); we know that a girl of a priestly family had special rights in the temple, which could

Peter Arzt-Grabner An important contribution to our knowledge was the edition of two documents from Ptolemais Hormu, P.Petaus 1 and 2 (February 14, 185

CE). Both papyri preserve two copies of the registration of the girl Taesis, who was already eight years old at the time of the application, and this birth return also informs us that Taesis's parents were not privileged as they are identified as "fatherless" (i.e., their father was not known) and, therefore, could not prove their paternal ancestors. One of the two copies is addressed to the village scribe of Ptolemais Hormu as the local official that relates this document to the other birth returns from the Arsinoite nome, but P.Petaus 2 is addressed to the royal scribe (βασιλικὸς γραμματεύς) of the Heracleides part of the Arsinoite nome. Moreover, it contains an order by this scribe, written below the birth return and addressed to the village scribe of Ptolemais Hormu, "to follow the usual procedure" (cf. ll. 13–14).

According to Thomas Kruse, it is probable that P.Petaus 1 and 2 do not cover an exception but the usual procedure, at least in the Arsinoite nome: that the declarant(s) had to submit two copies of a birth return, one to the local official and one to the royal scribe who added his order to the subordinate in the local administration and had this copy sent to him.

After fulfilling his duties, the local official stored both copies in his archive as, again, becomes evident from P.Petaus 1 and 2: both documents were found in the archive of the village scribe Petaus.29

The preserved documents from Oxyrhynchus30 differ from those from the Arsinoites in several details. The earliest of these "applications to register explain the existence of BGU 1.28 (with BL 1:9 and 6:10; October 11, 183 CE), a birth return concerning the daughter of a local priest in Soknopaiou Nesos. Another option is supposed by Sánchez-Moreno Ellart, "Ὑπομνήματα ἐπιγεννήσεως," 120: "We should also take into account again that the census did not exclude women, despite their nonliability from the poll tax."

29. See Kruse, Der Königliche Schreiber, 175–76; Sánchez-Moreno Ellart, "Ὑπομνήματα ἐπιγεννήσεως," 126–29.

30. These are twenty-two documents so far: P.Oxy. 38.2858 (August 23, 171 CE); P.Bingen 105 (201–202 CE); P.Oxy. 10.1267 (January 5, 209 CE); 12.1552 (with BL

8:247; 214–215 CE); PSI 12.1257 (249–250 CE); P.Col. 8.231 (249–261 CE); P.Oxy.

74.4993 (253–254 CE?); 4994 (May 26 or June 24, 254 CE); 4995 (January 6, 254 CE);

P.Köln 2.87 (with BL 7:73; June 25–July 24?, 271 CE); P.Ups.Frid. 6 (July 25–August 28,

273 CE); P.Oxy. 66.3295 (August 24–28, 285 CE); PSI 3.164 (with BL 1:391 and 8:393;

May 10, 287 CE); P.Corn. 18 (cf. BL 2.2:49 and 8:90; July 24, 291 CE); P.Oxy. 38.2855

(April 4, 291 CE); 43.3136 (June 21, 292 CE); 44.3183 (July 26, 292 CE); 74.4999

(August 12, 292); 43.3137 (July 4, 295 CE); P.FuadUniv. 13 (with BL 3:61 and 4:32;

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

a child" was submitted by the parents of the child and by the female owner of the house in which the family lived (P.Oxy. 38.2858 [August 23, 171 CE]).31

Within the next one hundred years following this document, all applications are submitted by the owner(s) of the house in which the child had been born.32

From the end of the third century CE onward, it seems that the applications have to be submitted by a man who is in some way responsible for the family, be it the father, grandfather, an uncle, or a friend.33 Two applications are submitted (also) for daughters (P.Corn. 18 [July 24, 291 CE] concerning two sons and two daughters; P.Oxy. 43.3136 [June 21, 292 CE] for one daughter).

Up to mid-third century CE, the child is between one and six years old at the time of the application's submission; later on, starting with 254 CE, the given age increases to six to seventeen years. The authorities to whom the applications are submitted differ from time to time. During the fourteen-years cycle of the census declarations, the applications are more or less clearly related to the census system;34 that people continued to file such applications also afterwards seems to confirm that they also had their privileges registered for their children by doing so.35 Maybe it is no coincidence that the applications for girls in Oxyrhynchus "appear precisely at this moment, i.e. after the end of the fourteen-years cycle."36

297–298 CE); P.Oxy. 65.4489 (August 5, 297 CE); 54.3754 (320 CE). See also table 2 in Arzt-Grabner, "Census Declarations."

31. It is not impossible that earlier birth returns from Oxyrhynchus were submitted by the father or by both parents, like in the Arsinoite nome, and that P.Oxy.

38.2858 was written at a time when it had already become important to have a child registered at a particular place within the city for which the personal confirmation of the owner of that accommodation was compulsory. Unfortunately, we do not have birth returns from Oxyrhynchus from the first or early second century CE. But maybe it is important to observe that the owner's personal confirmation is part of the birth returns only up to some time before 285 CE.

32. In several cases, the owner was identical with the father: P.Bingen 105 (201–

202 CE); P.Oxy. 10.1267 (January 5, 209 CE); 74.4995 (January 6, 254 CE); P.Köln 2.87

(with BL 7:73; June 25–July 24?, 271 CE); in two cases the owners can be identified with both parents: P.Oxy. 74.4994 (May 26 or June 24, 254 CE) and P.Ups.Frid 6 (July

25–August 28, 273 CE; the parents are divorced).

33. P.Oxy. 66.4489 (August 5, 297) is submitted by the child's mother.

34. See Sánchez-Moreno Ellart, "Ὑπομνήματα ἐπιγεννήσεως," 104–8.

35. On the privileged classes from Oxyrhynchus, see Sánchez-Moreno Ellart, "Ὑπομνήματα ἐπιγεννήσεως," 106–9.

36. Sánchez-Moreno Ellart, "Ὑπομνήματα ἐπιγεννήσεως," 109.

Peter Arzt-Grabner Birth returns from Antinoopolis are thus far preserved from the second and the first half of the third centuries CE,37 the earliest was written on May 5, 133 CE (P.Fam.Tebt. 30 with BL 8:198), that is, soon after Hadrian had founded the city in commemoration of his deified lover

Antinous. All the documents are related to the so-called fundationes alimentariae, special alimentary programs installed by Hadrian for the maintenance of children as proclaimed by the praefectus Aegypti Petronius

Mamertinus that, to receive the benefits, it was obligatory to enroll a child within thirty days after birth, to prove the citizenship of the parents, and to present an ἀπαρχή (that is by which the declaration was called) to the βουλή of the city.38 The declaration had to be confirmed by three witnesses.

All preserved birth returns from Antinoopolis concern sons. It seems that the procedure consisted of two steps: (1) submission of an application for enrolment by the father or both parents, and (2) issue of a certificate containing the core of the application, confirmed a few days later and signed by the responsible official.39 Actually, the requirement to submit an application within thirty days after the child's birth was only complied with in three cases out of ten.40

37. P.Fam.Tebt. 30 (May 5, 133 CE); 33 (February 9, 151 CE; cf. P.Fam.Tebt. 34);

SB 12.11103 (June 3, 155 CE); 16.12742 (September 28, 157 CE; cf. SB 16.12743); P.Diog. 2 (after 197 CE); P.Stras. 7.634 (with BL 8:427; 206–211 CE); P.Ant. 1.37 (with BL 3:6, 4:2 and 8:9; 208–209 CE); P.Diog. 3 (October 17, 209 CE); 4 (212–217 CE);

P.Vind.Bosw. 2 (with BL 3:101, 6:66 and 7:93; 247–248 CE).

38. This fund is explicitly mentioned in P.Fam.Tebt. 33.3–6 (February 9, 151 CE) and SB 16.12742.6–10 (September 28, 157 CE).

39. In two cases, both documents are preserved: P.Fam.Tebt. 33 (February 9, 151 CE) is the application for enrolment of the twenty-days-old son Heracleides aka Valerius, and P.Fam.Tebt. 34 is the certificate (issued on February 24 of the same year, i.e. fifteen days later); SB 16.12742 (September 28, 157 CE) is the application for enrolment of the twenty-five-days-old son Philantinoos aka Isidoros, and 12743 is the certificate (issued on October 27 of the same year, i.e. almost a month later). Of the other documents, P.Stras. 7.634 (with BL 8:427), P.Ant. 1.37 (with BL 3:6, 4:2, and 8:9), and P.Vind.Bosw. 2 (with BL 3:101, 6:66, and 7:93; on doubts that this is an ἀπαρχή, see

Andrea Jördens in P.Bingen, p. 391) seem to be applications, whereas P.Fam.Tebt. 30

(with BL 8:198), SB 12.11103 and P.Diog. 2–4 are obviously certificates.

40. P.Fam.Tebt. 33 (February 9, 151 CE) within twenty days, SB 16.12742

(September 28, 157 CE) and P.Vind.Bosw. 2 (with BL 3:101, 6:66 and 7:93) within twenty-five days. The other applications were submitted within about a year after the child's birth, except the earliest document P.Fam.Tebt. 30 (with BL 8:198), which was

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

Besides the birth returns from the Arsinoite nome, from Oxyrhynchus, and from Antinoopolis, we should mention an ostracon from Thebes

(O.Brux. 14 [38–39 or 42–43 CE]), which was a formulary for scribes in Thebes to write a birth return in copying the text and filling in the personal names. The ostracon reads as follows:41

Σαραπίωνι βασιλ(ικῷ) γρα(μματεῖ) Κοπ(τίτου) καὶ Περὶ Θ(ήβας) παρὰ ὁ δῆν(α) τοῦ δῆ(νος)42 ⟦α … ⟧ τῶν ἀπὸ Δ(ιοσπόλεως) τῆς μεγάλη(ς). ἀπογρά(φομαι) εἰς τὸ γ (ἔτος) τοὺς γεγενημένους μου παῖδα(ς)

μετὰ τὴν ἐπίκρισιν τοῦ κ (ἔτους), ὧν ὁ δῆ(να) τοῦ δῆ(νος)43 ὡς (ἐτῶν)· Σποδῆς κομογρα(μματεύς).44

To Sarapion, the basilikos grammateus (royal scribe) of Kopites and Peri Thebas, from N.N., son of N.N. … of those from the great city Diospolis.

I register for the 3rd year my children45 who have been born after the epicrisis of the 20th year, of whom N.N., son of N.N., about … years of age. Spodes, village scribe.

Carlos Sánchez-Moreno Ellart argues, following Thomas Kruse, that μετὰ τὴν ἐπίκρισιν in line 5 of the formulary refers to the house-to-house census and "possibly alludes to the census of AD 33/34."46 So far, we do not have any preserved birth returns following exactly this formulary, but we do not have any birth returns from Upper Egypt either. Presumably, we have here submitted when one of the two children to be registered was already seven years of age (the other one was one year old).

41. According to Sánchez-Moreno Ellart, "Ὑπομνήματα ἐπιγεννήσεως," 126.

45. The male form τοὺς γεγενημένους μου παῖδα(ς) probably refers only to sons, but as this document is a formulary, i.e., a genre that uses male forms throughout

(see P.Turner 22 with BL 12:284, the slave sale contract from Side where we find male forms although they refer to a slave girl), a male form can refer to anyone.

46. Sánchez-Moreno Ellart, "Ὑπομνήματα ἐπιγεννήσεως," 127; see also Kruse, Der Königliche Schreiber, 174. Indeed, a reference to a previous κατ' οἰκίαν ἀπογραφή with a μετά clause can be found in two birth returns from Ptolemais Euergetis/Arsinoites, in BGU 1.111, col. 2.12–14 (after October 1, 138 CE) and P.Gen. 4.162.9–12 (138–143

CE).

Peter Arzt-Grabner evidence for an early birth return from Upper Egypt, even earlier than all other birth returns so far but in a form similar to that of the Arsinoites.

As it is addressed to the royal scribe, a similar administrational procedure as in P.Petaus 2 (see above) seems to have been usual also in other nomes besides the Arsinoites and, presumably, from the earliest birth returns onwards. As a summary, Sánchez-Moreno Ellart writes: "this document makes one contribution to our knowledge, that the practice might have been more widespread than we can deduce from the documents filed by privileged people in the capitals of the nomes."47 Together with P.Petaus

1–2, we have two references that hint in the direction of a widespread and compulsory practice of submitting birth returns.

What does this mean for the probable filing of birth returns in other Roman provinces, and particularly in a city like Colossae during the first century CE? We have no idea what a comparable formulary in the Lycus

Valley may have exactly looked like, if it was similar to that of the Arsinoite nome and the formulary from Thebes or that of Oxyrhynchus. A similarity with the one of Antinoopolis, which is related to alimenta programs, is the least probable as this program was installed by Hadrian after he had founded the city in 130 CE. And a comparison with the birth returns from Oxyrhynchus is problematic as we do not have documents earlier than 171

CE (P.Oxy. 38.2858). It is not impossible that earlier birth returns from Oxyrhynchus were submitted by the father or by both parents, like in the Arsinoite nome, and that P.Oxy. 38.2858 was written at a time when it had already become important to have a child registered at a particular place within the city for which the personal confirmation of the owner of that accommodation was compulsory, but so far, we do not have birth returns from Oxyrhynchus from the first or early second century CE. Maybe it is, nevertheless, important to observe that the owner's personal confirmation is part of the birth returns only up to sometime before 285 CE.

Concerning Colossae, we can only assume that also the people of that city were interested to file birth returns in order to have their privileges registered for their children or that they were obliged to do so, so that the local authorities could update the census records. According to the earliest

47. Sánchez-Moreno Ellart, "Ὑπομνήματα ἐπιγεννήσεως," 127; see also Kruse, Der Königliche Schreiber, 174: "Dass bisher keine weiteren an den Königlichen Schreiber adressierten Geburtsanzeigen bekannt geworden sind, ist wohl lediglich auf den Zufall der Überlieferung zurückzuführen, denn offenbar war es auch in anderen

Gauen üblich, solche Anzeigen an den βασιλικὸς γραμματεύς zu richten."

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

documents from Egypt, those from the Arsinoite nome and from Thebes, it is probable that during the first century CE it was the responsibility of the father or of both parents to file a birth return. What all preserved birth returns from different Egyptian nomes, cities, and villages have in common is the fact that people clearly tended to submit them only at a later time after the birth of a child (even the applications from Antinoopolis show this tendency). Obviously due to high infant mortality, an earlier submission was not at all advisable—in Egypt and elsewhere.

The Census System As any other government, the Roman government had to collect taxes.

The Romans taxed more or less everything they could, but the main tax was the poll tax that had to be paid annually for every male (including slaves) who did not have any fiscal privileges (e.g., Roman citizenship) and who was between the ages of fourteen and sixty. Therefore, the Romans set out to know exactly who the men were, who were between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. The Roman census system served exactly that purpose and was carried out—not accidentally—every fourteen years, so that nobody would ever escape.

With the help of the papyri and ostraca from Egypt we are able to reconstruct the whole process that was connected with the census.48 We know that the first census in Egypt was taken under Augustus in 11/10

48. See especially Ulrich Wilcken, Historischer Teil: Grundzüge, vol. 1.1 of Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde, by Ludwig Mitteis and Ulrich Wilcken

(repr. Hildesheim: Olms, 1963), 192–96; Sherman L. Wallace, Taxation in Egypt from Augustus to Diocletian (repr. New York: Greenwood Press, 1969), 96–115; Rafael

Taubenschlag, The Law of Greco-Roman Egypt in the Light of the Papyri 332B.C.– 640A.D., 2nd ed. (repr. Milan: Cisalpino-Goliardica, 1972), 611–13; Orsolina Montevecchi, "Il censimento romano d'Egitto: Precisazioni," Aev 50 (1976): 72–84; Marcel

Hombert and Claire Préaux, Recherches sur le recensement dans l'Égypte romaine, Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava 5 (Leiden: Brill, 1952); Roger S. Bagnall, "The Beginning of the Roman Census in Egypt," GRBS 32 (1991): 255–65; Bagnall and Frier,

Demography of Roman Egypt; Bernhard Palme, "Die ägyptische κατ' οἰκίαν ἀπογραφή und Lk 2,1–5," PzB 2 (1993): 1–24; Palme, "Neues zum ägyptischen Provinzialzensus:

Ein Nachtrag zum Artikel PzB 2 (1993) 1–24," PzB 3 (1994): 1–7; Walter Scheidel,

Measuring Sex, Age and Death in the Roman Empire: Explorations in Ancient Demography, JRASup 21 (Ann Arbor, MI: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 1996).

Peter Arzt-Grabner BCE.49 In the early times of the Roman census we find a seven-years cycle, but from 19/20 CE50 onwards and until mid-third century CE a fourteenyears cycle is attested for Egypt. The process of a single census started with the edict of the Roman governor, like the one preserved in P.Lond. 3.904, col. 2 (p. 125) (with BL 3:94, 5:54, and 11:112; Alexandria; June 25–July

24, 104 CE). In this document, C. Vibius Maximus, the prefect of Egypt, declares that—the house-by-house census (ἡ κατ' οἰκίαν ἀπογραφή) having begun—it is necessary that all persons, who for any reason whatsoever are absent from their home districts, be alerted to return to their place of origin so that they may complete the customary formalities of registration and apply themselves to the farming for which they are responsible. Only those people from the countryside, who show their presence in Alexandria to be necessary, shall receive signed permits to stay, but all others are to return home within thirty days.51 From the Egyptian papyri we also learn

49. According to SB 20.14440 (Theadelphia/Arsinoites; January 22[?], 12 CE), the declarations had to be submitted in 11/10 BCE for the first time; the registrations took place in 10/9 BCE. From then onwards we find a seven-years cycle of declarations and registrations until 19/20 CE, i.e., declaration in 4/3 BCE and registration in 3/2 BCE, declaration in 4/5 CE and registration in 5/6 CE, declaration in 11/12 CE and registration in 12/13 CE. See Bagnall, "Beginning of the Roman Census"; Palme,

"Neues zum ägyptischen Provinzialzensus," 5–6. The first census in 11/10 BCE is also confirmed by a recently published census declaration from Theadelphia (P.Mich. inv.

4406a; January 26–February 24, 3 BCE; ed. W. Graham Claytor and Roger S. Bagnall,

"The Beginnings of the Roman Provincial Census: A New Declaration from 3 BCE,"

GRBS 55 [2015]: 637–53).

50. See P.Oxy. 2.254 (with BL 10:137–38 and 11:143; ca. 13–26 CE).

51. See Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M.

Strachan (repr., Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995), 271. See also P.Gen. 12.16 (October 12, 207 CE) with a reference to the edict of Subatianus Aquila in lines 18–21; on this edict P. Schubert and I. Jornot comment in P.Gen. 12, p. 72: "Dans notre document (17–21), les paysans font référence aux ordres du préfet Subatianus Aquila les enjoignant de rester dans leur ἰδία, c'est-à-dire vraisemblablement le village où ils étaient enregistrés pour le recensement. L'édit dont il est question ici, attribué aux empereurs Septime Sévère et Caracalla dans SB 14284 (207 ap. J.-C.), ne fait malheureusement pas partie de ceux qui nous ont été conservés. Les édits renvoyant les gens dans leur ἰδία étaient généralement promulgués en vue d'un recensement, comme par exemple P.Lond. 3.904 (p. 125; = W.Chr. 202; 104 ap. J.-C.), ou à la suite de troubles, comme BGU 2.372 (= W.Chr. 19; 154 ap. J.-C.). U. Wilcken, dans l'introduction de

W.Chr. 354, a rapproché 16 du recensement de 201/2. Comme notre document (18– 21) fait allusion à l'édit du préfet Subatianus Aquila, lequel est en fonction entre 206 et

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

that—contrary to Luke 2:1–3—the Roman census was not exacted at the same time throughout the empire but in different years in particular provinces: the census in Syria, for example, was conducted one year later than the census in Egypt.

The census declarations52 themselves hold an enormous treasure of information: we learn who the people were, who completed them, where they lived, what type of property they lived in, and who was in the household. We learn about the head of the household, if he had a wife, or sometimes the head of the household was a woman who was divorced or widowed or simply living by herself. We discover if there were children, whether there were grandparents, aunts, uncles, slaves, or others taken in as lodgers, and just about anyone else who might have lived with them.

We find out as well, where the people had scars or marks on their bodies and how old they were, and we read about their occupation or if they were unemployed. The papyri also evidence that the same tax rate had to be paid per person, no matter if the people were rich or poor, if they earned a high salary or were unemployed.53 It happened quite often that whole families or even a large part of a village preferred fleeing to another nome, where the general rate of the poll tax was lower, to losing everything and dying of starvation.

SB 1.5661 (with BL 2.2:120 and 9:243–44) is a census declaration by a woman submitted to the responsible authorities (the so-called λαογράφοι and the village scribe) of Philadelphia in the Arsinoite nome on June 13,

211, il faut considérer que l'édit est promulgué non pas en vue du recensement, mais après le recensement."

52. See Bagnall and Frier, Demography of Roman Egypt, 179–312; additions in Amphilochios Papathomas, "Drei unveröffentlichte Papyri aus der Sammlung der

Griechischen Papyrologischen Gesellschaft," APF 42 (1996): 201; see also, e.g., P.Col.

10.262 (60 CE); 269 (second–third centuries CE).

53. A dramatic example is SPP 20.11 (with BL 3:236, 8:461 and 10:269; July 23, 175 CE): Peteamunis, son of Peteamunis and Tamasis, seventy-five years of age, grave digger in the village Moithymis in the Memphite nome, registers himself and his family, including his daughters-in-law and grandchildren, as homeless; also his three sons are grave diggers (so altogether four grave diggers in the small village Moithymis), and all their wives are currently unemployed. Nevertheless, the three sons are obliged to pay the poll tax. See Peter Arzt-Grabner, "Christlicher Alltag anhand der

Papyri aus dem 2. Jahrhundert," in Das ägyptische Christentum im 2. Jahrhundert, ed. Wilhelm Pratscher, Markus Öhler, and Markus Lang, SNTSU 2/6 (Vienna: LIT,

2008), 107–9.

Peter Arzt-Grabner 34 CE. Below the woman's declaration, we find a registration note by one of the officials and finally the notification by the village scribe. The document reads:

Εἰρηναίῳ καὶ Μάρωνι καὶ Ἡρακλείδῃ καὶ Ἀμμωνίῳ καὶ Πετεσούχωι λαογράφοις καὶ Ἡρακλείδῃ κωμογραμματε[ῖ] Φιλαδελφείας

πα̣ρὰ̣ Τατυβύγχιος τῆς Μαρήους τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς κώμης μετὰ κυρίου τοῦ ἐματῆς54 συγγενοῦς Πατουάμτιος τοῦ Πτόλ̣λιδος. ἀπογράφομαι εἰς τὸ ἐ̣ν̣[εσ-]

10 τὸς κ (ἔτος) Τιβερίου Καίσαρος Σεβαστοῦ τὸν ὑειόν55 μου Πανετβεῦειν Κεφάλωνος καταγινόμενον ἐν τῇ εἰδίᾳ56 οἰκίᾳ, καὶ ἔστι[ν] ὁ προγεγραμμένος μου 15 ὑειὸς57 {π} Πανετβεῦεις Κεφάλωνος ὡς (ἐτῶν) ε, καὶ ἐματὴν58 Τατυβύγχιν Μαρήους ὡς (ἐτῶν) λε οὐλὴ ὑπ' ἀντίχιρα59 δεξιόν, 20 μετὰ κυρίου τοῦ προγεγραμμένου Πατουάμτιος τοῦ Πτόλλιδος ὡς (ἐτῶν) λϛ οὐλὴ ὑπ' ὀφρὺν δεξιόν.

To Eirenaios and Maron and Herakleides and Ammonios and Petesouchos, laographoi, and to Herakleides, village scribe of Philadelphia, from Tatybynchis, daughter of Mareis, of the same village, with my rela54. Read ἐμαυτῆς.

55. Read υἱόν.

56. Read ἰ|δίᾳ.

57. Read υἱὸς.

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

tive Patouamtis, son of Ptollis, as guardian. I register for the present 20th year of Tiberius Caesar Augustus my son Panetbeveis, son of Kephalon, who lives in my own house, and my abovementioned son Panetbeveis, son of Kephalon, is (about)61 5 years of age, and myself, Tatybynchis, daughter of Mareis, (about) 35 years old, with a scar/mark on my right thumb, together with the guardian, the abovementioned Patouamtis, son of Ptollis, (about) 36 years of age, with a scar/mark below his right brow.

In year 20 of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, Payni 19.

(2nd hand) Registered in year 20 of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, Payni 19.

(3rd hand) I, Herakleides, village scribe, have noted it.

From census registers we learn that the declarations were taken seriously by the authorities. To build the registers, the collected declarations were arranged according to the particular districts or streets of a place, and then glued together.62 A special evidence for the authorities' accuracy is preserved in P.Lond. 2.324 (p. 63) (with BL 1:245 and 10:98; Prosopite nome): the papyrus contains copies of two extracts from census registers, the first one referring to the census of year 131–132 CE and the second one referring to the follow up census of year 145–146 CE; both declarations evidence that a certain Anikos and one Thamistis are siblings of the same mother and father, but in his cover letter, which follows below the two copies (ll. 28–34) and is dated to March 24, 161 CE, Anikos informs his sister that they are only brother and sister from the same mother and that she is ἀπάτωρ (i.e., her father is not known).63

The only papyrological evidence for the census outside Egypt so far is preserved in a document of the famous archive of Babatha, a woman from Maḥoza in the Roman province Arabia, who refers to "an evaluation of the province that is conducted by Titus Aninius Sextius Florentinus," the provincial governor (P.Yadin 1.16.11–13 [Rabbath-Moab/Arabia; after 61. Many age numbers in the papyri are preceded by ὡς (maybe the majority); therefore, ὡς in this context rather means "as exactly as possible" than just "about."

62. BGU 13.2228 (with BL 8:55; Soknopaiou Nesos/Arsinoites; 175–188 CE) is the extract of such a census register. Similar documents are, e.g., BGU 1.124 (with BL

1:22, 8:19, and 10:12; Ptolemais Euergetis/Arsinoites; after 187–188 CE); P.Amh. 2.76

(with BL 1:2; Hermopolis; second–third centuries CE).

63. Concerning reasons for this change, see Myrto Malouta, "Fatherless Persons," in Law and Legal Practice in Egypt from Alexander to the Arab Conquest: A Selection of Papyrological Sources in Translation, with Introductions and Commentary, ed. James G.

Keenan, Joseph G. Manning, and Uri Yiftach-Firanko (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 198–200.

Peter Arzt-Grabner December 4, 127 CE]: ἀποτιμήσεως | Ἀραβίας ἀ̣γ̣ομένης ὑπὸ Τίτου Ἀνεινίου

Σεξ{σ}τίου Φλωρεντείνου | πρεσβευτοῦ Σεβαστοῦ ἀντιστρατήγου). According to Hannah M. Cotton, this was the first census of the province, conducted shortly after it became part of the Roman Empire.64 The narrative of the nativity in Luke's Gospel, although problematic in several details and not in consistency with Luke's own chronology concerning Jesus of Nazareth, is, according to Graham Claytor and Roger Bagnall, "important evidence for the provincial impression of the census as universal and stemming from the direct command of the emperor"65 (see Luke 2:1). And Claytor and Bagnall add, what is also relevant for Colossae and the Lycus Valley:

The census reinforced imperial ideals, strengthening the notion that the emperor could "see everything and hear everything," even when ruling from the Palace in Rome. It also of course aided imperial interests, such as the collection of revenue and the maintenance of social hierarchy. For most provincials, on the other hand, the census and the closely-related poll tax were simply facts of life and burdens from which there was little chance of escape; for some, the imposition of a poll tax and regular censuses could have become "a potent symbol of subjection to Roman rule."66

In short, the census was a common feature of the imperial experience and a key component of Rome's control over provincial society.67

Marriage Contracts From marriage contracts we learn that marriage, in general and before the time of Diocletian, was a private matter and not regulated by any public, administrational, or religious authority; occasionally contracts were filed in a notary's office and registered in the record office or grapheion.68 Marriages without a written contract (ἄγραφος γάμος) shared

64. See Hannah M. Cotton, "Ἡ νέα Ἀραβία: The New Province of Arabia in the Papyri from the Judaean Desert," ZPE 116 (1997): 206; see also Claytor and Bagnall,

"Beginnings of the Roman Provincial Census," 645.

65. Claytor and Bagnall, "Beginnings of the Roman Provincial Census," 637–38.

66. Quotation from Dominic W. Rathbone, "Egypt, Augustus and Roman Taxation," Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz 4 (1993): 86.

67. Claytor and Bagnall, "Beginnings of the Roman Provincial Census," 638. For a survey of literary and legal sources as well as inscriptions related to the provincial census see Peter A. Brunt, "The Revenues of Rome," in Roman Imperial Themes

(Oxford: Clarendon, 1990), 329–35 (with tables on 345–46).

68. See Hans Julius Wolff, Organisation und Kontrolle des privaten Rechtsverkehrs,

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

the same value or status with marriages with a written contract (ἔγγραφος γάμος).69 Actually, there is no particular type of document that could just be called a "marriage contract." According to the papyrological record,

Uri Yiftach-Firanko distinguishes between Ekdosis Documents (widely used in Greco-Roman societies, containing a clause about the "giving away" of one's daughter for the purpose of marriage), Marriage Sunchoreseis (from Augustan Alexandria, filed by bridegroom and bride declaring

"to have come together"), Dowry Receipts, Loan Contracts (from Oxyrhynchus), Paratheke Documents (deeds of deposit with a list of objects

"deposited" on the occasion of marriage), Dowry Inventories, several unique documents, and unclear cases.70 In addition to these various vol. 2 of Das Recht der griechischen Papyri Ägyptens in der Zeit der Ptolemäer und des Prinzipats, Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft 10.5.2 (Munich: Beck, 1978),

136–37 n. 2, 177–78. In the grapheion, the contracts could also be stamped in order to attach complete legal validity (such a stamp is preserved, e.g., on P.Dime 3.39 [Soknopaiou Nesos/Arsinoites; 11–10 BCE]; see Katelijn Vandorpe in P.Dime 3, p. 437).

69. P.Ryl. 2.154 (with BL 3:160; Bakchias/Arsinoites; October 19, 66 CE) is filed between a certain Chairemon and his father-in-law, from whom he receives the dowry for Taisarion who is described as προούση[ι] κ̣[αὶ] συνούσηι τοῦ Χα[ιρήμονος] γ̣υ̣ν̣α̣ι̣κ̣ί

(line 4: "being already before and being together with him as Chairemon's wife").

Contracts that transform an ἄγραφος γάμος into an ἔγγραφος γάμος, are often filed between husband and wife, cf. PSI 1.36a (with BL 1:390, 6:172, and 12:248; Oxyrhynchus or Arsinoites; October 29–November 27, 11 CE, or October 28–November 26,

12 or 13 CE); BGU 1.183 (with BL 1:24–25, 5:10, 7:10, 8:20, and 12:11; Soknopaiou

Nesos/Arsinoites; April 26, 85 CE); P.Oxy. 2.265 (with BL 1:319, 2:94, 6:96, and 9:179;

Oxyrhynchus; 81–96 CE); BGU 1.252 (Ptolemais Euergetis/Arsinoites; December 24, 98 CE); 232 (Arsinoites; October 28–November 26, 108 CE): this contract explicitly states that the wife "has been before and is together with him as his wife according to the laws" (l. 3–4: τῇ προούσῃ κ[αὶ συν]ούσῃ αὑτῷ κατὰ | νόμους γυναικεί).

70. Uri Yiftach-Firanko, Marriage and Marital Arrangements: A History of the Greek Marriage Document in Egypt; Fourth Century BCE–Fourth Century CE, MBPF

93 (Munich: Beck, 2003), 14–20 (for an inventory of marriage documents by provenance, including documents from outside Egypt, see 27–32; on the formulaic features, see table 1 on 271–72). On marriage and marriage documents in documentary papyri, see also Orsolina Montevecchi, "Ricerche di sociologia nei documenti dell'

Egitto greco-romano, II. I contratti di matrimonio e gli atti di divorzio," Aeg 16 (1936):

3–83; Ilias Arnaoutoglou, "Marital Disputes in Greco-Roman Egypt," JJP 25 (1995):

11–28; David Instone-Brewer, Marriage and Divorce Papyri of the Ancient Greek, Roman and Jewish World: A Collection of Papyri from Fourth C BCE to Fourth C CE.

2000. http://www.tyndalearchive.com/Brewer/MarriagePapyri/Index.html; Ruth E.

Kritzer in Peter Arzt-Grabner et al., 1. Korinther, PKNT 2 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck

Peter Arzt-Grabner documents dealing with marriage, we find a broad variety of clauses and arrangements within one and the same document type.71 What they all have in common is—as Hans Julius Wolff and Uri Yiftach-Firanko have observed—"that marriage documents were composed not for recording the formation of marriage, but rather for documenting property arrangements connected with marriage, whenever, in the course of joint life, these arrangements became sufficiently important to be committed to writing."72 The contracts focus most of all (if not exclusively) on the dowry, the parapherna (consisting of the woman's personal chattels), and the prosphora (consisting of land and slaves):73 what and how it was handed over to the bride groom, in which way he was allowed to use it, and how and in which time frame he had to hand it back in the case of divorce. It is, therefore, understandable that many couples did not file a marriage contract at all. If there was no dowry that was worth mentioning, there was no reason for a contract.

A rather small portion of the contracts is dedicated to moral issues, the so-called terms of joint life:74 that the couple should live together blamelessly, that the husband should supply to his wife and to their children whatever is necessary according to his means, that he must not set up a house different from the home which he is sharing with his wife, not have children from another wife, and not introduce another wife into the joint house. These prohibitions had two objectives: "protecting the family resources from embezzlement and guarding the exclusivity of the union."75

The wife, on the other hand, was not allowed to have sex with another & Ruprecht, 2006), 247–53. The most complete list of marriage documents has been compiled by Yiftach-Firanko, Marriage and Marital Arrangements, 9–13. On Latin marriage documents see, e.g., Martti Leiwo and Hilla Halla-Aho, "A Marriage Contract: Aspects of Latin-Greek Language Contact (P. Mich. VII 434 and P. Ryl. IV 612 =

ChLA IV 249)," Mnemosyne 55 (2002): 560–80.

71. See below on the different arrangements in case of divorce.

72. Hans Julius Wolff, Written and Unwritten Marriages in Hellenistic and Postclassical Roman Law, Philological Monographs 9 (Lancaster: Lancaster Press, 1939);

Yiftach-Firanko, Marriage and Marital Arrangements (quote from 104; see the full discussion 81–104).

73. On the papyrological evidence of the dotal system in the Roman period, see Yiftach-Firanko, Marriage and Marital Arrangements, 129–82 (and tables 3–11 on 276–311).

74. See Yiftach-Firanko, Marriage and Marital Arrangements, 182–95.

75. Yiftach-Firanko, Marriage and Marital Arrangements, 190.

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

man, to cause any shame to her husband, or to ruin the common home, which "probably means a ruin caused by lax moral conduct."76 The terms concerning the wife also established her "active participation in the management of the family estate throughout the marriage," but also instructed her "to abide by, and show obedience to, her husband."77 The documents themselves show a broad variety of forms and a remarkable individuality in the selection of obligations to be included in a contract.78

Many marriage documents already address the case of a possible divorce.79 We find different forms in different nomes, and several times the scribes who draw up the contracts seem to use variants of their own devising. The contracts of the Arsnoite nome show a great variety of options even within one and the same city or village and at about the same time.

Some people distinguished between the husband's sending away his wife and the wife's voluntary withdrawal, in the latter case granting the husband a time frame of thirty or sixty days to hand back the dowry and parapherna,80 whereas in case of the husband's divorce they should be

76. Yiftach-Firanko, Marriage and Marital Arrangements, 191.

77. Yiftach-Firanko, Marriage and Marital Arrangements, 191.

78. A good evidence for this is given in table 12 of Yiftach-Firanko, Marriage and Marital Arrangements, 312–17, covering every single contract. Regarding divorce, it has to be underscored that—somewhat similar to marriages (becoming valid with or without a written contract)—"spouses who wished to dissolve their marriage were offered routine procedures for doing so by the marriage documents. Yet these procedures were by no means obligatory" Uri Yiftach, "Was There a 'Divorce Procedure' among Greeks in Early Roman Egypt?," in Atti del XXII Congresso Internazionale di

Papirologia, Firenze, 23–29 agosto 1998, ed. Isabella Andorlini et al., vol. 2 (Florence:

Istituto Papirologico "G. Vitelli," 2001), 1338.

79. On the papyrological evidence for the Roman period, see especially YiftachFiranko, Marriage and Marital Arrangements, 205–19.

80. The thirty-days variant is preserved, e.g., in P.Ryl. 2.154.24–30 (Bakchias/

Arsinoites; October 19, 66 CE): ἐὰν δὲ διαφορᾶς αὐτοῖς γεναμένης | [χ]ωρίζονται (read χωρίζωνται) ἀπ' ἀλλήλων, ἤτοι τοῦ Χαιρήμονος ἀποπέμποντος τ[ὴ]ν Θαισάριον ἢ καὶ αὐτῆς ἑκουσίω[ς | ἀ]παλλασσομέν[η]ς [ἀ]π' αὐτοῦ, ἔστω{ι} τοῦ τῆ[ς] Θα[ι]σαρ[ί]ου πατρὸς

Σισόιτος, ἐὰ[ν] δ̣ὲ̣ [ο]ὗτος μὴ περιῆι, αὐ[τῆς] Θ̣[α]ισαρί[ου | ὁ] σημαινόμενο[ς κλῆρ]ος τῶν ἀρουρῶν δ[έκα] ἡμίσους τετάρτου καθὼ[ς] πρόκειται· ἔτι δὲ καὶ προ[σα]πο|δώσ<ε>ιν αὐτῆι ὁ Χ[αιρ]ήμων καὶ τὴν προγ[εγρα]μμένην φερνὴν καὶ τὰ παράφερνα οἷα ἐὰν ἐκ τῆς τρί|ψεως ἐγβῆι (read ἐκβῆι), ἐπ[ὶ μὲν] τῆς ἀποπομπῆς πα[ραχρῆ]μα, ἐπὶ δὲ {του}τῆς ἑκουσ[ίο]υ ἀπαλλαγῆς ἐν ἡμέρα[ι]ς τριά|[κο]ντα ἀ̣φ̣' ἧς ἐὰ[ν ἀπαι]τηθῆι ("but if any difference arises between them and they separate the one from the other, either Chairemon divorcing Thaisarion or Thaisarion withdrawing of her own free will, then the before-mentioned holding of ten [and] a half [and] a quarter [= 10¾] aruras shall

Peter Arzt-Grabner handed back at once. Other couples did not distinguish between the two cases, some of them granting the husband a time frame of thirty or sixty days, others obliging him to hand back dowry and parapherna at once.81

In the contracts from Oxyrhynchus that show a smaller variety of options, we find two main groups: either people did not distinguish between the husband's sending away his wife and the wife's voluntary withdrawal (but wrote about the couple's "separation"), or they included a clause in the contract that explicitly mentioned the wife's decision to withdraw and, in this case, allowing the husband a sixty-day time frame for handing back the dowry, which seems to be the standard time frame also if the contract contains only a clause about the couple's possible separation.82 Some of the preserved contracts have been crossed out, which is a clear hint that the respective contract was cancelled, that is, the marriage ended in divorce and the dowry had been handed back.83

All these aspects concerning marriage in the Roman Empire, some of them quite different from marriages in modern societies, must be kept in mind also when interpreting ancient literary or New Testament texts about marriage or divorce. Particularly concerning New Testament texts, belong to Thaisarion's father Sisois, or, if he be no longer living, to Thaisarion herself; and Chairemon shall also restore the dowry aforesaid and the parapherna as they emerge from wear and tear, in the case of divorce at once, and in the case of voluntary withdrawal within thirty days from the day on which he is demanded to do so").

81. See table 4 in Arzt-Grabner, "Census Declarations" (with some differences compared to, and some updates to the data given by, Yiftach-Firanko, Marriage and Marital Arrangements, 207 [incl. nn. 40 and 41]). In SPP 20.15.16–20 (with BL 8:461;

Ptolemais Euergetis; before October 27, 189 CE), the parties made a distinction only regarding the dowry (at once / thirty days), but they did not regarding the parapherna that should be handed back at once in any case.

82. For contracts that do not distinguish, see, e.g., P.Oxy. 49.3491.18–20 (Oxyrhynchus; 157–158 CE), and P.Oxy. 6.905.11–14 (Psobthis/Oxyrhynchites; March 14,

170 CE); both contracts distinguish between handing back the parapherna (at once), and the dowry (within sixty days). For contracts that explicitly mention of wife's decision to withdraw, see e.g., P.Oxy. 3.497.4–6 (Oxyrhynchus; early second century CE).

For contracts that contain only a clause about the couple's possible separation, see table 5 in Arzt-Grabner, "Census Declarations" (with some differences compared to, and some updates to the data given by, Yiftach-Firanko, Marriage and Marital

Arrangements, 209 [incl. notes 45–47]).

83. See, e.g., the demotic and greek "Ehefrauenurkunde" P.Dime 3.40 (Soknopaiou Nesos/Arsinoites; August 15, 28 CE?); P.Choix 10 (Tebtynis/Arsinoites; June

25–July 24, 162 CE).

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

it is worth noticing that we do not find anything about the dowry or the parapherna, that is, about the central issue of a marriage document, but solely terms of joint life that were more or less freely arranged in marriage documents or not even mentioned. Even those are sometimes very short and of a general character in New Testament texts, as in Col 3:18–19: wives should be subject to their husbands, and husbands should love their wives and never treat them harshly. However, we find nothing in New Testament texts concerning marriage that would be inconsistent with arrangements expressed in marriage documents, even the possibility of divorce, which, also according to marriage documents, should not but may happen (see

1 Cor 7:11).84 On the other hand, everything could be more or less well represented in a marriage document filed by members of an early Christ group. If it is true that the majority of the members of early Christian communities did not belong to the privileged classes and were not very wealthy, we have to assume that only few couples filed a contract when entering into marriage. Perhaps, someone like Apphia's father or her parents were wealthy enough to make arrangements for a dowry in a written document with Philemon and hand it over to him on the occasion of the couple's marriage (or sometime after that event took place)—if the first two addressees of Paul's Letter to Philemon (see Phlm 1–2) were husband and wife.

The Place of Philemon's Household Recent New Testament scholarship has situated Philemon's house (see

Phlm 1–2) either in Colossae or in Rome (or nearby). One of the more important arguments for the Colossian hypothesis is Col 4:9 where a certain Onesimus is referred to as ὅς ἐστιν ἐξ ὑμῶν, that is, who is one of the Colossian community.85 Thus, it has been argued, Paul's prison while writing Philemon must have been in the vicinity of Colossae, most probably in Ephesus. Other scholars have opted for Rome and have argued that the 84. There is a difference between New Testament texts regarding divorce and explicit documents of divorce where the couple agrees upon that—contrary to 1 Cor

7:11 (cf. Matt 5:31–32; 19:9)—each one is legally free to marry another partner without either of them being liable (cf., e.g., BGU 4.1103.22–25 [Alexandria; March 28,

13 BCE]).

85. See, e.g., Dietrich-Alex Koch, Geschichte des Urchristentums: Ein Lehrbuch (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013), 572.

Peter Arzt-Grabner supposed imprisonment in Ephesus would, according to a chronology derived from Paul's letters, have been too short86 to write Philippians and Philemon from there. Consequently, it has been suggested that Paul was imprisoned in Rome, and that also Philemon's household has to be settled in Rome or nearby.87 In support of the Roman hypothesis it has been underscored that Apphia and Philemon are not mentioned in Colossians, which should have been the case if they were living in Colossae, and it has been argued that Col 4:9 does not necessarily mean that Onesimus's master was also from Colossae, but that only his slave originated from there before becoming Philemon's slave.88

From a papyrological perspective, none of these suggestions can be decisively confirmed. Even the identification of the Onesimus of Col 4:9 with the slave of Philemon is not absolutely certain,89 although plausible.

It is true that, if the origin of a slave is mentioned (most of all in slave sale contracts, i.e., as a legal issue mentioned in legal documents),90 this notice usually refers to the place or region where the respective slave was born

(and raised) and is introduced because slaves of special origin were known for special abilities. Of course, and it almost goes without saying, a slave's place of origin was not necessarily identical with the site where she or he

86. According to Marlis Gielen, "Paulus—Gefangener in Ephesus?," BN 2/131 (2006): 79–103; 133 (2007): 63–77, esp. 71, it lasted only about two weeks.

87. See Gielen, "Paulus—Gefangener in Ephesus?"; Vicky Balabanski, "Where Is Philemon? The Case for a Logical Fallacy in the Correlation of the Data in Philemon and Colossians 1.1–2; 4.7–18," JSNT 38 (2015): 141–43, 145–48.

88. See Balabanski, "Where Is Philemon?," especially 134, 139–40.

89. Onesimus is a very common and widely attested slave name; see Heikki Solin, Griechische Namen, vol. 2 of Die stadtrömischen Sklavennamen: Ein Namenbuch, Forschungen zur antiken Sklaverei 2 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1996), 465–68:

185 references for Onesimus, 18 for Onesime, 1 for Onesimio(n), 2 for Onesi[—]. For inscriptions from Attica, see Charilaos Fragiadakis, "Die attischen Sklavennamen von der spätarchaischen Epoche bis in die römische Kaiserzeit: Eine historische und soziologische Untersuchung" (Diss., Universität Mannheim, 1986), 52 no. 23–25; 54 no.

3; 364 no. 584–587. Also a figure of Menander's Epitrepontes is a slave called Onesimus. Concerning papyri from Egypt see, e.g., SB 16.12764, col. II 17 (Oxyrhynchus; first–second centuries CE), and P.Lond. 2.208, recto a 3–5 (with BL 10:97; Ptolemais

Euergetis/Arsinoites; June 25–July 24, 138 CE).

90. See, e.g., P.Turner 22.3 and 16–17 (Side; 142 CE) where the ten-year-old slave girl Abaskantis, who is ppurchased at the forum in Side by an Egyptian slave dealer, is described as being Galatian according to her origin (γένει Γαλάτιν).

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

currently served,91 which was very important to know in (private or business) relationships; there it was not to be neglected whose property a slave was or to which household she or he belonged. If the Onesimus of Col 4:9 has to be identified with Philemon's slave, I have, therefore, strong doubts that ὅς ἐστιν ἐξ ὑμῶν refers to his geographical or ethnic origin92 because, moreover, this phrase is neither an established way of referring to a slave's geographic or ethnic origin, nor does it, in Col 4:9, refer to a particular village, city, or region, but to a group of people, thus describing Onesimus as a current (ἐστιν!) member of the Christ group in Colossae.

That a certain Apphia, a name well attested in inscriptions from western Asia Minor (CIG 4380, k3,1 [3:1168] is from Colossae), is addressed in Phlm 2 does not prove that this woman has to be located there, since she, or even one of her ancestors, could have left the place of origin and traveled to another province (or, e.g., to Rome) in earlier days, without leaving any traces in the inscriptions.93 Philemon itself suggests that, if the letter was addressed to a house church in Rome and written during Paul's

91. See Jean A. Straus, "Le pays d'origine des esclaves de l'Égypte romaine," CdE

46 (1971): 363–66; Iza Bieżuńska-Małowist, Période romaine, vol. 2 of L'esclavage dans l'Égypte gréco-romaine, Archiwum Filologiczne 35 (Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy imienia Ossolińskich; Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 1977), 13–42; Jean

A. Straus, L'achat et la vente des esclaves dans l'Egypte romaine: Contribution papyrologique à l'étude de l'esclavage dans une province orientale de l'Empire romain, APF

Series 14 (Munich: Saur, 2004), 276–83 (with a list of references).

92. It is also possible that Philemon's slave Onesimus was a house-born slave (οἰκογένης). On the different options of Onesimus' origin, see Arzt-Grabner, Philemon,

87–96.

93. See the references in Arzt-Grabner, Philemon, 82–83, and especially ArztGrabner, "Die Auswertung inschriftlicher Zeugnisse für die neutestamentliche

Exegese: Erfahrungen, Chancen und Herausforderungen," in Epigraphik und Neues Testament, ed. Thomas Corsten, Markus Öhler and Joseph Verheyden, WUNT 365

(Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016), 36–37. So far, the name is not attested in papyri or ostraca. See p. 37 concerning the epigraphic record of Apphia: "Insgesamt ist also die

Beleglage hier für West-Kleinasien, bes. Lydien, hervorragend, während Inschriften aus Rom und Italien erst aus späterer Zeit stammen. Es erscheint nicht unmöglich, dass Trägerinnen des Namens Apphia in Rom zur Zeit des Paulus noch nicht vertreten waren, doch sicher ist dies keineswegs: zum Einen findet sich ja nicht jede Person auf einer Inschrift, zum Anderen besagt der Befund nur, dass bisher keine Apphia vor dem 3. Jh. n.Chr. für Rom nachweisbar ist. Die Apphia des Phlm könnte nach Rom eingewandert sein, ohne dort Spuren zu hinterlassen. Der epigraphische Befund lässt also auch hier kein eindeutiges Urteil zu."

Peter Arzt-Grabner Roman imprisonment, it must have been written a certain amount of time, maybe several months, after Paul's arrival in Rome as he already shares a close relationship with Philemon, Apphia, Archippus, and the Christ group meeting in Philemon's house. On the other hand, and based on the conventions of ancient letter writing in general and those concerned with people who are in jail in particular,94 a short letter like Philemon could easily have been written within a day, especially while being forced to stay in a prison cell. That Paul was in detention several times before being arrested in Caesarea and eventually sent to Rome is evidenced by Paul himself in 2 Cor 6:5 and 11:23, which also suggests that one or the other of the respective arrests took place in the province of Asia. Philemon could easily have been written during any of these imprisonments; moreover, there is no absolute certainty that Philippians and Philemon were composed and written during one and the same imprisonment. Of course, this does not mean that Philemon was definitely written in Ephesus or nearby, but that, as a location of Paul's prison while writing Philemon,

Ephesus remains at least as plausible as Rome and that Colossae is still a good option for the location of Philemon's household.

Paul's reference to his old age in Phlm 9 does not necessarily evidence a Roman origin of Philemon, as πρεσβύτης sometimes refers to people who are over sixty, but in other cases to persons who are still in their fifties.95

The fact that Apphia and Philemon are not mentioned in Col does not mean that they are not living (or do not live anymore) in Colossae.

It is a common feature in ancient letter writing that a sender of several letters, addressed to one and the same person or group, does not always address or greet every single member of the household or family (even the major figures of a household are no exception to that). For example, within the correspondence of a certain Athenodoros, who lived during the time of the emperor Augustus, we find two letters that were sent by a certain Tryphas to Athenodoros. Both letters are preserved completely, and they were written and found in the Herakleopolite nome; moreover, as 94. On the papyrological record concerning prisons and the bad conditions therein as well as concerning detentions before trial, see Arzt-Grabner et al., 2.

Korinther, PKNT 4 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014), 207–10.

95. See Arzt-Grabner, Philemon, 76–77 (with literary and documentary references); Michael Wolter, Der Brief an die Kolosser: Der Brief an Philemon, ÖTK 12,

Gütersloher Taschenbücher Siebenstern 519 (Gütersloh: Mohn; Würzburg: Echter, 1993), 260.

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both are exactly dated, we know that they were written within only about two months. BGU 16.2618 was written on May 10, 7 BCE, and addressed to Athenodoros, the son,96 and Artemis, the daughter, whereas via BGU

16.2617, written on July 11 of the same year and addressed to Athenodoros, Tryphas sends greetings to her "ladies and daughters" Tryphas and Artemis. Daughter Tryphas is mentioned only in one of the two letters, the later one (2617). On the other hand, only the earlier letter (2618) also contains greetings by Nardos, Neikas, and all the others in the house (see ll. 22–24). Besides the option that the author of Colossians simply did not have in mind to mention Philemon and Apphia explicitly, papyrus letters also offer another convincing and simple solution to the question why he did not do so: Philemon and Apphia may have died after Philemon and before Colossians was written, and Archippus may have been the new patron of the household. A good example for a comparable situation is, according to the unanimous interpretation, attested by two letters of the Roman soldier Apion aka Antonius Maximus who is of Egyptian origin but garrisoned at Misenum. Both letters were written during the second century CE, the earlier one (BGU 2.423 with BL 1:45, 8:27, and 9:20), addressed to his father in Philadelphia (Arsinoite nome), and mentioning already in the letter opening his brother and his sister together with her daughter. In the letter corpus, Apion informs his father that he safely arrived in Misenum and received some journey-money (l. 9 βιάτικον = viaticum) from the Caesar. After sending greetings to a certain Capito, to his siblings, to a certain Serenilla and to his friends, he certifies that he had already sent his father an image of himself and that his name in the imperial fleet is now Antonius Maximus. BGU 2.632 (with BL 1:58) is clearly the later one of the two letters, as Apion now uses only his Roman name

Antonius Maximus and makes clear that he has started a family several years ago (he sends greetings from his spouse Aufidia, his son Maximus, and his daughters Elpis and Fortunata). But what is most important in comparison with Colossians is this: he does not mention his father but addresses the letter to his sister Sabina and sends greetings to a certain

Maximus ("probably the sister's son, who would then be named after his 96. It is not certain if Tryphas was Athenodoros's mother as in BGU 16.2615.1–2

(ca. 21 BCE–5 CE); the couple Menelaos and Herakleia address Athenodoros also as "son"; one of the two "mothers" must have addressed Athenodoros as "son" in a metaphorical way.

Peter Arzt-Grabner uncle") and to Copres "the lord" (probably his brother-in-law).97 Epimachos, his father, has most probably died some time before, which is also suggested by the soldier's confirmation that he on every occasion does not delay to write to his sister who has become the main "link between her brother and his old home" (see ll. 11–14).98 Concerning Colossians, it is also worth noticing that Archippus is the only person mentioned by name who is currently in Colossae. The term διακονία in Col 4:17 is probably referring to his care for the local Christ group that is still intending to meet in his house.99 And, probably, one of the main purposes of Colossians was to remind Archippus of his important function as patron of the Colossian community, a function inherited from Philemon some time before.

Two topics, extensively represented in documentary papyri, are referred to in both letters, Philemon and Colossians: First, slavery is the main issue of Philemon, and slaves are—more extensively than other groups—addressed in Col 3:22–25 (masters in 4:1). Second, the textile industry and its regulations and conventions are an important background of Col 3:9–14, and a particular clause in several contracts of apprenticeship to a weaver is paralleled in Phlm 13 and provides some fresh information about Paul's own craft and his position in it. Both letters, therefore, must have been written to communities where slavery and textile industry were an important fact, well-known among the inhabitants and generally known by people from outside, including Paul of Tarsus and the author of Colossians. This does not prove that both letters were written to the same Christian community, but, and in combination with the arguments discussed above, it is most probable that we have to think of the same city, but at different times, when dealing with the addressees of Philemon and Colossians. Concerning Rome, slavery and textile production was not worth mentioning as anything special or known as particularly Roman, whereas Colossae and Laodicea were well-known centers of producing

97. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, 185 nn. 7–8.

98. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, 186. On the interpretation of both letters, see also Reinhold Scholl and Margit Homann, "Antike Briefkultur unter Familienmitgliedern," in Papyrologie und Exegese: Die Auslegung des Neuen Testaments im Licht der Papyri, ed. Jens Herzer, WUNT 2/341 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012),

80–85.

99. Notice also that 1 Cor 16:15 is the only passage where Paul himself uses this term to attribute it to a known person other than himself, namely, to Stephanas, the head of a Corinthian household. In Phlm 5–6, Paul writes about Philemon's ἀγάπη and πίστις that he has for the local Christian community.

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

special textiles (also with many slaves working in this industrial branch) and making a fortune by exporting them. This observation may point to Colossae rather than to Rome as the place of Philemon's household and the Christ group meeting there, addressed again in Colossians.

Slavery Among the many aspects of ancient slavery about which we get extensive information from documentary papyri, ostraca, and tablets, I would like to focus, in a first step, on slave sale contracts. Besides house-born slaves for whom a slaveholder could file a declaration of οἰκογένεια to register the slave's status as such,100 the best option to get slaves for one's household or branch of business was to buy them on the slave market, and Side, one of the biggest and most important slave markets in antiquity, was connected with the Lycus Valley by a Roman road that started in Pergamum and ran via Thyateira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Hierapolis, Laodicea, Colossae, Takina,

Attalia, and Perga into Side.101 In general, the slave market was regulated by the Edict of the Curule Aediles,102 a large part of which has been pre100. Like birth returns for one's legal offspring, these declarations were not filed immediately after a slave's birth, but when the slave boy or girl was already two, three, or even seven years old. See PSI 6.690 (with BL 2:141; Arsinoites; first–second centuries CE) for the seven-year-old slave girl Iulia, SB 3.6995 (Tenis/Memphites; April 26,

124 CE) for the three-year-old slave boy Phoineikas (a later copy of this document is preserved in SB 3.6996, col. I [Tenis/Memphites; April 3, 127 CE]), and 6996, col. 2, for the two-year-old slave boy Zosimos; the declarations for both boys were submitted by the female slaveholder Baibia Rufilla, the mother of both boys was her slave

Tyche who had been bought at the slave market. See also SB 16.12950 (Ptolemais Euergetis/Arsinoites; 230–231 CE), a declaration filed by Aurelia Kyrilla regarding two slaves (names and ages not preserved), who had been born by Kyrilla's slave

Techosous aka Isidora.

101. A bilingual milestone (in Latin and Greek) from Side, which can be dated to 129–126 BCE (SEG 41.1336), reads: M.' · Aquillius ·M.' · f ·| (vacat) cos · CCCXXXI |

Μάνιος Ἀκύλλιος Μανίου, | (vacat) ὕπατος Ῥομαίων· | τλα' ("M. Aquillius, son of Manius, consul of the Romans. 331 [miles]"). According to the first editor, the distance of 331 miles suggests the described route (see David H. French, "Sites and Inscriptions from Phrygia, Pisidia and Pamphylia," Epigraphica Anatolica 17 [1991]: 53–54 no. 3). See also Nollé, Griechische und lateinische Inschriften (5–16), 497 no. 175; Nollé, Geographie–Geschichte–Testimonia–Griechische, 23.

102. On this edict, and especially on its clauses concerning the guarantee for slaves, see especially Éva Jakab, Praedicere und cavere beim Marktkauf: Sachmän-

Peter Arzt-Grabner served in book 21 of Justinian's Digest. The aim of the edict was to protect the purchaser from false information about a slave by the vendor, ordering the vendor to provide clear and public information about any diseases or defects of the slaves, if they had ever run away, or proved to be truants, or had not been released from liability for damage that they had committed.

If nothing of that kind was true, the vendor was not obliged to provide any information at all. On the other hand, the edict clearly forced the vendor to keep all the promises he made, which means: the vendor was liable for all that he said or promised (dictum promissumve) at the time of the sale.103 gel im griechischen und römischen Recht, MBPF 87 (Munich: Beck, 1997); Berthold

Kupisch, "Römische Sachmängelhaftung: Ein Beispiel für die 'ökonomische Analyse des Rechts'?," Legal History Review 70 (2002): 21–54; Peter Arzt-Grabner, "'Neither a Truant nor a Fugitive': Some Remarks on the Sale of Slaves in Roman Egypt and Other Provinces," in Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth International Congress of Papyrology, Ann Arbor, July 29–August 4, 2007, ed. Traianos Gagos and Adam Hyatt, American Studies in Papyrology Special Edition (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan

Library, Scholarly Publishing Office, 2010), 21–32. On the guarantee clauses in papyrus contracts, see also Hans-Albert Rupprecht, "Die Eviktionshaftung in der Kautelarpraxis der graeco-ägyptischen Papyri," in Studi in onore di Arnaldo Biscardi, ed.

Franco Pastori and Mariagrazia Bianchini, vol. 3 (Milan: La Goliardica, 1982), 463–79;

Straus, L'achat et la vente des esclaves, 152–57; Giuseppe Camodeca in T.Sulpicii, pp.

115–16; Camodeca, L'archivio Puteolano dei Sulpicii, vol. 1, Pubblicazioni del Dipartimento di Diritto Romano e Storia della Scienza Romanistica dell'Università degli

Studi die Napoli "Federico II" 4 (Naples: Jovene, 1992); Camodeca, "Tabulae Herculanenses: Riedizione delle emptiones di schiavi (TH 59–62)," in Quaestiones Iuris:

Festschrift für Joseph Georg Wolf zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. Ulrich Manthe and Christoph Krampe, Freiburger rechtsgeschichtliche Abhandlungen 2/36 (Berlin: Duncker

& Humblot, 2000), 74–76 (the documents are cited as T.Hercul.); Otto Eger, "Eine

Wachstafel aus Ravenna aus dem zweiten Jahrhundert nach Chr," ZSS Romanistische Abteilung 42 (1921): 456–58.

103. See Dig. 21.1.1.1 (Ulpianus 1 ad ed. aedil. curul.): qui mancipia vendunt certiores faciant emptores, quid morbi vitiive cuique sit, quis fugitivus errove sit noxave solutus non sit: eademque omnia, cum ea mancipia venibunt, palam recte pronuntianto. quodsi mancipium adversus ea venisset, sive adversus quod dictum promissumve fuerit cum veniret, fuisset, quod eius praestari oportere dicetur: emptori omnibusque ad quos ea res pertinet iudicium dabimus, ut id mancipium redhibeatur. […] item si quas accessiones ipse praestiterit, ut recipiat. item si quod mancipium capitalem fraudem admiserit, mortis consciendae sibi causa quid fecerit, inve harenam depugnandi causa ad bestias intromissus fuerit, ea omnia in venditione pronuntianto: ex his enim causis iudicium dabimus. hoc amplius si quis adversus ea sciens dolo malo vendidisse dicetur, iudicium dabimus. (For an English translation by S. P. Scott, see http://www.constitution.org/ sps/sps05.htm).

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

In the exegetical discussion that has been generated by scholars, trying to illuminate Paul's description of the case of Onesimos in Philemon by referring to Roman jurists, it has been argued that "it is quite unclear to what extent the categories of the Roman jurists might be relevant to the dialogue between Paul and Philemon."104 But slave sale contracts preserved on papyri and waxed tablets, and from different Roman provinces, suggest that such doubts are not justified. Several documents explicitly refer to the edict: documents from Egypt, from Puteoli and Herculaneum in Italy, from Syria, and—most relevant for Colossae—two contracts from Side.105

Most of the preserved slave sale contracts do not give any information about diseases or defects but provide promises that none of these is relevant; many vendors confirm the slave's healthy condition, whereas some exclude a guarantee concerning epilepsy and leprosy and others refuse to guarantee that the slave is neither a truant nor a fugitive; comparably few slave dealers include such a guarantee in the contracts.106 Only recently,

104. Ulrich Huttner, Early Christianity in the Lycus Valley, trans. David Green,

AJEC 85, Early Christianity in Asia Minor 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 106. See also Peter

Lampe, "Keine 'Sklavenflucht' des Onesimus," ZNW 76 (1985): 135–37; J. Albert Harrill, Slaves in the New Testament: Literary, Social, and Moral Dimensions (Minneapolis:

Augsburg Fortress, 2006), 8–11; John G. Nordling, "Onesimus Fugitivus: A Defense of the Runaway Slave Hypothesis in Philemon," JSNT 41 (1991): 114–17.

105. Egypt: P.Hamb. 1.63 (with BL 7:66; Thebais?; 125–126 CE); see Wolff, Organisation und Kontrolle, 167–68. Puteoli: T.Sulpicii 43 (August 21, 38 CE; cf. T.Sulpicii 42

[March 18, 26 CE?]; 44). Herculaneum: T.Hercul. 60 (before 63/64 CE; cf. T.Hercul.

62 [November 30, 47 CE]). Syria: P.Lond. 1.229 (p. xxi) (Seleucia Pieria; May 24, 166

CE). Side: P.Turner 22 (with BL 12:284; 142 CE), and BGU 3.887 (with BL 1:77, 350;

3:15; 7:16, and 8:36; July 8, 151 CE). In addition, also the clause bonis condicionibus, signifying that the sale took place "under good conditions" is a reference to the conditions explained in the edict (see Jakab, Praedicere und cavere, 187–90); it is attested in a contract from Ravenna (SB 3.6304 [117–161 CE]). A contract from Seleucia Pieria

(P.Lond. 1.229 [p. xxi] [May 24, 166 CE]) contains both clauses. Probably, the clause καλῇ αἱρέσει can be identified as the Greek equivalent to bonis condicionibus; it is attested in several contracts from Egypt and one from Ascalon/Phoenicia (SB 5.8007.5

[Hermoupolis?; first half of the fourth century CE]; P.Abinn. 64.15 [Alexandria or Philadelpha; 337–350 CE]; P.Cair.Masp. 1.67120.5 [but see BL 3:34; Aphrodites Kome/

Antaiopolites; ca. 567–568 CE]; BGU 1.316.5 [Ascalon/Phoenicia; 359 CE]; see Jakab,

Praedicere und cavere, 208–9). It is also important to notice that the contracts from Side, Ravenna, Seleucia, and Ascalon were brought to Egypt, obviously together with the purchased slaves, and found there.

106. For references see Arzt-Grabner, "'Neither a Truant nor a Fugitive,'" 25–30;

Arzt-Grabner, "How to Deal with Onesimus? Paul's Solution within the Frame of

Peter Arzt-Grabner the first documentary evidence of a vendor, who explicitly informed the buyer about any disease or defect of the slave, has been edited: P.Oxy.

78.5166 (Oxyrhynchus; 29–20 BCE) offers at least an indirect hint to the fact that the vendor of the female slave Thermuthion, about thirty years old, had clearly informed the buyer, a certain Philiscus, that the slave was a runaway. The document is an instruction to the banker Apollophanes to receive from Philiscus the tax on the sale of the slave.107 The female slave is literally described as "a runaway, whom Philiscus will track down and bring back for himself" (ll. 5–6: οὔσης ἐν δρασμῶι, ἣν ἀναζητήσας | ὁ Φιλ̣[ί] σκος ἑαυτῶι ἀνάξε̣ι̣). Obviously, Thermuthion is not only a slave who ran away once, but she is still on the run at the time when the contract is filed and the tax on the sale is paid.108

If someone from Colossae wanted to make a good decision when intending to buy a slave, he almost certainly went to Side, which could be reached within about ten days when traveling on foot but in five days when using a fast carriage.109 In both contracts originating from there, the vendors provide information about the slaves age, origin, and body

Ancient Legal and Documentary Sources," in Philemon in Perspective: Interpreting a Pauline Letter, ed. D. Francois Tolmie, BZNW 169 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2010), 126–33.

107. As stated in line 8, the price for the slave was "10 talents, 3,000 drachmas in bronze"; the tax, which Philiscus paid, is calculated as "2 talents, 693 drachmas and 3½ obols in bronze (converted) to silver." Thus, this document gives clear evidence for a sales tax of 20 percent on slaves and not 10 percent as has sometimes been assumed on the analogy of the rate on other sales (already questioned by Wallace, Taxation in Egypt, 230, and Straus, L'achat et la vente des esclaves, 76–77). On the rate of 20 percent sales tax on slaves from the early Ptolemaic period see P.Col. 1.inv. 480 (Arsinoites; ca. 198–197 BCE) and P.Sijp. 45 (Arsinoites or Herakleopolites; January 7, 197 BCE); see also Reinhold Scholl in C.Ptol.Sklav., p. 62. On the prices paid for slaves, see Kai

Ruffing and Hans-Joachim Drexhage, "Antike Sklavenpreise," in Antike Lebenswelten:

Konstanz–Wandel–Wirkungsmacht; Festschrift für Ingomar Weiler zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. Peter Mauritsch et al., Philippika, Marburger altertumskundliche Abhandlungen

25 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2008), 321–51.

108. An interesting document is also P.Cair.Preis. 1 (2nd ed.), the report of proceedings about a fugitive slave girl, possibly written in Oxyrhynchus between 147 and 150 CE. The case of the anonymous plaintiff is all the more dramatic as the slave girl

Eutychia, whom he had purchased from a certain Sarapion, has not only taken "much of his belongings" but also "her sales contracts" (line 6 τάς τε ἀσφαλείας τὰ<ς> τῆς πράσεως ἑα[υτῆς]) so that he is no longer able to prove whether the contract contained a guarantee against flight or not.

109. The calculations were executed by using http://orbis.stanford.edu.

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

marks, but also that they are free of any claim by anyone else, neither truants nor fugitives (μήτε ῥέμβον μήτε δραπετικόν),110 and not suffering from epilepsy. The distinction between a truant and a fugitive (also preserved in other contracts),111 which is also important for the interpretation of Philemon, is in coincidence with a juridical discussion that is again preserved in Justinian's Digest. Ulpian, who died in 223 CE in Rome, argued that the truant slave roams about with no reason but returns home to his master at a late hour.112 The same idea is expressed—earlier than Ulpian—by Paul in Phlm 15 when he argues that Onesimus "went away for only a while," so that Philemon might "have him back forever."113 We do not know for sure what was really going on with Onesimus before he visited Paul in prison;

110. See P.Turner 22.4 and 20–21 (142 CE) and BGU 3.887.5 and 16–17 (July 8, 151 CE).

111. See, in addition to the contracts from Side: T.Sulpicii 43 (Puteoli/Italy; August 21, 38 CE); T.Hercul. 62 (Herculaneum/Italy; Nov. 30, 47 CE); 60 (before 63/64 CE); T.Dacia 6 (Alburnus Maior/Dacia; March 17, 139 CE); 7 (May 16, 142

CE). The contracts that were written in Egypt, either state that the slave is faithful and not (given to) running away (πιστὸς καὶ ἄδραστος, see SB 3.6016.26 [Alexandria;

March 28, 154 CE]; 5.8007.5 [Hermoupolis?; first half of fourth century CE]; P.Abinn.

64.14 [Alexandria or Philadelphia; 337–350 CE]; see also, from Ascalon/Phoenicia,

BGU 1.316.29 [359 CE]), or they exclude a guarantee concerning a later(!) flight (the earliest reference, BGU 4.1059.17–18 [Alexandria; reign of Augustus], expresses this by δρασμὸς δὲ καὶ θάνατος τῆς δούλης ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν οὐκ ἔσται πρὸς τὴν | Λαοδίκην ["but flight and death of the slave are from now on not in the responsibility of Laodike," the vendor] whereas later contracts from the Arsinoite nome guarantee the sale with every guarantee, except against flight, πλὴν δρασμοῦ: BGU 3.987.7–9.22–23 [with BL 4:6 and 10:18; Arsinoites; 19 or 45 CE]; P.Mich. 5.278 and 279.5–6 [Tebtynis; ca. 30 CE; the duplicate nr. 279 ed. by Straus, L'achat et la vente des esclaves, 327–28]; 264.11–14.24 and 265.6 [Tebtynis; February 7, 37 CE; the duplicate nr. 265 ed. by Straus, L'achat et la vente des esclaves, 328–30]; 281.6 [Tebtynis; ca. 48 CE]; P.Stras. 6.505.23–26 [Tebtynis;

107–115 CE; on line 14 cf. Straus, L'achat et la vente des esclaves, 356]; BGU 3.859.11–

13 [with BL 1:74, 3:15 and 8:35; Arsinoites; 161–163 CE]; on this interpretation see

Arzt-Grabner, "'Neither a Truant nor a Fugitive,'" 28, contrary to Jakab, Praedicere und cavere, 205–6).

112. See Dig. 21.1.17.14: sed proprie erronem sic definimus: qui non quidem fugit, sed frequenter sine causa vagatur et temporibus in res nugatorias consumptis serius domum redit.

113. In literary as well as in documentary sources, a passive form of χωρίζω is always used in the active sense "to go away," when expressed about a person; see ArztGrabner, Philemon, 103–5; Arzt-Grabner, "Onesimus erro: Zur Vorgeschichte des Philemonbriefes," ZNW 95.1–2 (2004): 136–39.

Peter Arzt-Grabner at least, Paul does not picture Onesimus as a fugitive but as a slave who was just roaming about, as he had done before.114 We are not able to know, and we never will be, whether Paul was downplaying a much more dramatic situation or providing a more or less authentic description of the facts. But in drawing this particular picture of Onesimus as truant, not as fugitive,

Paul also—in addition to slave sale contracts—offers good evidence that at least the basic ideas and intentions of the edict were generally shared and that they should have been known also to the Christ group meeting in Philemon's house.

As mentioned above, no other group is more extensively addressed in Colossians than slaves (see 3:22–25). Some points of the author's appeals in this section can be illuminated by documentary papyri. According to verse 22, slaves should obey their masters in everything, not to please them (ἀνθρωπάρεσκοι), but wholeheartedly (ἐν ἁπλότητι καρδίας). Neither the rare adjective ἀνθρωπάρεσκος115 nor the clause ἐν ἁπλότητι καρδίας are attested in documentary papyri so far, but BGU 4.1141.24 evidences that it was a slave's usual behavior to please her or his master. The papyrus preserves a private letter, or more probably a draft of it, written on the verso of the sheet, presumably in Alexandria between August 30, 14 BCE, and August 28, 13 BCE.116 If, as I assume, the recto has been inscribed before the verso, this letter draft must have been written after April 9, 13 BCE. The author of the letter is probably a freedman addressing his patron, a certain

Erotes.117 The text refers to a previous letter, which obviously contained a great deal of information that we are missing for a clearer understanding of the whole situation. Now, the anonymous author reproaches his addressee for mistrusting him, and he also expresses fundamental thoughts about the behavior of a slave toward his master in lines 23–25: οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐφιλίασά

114. See Arzt-Grabner, "Onesimus erro"; Arzt-Grabner, Philemon, 101–108; Arzt-Grabner, "How to Deal with Onesimus?," esp. 133–35.

115. LSJ, s.v. "ἀνθρωπάρεσκος," refers only to biblical texts (besides Col 3:22 only

Ps 52:6 LXX and Eph 6:6), DEG, s.v. "ἀνθρωπάρεσκος" also to 2 Clem. 13.1 and later

Christian literature.

116. See Berliner Papyrusdatenbank, berlpap.smb.museum/00523/. See there also for a digital image. Concerning the Greek text (and German translation), see, in addition to the editio princeps by Wilhelm Schubart, Bror Olsson, Papyrusbriefe aus der frühesten Römerzeit (Uppsala: Almquist & Wiksells, 1925), no. 9; BL 3:17; 8:42;

11:25; Amphilochios Papathomas, "Textkritische Bemerkungen zu Berliner Papyrusbriefen," APF 53 (2007): 188; Arzt-Grabner et al., 2. Korinther, 62–66.

117. See BL 11:25.

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

σοι εἰς τὸ ἀφαρπάσαι τι, ἀλλὰ ἡ | σὴ ψυχὴ ἐπίσταται, ὅτι ὡς δοῦλος ἐπ᾽ ἐλευθερίᾳ θέλει ἀρέσαι ο̣ὕ̣τω | κἀγὼ τη⟦ς⟧\ν/ φιλίαν σου ⟦θέλω{ι}⟧ \θέλων/ ἄμεμπτ[ον] ἐμα<υ>τὸν ἐτήρησα ("for I have not become a friend to you to steal anything from you, but your soul knows that like a slave in the hope of manumission wants to please, I too, wanting your friendship, behaved blamelessly"). The author describes the relation between a pleasant slave and his master as it is and without glossing over it: a slave wants to please the master because he or she hopes to get manumitted one day. Moreover, he himself confesses that, similarly, he behaved blamelessly because he wanted his (former) master's friendship. It seems that the author's intention is not to manipulate his patron with sweet words but to underscore that everything that he writes is true and without any personal exaggeration. His words are as true and honest as possible and might have served him well in his intention to gain his patron's trust and friendship (again).118

It is possible that the author of Col 3:22 had a similar connection in mind (to please one's master in order to get manumitted) and that he rejects this attitude. But in comparison with BGU 4.1141.23–25, it is more probable that he appeals to slaves to behave truthfully and honestly, with their whole heart—or blamelessly (ἄμεμπτος) as the author of the papyrus letter confirms, with whatever intention in mind. As the papyrological record shows, there was—it almost goes without saying—nothing wrong with slaves who hoped for manumission. That blameless slaves with goodwill and long-lasting affection toward their masters had some reason to do so and that masters sometimes really manumitted them because of their attitude and behavior is (in addition to BGU 4.1141) attested by two wills that are preserved on two papyri from the first or second century CE: According to P.Scholl 5.3 (Tholthis/Oxyrhynchites; first–second centuries CE), the testator is manumitting several slaves "on account of their goodwill and affection" ([ — κατ' εὔνοιαν κα]ὶ φιλοστοργίαν δουλικὰ σώματ[α — ]).

The same clause is attested by P.Col. 10.267.5 (Oxyrhynchus; 180–192 CE).

In Col 3:23, slaves are told to do everything "out of [their] soul" (ἐκ ψυχῆς ἐργάζεσθε, NRSV translates: "whatever your task, put yourselves into it"). Documentary papyri or ostraca do not attest a similar appeal so far, but, nevertheless, it is worth having a closer look at SB 24.16257. In 118. See also Peter Arzt-Grabner, "Wisdom in Non-Christian Papyrus Letters from Roman Egypt," in Tra pratiche e credenze: Traiettorie antropologiche e storiche;

Un omaggio ad Adriana Destro, ed Claudio Gianotto and Francesca Sbardella (Brescia:

Morcelliana, 2017), 197–216.

Peter Arzt-Grabner col. I, the papyrus preserves a petition, written after October 18, 123 CE, and submitted to Eudemos, the strategos of the Herakleides division of the Arsinoite nome. Two priests of Soknopaiou Nesos claim that another priest, Harpagathes, had deluded and abducted two of their slaves, named

Horion and Soteris, after the slaves had also stolen some of their masters' belongings. Afterward Harpagathes had written to them by means of an officially registered document, with the surety of his wife and another

Harpagathes, in which he had promised to return the slaves within thirty days or to pay a sum to be adjudicated. But Harpagathes did not keep his promises. On the contrary, the priests claim, he disappeared together with his wife and the other Harpagathes.119 In connection with Col 3:23, line

5 of the petition is of special interest where the priests claim that Harpagathes "deluded" the two slaves: [ψ]υχαγωγήσας δουλικὰ σώματα δύο. If we are allowed to take the phrase literally, it means that slaves have a soul that can be (mis)guided to do something in particular. In this context, Col

3:23 includes the notion that the slaves of the Christian community should have control over their own souls, never let anyone mislead them to act against their masters, but always act in accordance with their inner selves.

As brief and simple as the appeal to the slave masters in Col 4:1 may seem, as strange it must have sounded to them, a master might have treated his slaves in a just way, but not all of them equally. The differences between slaves concerning their duties and opportunities were huge, not only if we look at the whole spectrum of ancient slavery, where we find all types of slaves from those miserable fellows who were forced to work in the mines or on the galleys up to stewards and physicians, but also within a household, where a messenger or steward was entrusted with much higher responsibilities120 than one working in the fields or in the kitchen.

Needless to say, the opportunities to earn and save less or more money of 119. See Ann E. Hanson, "A Petition and Court Proceedings: P. Michigan inv.

6060," ZPE 111 (1996): 175–79.

120. A steward, e.g., could be entrusted with "filing of tax-returns, loans, suretyship, hiring of service or work to be done, accepting or receipting of payments, management of estates" (Taubenschlag, Law of Greco-Roman Egypt, 90–91); on the papyrological record of slaves working in the Roman administration, see BieżuńskaMałowist, "Les esclaves imperiaux dans l'Egypte romaine"; concerning the papyrological evidence of the great variety of the duties and occupations of slaves, see also

Jean A. Straus, "L'esclavage dans l'Egypte romaine," ANRW 10.1:867–876 (with bibliography p. 867 n. 141); Straus, "Quelques activités exercées par les esclaves d'après les papyrus de l'Égypte romaine," Historia 26 (1977): 74–88; Bieżuńska-Małowist,

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the so-called peculium121 were also different. On special occasions, a slave could even be in higher esteem than a freeborn or freedman, which is attested, for example, by an ostracon from Didymoi in the Eastern desert of Egypt (O.Did. 438 [before about 110–115 CE]) whose addressee is asked to "recommend [someone] to your slave since he is inexperienced"

(ll. 6–8: συνστῆσαι τῷ παι|δαρίῳ σου ἐπειδὴ αὐτὸς ἰδιώτης | ἐστίν). This letter represents just another example of a slave who was a trained craftsman or steward with some experience so that other slaves or—as most probably in this case—even inexperienced freeborn persons or freedmen would be entrusted to him to take care of them.122 Paul of Tarsus attests that he had something similar in mind when he asked the slave-holder Philemon to take his slave Onesimus as his partner (κοινωνός, see Phlm 17).

Weaving Industry The Lycus Valley was well known for its produce of cloth and clothes, well known beyond the Lycus Valley.123 It makes perfect sense that Col 3:9–14

Période romaine, 73–108; Arzt-Grabner, "How to Deal with Onesimus?," 116–19, 122–23.

121. The ostracon P.Scholl 9 (Memnoneia [Thebes west]; after? September 12, 131 or 152 or 175 CE) probably confirms that already child slaves could earn some money. It is an account, listing the wages for workers on an estate between 12th and 15th Toth of year 16. The workers are listed in groups of ἄνδρες ("men"), ὀνηλάται

("donkey drivers"), and παιδ( ), who are—most probably—to be interpreted as παιδ(ία)

("child slaves") as they are paid less: they get only 1 chalkine (= 1 bronze drachma) whereas men and donkey drivers receive at least 1 drachma and 1 obol, except the one donkey driver mentioned in line 4 who also receives just 1 chalkine and, therefore, most probably was a slave, too. If the interpretation for slave children is correct, they were hired from a slaveholder. On the value of the χαλκίνη, see Fabian Reiter, "Unerkannte Bronzedrachmen," in Honi soit qui mal y pense: Studien zum pharaonischen, griechisch-römischen und spätantiken Ägypten zu Ehren von Heinz-Josef Thissen, ed.

Hermann Knuf, Christian Leitz, and Daniel von Recklinghausen, OLA 194 (Leuven:

Peeters, 2010), 419–23.

122. For other examples, see Arzt-Grabner, Philemon, 96–101, 230–34; ArztGrabner, "How to Deal with Onesimus?," 137–39.

123. See Hatice Erdemir, "Woollen Textiles: An International Trade Good in the Lycus Valley in Antiquity," in Colossae in Space and Time: Linking to an Ancient City, ed. Alan H. Cadwallader and Michael Trainor, NTOA–SUNT 94 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011), 104–29; Rosemary Canavan, "Weaving Threads: Clothing in Colossae," in Fragments of Colossae, 111–33. Similarly, also Paul's hometown, Tarsus,

Peter Arzt-Grabner reflects metaphorically how convenient it was in a town such as Colossae to buy new garments and dress oneself nicely. Documentary papyri and ostraca broadly illumine all the steps from sheep rearing and producing wool to fulling, dyeing, and especially weaving. Most excitingly, a particular clause in some contracts of apprenticeship to a weaver is paralleled in Phlm 13.

Contracts of apprenticeship of the first century CE are preserved from the Arsinoite nome and from Oxyrhynchus.124 An adult relative (in most cases a father or mother or the master of a slave) apprentices a boy or girl to a master weaver to learn the weaver's craft. Such a contract usually contains a clause by which the apprenticing party confirms that the apprentice will do everything that is ordered by the master weaver according to his craft.125 Among the contracts from the first century CE, we have three was known for a special type of weaving, and tarsikarioi, who were familiar with it, are to be found also among weavers in Egypt from the third century CE onwards

(the earliest references are P.Oxy. 14.1765.2, 21, 30 [Oxyrhynchus; third century CE];

P.Laur. 3.79.3 [Oxyrhynchus; third–early fourth centuries CE]; see John Peter Wild,

"The Tarsikarios, a Roman Linen-Weaver in Egypt," in Hommages à Marcel Renard, ed.

Jacqueline Bibauw, vol. 2, Collection Latomus 102 [Bruxelles: Latomus, 1969] 810–19; concerning the references cf. Arzt-Grabner, Philemon, 65 n. 26).

124. The earliest one on a larger scale is P.Tebt. 2.384 (with BL 3:242, 6:198, and 9:356; Oxyrhyncha/Arsinoites; August 9, 10 CE). On apprentice contracts in general, see William L. Westermann, "Apprentice Contracts and the Apprentice System in Roman Egypt," CP 9 (1914): 295–315; Joachim Hengstl, Private Arbeitsverhältnisse freier Personen in den hellenistischen Papyri bis Diokletian (Bonn: Habelt, 1972),

83–97; Marco Bergamasco, "Le διδασκαλικαί nella ricerca attuale," Aeg 75 (1995):

95–167; Peter van Minnen, "Urban Craftsmen in Roman Egypt," Münsterische Beiträge zur antiken Handelsgeschichte 6 (1987): 31–88; Angela Zambon, "Διδασκαλικαί," Aeg

15 (1935): 3–66; Orsolina Montevecchi, I contratti di lavoro e di servizio nell'Egitto greco romano e bizantino (Milan: Vita e pensiero, 1950); Johannes Herrmann, "Vertragsinhalt und Rechtsnatur der διδασκαλικαί," JJP 11–12 (1957–1958): 119–39; for references, see further R. A. Coles in P.Oxy. 41, p. 72, and Marco Bergamasco, "Una petizione per violazione di un contratto di tirocinio: P. Kell. G. 19.a," Aeg 77 (1997):

7–26 (including Bergamasco, "P.Kell. G. 19.A, Appendix," ZPE 119 [1997]: 193–96).

125. E.g., P.Tebt. 2.384.23–25 (Oxyrhyncha/Arsinoites; August 9, 10 CE):

[ἐ]ργαζόμενον [κατὰ τὴν] | γερδιακὴν τέχνην καὶ ποιοῦντα τὰ ἐ̣π̣[ιταχθη]|σόμε[να] πάντα

(he will "work according to the weaver's craft and do everything that is ordered");

P.Mich. 5.355.2–3 (Tebtynis/Arsinoites; ca. 48–56 CE; duplicate PSI 8.902.3–4): διατρίβοντα καὶ ποιοῦντα πάντα | τὰ ἐπιτασσόμενα (a certain Harmiysis apprentices himself to a master weaver and promises that he will "work and do everything that is ordered"); P.Oxy.Hels. 29,12–15 (September 8, 54 CE): ποιοῦντα π̣[άντα τ]ὰ

Everyday Life in a Roman Town Like Colossae

documents that were filed between weavers, that is, a member of a family of weavers apprenticed one's son to another master weaver. In these three contracts, all from Oxyrhynchus, the clause just mentioned is preceded by the confirmation that the apprentice will also "serve" (διακονέω) the master weaver.

In the earliest reference, SB 10.10236 (with BL 7:216–17; September 25, 36 CE), a certain Thamounion apprentices her son Onophris to the weaver Abaros, son of Didymos; lines 13–15 read: διακονοῦν|τα κ[αὶ] ποιοῦντ[α τὰ] ἔργα πάντα τὰ ἐπι|τα[σσ]όμενα α[ὐτῷ] ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀβάρου | κατὰ τὴν γερδιακ[ὴ]ν τέχνην (Onophris will "serve and do all the works ordered to him by Abaros according to the weaver's craft"). This papyrus is part of an archive, the protagonist of which is the weaver Tryphon, son of Dionysios.126 In this contract Tryphon himself acts as guardian (κύριος) of his mother Thamounion whose husband Dionysios, the father of Tryphon and Onophris, is obviously no longer alive.127 The taxation account P.Oxy.

2.288 (with BL 1:320 and 7:129), written in Oxyrhynchus after July 22, 25 CE, contains the copy of an epicrisis extract of the year 11–12 CE (ll.

35–40 with BL 7:129) from which we learn that Tryphon's grandfather was a weaver; in 11–12 CE this Tryphon, son of Didymos, was the head of the household, and sixty-four years old. From the same list we learn that also

Tryphon's father Dionysios (in 11–12 CE, thirty-two years old) and his two uncles, Didymos (thirty-seven years old) and Thoonis (twenty-one years old), were weavers.128 The taxation account itself proves that our Tryphon paid the weaver's tax (see P.Oxy. 2.288.1–34 with BL 1:320), thus confirming that he had been a weaver himself for several years when he acted as guardian for his mother Thamounion at the time when she apprenticed her other son Onophris to the weaver Abaros.

In 66 CE, Tryphon himself apprentices his own son Thoonis to the weaver Ptolemaios, son of Pausirion, and both weavers file a contract of apprenticeship on September 18, 66 CE (P.Oxy. 2.275 with BL 9:179). ἐπιτασσόμενα αὐτῶι | ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἡρ̣ᾶ̣[τος] κατὰ τὴν γερδιακὴν | τέχνην ἥνπερ κ̣α̣ὶ̣ αὐτὸς ἐκδιδάξει | το̣ῦ\το̣ν̣/ καθὼς ἐπί̣στατα̣[ι] (he will "do everything that he is ordered by Heras according to the weaver's craft which also he himself will teach as he knows it").

126. See Trismegistos Archives: www.trismegistos.org/archive/249.

127. See Maria Valentina Biscottini, "L'archivio di Tryphon, tessitore di Oxyrhynchos," Aeg 46 (1966): 209.

128. See also SB 10.10220 (with BL 7:216; Oxyrhynchus; after July 25, 22 CE).

Peter Arzt-Grabner The respective clause in lines 10–13 is almost identical: διακονοῦ(ν)|τα καὶ ποιο[ῦ]ντα πάντα τὰ ἐπιτασσόμε|να αὐτῷ ὑπὸ τοῦ Πτολεμαίου κατὰ τὴν | γερδιακὴν τέχνην πᾶσαν (Thoonis will "serve and do everything ordered to him by Ptolemaios according to the entire129 weaver's craft").

The third example, P.Wisc. 1.4 (with BL 6:69; August 29–September 27, 53 CE), is part of another weaver's archive, of Pausiris, son of Ammonios:130

We know that several years earlier, in 49 CE, the same weaver Pausiris, son of Ammonios, wished to apprentice his son Ammonios to the master weaver Apollonios, son of Apollonios, and that on September 16 of that year, he applied to the topogrammateis and komogrammateis of Oxyrhynchus, Apollonios and Didymos, to register his son in the list of apprentices

(see P.Mich. 3.170 with BL 3:109). The contract of apprenticeship is not preserved in this case, but P.Wisc. 1.4 (August 29–September 27, 53 CE) deals with another son of Pausiris, Dioskous, who is now apprenticed by his father to the same master weaver as before, again to Apollonios, son of Apollonios. The respective clause is shorter than the other two but starts identically; lines 9–10 read: διακονοῦντ̣α καὶ π̣ο̣ι̣οῦντα π̣[άντα τὰ] | ἐπιτασσόμ̣ενα αὐτῶι (Dioskous will "serve and do everything ordered to him"). Nine years later, Pausiris wishes to apprentice a third son, Pausiris, to the master weaver Epinikos, son of Theon, and he applies to the tax-farmer of the weaver's tax, Theon, that his son be registered in the list of apprentices (see P.Mich. 3.172 [Oxyrhynchus, October 20, 62 CE]).

The contract of apprenticeship itself is, unfortunately, not preserved, but we see that the weaver Pausiris apprenticed his three sons, one after the other, to another master weaver in Oxyrhynchus. A similar document as P.Mich. 3.170 and 172 is P.Mich. 3.171 (Oxyrhynchus, September 26, 58

CE) which is also connected with Pausiris, but this time he is the master weaver to whom Helene, daughter of Horion, and her husband Epinikos, son of Theon, the weaver to whom Pausiris will apprentice his son Pausiris four years later (see P.Mich. 3.172 above), wish to apprentice her nephew

Amoitas, son of Helene's deceased brother Pasion.

The intention of this procedure, followed by Tryphon's family, by Pausiris, and by Epinikos and his wife Helene, was most probably that a master weaver not only wanted his son(s) or, as in the case of Epinikos, his nephew to learn the weaver's craft solely in one's own workshop but 129. B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt translate "in respect of the weaver's art in all its branches" (P.Oxy. 2, p. 264).

130. See Trismegistos Archives: www.trismegistos.org/archive/176.

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to improve the weaver's art and perhaps even learn a technique different from his own.131

The clause that the apprentice will serve and do all the works ordered to him by the master weaver according to the weaver's craft can be fully restored in yet another contract from Oxyrhynchus, SB 24.16253,132 written during the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan (98–103 CE). The two parties filing the contract were brothers, Hermas and Papontos, both the sons of Hermas, but we know only of Papontos that he was a weaver.133

Yet, διακο[νοῦντα] in line 7 suggests that we have here a situation similar to those in the other three contracts of apprenticeship where we find this form: that in this case both brothers were weavers, presumably running separate workshops, so that the weaver Hermas apprenticed his son

Hermes to his brother Papontos.

Why do we find the clause, that the apprentice will not only do everything ordered by the master weaver but also serve him, only in contracts filed between two weavers or the heads of two weaving workshops? Perhaps because the apprentice has already been serving his own father or uncle in the family workshop, and it is, therefore, clarified that from now on he is to serve another master weaver. Whatever the reason may have been, it is fascinating that Paul of Tarsus, who had been trained in the weaver's craft in his hometown, perhaps even ran his father's workshop for some time,134 and who claimed that he still worked as a craftsman (see

131. See O. M. Pearl and V. B. Schuman in P.Mich. 3, p. 164, who, alternatively, think of "a tax law or trade regulation, unknown to us, which forbade that a son be apprenticed to his father" (this theory had been suggested earlier by John G. Winter,

Life and Letters in the Papyri: The Jerome Lectures (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan

Press, 1933), 71.

132. The respective clause is preserved, and partly restored, in lines 7–9: διακο[νοῦντα καὶ ποιοῦντα τὰ ἐργα] | πάντα τὰ ἐπιτασσ̣[όμενα αὐτῷ ὑπὸ τοῦ αὐτοῦ] |

133. Concerning his reconstruction of γέρδιος in line 1, the editor writes: "Γέρδιος habe ich zwar lediglich exempli gratia ergänzt, weil der weitaus überwiegende Teil der mir bekannten Lehrlingsverträge das Weberhandwerk betrifft, jedoch scheinen mir auch alle anderen in Frage kommenden Berufsbezeichnungen für den in der Zeile zur

Verfügung stehenden Platz zu lang zu sein" (Thomas Kruse, "Eine Neuedition von SB

XII 10946," ZPE 111 [1996]: 151).

134. Joachim Hengstl, "Zum Erfahrungsprofil des Apostels Paulus aus rechtshistorischer Sicht," in Light from the East: Papyrologische Kommentare zum Neuen Testament;

Akten des internationalen Symposions vom 3.–4. Dezember 2009 am Fachbereich Bibelwissenschaft und Kirchengeschichte der Universität Salzburg, ed. Peter Arzt-Grabner and

Peter Arzt-Grabner 1 Cor 4:12; 9:6; 1 Thess 2:9), mentioned the same obligation in Philemon, this time attributing it to the slave Onesimus and his mission of preaching the εὐαγγέλιον: in Phlm 13, Paul writes that he wanted to keep Onesimus with him, so that the slave might serve him in Philemon's place during his imprisonment for the gospel (ὃν ἐγὼ ἐβουλόμην πρὸς ἐμαυτὸν κατέχειν, ἵνα ὑπὲρ σοῦ μοι διακονῇ ἐν τοῖς δεσμοῖς τοῦ εὐαγγελίου). Thus, Paul's expression may hint at his familiarity with the relevant feature in apprentice contracts of weavers, and it may also attest that the clause was known also outside Egypt. It is not necessary that Philemon was familiar with this background of verse 13; its meaning was understandable by itself. But it would have made perfect sense if also Philemon was running a weaving workshop because, in that case, he would have understood exactly that Paul was talking about him, Philemon, potentially apprenticing his slave to Paul, the master, and that Paul would have taught Onesimus everything that he himself knew about the important task of his mission. There are, at least, two more hints in Paul's letter that Philemon could have been a weaver himself. First, in verse 17, Paul calls himself a κοινωνός of his addressee, which in the papyri most of all has the meaning of a business partner.135 Although there is certainly a connection between Philemon's κοινωνία τῆς πίστεως in Phlm 6 and κοινωνός in verse 17, which attributes to κοινωνός an equivalent metaphorical meaning, the choice of that term was certainly intentional so that Philemon would immediately get its principal meaning and agree to it. Second, already in the introductory greeting of the letter, Paul addresses Philemon as his and Timothy's coworker (συνεργός).136 Also Paul's idea of a συνεργός originates most probably from his craft, as two out of only three clear papyrological referChristina M. Kreinecker, Philippika–Marburger altertumskundliche Abhandlungen 39

(Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010), 77–79, argues that Paul must have been an entrepreneur who filed apprentice contracts himself; see also Giovanni Bazzana, "New Testament Studies and Documentary Papyri: Interactions and New Perspectives," PapyLup

22 (2013): 23.

135. See Arzt-Grabner, Philemon, 226–29; Alan H. Cadwallader, "Name Punning and Social Stereotyping: Re-inscribing Slavery in the Letter to Philemon," ABR 61

(2013): 52; Julien M. Ogereau, Paul's Koinonia with the Philippians: A Socio-historical

Investigation of a Pauline Economic Partnership, WUNT 2/377 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), passim.

136. Besides Philemon, only Titus is called κοινωνός and συνεργός by Paul (see 2 Cor 8:23).

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ences for συνεργός in a positive sense137 deal with a coworker or partner of a weaver.

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