Actes du 26e Congrès

international de papyrologie
Genève, 16–21 août 2010

Textes réunis par Paul Schubert

Recherches et Rencontres

Tiré à part DROZ

Recherches et Rencontres
Publications de la Faculté des Lettres de l’Université de Genève
Volume 30

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ISBN : 978-2-600-01612-4
ISSN : 1422-7606
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Image de couverture : P.Gen. inv. 94 verso, fragment d’Hésiode, Les travaux et les jours.
© Bibliothèque de Genève (photo V. Siffert, Université de Genève)
 TABLE DES MATIÈRES
Avant-propos ....................................................................................................................... VII
Remerciements ..................................................................................................................... XI
Comité d’honneur, comité scientifique et organisation du congrès ................................... XIII
Liste des participants ........................................................................................................... XV
Programme du congrès ..................................................................................................... XVII
Sigles et abréviations .................................................................................................... XXVII

Roger S. Bagnall (Président de l’Association Internationale de Papyrologues)

The Amicitia Papyrologorum in a globalized world of learning ............................................ 1
María-Jesús Albarrán Martinez
A new Coptic text from Bawit : P.Palau Rib. inv. 352 .......................................................... 7
José Luis Alonso
Hypallagma or the dangers of Romanistic thinking ............................................................. 11
Serena Ammirati
The Latin book of legal content : a significant type in the history of the ancient book ....... 19
Barbara Anagnostou-Canas
Droit provincial et protection des intérêts privés en Egypte sous l’Empire romain ............. 27
Isabella Andorlini
« Segni » di malattia nelle lettere dei papiri ......................................................................... 37
Agathe Antoni
L’avant-dernière colonne du P.Herc. 1384 : une citation de Zénon de Citium .................... 45
Marlies Appl
Anazetesis und paratasis anhand der Dokumentation zu den Nyktostrategen ..................... 49
Maria Grazia Assante
Per una nuova edizione del P.Herc. 1044 : una prima ipotesi di ricostruzione del rotolo ... 55
Rodney Ast / Giuseppina Azzarello
A Roman veteran and his skilful administrator : Gemellus and Epagathus in light of
unpublished papyri .......................................................................................................... 67
Carla Balconi
Un documento inedito dal cosiddetto archivio di Pankrates ................................................ 73
Alain Blanchard
Le Papyrus Bodmer et la réception de Ménandre à l’époque byzantine .............................. 77
Katherine Blouin
Minimum firmitatis, plurimum lucri : le cas du « lin mendésien » ...................................... 83
Alessandro Boria
Musica su papiro : la pratica della scrittura musicale nella tradizione papiracea ................ 91
Richard L. Burchfield
The scribe of the pagus : new evidence for the administration of fourth century
Oxyrhynchos ................................................................................................................... 99
Florence Calament
Le programme d’édition des archives de Pesynthios : focus sur les papyrus coptes du
Musée du Louvre .......................................................................................................... 107
TABLE DES MATIÈRES

Luciano Canfora
Le papyrus dit d’Artémidore .............................................................................................. 119
Mario Capasso
Non è Lucrezio ................................................................................................................... 127
Jean-Yves Carrez-Maratray
Les bains d’Oxyrhynque : un réexamen à la lumière des fouilles de Péluse ...................... 135
Malcolm Choat
Lord Crawford’s search for papyri : on the origin of the Rylands papyrus collection ....... 141
Jennifer Cromwell
Following in father’s footsteps : the question of father-son scribal training in eigth century
Thebes ........................................................................................................................... 149
Magali de Haro Sanchez
Mise en contexte des papyrus iatromagiques grecs : recherches sur les conditions
matérielles de réalisation des formulaires et des amulettes ........................................... 159
Alain Delattre
Les onomastiques régionales en Egypte aux VIIe et VIIIe siècles : premiers résultats ...... 171
Gianluca Del Mastro
Il Thesaurus Herculanensium Voluminum ......................................................................... 175
Tomasz Derda / Adam Łajtar
Greek and Latin papyri from the Egypt Exploration Society excavations at Qasr Ibrim :
a testimony to the Roman army in Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia in the first years
of Augustus ................................................................................................................... 183
Dino De Sanctis
Il campo semantico di λαλέω – λαλία nei testi ercolanesi ................................................. 187
Marek Dospěl
New texts from the Al-Hayz Oasis : a preliminary report ................................................. 193
Marie Drew-Bear
Sur les doreai agonistiques de Gallien en Egypte .............................................................. 199
Margherita Erbì
Nuove letture in P.Herc. 1004 col. 58 ................................................................................ 205
Holger Essler / Fabian Reiter
Die Berliner Sammlung im Deutschen Papyruskartell ....................................................... 213
Maria Rosaria Falivene
On provenances : the case of P.Köln XI 448 ..................................................................... 221
Lorenzo Fati
Una sezione d’archivio concernente le attività di sitologoi della meris di Herakleides ..... 229
José-Antonio Fernández Delgado
Modèles progymnasmatiques de l’époque hellénistique : P.Mil.Vogl. III 123 .................. 239
Jean-Luc Fournet
La « dipintologie » grecque : une nouvelle discipline auxiliaire de la papyrologie ? ........ 249
Marco Fressura
Per un corpus dei papiri bilingui dell’Eneide di Virgilio ................................................... 259
El-Sayed Gad
The demosios iatros in Roman Egypt : a municipal position or a liturgic office ? ............ 265
 TABLE DES MATIÈRES

Claudio Gallazzi
Trouvera-t-on encore des papyrus en 2042 ? : suite ........................................................... 275
Sophie Gällnö
Tisserandes et tisserands dans les papyrus de l’époque romaine : une analyse
comparative ................................................................................................................... 283
Nadine Grotkamp
Diebstahl im ptolemäischen Ägypten ................................................................................ 291
Christian-Jürgen Gruber
The unpublished verso of P.Oxy. III 521 and its relation to the recto ............................... 299
Jürgen Hammerstaedt
The status quaestionis of the Artemidorus Papyrus ........................................................... 307
Alia Hanafi
Two unpublished documents .............................................................................................. 315
Ann Ellis Hanson
A new letter from the archive of Isidorus from Psophthis, Memphite nome ..................... 323
Joachim Hengstl
Zum Sprachgebrauch des Neuen Testaments aus rechtspapyrologischer Sicht ................. 331
Océane Henri
Un exemple de l’interpretatio Graeca : l’évolution du culte d’Apollon en Egypte
ptolémaïque et romaine ................................................................................................. 339
Francisca A.J. Hoogendijk
Athletes and liturgists in a petition to Flavius Olympius, praeses Augustamnicae ........... 349
André Hurst
Commentaire de l’Alexandra de Lycophron dans le papyrus de Berlin 16984 ? ............... 357
Giovanni Indelli / Francesca Longo Auricchio
Il Fondo Vogliano conservato a Napoli ............................................................................. 363
Andrea Jördens
Reparaturen in arsinoitischen Gauarchiven ....................................................................... 371
Anna Maria Kaiser
Die Fahndung nach Deserteuren im spätantiken Ägypten ................................................. 381
Kevin Kalish
The presence of Hades in the Codex of Visions (P.Bodm. XXXI, XXXII, XXXV) .......... 391
Ioanna Karamanou
Allocating fr. 46a K. within the plot of Euripides’ Alexandros. A reinspection and
reassessment of P.Stras. 2342, 1 ................................................................................... 399
Christina M. Kreinecker
« We ask you to send… » – A remark on summonses and petitions for summonses ........ 407
Thomas Kruse
Die Bedeutung des administrativen Hilfspersonals in der enchorischen Verwaltung
des kaiserzeitlichen Ägyptens für die administrative Kontinuität ................................ 417
Micaela Langellotti
The meaning of εἴδη in tax documents from Roman Egypt ............................................... 425
Giuliana Leone
Il P.Herc. 1149/993 (Epicuro, Sulla natura, libro II) : una nuova ipotesi di
ricostruzione .................................................................................................................. 429
TABLE DES MATIÈRES

Julia Lougovaya
Indented pentameters in papyri and inscriptions ................................................................ 437
John Lundon
P.Köln XII 468 and reading Homer in Late Roman / Early Byzantine Panopolis ............. 443
Herwig Maehler
Die Zukunft der griechischen Papyrologie ......................................................................... 451
Rachel Mairs
Interpreters and translators in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt ............................................. 457
Myrto Malouta
Antinoopolis and Hermopolis : a tale of two cities ............................................................ 463
Antonella Marandino
Scrivere e leggere l’Alessandra di Licofrone ..................................................................... 471
Marie-Hélène Marganne
Les extensions du fichier Mertens-Pack3 du CEDOPAL ................................................... 481
Isabelle Marthot
Homonyms causing confusion in toponymy : examples from Aphrodito and the
Antaiopolite nome ......................................................................................................... 487
Raquel Martín Hernández
Reading magical drawings in the Greek magical papyri .................................................... 491
Roberta Mazza
Graeco-Roman Egypt at Manchester : the formation of the Rylands papyri collection ..... 499
Brian McGing
Revolt in Ptolemaic Egypt : nationalism revisited ............................................................. 509
Kathleen McNamee
Ancient exegesis on Euripides for Commentaria et Lexica Graeca in Papyris Reperta ... 517
Giovanna Menci
Utilità di un database di alfabeti per lo studio della scrittura greca dei papiri ................... 525
Carmen Messerer
La situation des prêtres entre le Ier et le IIIe siècle en Egypte romaine .............................. 529
Valentina Millozzi
The Livre d’écolier (P.Cairo JE 65445) : some problematic issues ................................... 537
Monika Minehart
P.Oxy. XLII 3057 : letter of Ammonius. The [mis]identification of an Oxyrhynchus
papyrus [as the earliest Christian letter] ........................................................................ 543
Franco Montanari / Davide Muratore / Fabian Reiter
Die Berliner Wachstafeln P.10508 – 10512 : Scholia Minora und grammatikalische
Passagen ........................................................................................................................ 549
Franziska Naether / Heinz-Josef Thissen
Genesis einer Aretalogie. Anmerkungen zu einer Neuedition von P.Oxy. XI 1381 .......... 559
Alberto Nodar
Wild papyri in the Roca-Puig collection ............................................................................ 565
Maria Nowak
The function of witnesses in the wills from late antique Egypt ......................................... 573
Rosa Otranto
Reconsidering the origin and the acquisition of P.Lond.Lit. 133 ....................................... 581
 TABLE DES MATIÈRES

Mario C.D. Paganini

The invention of the gymnasiarch in rural Ptolemaic Egypt .............................................. 591
Antonio Parisi
Correzioni, abbreviazioni e segni nel P.Herc. 831 ............................................................. 599
Natascia Pellé
I codici papiracei di Tucidide : aspetti bibliologici e paleografici ..................................... 607
Marco Perale
P.Köln VI 242 : inno ad Afrodite (?) ................................................................................. 613
Luigi Prada
For a new edition of P.Lond.Lit. 92 : current research on the Greek version of the
Myth of the Sun’s Eye ................................................................................................... 627
Nadine Quenouille
La collection d’ostraca de la Bibliothèque de l’Université de Leipzig .............................. 635
Lucian Reinfandt
Administrative papyri from the Abbasid court in Samarra (AD 836–892) : a first report . 639
Lucia Rossi
Le transport interne et méditerranéen du blé égyptien : les structures institutionnelles
et leurs intermédiaires commerciaux (IIe – Ier s. av. J.-C.) ............................................ 647
Simona Russo
P.Tebt. II 476 : ancora una petizione ................................................................................. 655
Maroula Salemenou
Epistula Philippi II regis Macedonum (Demosthenes, De corona XVIII 157) :
a forged document ? ...................................................................................................... 661
Erja Salmenkivi
Herakleopolite meridarchs in the first century BC ? .......................................................... 671
Marco Antonio Santamaría
Tiresias in Euripides’ Bacchae and the author of the Derveni Papyrus ............................. 677
Maria Chiara Scappaticcio
Sulla « filologia dei papiri virgiliani » : i P.Ness. II 1 e P.Ness. II 2 ................................. 685
Reinhold Scholl
Text mining und Papyri ...................................................................................................... 695
Monica Signoretti
From demotic to Greek : some considerations on ancient translation based on the
reading of P.Oxy. XI 1381 ............................................................................................ 701
Petra M. Sijpesteijn
Coptic and Arabic papyri from Deir al-Balā’izah .............................................................. 707
Mohamed S. Solieman
Tesserarius and quadrarius : village officials in fourth century Egypt ............................. 715
Marco Stroppa
La gazzella e la pietra adamantina in un papiro del Fisiologo greco (PSI inv. 295) .......... 721
Yoshiyuki Suto / Ryosuke Takahashi
Bilingual graffiti from the Ptolemaic quarries at Akoris and Zawiyat al-Sultan ............... 729
John Tait
Comparing structures in the Greek novel and demotic narrative ....................................... 739
TABLE DES MATIÈRES

Johann Thomann
P.Stras. ar. inv. 266 : le dernier horoscope sur papyrus – le premier horoscope en arabe . 747
Dorothy J. Thompson
P.Enteux. 27 and the Nile transport of grain under the Ptolemies ..................................... 751
Claudia Tirel Cena
Il tempio di Deir el-Medina : i culti e il contesto documentario ........................................ 755
Sofía Torallas / Klaas A. Worp
John Chrysostomos and Methodios at Montserrat ............................................................. 763
Sven Tost
Die Unterscheidung zwischen öffentlicher und privatgeschäftlicher Sphäre
am Beispiel des Amts der riparii .................................................................................. 773
Alexandra Trachsel / Uri Yiftach-Firanko
Genizah Ms. 17 : une séquence narrative de coloration juive ou chrétienne provenant
du contexte des récits martyrologiques ......................................................................... 781
Loreleï Vanderheyden
Les lettres coptes des archives de Dioscore d’Aphrodité ................................................... 793
Lucia Vannini
Papiri con edizioni commentate ......................................................................................... 801
Herbert Verreth
Topography of Egypt online ............................................................................................... 807
Carlo Vessella
Lettori di Corinna in Egitto ................................................................................................ 809
Joel A. Weaver
A re-examination of I Corinthians 14, 23–24 in light of Roman census declarations ....... 817
John Whitehorne
An anti-hero’s heroes : Archilochus between Odysseus and Telephus
(P.Oxy. LXIX 4708) ..................................................................................................... 823
Rachel Yuen-Collingridge / Malcolm Choat
The copyist at work : scribal practice in duplicate documents ........................................... 827
 INDENTED PENTAMETERS IN PAPYRI AND INSCRIPTIONS
Julia Lougovaya

The visual arrangement of indented pentameters in elegiac verses is generally associated

with Byzantine manuscripts or modern editorial convention. While the Greek Anthology, as
preserved in the Palatine Codex, indents pentameters, most Greek papyri do not, and the
earliest known papyrus displaying indentation is in Latin, not Greek1. Found in Qasr Ibrîm
and dating possibly to the third quarter of the first century BC, this papyrus contains an
elegy by Gaius Cornelius Gallus and shows deep indentation of the pentameters2. The ear-
liest indented pentameters in Greek elegiacs preserved on papyrus are found in the seven-
couplet encomium to Augustus celebrating the peace and prosperity that his victory at
Actium brought to Egypt (SH 982). The part of the papyrus with the poem might be later
than the Gallus papyrus by a couple of decades, if at all, and it has been suggested that its
scribe was familiar with the Latin practice of indenting pentameters3.
Indeed, on the Greek side it is not until two centuries later that we find another papyrus
with indented pentameters. The convention is employed on the verso of a roll now in Leip-
zig (P.Lips. Inv. 1445) that contains remnants of six epigrams on various topics written in
two columns4. Other layout-features of this papyrus include centered headings, as well as
diplai and spaces separating epigrams. The papyrus, the recto of which displays as yet
unpublished documents, dates to the last quarter of the third century. Next in date is a Yale
papyrus (P.CtYBR inv. 4000 qua) dating probably to the fourth century and containing a
collection of epigrams, apparently by Palladas of Alexandria, the pentameters of which are
indented5.
A different, if somewhat related, formatting device can be observed in epigrams in
P.Oxy. I 15 and XV 1795 from the first century6. There, each epigram consists of four
hexameters in which the final foot is iambic ; each is followed by the words αὔλ(ε)ι οι.
The initial letters of the successive quatrains are in alphabetical order, which is visually
emphasized by the protrusion (eisthesis) of the first letter of each quatrain by a couple of
letters into the left margin. As far as the proper indentation of pentameters goes, however,
no surviving Greek papyrus can be adduced as evidence for a Greek origin of the practice7.
While relevant papyrological examples are scant and limited to Egypt, there exists a
large body of material that demonstrates attention to the display and layout of epigrams in
antiquity, namely inscriptional epigrams. Peter Parsons, the editor of the Gallus papyrus,
points out a few early examples of indentation of pentameters in Latin inscriptions, and
cautiously suggests that this may have been a Latin, not a Greek, practice8. Of the evidence
he adduces, two inscriptions can be dated with a fair degree of certainty. One, found in
1
Images of all the pages of Cod. Pal. graec. 23 are available at <http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/
cpgraec23>.
2
Ed. pr. Anderson / Parsons / Nisbet (1979).
3
On the date, see Barbantani (1998). Obbink (2004) 25 supports a date close to the battle of Actium, in which
case this papyrus may be contemporary with or even earlier than that of Gallus. On the Latin practice of
indenting pentameters, see Barbantani (1998) 259–260.
4
Ed. pr. Luppe (2002). In addition to the photo in the ed. pr., a high-resolution image can be accessed at
<http://papyri.uni-leipzig.de/receive/UBLPapyri_schrift_00002400>.
5
The codex is being published by K. Wilkinson. Images can be viewed at <http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/
papyrus/oneSET.asp?pid=4000%20qua>.
6
Image of P.Oxy. XV 1795 is available online at the Oxyrhynchus Online project <http://www.papyrology.
ox.ac.uk/POxy/>.
7
The occasional use of indentation or reverse indentation to set off verses of different metrical patterns, parti-
cularly in drama, lies outside the scope of my investigation, although it is conceivable that the practice of
visually distinguishing pentameters from hexameters may have had similar roots. For a recent study of the use
of eisthesis in tragedies preserved in papyri, see Savignago (2008) ; also Turner (1987) 12.
8
Anderson / Parsons / Nisbet (1979) 130. Parts II (The Papyrus) and III (Transcript) are by Parsons.

Actes du 26e Congrès international de papyrologie (Genève 2010) 437–441

438 JULIA LOUGOVAYA

Corinth, is a laudatory poem in honor of a proconsul whose name was erased ; it was
probably Marcus Antonius, the grandfather of Mark Antony whose damnatio memoriae
caused the erasure of the name in the inscription. The poem refers to the campaign against
the Cilician pirates of 102 BC for which a fleet was hauled over the Isthmus under the
supervision of Marcus Antonius. The inscription was evidently cut shortly after this event9.
The other inscription is the epitaph for Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Hispanus (RE, Corne-
lius 347), who was praetor in 139 BC and probably died not long afterwards10. If the epi-
taph was inscribed about the time of his death – and there is no reason to believe that it
was not –, it would be the earliest surviving example not only of indented pentameters, but
of Latin inscriptional couplets, too. These two epigrams firmly establish the indented-
pentameters format in Latin verse inscriptions during the latter part of the second century
BC. The question addressed here is whether the indentation of pentameters was a Latin
convention that eventually influenced the display of Greek epigrams in both inscriptions
and papyri, or whether it represented a Greek taste that was later acquired by Latin compo-
sers, stone-cutters, or scribes.
Indentation of pentameters in Greek inscriptional epigrams of the Imperial period is not
common, but neither is it exceptionally rare11. Determining whether earlier Greek verse
inscriptions ever indent pentameters is made difficult however by the fact that the criteria
for dating Hellenistic verse inscriptions are often insecure ; also, one of the best epigraphi-
cally attested areas, Attica, produced very few verse inscriptions between ca. 300 and 100
BC. The problem is compounded by lack of attention paid by editors of the past to the spa-
tial design of verse inscriptions. Inscriptional verses are occasionally printed with indented
pentameters in conformity with modern convention in order to distinguish visually hexa-
meters from pentameters, or else they are « justified by the left margin » because such was,
for the most part, ancient convention12. At times both conventions are mixed, and thus in
the absence of a photo, which is often the case, the format is undeterminable. Only some
editors routinely note features of the layout including indentation of the pentameter on the
actual stone13. The following survey is based on the material I could examine from the
photographs available to me and is by no means exhaustive. Further work on Hellenistic
epigrams would certainly help to refine it.
The earliest example of indented pentameters in Greek inscriptions known to me is a
three-couplet epitaph from Kalchedon commemorating twenty-five-year old Menios (SGO
09/07/10 with 24/15 ; best photo is in ZPE 41 [1981] Taf. III)14. The suggested date, third
century BC, is based on the letter forms and the type and style of the monument, a relief-
stele which depicts the deceased sitting on a chair and reading a book scroll while a ser-
vant stands to the right.
An epitaph for a twenty-one-year old Amphia from Lato pros Kamara in Crete (Martí-
nez Fernández / Apostolakou [2004] 45–47) is plausibly dated by its editors to the early
second century BC15. The epigram, a competent poetic composition, also consists of three

9
Ed. pr. Taylor / West (1928) ; Dow (1951) ; Courtney (1995) no. 15.
10
CIL I 15 = VI 1293 = ILLRP 316 ; Courtney (1995) no. 13.
11
The editor of the Gallus papyrus points to a few examples from Egypt dated to the second century AD, and
although he notes that Greek verse inscriptions do not indent before Imperial times, he emphasizes in a foot-
note that this is only an impression ; see Anderson / Parsons / Nisbet (1979) 130, n. 38.
12
Printed with indented pentameters : e.g. Kaibel (1878). Justified by the left margin : e.g. Peek (1955). Some-
times he does note indented pentameters ; compare no. 1843 (noted) with no. 702 (not noted).
13
So, e.g., Bernand (1969) ; Petzl (1982).
14
I am grateful to Prof. Wolfgang Blümel for providing me with a copy of the original photo of the inscription.
The right-hand side of the inscription is poorly preserved, but the indentation by one letter is discernible in
lines 2 and 6.
15
The inscription is republished in Martínez Fernández (2006) 139–141, no. 19B.
INDENTED PENTAMETERS IN PAPYRI AND INSCRIPTIONS 439

couplets, with pentameters indented by two to three letters16. Another example from the
second century BC is an honorary decree from Gerenia in Laconia which is accompanied
by an epigram (SEG XI 949). Only the beginnings of the couplets survive, but the indenta-
tion of pentameters is clearly visible17.
In the second / early first century BC, inscribed epigrams with indented pentameters
can be found in more locations. At least three more are attested on Crete, one of which can
be securely dated to not long after 116/115 BC (SEG XXXIX 972)18. Another epigram with
indented pentameters comes from Maionia on the upper Hermos river area in Lydia (SGO
04/22/07, with photo). It stands on a high-quality relief-stele depicting two men and a
woman, presumably the deceased, young Menekrates, and his parents, who are flanked by
the smaller figures of two servants. The arrangement of the text of the epitaph, cut under
the relief, is carefully planned : four lines of the prose part are written in block and end
with the word ἐτεί η αν centered in the fifth line. Then follow the eight lines of the ele-
giac epigram whose pentameters are neatly indented by two letters19. As the last example, I
adduce an epitaph from Karystos on Euboia (Peek 1981, with drawing) that contains two
epigrams, one of which consists of two distichs and has indented pentameters, while the
other, separated from the first one by a vacat and consisting of one distich, does not
indent20.
This brief survey demonstrates that by ca. 100 BC elegiac inscriptions with indented
pentameters can be found in different parts of the Greek world, such as Laconia, Crete,
Euboia, and Lydia, while the earlier example comes from Bithynia. Even if we set aside
the unique example from the third century, we are left with inscriptions that may be
approximately contemporaneous with Scipio’s epitaph, the earliest example of indented
Latin elegiacs on stone. It seems highly improbable that private inscriptions in various
parts of the Greek world were being influenced ca. 100 BC by a nascent Latin practice.
The high quality of the Greek inscriptions that show indentation attests to the learnedness
of their composers, while the grandeur of some of the monuments on which they stand
suggests that the people who commissioned them opted for « higher-end » commemorative
objects. Some inscriptions are particularly notable examples of literary mastery, such as
Exacon’s epitaph from Itanos on Crete, which consists of fifteen couplets, or the intricate
wording of Kletonymos’ epitaph from Lato, also on Crete21.
The bookish character of the verses suggests that they were passed to the stone-work-
shop by composers who were steeped in literary culture and who perhaps wrote out the
verses with indented pentameters, or alternatively that they were arranged in this way by
the person responsible for the layout of the inscription on the stone22. Either way, the prac-

16
Verse 3 does not scan properly, but the word that mars the meter, αἶψα, has all four letters dotted in the edition
and is not legible on the photo. Perhaps another restoration should be sought.
17
For a squeeze, see Peek (1971) Taf. I.
18
This is an epitaph for Kletonymos, a magistrate attested in other inscriptions from Lato, who is called here
« the eighth Sage ». For recent commentary, see Martínez Fernández (2006) 123–131, no. 17. The other two
are epitaphs for Tyros daughter of Sosamenos from Polyrhenia in 4 couplets, SEG XVI 532 = Martínez Fer-
nández (2006) 211–218, no. 38 (second half of II BC), and for twenty-two year old Exacon from Itanos
consisting of fifteen couplets laced with learned allusions to epic, IC 3.4.37 = Martínez Fernández (2006)
235–242, no. 43 (II/I BC).
19
I am grateful to Prof. Hasan Malay who took high quality photos of this stone for me.
20
I thank Donald Keller and Roz Schneider for taking a photo of the stone for me in the Archaeological
Museum in Karystos.
21
For the references to these inscriptions, see n. 18 above.
22
Courtney (1995) 11 aptly calls this official the ordinator. The epitaph from Karystos perhaps points to the
involvement of the composer rather than the ordinator. Since the two epigrams are carved differently there,
one wonders whether the ordinator received two pieces of papyrus (or tablets) from two different composers,
one of whom indented while the other did not. Notably in this inscription both epigrams display expressions
found elsewhere which also suggests that both could have come from or been based on texts in a pattern-
book, and a pattern-book might have contained texts written with different formatting conventions.
440 JULIA LOUGOVAYA

tice must have been adopted by those who cared to use it in order to show by the format
that the inscription was in verse and that this verse was of a certain meter. The relief that
accompanies our earliest example, on the gravestone for Menios, shows the young man
holding a book roll, an indication that the deceased was a man of letters. It may be no acci-
dent that his epitaph, perhaps composed by a similarly-minded literary man, shows atten-
tion to a feature of pure learnedness.
But one may reasonably wonder how a grave epigram in Kalchedon or an honorary ins-
cription in Laconia could have influenced the composer or cutter of Scipio’s epitaph in
Rome or of the inscription of praise for Marcus Antonius in Corinth. First of all, there were
thousands of inscribed epigrams that Latin speakers could have encountered in the Greek
speaking world in the second century BC. Furthermore, inscriptional epigrams must have,
at some point, been written out on a portable medium, such as a papyrus or tablet to be
approved by the commissioner of the monument and passed on to the stone-cutter. In addi-
tion to possible collections of epigrams compiled for various purposes, there probably
were numerous pattern-books of verse inscriptions in circulation23. Because virtually no
epigram survives in portable – and perishable – form from outside of Egypt, the volume
and accessibility of texts in circulation is hard to assess, but it should not be underestima-
ted.
Besides presuming extensive availability of Greek inscriptional verses, one needs also
to assume a willingness on the part of Latin speakers to adopt Greek conventions. And in
this respect, the two earliest Latin elegiac inscriptions are remarkably placed. The epigram
commemorating Marcus Antonius was set up in Greece, whether in Corinth or at the
Isthmus, while the Scipio epitaph comes from a family known for its Hellenizing tastes.
The meter itself, which was perhaps introduced into Latin by Ennius, from whom two
apparently literary epigrams on Scipio Africanus survive, is a Greek feature24. At the end of
the second century BC it probably coexisted with the Saturnian, but was soon to take over
inscriptional verses. Our two Latin elegiac inscriptions can be seen as marking the
« transitional » period.
Finally, both Scipio’s epitaph and the Corinthian elegiacs show familiarity with Greek
epigrams in the expressions and themes they employ. For example, the beginning of Sci-
pio’s epitaph, uirtutes generis mieis moribus accumulaui, is reminiscent of expressions in
Greek funerary and honorary epigrams with the verb αὐξάνω / αὔξω, e.g. αὔξων οἰκείων
προγόνων ἀρετά , κτλ. (FD III 4, 460 ; 7, 1 [Delphi, 337/336 – 333/332 BC). The opening
of the epigram for Marcus Antonius (1–2) :
quod neque conatus quisquanst neque [ ]au[ ]
noscite rem, ut famaa facta feramus uirei25
can be paralleled by such lines as οὐδεί πω θνητῶν καλλίον’ ηὗρε τέχνην (CEG 830, 7
[Olympia, IV BC]). Performing a deed that nobody had accomplished is a topos of both
literary – e.g. in the « Simonidean » epigram on the victory at Eurymedon or Cyprus – and
inscriptional epigrams from the Classical period on26 ; and so is the address to the reader of
the epigram.
In the milieu in which the two early Latin inscriptions with indented pentameters were
produced, there were probably both the opportunity and inclination to borrow from Greek
literary practice, including formal features such as the arrangement of verses on a stone or
page. The tendency to imitate did not need to aim at the most common patterns, but per-
haps rather at the best and most elaborate, and the device of inscribing elegiac verses in a

23
For an excellent introduction to the processes involved in the creation of a verse inscription, see Courtney
(1995) 11–16.
24
See Courtney (1993) 39–42, fr. 43–44.
25
Text after Courtney (1995) 44, no. 15.
26
On the « Simonidean » epigram, see Page (1981) 266–268, verses 870–877.
INDENTED PENTAMETERS IN PAPYRI AND INSCRIPTIONS 441

particular way was a means of displaying one’s learnedness and literary affinity. As we
have seen, this practice never became conventional in Antiquity, and perhaps was never
employed in more than 10% to 15% of elegiac epigrams in the later Hellenistic and Impe-
rial period ; but by Imperial times it must have been common enough that it was used in
qualitatively inferior epigrams, where the sequences of hexameters and pentameters could
be confused27. It was, however, the best Greek examples of the Hellenistic period that the
Latin composers followed in the late second century BC.

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27
See for example an epitaph from Smyrna for eleven-year old Dionysios, who died after falling from a tree,
SGO 05/01/36. The composer clearly worked from some patterns but had trouble putting them together, and
he – or the ordinator – indented every even line, whether it was a pentameter or not.