An investigation into the death of an enslaved boy, one of the most famous and frequently cited papyri
Order and copy of a petition concerning the accidental death of the slave boy Epaphroditus at Senepta.
Papyrus roll (88 x 282 mm). 34 lines in Greek. Mounted behind acrylic glass in a protective folding case, with a full-size printed facsimile.
€ 95.000,00
The death of an enslaved boy, discussed in an unusually complete papyrus scroll. Excavated as part of the Oxyrhynchus expeditions of Grenfell and Hunt in 1897, this remarkable document provides us with unique and personal insight into the social history of Roman Egypt, particularly in the areas of public medicine and slavery.
Dated to the seventh of the Egyptian month of Hathor (3 November) in the twenty-third year of the life of the Emperor Commodus (182 AD), the letter opens with Hierax, the local strategos (governor of a nome or district), commanding his subordinate to take a public physician to investigate a death and submit a report in writing.
A different hand then adds the transcript of a letter of the owner, Leonides, to Hierax, describing the event: the eight-year-old boy Epaphroditos was leaning out of a window to watch a group of dancers and fell to his death. This is followed by a signed request for one of the governor's assistants to come to ensure the lawful burial of the body.
This individual papyrus has been frequently cited, studied, and included in selections of remarkable papyri due to the light it sheds on the conditions of slaves, their lives, and particularly their deaths: the owner feels obliged to provide a statement, and the authorities, both in the form of an administrator and a public coroner, were expected to be present for a lawful burial to take place. Hierax's matter-of-fact tone and the effort of Leonides to explain the incident marks this on the one hand as a matter of official business governed by established protocol, while clearly not unmoved by the death of one so young in a moment of childlike joy at seeing dancers.
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri represent the greatest treasure-trove of documents from Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt (305 BC - 640 AD): the site was used as a rubbish dump for centuries, and the Egyptian climate allowed for the preservation of thousands of documents. Around a tenth of these are literary in nature, while the majority comprise administrative records, personal letters, tax records, records of business transactions, and so on, providing us with an unparalleled wealth of sources for the social history of the ancient world. Many papyri are little more than fragments, making this nearly complete letter a notable survival.
Although to date some 5000 papyri have been excavated from Oxyrhynchus since 1897, and many more remain unexcavated, ones that were excavated and published early on, particularly ones such as this in a relatively complete state, are notable. This copy was gifted to Charterhouse, the prestigious English public school, and remained in their collection until sold in 2002 at Sotheby's.
The text in translation reads: "Hierax, strategos of the Oxyrhynchite nome, to Claudius Serenus, assistant. A copy of the application which has been presented to me by Leonides also called Serenus is herewith sent to you. Take a public physician and view the dead body referred to, and having delivered it over for burial make a report in writing. Signed by me. The 23rd year of Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Caesar the lord, Hathor 7. / To Hierax, strategos, from Leonides also called Serenus, whose mother is stated as Tauris, of Senepta. At a late hour of yesterday the 6th, while a festival was taking place at Senepta and the castanet-players were giving their customary performance at the house of Plution, my son-in-law, [lacuna…] his slave Epaphroditos, aged about 8 years, wishing to lean out from the bed-chamber of the said house and see the castanet-players, fell and was killed. I therefore present this application and ask you, if it please you, to appoint one of your assistants to come to Senepta in order that the body of Epaphroditos may receive proper laying out and burial" (translation in Grenfell and Hunt).
This papyrus offers unique insight into local administration and the conditions of those living (and dying) as slaves.
1) Excavated by Grenfell and Hunt at Oxyrhynchus in 1897, described in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri.
2) Donated to Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey in 1906 by the Egyptian Exploration fund.
3) Sold at Sotheby's, The Charterhouse Collection, London, 5 Nov. 2002, Lot 121.
4) Sold at Bonhams, Antiquities, London, 28 Nov. 2018, Lot 207.
5) European private collection.
Fragment, with some holes, fraying at edges and consequent lacunae, but text overwhelmingly preserved.
B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. 3 (1903), no. 475. J. Hengstl (ed.), Griechische Papyri aus Ägypten als Zeugnisse des öffentlichen und privaten Lebens (1978), no. 95. A. Hunt, Select Papyri (Loeb Classical Library), Vol. 2, no. 337. A. Straus, L'esclave dans l'Égypte romaine: choix de documents traduits et commentés (2004), no. 11. Heinz Heinen, "Amtsärztliche Untersuchung eines toten Sklaven. Überlegungen zu P. Oxy. III 475", in A. Marcone (ed.), Medicina e società nel mondo antico. Atti del convegno di Udine (4-5 ottobre 2005), Studi Udinesi sul Mondo Antico 4 (2006), 194-202. G. Sabbah (ed.), Médecins et médicine dans l'Antiquité (1982), pp. 119-129. K. A. Worp, "A Note on P. Oxy. III 475.20", Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 133 (2000).
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