City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish: Greek Lives in Roman Egypt

393 Pages·2007·4.58 MB·English

Praise for City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish
‘[Parson] brilliantly conveys both the difficulty of working on the material and
the excitement of the historical detective involved in the thrill of the chase’
William Dalrymple, New Statesman

‘A wonderfully rich portrait of the people of Oxyrhynchos’
Sunday Times

‘Parsons has entertainingly revived a noisy, gossiping world of migrant Greeks
who lived through the decline of Rome and the rise of Christainity’
The Times

‘A picture of life in the city in intimate detail, from the profound to the
mundane’
Herald

‘A learned and engrossing book’
Daily Telegraph

‘Peter Parsons leads his readers on an adventure, peeling back the past and
finding that the ancients were in many ways just like us’
Good Book Guide

‘[A] captivating study’
Catholic Herald

‘[Parsons] writes with tremendous verve and wit, and with memorable turns of
phrase’
Mary Beard, Times Literary Supplement
CITY OF THE
SHARP-NOSED FISH
Greek Papyri Beneath the Egyptian Sand
Reveal a Long-Lost World

PETER PARSONS
In memory of

BARBARA MACLEOD
20.1.1945—25.7.2006

without whom, nothing
CONTENTS

Cover
Praise for City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish
Title page
Dedication
List of Illustrations
Timeline
Roman Emperors
Egyptian Months and Years
Note on Sources
Glossary
Preface
Map
Prologue
1 Excavating Egypt
2 A Wealth of Garbage
3 Egyptian Greeks
4 ‘Glorious and Most Glorious City’
5 Lord and God
6 The River
7 Markets
8 Family and Friends
9 Poets and Pedants
10 Bureaucrats
11 Surviving
12 Christians and Christianities
Epilogue
Bibliography
Notes
Index
Illustrations
Author biography
Copyright
ILLUSTRATIONS

1. A Thousand Miles up the Nile, 1890 edition (Smithsonian Institution Libraries,
Washington, DC)
2. The Hypaethral Temple at Philae by David Roberts (Private Collection /
Bridgeman Art Library, London)
3. The Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly (Mary Evans Picture Library)
4. The site of Oxyrhynchos: partial view by Denon, 1798
5. The site of Oxyrhynchos from the north-west, 1981 (photo by R.A. Coles)
6. Grenfell and Hunt (Egypt Exploration Society, London)
7. Excavation at Oxyrhynchos: digging the rubbish-mounds (Egypt Exploration
Society, London)
8. Excavation at Oxyrhynchos: the workforce (Egypt Exploration Society,
London)
9. The sacred oxyrhynchos fish (Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University,
1987.1)
10. The side-branch of the Nile at Oxyrhynchos, 1897 (Egypt Exploration
Society, London)
11. ‘Sayings of Our Lord’, leaf from papyrus codex (P.Oxy.1 / Bodleian Library)
12. A Reading from Homer by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (akg-images)
13. Mummy portrait: ‘The Nubian’ (Ägyptisches Museum und
Papyrussammlung, Staatliche Museen, Berlin. Photo by Georg Niedermeisser
/ bpk)
14. Mummy portrait: melancholy lady (British Museum EA 65346)
15. Mummy portrait: gilded youth (Ägyptisches Museum und
Papyrussammlung, Staatliche Museen, Berlin. Photo by Georg Niedermeisser
/ bpk)
16. Greek man with Egyptian deities (Louvre, Antiquités Égyptiennes N 3076 /
Bridgeman Art Library, London)
17. Ruins of Palmyra (G. Tortoli / Ancient Art & Architecture Collection)
18. House plan (P.Oxy. 2406 / Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project, Oxford)
19. Golden mummy (Dr Zahi Hawass)
20. Septimius Severus and family, portrait (Staatliche Museen, Berlin /
Bridgeman Art Library, London)
21. Septimius Severus and family, relief (line drawing from C. R. Lepsius,
Denkmäler IV 89c)
22. Minutes of Town Council, censored (P.Oxy. 3340 / Oxyrhynchus Papyri
Project, Oxford)
23. Detail from Nile mosaic of Palestrina (Museo Archeologico Prenestino,
Palestrina, Italy / Bridgeman Art Library, London)
24. The Nile and his little Cubits (Vatican Museums and Galleries, Vatican City
/ Bridgeman Art Library, London)
25. Model of Egyptian corpse-carrier (Louvre, Paris)
26. Papyrus: letter of rebellious schoolboy (P.Oxy. 119 / Bodleian Library)
27. Papyrus: indecent proposal (P.Oxy. 3070 / Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project,
Oxford)
28. Writing tablet (British Museum, Add. MS. 34186(1))
29. Ass’s ears (P.Oxy. 3174 back / Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project, Oxford)
30. Labours of Hercules (P.Oxy. 2331 / Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project, Oxford)
31. Egyptian scribe with Thoth (Louvre, Paris / Bridgeman Art Library, London)
32. Order to arrest (P.Oxy. 4115 / Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project, Oxford)
33. Luck on an Alexandrian coin (American Numismatic Society)
34. Christian amulet (Epistle of Jude) (P.Oxy. 2684 / Oxyrhynchus Papyri
Project, Oxford)
35. Magic with snake (British Library, P.Lond. 121.579–90)
36. Coptic textile, Icon of the Virgin (Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C.
Hanna, Jr, Bequest 1967.144)
TIMELINE