Confidential Business: P. Col. Inv. 316

The papyrus is a medium buff color. Almost complete, the page misses its lower right corner (approximately 7 x 3.5 cm. along the margins), and grows increasingly worn and gappy towards the bottom edge. It was folded twice vertically about 4 cm. In from the margins: the righthand fold is particularly worn. No horizontal fold is evident. The papyrus is written along the fibers on both sides, having been rotated 90­° for the address on the back. The front looks neat and professional. The top margin measures 2cm., the left .5 cm. and the right 1 cm.; continuation-strokes keep the right margin regular in short lines. In the first line more than in the body of the text, the characters are neatly spaced, the words divided, and the names capitalized. The first hand is a fairly regular, somewhat angular cursive; similar hands appear throughout the first century (e.g. P.Lond. 277 of A.D. 23 [Atlas II pl. 13], 140 of 69-79 [Atlas II pl. 21], 897 of 84 [Atlas III pl. 27], 142 of 95 [Atlas II pl. 43]). Otherwise, termini are furnished by the correspondents’ Latin names and the reference to the idios logos, which ceased to function during the reign of Septimius Severus (193-211). Longus writes with urgency and tantalizing vagueness about business matters obviously familiar to his correspondent, but which he did not want to be more widely known. The identity of the “thirty items” he intends to buy is the letter’s great puzzle. It is the first document to evidence a precautionary approach to the idios logos. Longus’ vocabulary, and a few rhetorical flourishes, deserve notice also.