Two Byzantine Papyri from the Michigan Collection

Purchased in the Fayûm in 1925, this papyrus contains the top part of a petition addressed by one Philoxenus possibly (far from certainly) to the governor of the province of Arcadia; see line 3 note. Surviving are (in part) the address (lines 1-4); a short proem (lines 5-8), virtually complete; and the beginning of the narrative of events leading up to the petition (lines 8-13). On palaeographic grounds I should be inclined to assign this piece to the sixth century. The address is written in a large, grand, up right hand, which decreases in thickness by the beginning and apparently in size during the course of line 3. Line 4 is written still smaller and with greater slant, evidently by a different hand.