Ebook: Papyrusbriefe aus der frühesten Römerzeit

Review by: A. E. R. Boak
Classical Philology, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Oct., 1929), pp. 424-425

This is an exceptionally praiseworthy edition of papyrus texts. In a
scholarly Introduction the editor analyzes the form and contents of the
Greek letters from Egypt and makes a careful estimate of the Egyptian
influences in Greek epistolography. The list of the letters numbers eighty.
Excluding four that are dated between 100 and 110 A.D., all of these belong
to the period 30 B.C. to 100 A.D. and constitute a complete collection, except
for unimportant fragments, of the published papyrus letters falling between
these limits. The text of each letter is accompanied by a translation and an
elaborate commentary. Where several letters belong to a particular archive,
such as the Gemellus correspondence from Euhemeria, the series is provided
with a special introduction. The commentaries are particularly valuable be-
cause of their copious citation of parallel passages and references and because
of the new reading and interpretations which they suggest. There is hardly
a single letter which has not been improved in one way or another over the
original publication. For this reason Olsson's work is to be welcomed not
merely as a convenient collection of epistolary texts but also as a revised edi-
tion of these which cannot be overlooked in the future. There is a good
Bibliography and very satisfactory indexes.
A. E. R. BOAK