This volume contains editions of 35 texts, which have been excavated nearly 100 years ago in the ancient Egyptian village of Karanis, and which were still waiting publication. As all texts written on papyrus from the Egyptian countryside, these texts give a new insight into the life of the people who dwelled in a typical village of the Roman period in Egypt. The texts show the cultural diversity of those who cohabitated, whether they had Greek or Egyptian names, whether their main gods were the crocodiles or Zeus. In the lives of all of them tax-paying played an important role, as well as caring for their cattle and fields, doing business, and fullfilling the obligations of the Roman government. In particular interesting is the personage of Socrates the tax-collector. Since the ruins of Karanis are still standing (and worth a visit) with two nearly intact temples from the period of the texts, a more complete image of village life emerges from texts and the archaeology behind them. Papyrologists welcome every newly published text as a further stone of the mosaic image that they try to create of the past.

This volume of Papyri contains a selection of 25 pieces which were excavated in the village of Karanis in the north-eastern Fayum (Egypt) by American archaeologists between 1924 and 1926. Many of the texts published here come from the archive of a well known figure in the village life of Karanis in the 2nd century AD: Socrates, son of Sarapion, was a tax collector here for many years, serving the Roman Empire collecting taxes due in money and in kind. Besides his successful economic activities - Socrates certainly belonged to the upper stratum of society in Karanis - the tax collector was a lover of Greek literature; for sure, he did not venture into high philosophy and the like, but he read Homer, comedies, and tried to be up to date about mythology in plays. Half of the new texts published here are literary, mostly from Socrates' library; other texts were found in the immediate neighbourhood of where Socrates lived, such as a surgical treatise about remedies of shoulder dislocations, which perhaps belonged to a doctor. The other half of the papyrus texts in this volume are documents that can shed new light on the activities of the tax collector, or of other inhabitants of Karanis. Altogether they give us a vivid picture of village life in Graeco/Roman Egypt in the 2nd century AD.

The allure of Egypt is not exclusive to the modern world. Egypt also held a fascination and attraction for people of the past. In this book, academics from a wide range of disciplines assess the significance of Egypt within the settings of its past. The chronological span is from later prehistory, through to the earliest literate eras of interaction with Mesopotamia and the Levant, the Aegean, Greece and Rome. Ancient Perspectives on Egypt includes both archaeological and documented evidence, which ranges from the earliest writing attested in Egypt and Mesopotamia in the late fourth millennium BC, to graffiti from Abydos that demonstrate pilgrimages from all over the Mediterranean world, to the views of Roman poets on the nature of Egypt. This book presents, for the first time in a single volume, a multi-faceted but coherent collection of images of Egypt from, and of, the past.

The volume, published to mark Herwig Maehler's 70th birthday, contains 19 of his articles and papers, offering a selection from the research contribution of a Classicist who has explored very diverse areas of the Ancient World, combining them in productive and imaginative ways. The papers reprinted here (some in slightly revised and updated form) concern Homer, Greek, lyric poetry, Attic tragedy, the ancient novel, Hellenistic poetry, Greek palaeography, art and sculpture under the Ptolemies and various other aspects of daily life in Graeco-Roman Egypt. This selection will be of interest not only to Classical scholars but to anyone interested in the culture of Graeco-Roman-Antiquity.

This work presents a singular body of hitherto scattered publications of Greek commentaries surviving on papyri. Parts II and III, which will compromise some 250-300 pages, are currently in production and will be scheduled for publication every two to three years.

The ancient Greek commentaries that were preserved on papyrus have previously been published in scattered works. This corpus is unique in the academic world in that it presents these texts in collected form. The entire work is divided into four main sections: Pars I Commentaria et lexica in auctores; Pars II Commentaria in adespota; Pars III Lexica; Pars IV Concordantiae et Indices.

The ancient Greek commentaries that were preserved on papyrus have previously been published in scattered works. This corpus is unique in the academic world in that it presents these texts in collected form. The entire work is divided into four main sections: Pars I Commentaria et lexica in auctores; Pars II Commentaria in adespota; Pars III Lexica; Pars IV Concordantiae et Indices.