Ancient Lives: Greek Texts, Papyrology and
Artificial Intelligence
James Brusuelas
The “Ancient Lives”
project is an international collaboration between multiple departments and
institutions: The Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois, the Departments of
Classics and Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and the Departments of
Classical and Near Eastern Studies, Minnesota Supercomputing Institute, and
Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. Through the Ancient Lives website, the project continues to
amass an immense database of crowd-sourced transcribed texts in order to assist
in the classification, cataloguing, and identification of the tens of thousands
of papyrus fragments housed in the Sackler Library of the Ashmolean Museum. Consequently, a digital database of
both previously edited and unedited Greek papyri texts exists for the first
time. In addition to the
computerized assistance in cataloguing and identifying documents and known
literary texts, the aim of this project is to build a computational interface
to assist in the critical editing of Greek texts.
Two of the principal
goals are: (1) to refine and implement a consensus algorithm, adapted from
those used in the study of DNA sequencing, that collates multiple
transcriptions, producing a variety of meaningful statistical data and
digitally searchable transcriptions that will be accessible to scholars through
a unique graphical user interface (GUI);
(2) based on the extant
strings of Greek characters, to implement algorithmic meaning extraction to
assist in the contextualization and identification of unknown literary works
through an automated projection of possible linguistic/word scenarios. We are also aiming at computationally
repairing gaps/holes in papyri through an automated projection of characters
that are not only dimensionally suitable but also contextually sound through
linguistic parallels elicited from the searchable online databases of Greek
texts. The purpose of this paper
is to report initial project results and to outline in greater detail our
methodology for building this computational interface. In sum, we are merging human and
machine intelligence – automated algorithmic methods – to increase the accuracy
with which Greek texts are edited.
We are transforming image data from Oxyrhynchus papyri into meaningful
information that scholars can use – information that once took generations to
produce.
Homer and Hesiod in P.Oxy. 4648: Reconstruction and Interpretation
Michael Haslam
This paper examines the
intriguing piece published as P.Oxy.
4648, “Prose on Star-Signs Quoting Homer, Hesiod, and Others,” edited by
Dirk Obbink. Published a decade
ago, it plainly calls for attention, but has received virtually none. (Glenn Most took over Obbink’s version
of the Hesiod section unameliorated in his Loeb Hesiod, as T151.) I attempt to
reach a more satisfactory reconstruction of the text, one that yields a better
understanding of what is being said both about Homer and about Hesiod, and
along the way to elicit something of the significance that the text holds for
ancient literary criticism of each poet.
The text is written in a
practiced bookhand, probably of the later 3rd century CE, reportedly on the
back of a petition; there are remains of 33 lines of just one column, broken at
either side. What is under
discussion is poets’ practical understanding of the constellations. When our column begins, the author is
discussing Homer; he moves on to Hesiod (appending mention of Aratus as
Hesiod’s zelotes); then to Aeschylus and Sophocles; and there the papyrus
breaks off. I propose to deal with
the sections on Homer and Hesiod, the first 23 lines.
The first tolerably clear
(albeit largely restored) statement we meet is that Homer’s veiled meaning (αἰνιττόμενος)
is that everything is controlled by the movements of the constellations. I suggest that the author is here addressing
a passage in the description of the Shield of Achilles, Il. 18.483-9 (485 ἐν δὲ τὰ τείρεα πάντα τά τ’
οὐρανὸς ἐστεφάνωται), and investing it with cosmological import, in line with
Crates’ take on the Shield as a mimema tou kosmou. Then, on my understanding of the text (different from
Obbink’s), he proceeds to say that Homer conferred his astronomical knowledge
on Odysseus. Homer made advance
arrangements (προοικονομῶν) for Odysseus’ skill at navigating by the stars in
the Odyssey (5.272ff.) by endowing him with the ability to tell the time of
night by the stars already in the Iliad (10.252f.), thereby lending
plausibility to the Odyssey episode.
This implies that Homer wrote the Iliad with the subsequent Odyssey in
mind, and tailored the prior poem accordingly, an interesting and unusual view
of Homer’s compositional procedures.
I float the suggestion (without arguing the case) that the section on
Homer may represent the Homeric criticism of Crates.
Then comes Hesiod. Obbink took the papyrus’ “[X knew]
these things likewise” to mean that Homer knew seafaring just as Odysseus did,
but I argue that the sense is that Hesiod knew the workings of the
constellations just as Homer did, this effecting the transition from the one
poet to the other. On this view
the author is not differentiating the two according to their respective arenas
of seafaring and farming (so Obbink, supplementing accordingly) but uniting
them in their shared understanding of star-signs: he’s a lumper not a splitter. (Cf. H.H. Koning, Hesiod:
The Other Poet (2010), who unfortunately seems unaware of this text.) It is
significant that the poet—Homer for Obbink, Hesiod for me—is introduced as ὁ ἡδυ]επής
(suppl. P.J. Parsons ap. Obbink, irresistibly).
I note the doubly allusive appositeness of conferring this distinctive
epithet on Hesiod. It is the
epithet that Hesiod applies to his Muses (Cat. 1.1/Th. 1021,
Th. 965); and in the later Greek
and Roman tripartite classification of styles Homer’s Νέστωρ ἡδυεπής (Il. 1.247- 9) was the archetype of the
“middle” style, the prime exemplar of which was Hesiod (Quint. 12.10.58-64, 10.1.52, cf. Dion.Hal. de comp. 23,
Dem. 40). I conclude by restoring coherence to
the remainder of the Hesiod section, which defeated Obbink and Most.
Women’s Petitions in Later Roman Egypt: Survey and
Case Studies
Graham Claytor
Over 150 petitions from
women survive from Roman and Byzantine Egypt. Along with reports of proceedings on papyrus and imperial
rescripts from outside Egypt, these constitute the best evidence we have for
provincial women’s engagement with the law and help shape our view of the
social position of women in the Roman Empire. Taking the terminus of B. Kelly’s recent study as a starting point, I first discuss
petitions from women in the “long” fourth century (284- 400 CE) as a whole, and
then examine the cases in which we can learn a little more about the women
involved in litigation, in the context of archives. I close by touching on the larger issues raised by Kelly and
others, such as the agency of female petitioners and whether the legal system
tended to undermine or reinforce traditional gender roles.
I focus on the “long”
fourth century for three reasons. First,
Kelly’s study on petitioning and social control ends in 284 CE, the traditional
papyrological divide between “Roman” and “Byzantine” Egypt. R.S. Bagnall, however, has shown that the real break was from the
late fourth century on, when evidence for female petitioners is much scarcer
and largely restricted to wealthy, educated widows (Bagnall, “Women's Petitions
in Late Antique Egypt,” in Denis Feissel and Jean Gascou (eds.), La pétition à
Byzance [Paris, 2004], 53-60). The
fourth century evidence continues to be marked by Kelly’s two “ideal types” of
female petitioners: one, the woman isolated from male support through death,
divorce, or other circumstances; the other, the woman of relatively high
standing whose economic engagements brought her into legal conflict (Kelly,
Petitions, Litigation, and Social Control in Roman Egypt [Oxford, 2011],
235ff.). Thus, we can study these
petitions in close comparison with the earlier period and in contrast to the
later period.
A second reason is the prominence of female petitioners in the
period 284-400. From about 15% of
total petitioners in the period 30 BCE - 284 CE, the percentage of female
petitioners rises to over a quarter in the ‘long’ fourth century, then falls to
about 10% after 400. This paper
explores the reasons behind this apparent surge, which is paralleled also in
imperial rescripts, and argues that it represents a real rise in women’s
participation in the legal sphere and independence, at least during the
Tetrarchic period.
Third, the archives of this period offer the opportunity to
learn more about the family situation and economic engagements of certain
female petitioners. I focus on the
archives of Isidoros, Sakaon, Aurelia Demetria, and the descendants of Alopex
in Panopolis. The first archive
presents a pair of sisters, Taesis and Kyrillous, whose engagement with
litigation came early in life due to the deaths of both parents: their coming
of age is marked by a struggle against their uncle for the control of their
inheritance. In the archive of
Sakaon from Theadelphia, Artemis the daughter of Paesios and Heros uses the
legal system to protect her children’s property after the death of her husband. Finally, the archives of Aurelia
Demetria and the descendants of Alopex give us valuable details from urban
settings. In Hermopolis, Demetria
petitions about a disputed sale of land, and in Panopolis, we meet the
oil-seller and landlady Theodora, whose business interests lead her to petition
the prefect about a defaulting debtor.
This period offers us
unparalleled evidence for women’s engagement in legal processes. Through both a broad survey and a
microhistorical approach, I argue that women in the ‘long’ fourth century
actively engaged in legal processes to achieve their own goals and that this
period of transition witnessed a slight relaxing of traditional gender roles. Both trends were halted by the end of
the century and reversed in the centuries to follow.
Outsourcing Army Duties: Foederati in Late Roman
Egypt
Anna Kaiser
This paper seeks to
examine the status of foederati in Late Roman Egypt. One hundred years ago Jean Maspero wrote an essay on 6th
century CE foederati and soldiers (“Φοιδερᾶτοι et Στρατιῶται dans l’armée
byzantin au VIe siècle,” BZ 21 [1912] 97-109). Since then many more papyri have been edited that allow a
better view of the Roman military organisation of Egypt in general and the
question of foederati in particular.
The main focus of this paper is the status
of foederati and their duties in Egypt, one of the more peaceful parts of the
Late Roman Empire. Included among
these duties might well have been the screening of the road system in the
Eastern Desert, formerly a well-known duty of Roman soldiers. The Principate saw Egypt’s Eastern
Desert dotted with small Roman outposts guarding the road system and important
quarries. By the 3rd century CE
there is almost no evidence for them anymore. This may give the impression that the roads through the
Eastern Desert were unprotected, although they were seriously threatened by the
Blemmyes, Egypt’s neighbours in the desert. The continuing trade with Berenike and Myos Hormos should
have mattered enough to maintain the military road screening system (cf. O.Claud. I-IV; O.Krok; O.MyosHormos; S. Sidebotham, Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route,
Berkeley 2011). Papyrological and
literary evidence together seem to suggest that those patrol duties formerly
carried out by Roman soldiers were outsourced – to people and tribes living
near the Roman borders. These
tribes may have even included the Blemmyes, a group that engendered a great
deal of fear in the Egyptian inhabitants during the 5th and 6th centuries
CE. But both Eusebius and
Abinnaeus, the praefectus alae of the ala V Praelectorum in 4th century Egypt,
mention Blemmyan envoys in Constantinople, and Procopius refers to the
retraction of the Roman frontier in 298 CE and gold delivered to the Blemmyes. Some tribes of the Blemmyes therefore
seem to have been Roman foederati (Eusebius, Vita Constantini 4, 7; P.Abinn. 1; Procopius, De bellis I 19, 27-37.)
Another tribe appears to have formed the 6th century CE numerus of Pharanitae,
which was stationed at Bau, a famous monastery, in the Thebaid. The soldiers of this unit were first
recruited in the Sinai peninsula, from a tribe living near the city of Pharan,
not far from the famous Monastery of St.
Catherine (Ph. Mayerson,
“Pharanitai in Sinai and in Egypt,” BASP 47 [2010] 225-29). The Latin word numerus, or its Greek
equivalent ἀριθμός, was used for any kind of troop in Late Roman Egypt; the
term does not distinguish between Roman soldiers or federates. The Pharanitae may therefore provide
another example of foederati in Late Antique Egypt – an example worth examining
in more detail.
