Question 1: Brother-Sister Marriage
Do you agree that the best way to explain apparent sibling marriages in Roman Egypt is to assume that the spouses were related by adoption, and were not biological siblings?
Ancient Sources
* Selection of Texts Concerning Sibling Marriage (read for Tutorial 8)
P.Tebt. 2.392
Sel.Pap. 1.158; 1.206 section 23; 1.313
Modern Works
*Huebner, S. 2007. “‘Brother-Sister’ Marriage in Roman Egypt: A Curiosity of Humankind or a Widespread Family Strategy?” Journal of Roman Studies 97: 21–49. (JSTOR)
*Remijsen, S. and Clarysse, W. 2008. “Incest or Adoption? Brother-Sister Marriage in Roman Egypt Revisited,” Journal of Roman Studies 98: 53–61. (JSTOR)
*Rowlandson, J. and Takahashi, R. 2009. “Brother-Sister Marriage and Inheritance Strategies in Greco-Roman Egypt,” Journal of Roman Studies 99: 104–139. (JSTOR)
*Hopkins, K. 1980. “Brother-Sister Marriage in Roman Egypt,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 22: 303–354. (JSTOR)
Shaw, B. D. 1992. “Explaining Incest: Brother-Sister Marriage in Graeco-Roman Egypt’, Man 27: 267–291. (JSTOR)
Scheidel, W. 1995. “Incest Revisited: Three Notes on the Demography of Sibling Marriage in Roman Egypt,” Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 32: 143–155. (JSTOR)
Question 2: A Weaver and the State
What light does the archive of Tryphon shed on the impacts that the legal system and the provincial administration could have on the life of an ordinary urban craftsman in Roman Egypt?
Ancient Sources
*P.Oxy. 1.37 [=Sel.Pap. 2.257]; 1.38; 2.235 ; 2.251; 2.252; 2.253; 2.259; 2.264; 2.267; 2.269; 2.275; 2.282; 2.315 descr. (= Rowlandson 1998: doc. 89); 2.319 descr. (= Rowlandson 1998: doc. 90).
SB 10.10220; 10.10221; Biscottini 1966: docs. 7; 28; Piccolo 2003: doc. 2.
Modern Works
*Brewster, E. H. 1927. “A Weaver of Oxyrhynchus,” Transactions of the American Philological Association 58: 132–154 ( JSTOR)
*Brewster, E. H. 1931. “A Weaver’s Life in Oxyrhynchus: His Status in the Community,” in Hadzsits, G. D. (ed.), Classical Studies in Honor of John C. Rolfe. Freeport, NY. 19–45. (eClass)
*Whitehorne, J. E. G. 1984. “Tryphon’s Second Marriage (P.Oxy. II 267),” Atti del XVII congresso internazionale di papirologia. Naples. 3.1267–1274. (eClass)
*Kelly, B. 2011. Petitions, Litigation, and Social Control in Roman Egypt. Oxford. 131–133; 250–252; 312–316. (eBook)
Gagos, T. et. al. 1992. “A First-Century Archive from Oxyrhynchos or Oxyrhynchite Loan Contracts and Egyptian Marriage,” in Johnson, J. H. (ed.), Life in a Multi-cultural Society. Egypt from Cambyses to Constantine and Beyond. Chicago. 181–205, especially 189–192. (Open Access)
Rowlandson, J. 1998. Women and Society in Greek and Roman Egypt: A Sourcebook. Cambridge. 112–117. (eClass)
Question 3: The “Antonine Crisis”
What economic, demographic, and social impacts did the Antonine Plague have on Egypt? Can we ascribe the major changes in Egypt during the second half of the second century to disease alone?
Ancient Sources
Most of the key papyri illustrating the impact of the plague on Egypt where not translated into English when first published. For this essay, you will have to rely on the accounts of the ancient texts given by modern works listed below; occasionally, these works translate key texts, and it is fine to cite or quote these translations in your essay.
Modern Works
*Duncan-Jones, R. P. 1996. “The Impact of the Antonine Plague,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 9: 108–136, especially 120–125, 133–134. (eClass)
*Scheidel, W. 2002. “A Model of Demographic and Economic Change in Roman Egypt after the Antonine Plague,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 15: 97–114. (eClass)
*Bagnall, R. S. 2002. “The Effects of Plague: Model and Evidence,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 15: 114–200. (eClass)
*Elliott, C. 2016. “The Antonine Plague, Climate Change, and Local Violence in Roman Egypt,” Past and Present 231: 3–31. (eJournal)
*Duncan-Jones, R. P. 2018. “The Antonine Plague Revisited,” Arctos 52: 41–72, especially 45–48, 64–67. (eClass)
Bagnall, R. S. (ed.) 2021. Roman Egypt: A History. Cambridge. 142–144. (eBook)
Elliott, C. 2020. “Coin Debasement, Climate and Contagion in Second-Century Egypt: Some Intersections,” in Butcher, K. (ed.), Debasement: Manipulation of Coin Standards in Pre-Modern Monetary Systems. Oxford and Philadelphia. 63–72. (eClass)
Harper, K. 2016. “People, Plagues, and Prices in the Roman World: The Evidence from Egypt,” The Journal of Economic History 76: 803–839. (eJournal)
Blouin, K. 2014. Triangular Landscapes: Environment, Society, and the State in the Nile Delta under Roman Rule. Oxford. 243–297 (= Chapters 8 and 9). (eBook)
Question 4: Foretelling the Future in Roman Egypt
How did the practices used to try to foretell the future change in Egypt during the Roman period? Why did they change?
Ancient Sources
*The Oracles of Astrampsychus (Tutorial 4 readings).
P.Oslo 1.6; P.Oxy. 8.1148; 8.1149; 12.1476; 12.1477.
P.Coll. Youtie 1.30 (= P. Yale inv. 299 = SB 14.12144). (JSTOR)
Modern Works
*Tallet, G. 2012. “Oracles,” in Riggs, C. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt. Oxford. 398–418. (eBook)
*Frankfurter, D. 1998. Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance. Princeton, NJ. 145–197. (eClass)
*Frankfurter, D. 2005. “Voices, Books, and Dreams: The Diversification of Divination Media in Late Antique Egypt,” in Johnston, S. I. and Struck, P. T. (eds.), Mantike: Studies in Ancient Divination. Leiden and Boston, Mass. 233–254. (eClass)
*Jones, A. 1994. “The Place of Astronomy in Roman Egypt,” Apeiron 27: 25–52. ( eClass)
Ripat, P. 2006. “The Language of Oracular Enquiry in Roman Egypt,” Phoenix 60: 304–328. (JSTOR)
Edmonds, G. R. 2019. Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World. Princeton, NJ. 188–235 (= Ch. 7). (eBook)
