BMCR 2008.12.30, Silvia Strassi, L'archivio di Claudius Tiberianus

Silvia Strassi, L'archivio di Claudius Tiberianus da Karanis. Archiv
fuer Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete. Beiheft; 26.  Berlin/New
York:  Walter De Gruyter, 2008.  Pp. xlviii, 194.  ISBN 9783110201192.
$205.00.

Reviewed by Livia Capponi, Newcastle University
([email protected]))
Word count:  1819 words
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This book provides a new edition and a complete study of the archive of
Claudius Tiberianus, partially published in the eighth volume (Nos.
467-81) of the Michigan Papyri. It comprises 18 papyrus-letters, mostly
written by Claudius Terentianus, an Egyptian enrolled in the Roman
army, to his friend and patron Claudius Tiberianus, a veteran settled
in Karanis (Fayum). These texts constitute an ancient archive, as they
include the letters which were found together in a niche under the
staircase of the house of Tiberianus at Karanis between 1924 and 1935,
along with further texts, which emerged from the antiquities market.
The old (but diehard) practice of splitting ancient archives by selling
parts of them on the market produced the disastrous consequence of
losing all information about the exact provenance of the texts.
Furthermore, the lack of a scientific approach in most papyrological
digs of the early twentieth century led the early excavators to discard
most information about the archaeological context where the papyri were
found. For all these reasons, subsequent scholars, including Strassi,
had to laboriously reconstruct the history of the archive by relying on
the information yielded by the texts alone.

One major merit of this book is that it unifies the archive of Claudius
Tiberianus: to the already edited Latin texts Strassi adds a
substantial number of Greek documents that were found subsequently at
Karanis. Strassi intends the book to be the stimulus for further
research; more documents that have recently emerged from the house of
Tiberianus and still await publication will certainly trigger new ideas
and interpretations of the already published documents.

After an Introduction, and a list of Abbreviations and Bibliography,
Section II presents a new edition of the texts, first the Latin and
then the Greek letters, each with a brief introduction, an Italian
translation and notes, followed by indexes. Section III analyses the
historical context. Section IV looks at the provenance of the letters
and the places mentioned. Section V presents the dramatis personae,
that is, the families of Tiberianus and Terentianus. Section VI
considers the other people mentioned in the archive reconstructing
their life and role on the basis of external documentary evidence. An
Appendix looks at SB 6.9636 (PCornell 1.64), which, according to
Strassi, might possibly be connected to the archive. Indexes of Greek
and Latin names close the volume.

In the Introduction, Strassi gives us a concise, yet detailed overview
of the history of the excavations at Karanis. The documentation
concerning House B167, where the archive was found, shows that the
letters belong to the level C of occupation, which is dated
approximately to the years 80-180, and this helps to locate
chronologically the undated items of the archive. For a complete
picture of the dig, the archaeological remains, the artefacts and the
papyri found on the site, Strassi directs us to the forthcoming volume
by A. Verhoogt and R.P. Stephan, The House of Claudius Tiberianus. Text
and Artefact from House C/B167. Strassi then gives a list and a
complete concordance of the papyri, both unpublished and published,
which were found in the house of Tiberianus.

Section II presents the texts in (roughly) the same order in which they
were first published. None of the letters are securely dated, but, on
the basis of the contents, the first editors established that the Greek
letters are later than the Latin ones, and belong to the beginning of
the second century (except PMich 8.510, of the second/third century).
In most cases, the author is Terentianus, writing from the liburna
Neptunus, of the classis Augusta Alexandrina (anchored either in
Alexandria, or in a Syrian port), or from his tent in the Roman camp of
Nikopolis. From 18 (SB 6.9636) we know that Terentianus was discharged
in year 21 of Hadrian, that is, 136, and Strassi hypothesises that he
was enrolled not later than 110, as 25 years was the minimum service
required in order to obtain honesta missio.

In Section III, Strassi rejects the earlier argument that Terentianus
enrolled in the Alexandrian fleet in order to participate in Trajan's
war against the Jewish Diaspora Revolt of 116/117, and argues that his
ship was part of the convoy (vexillatio) sent to Syria around 114 to
support, and above all provide food supply, to Trajan's war against the
Parthians. Further sources indicate that Q. Marcius Turbo, prefect of
the fleet at Misenum, was in Syria in the second half of 114, and that
it was on his quadrireme Ops that Trajan reached Antioch.[[1]]
Conversely, Strassi argues that the Diaspora Revolt of 116/117 did not
involve a massive use of the Roman fleet (or, at least, there is no
evidence for this). Strassi hypothesises that around 115/116, at the
beginning of the Diaspora Revolt, Terentianus was transferred from the
fleet to a legion, possibly the legio XXII Deiotariana, based at
Nikopolis. Strassi rightly points out that quick transfers of troops
from one to another part of the empire were standard practice in the
Eastern provinces. However, one could argue that a high mobility and
flexibility of the Roman auxiliaries is documented in the Northern part
of the Empire as well, notably by the Vindolanda Tablets.

At the end of Section III, Strassi proposes a new chronology of the
documents, all to be attributed, in her view, to the years 110-115.
Strassi suggests that Terentianus' reference, in 12 (PMich 8.477) and
13 (PMich 8.478), to 'troubles and civil strife in the city'
(<greek>qo/rubos kai\ a)katastasi/a th=s po/lews</greek>) indicate that
he was involved in the skirmishes that preceded and triggered the
Diaspora Revolt in Alexandria. Although the official term used in
documents to indicate this war was <greek>ta/raxos</greek> or
tumultus,[[2]] CPJ 2.444.25 speaks in terms of <greek>qo/rubos</greek>,
'troubles', with explicit reference to the Jews, and
<greek>sta/sis</greek> to indicate the civil struggle between
Alexandrian Greeks and Jews. Terentianus was actually wounded in the
war, and Tiberianus, although he had given up active military service
(or was about to do so) around 116, was probably still in touch with
the army, as he features in the documents as speculator legionis, that
is, agent of the intelligence service of the provincial governor.

Language is one of the most interesting aspects of the archive.
Strikingly, as soon as Tiberianus settles down as a veteran in Karanis,
he starts receiving letters in Greek. Strassi explains that, while
during the official term of military service, communication among
soldiers had to be in Latin, once Tiberianus established himself in
Karanis he switched to his preferred language, Greek, a language that
was permeating all aspects of life in Egyptian villages of the Roman
period. The linguistic factor helps Strassi to address the old question
as to whether Claudius Tiberianus and Claudius Terentianus were father
and son (Section V). Although the majority of scholars regarded their
common Latin nomen as the proof of their kinship, Strassi convincingly
points out that the homonymy of the Roman name was a common feature to
many soldiers and does not imply kinship. Furthermore, it is unlikely
that Terentianus would have joined the Egyptian fleet, the least
appealing division of the army, had he been the son of a Roman
citizen--he would have joined the regular army from the beginning, thus
avoiding the problems and frustrations he complains about in his
letters. Finally, it is unlikely that Terentianus, whose first language
was Greek, would have written to his father in an uncertain, Hellenised
Latin. In 1, 2, and 9 (PMich 8. 467.32, 468.II.46-8, and 471.20-21
respectively) Terentianus explicitly refers to a Ptolemaeus as my
father, and in 14 (PMich 8.479) he clearly distinguishes his own family
from Tiberianus, although he addresses the latter with the conventional
formula <greek>tw=| patri\ kai\ kuri/w|</greek>.[[3]] Furthermore, the
tone of 7 (PMich 8.472), the letter written by Tiberianus to his
superior Longinius Priscus, suggests that Terentianus was connected to
Tiberianus by patronage, not by kinship. Still, as Strassi points out
in Section VI, it is likely that Terentianus' and Tiberianus' families
knew each other from before their military service. Perhaps, Tiberianus
originally came from an area or a village near that of Terentianus, and
thus remained in touch with his prote/ge/, at least during the latter's
military career.

In Section VI Strassi looks at the friends of Tiberianus and
Terentianus. Strassi regards the people described as those from the
Kaisareion as a group of veterans and military officials who gathered
around the Kaisareion of Alexandria or in the <greek>xw/ra</greek>, and
performed various activities around this institution, including the
opening of wills, business transactions, and public ceremonies.[[4]]
Among the friends of Tiberianus there is Longinius Priscus, a military
of higher rank, whom Tiberianus addresses deferentially as dominus et
rex in 7, the only document written by Tiberianus himself, probably the
first draft of a recommendation letter. This type of address finds
parallels in the Vindolanda Tablets, where a decurion calls Flavius
Cerialis, the prefect of the cohort, rex, and also in CIL XIV 4239 =
ILS 1013 where an equestrian addresses the wife of a consul as regina.
Gaius Longinius Priscus was probably a citizen of Antinooupolis
mentioned in connection with the Kaisareion of Arsinoe and the
testament of a soldier in Karanis in 131.[[5]] He was a veteran and an
entrepreneur who, possibly along with his brother Longinius Celer,
specialised in financial activities, such as loans and the lease of a
large workshop, or even a cartel (<greek>e)rgasi/a</greek>), of
goldsmiths.

This book is certainly a valuable contribution to our knowledge of
Roman Egypt, and opens many windows on diverse disciplines, such as to
the economic role of the army in the province of Egypt, the world of
Greek and Latin letters, the history of the Latin Language (especially
of the so-called Vulgar Latin). In her conclusion, Strassi expresses
the desideratum of a prosopography of Roman Karanis (in the footsteps
of the pioneering work of Carl Wessely), that includes Demotic
documents along with Latin and Greek ones: on many occasions, Strassi
emphasizes the importance of the computer-based resources now available
(such as the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) for the work of the
papyrologist.

The archive of Tiberianus would have profited from a closer comparison
with the Vindolanda Tablets, that document large movements of troops
across Europe in the late first and early second centuries, and
contribute, from the North-Eastern periphery of the empire, to cast
light on Trajan's military policy. Other minor points of critique are
that the book has no photographs of the texts, which would have allowed
the readers to train themselves as papyrologists by looking at the
Latin and Greek scripts, and no maps, whereas a plan of the house of
Tiberianus and a map of ancient Karanis might have helped to visualise
the original location of the archive. Nonetheless, Strassi should be
thanked for her excellent work, which illuminates the history of Egypt
as a Roman province, and constitutes  both a scholarly and lively read
for an interdisciplinary audience of classicists, historians, and
linguists.


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Notes:


1.   See W. Eck and A. Pangerl (eds.), 'Trajans Heer im Partherkrieg.
Zu einem neuen Diploma us dem Jahr 115', Chiron 35 (2005) 49-67.

2.   See M. Pucci Ben Zeev, Diaspora Judaism in Turmoil, 116/117 CE:
Ancient Sources and Modern Insights, Leuven, 2005.

3.   See E. Dickey, 'Literal and Extended Use of Kinship Terms in
Documentary Papyri', Mnemosyne 57 (2004) 131-76).

4.   Strassi fully analysed the evidence concerning Kaisareia in Egypt
in '<greek>*Oi( e)k tou= *Kaisarei/ou</greek>: diffusione e valore
simbolico dei Kaisareia nell'Egitto romano', APF 52 (2006) 218-43,
reprinted in R. Haensch, J. Heinrichs (eds.), Herrschen und Verwalten,
Koelner historische Abhandlungen 46, Koeln-Weimar-Wien, 2007, 400-26).

5.   PLond 3.906, p. 107, ChLA 10.412; M. Amelotti, Il testamento
romano attraverso la prassi documentale, I. Le forme classiche di
testamento, Firenze 1996, no. 6; L. Migliardi Zingale, I testamenti
romani nei papiri e nelle tavolette d'Egitto, Torino, 1997, no. 3).