DOI Artikel:
Kenyon, Frederic George: Progress of Egyptology, [12]: Graeco-Roman Egypt
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10056#0053
Gtbabco-Eoman Egypt.
41
between the cost of manufacturing the oil (which was fixed) and the sum
which they could obtain by bargaining with the retail dealers, who them-
selves had to sell at a fixed price. Regulations were made to secure the
production of a sufficient quantity of oil throughout the country; and a
schedule is appended showing the amount of land in each nome which
was assigned to the purpose.
The rest of the papyrus is quite fragmentary, but contains sections
dealing with the relations between the royal banks and the government,
and with some miscellaneous taxes. Mr. Grenfell's commentary to the
whole papyrus is full and instructive, and his treatment alike of the text
and its explanation does him the greatest credit. He has added a
new text of Papyrus 62 of the Louvre, and a long appendix on the silver
and copper coinage of the Ptolemies, of which the main conclusions may be
summarized as follows :—(1) From Soter to Philopator inclusive, the
standard was silver, but copper was largely used, and was even accepted
in payment of some taxes at its full nominal value, though in other
cases it was at a discount of about ten per cent. (2) At the beginning of
Bpiphanes' reign a copper standard was adopted side by side with the
silver : with regard to the ratio between copper and silver, the demotic
formula on which Revillout relied to prove that it was 120: 1 is shown
to be in reality a translation of a Greek formula with quite a different
meaning; but on other grounds it is shown that this is almost certainly
the true exchange ratio, and that the ratio of metal value, from the
time of Philadelphus onwards, is approximately 150 : 1. (3) The silver
drachma was (as is known) on the Phoenician standard of 56 grains; but
the copper drachma was neither Phoenician, as held by Revillout, nor
Attic (67J grains), as held by Poole, but Egyptian (70 grains). These
conclusions, the last of which is based upon au elaborate examination of
the weights of existing coins, will no doubt be criticized by numismatists
and metrologists ; but this is not the place for such criticism, and they
certainly bear, as presented by Mr. Grenfell, a high appearance of
probability.
Mr. Grenfell's second volume2 includes (1) a fragment of a dramatic
.pio_sg_poem, of the second century b.c., in contents resembling the
second idyll of Theocritus, which we may fairly regard as the first
known example of the prose mime ; (2) three fragments of Homer, not
of much importance; (3) four Biblical fragments, one being a fourth-
century papyrus of Ezekiel v. 12—vi. 3, exhibiting a Hexaplar text with
the critical signs of Origen, while another is a vellum MS. of part of the
Protevangelium, with a text differing considerably from that of the
41
between the cost of manufacturing the oil (which was fixed) and the sum
which they could obtain by bargaining with the retail dealers, who them-
selves had to sell at a fixed price. Regulations were made to secure the
production of a sufficient quantity of oil throughout the country; and a
schedule is appended showing the amount of land in each nome which
was assigned to the purpose.
The rest of the papyrus is quite fragmentary, but contains sections
dealing with the relations between the royal banks and the government,
and with some miscellaneous taxes. Mr. Grenfell's commentary to the
whole papyrus is full and instructive, and his treatment alike of the text
and its explanation does him the greatest credit. He has added a
new text of Papyrus 62 of the Louvre, and a long appendix on the silver
and copper coinage of the Ptolemies, of which the main conclusions may be
summarized as follows :—(1) From Soter to Philopator inclusive, the
standard was silver, but copper was largely used, and was even accepted
in payment of some taxes at its full nominal value, though in other
cases it was at a discount of about ten per cent. (2) At the beginning of
Bpiphanes' reign a copper standard was adopted side by side with the
silver : with regard to the ratio between copper and silver, the demotic
formula on which Revillout relied to prove that it was 120: 1 is shown
to be in reality a translation of a Greek formula with quite a different
meaning; but on other grounds it is shown that this is almost certainly
the true exchange ratio, and that the ratio of metal value, from the
time of Philadelphus onwards, is approximately 150 : 1. (3) The silver
drachma was (as is known) on the Phoenician standard of 56 grains; but
the copper drachma was neither Phoenician, as held by Revillout, nor
Attic (67J grains), as held by Poole, but Egyptian (70 grains). These
conclusions, the last of which is based upon au elaborate examination of
the weights of existing coins, will no doubt be criticized by numismatists
and metrologists ; but this is not the place for such criticism, and they
certainly bear, as presented by Mr. Grenfell, a high appearance of
probability.
Mr. Grenfell's second volume2 includes (1) a fragment of a dramatic
.pio_sg_poem, of the second century b.c., in contents resembling the
second idyll of Theocritus, which we may fairly regard as the first
known example of the prose mime ; (2) three fragments of Homer, not
of much importance; (3) four Biblical fragments, one being a fourth-
century papyrus of Ezekiel v. 12—vi. 3, exhibiting a Hexaplar text with
the critical signs of Origen, while another is a vellum MS. of part of the
Protevangelium, with a text differing considerably from that of the