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Titus and Alexandria: A New Document

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

C. H. Roberts
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Extract

The genesis and character of the texts commonly known as the Acta Alexandrinorum or Acts of the Heathen Martyrs are still so much in question that a new fragment, however small, has some claims to attention. The papyrus published below from the Rendel Harris collection introduces a new episode in the Historia Calamitatum. Hitherto there has been a gap between the Acta Isidori set in the reign of Claudius and the Acta Hermaisci set in that of Trajan; that the brief reign of Titus (whose character would not easily lend itself to the part normally assigned the Emperor in these documents) was made to supply material for propaganda suggests that few if any of the emperors of the first two centuries escaped the pillory. Of the contents of the papyrus there is not much to be said; Titus appears to be defending the procedure of this or some other trial against Hermias (presumably the leader of the Alexandrians) who demands (whether in sympathy or malice is not clear) that a third party, perhaps a Roman, be allowed to make his defence; however, the latter declines.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 39 , Issue 1-2 , November 1949 , pp. 79 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © C. H. Roberts 1949. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 See Welles, C. Bradford, ‘A Yale Fragment of the Acts of Appian,’ in Trans. Am. Phil. Ass. LXVII (1936), 7 ff.Google Scholar To the texts listed there should now be added P. Oxy. xvm 2177 and P. Erlangen 5.

2 The great majority of these papyri were published by Powell, J. E. in The Rendel Harris Papyri (Cambridge, 1936)Google Scholar; the volume claims to contain ‘all the literary papyri, however fragmentary’, but a visit to Woodbrooke College showed that there are several small literary texts, apart from the one published here, among the unedited papyri. For permission to publish I am indebted to the Woodbrooke Trustees and to Mr. L. Jolley, Librarian of the Selly Oak Colleges. I have further had the advantage of discussing this text with Fr. H. Musurillo who is engaged on a study of the Acta and related documents.

3 Titus' affaire with Berenice may well have occasioned some impertinent quips from Alexandria. Two Cynic philosophers had been punished in the previous reign for criticizing him on this score (Dio Cassius LXV, 15, 5) : but Dio also tells us that Titus killed no one during his reign (LXVI 18, 1) and did not recognize the charge of maiestas (ibid. 19, I).

4 This is of some interest as it provides a second exception (the first is the MS of the early recension of the Acta Pauli et Antonini: see Wilcken, U., ‘Zum Alexandrinischen Antisemitismus’ in Abh. Kgl. säcks. Ges. d. Wiss. 27 (1909), 783 ff.)Google Scholar to von Premerstein's thesis that the Acta as we have them belong to a single work composed in the reign of Caracalla. Other internal difficulties in this view have been pointed out by Bell, H. I. (Archiv für Papyrusforschung xi, 1932, 5)Google Scholar.