| Description | P.Oxy. XXXIII 2673, P.Oxy. 33 2673: Declaration of church property
These three copies of the same document (12 x 26 cm) were written by different hands, but have the same ὐπογραφεύς. The sheets were attached to one another by a knotted strip of papyrus tied through a vertical slit. Addressed to officials Aurelius Neilus, Aurelius Sarmates and Aurelius Matrinus, the document is precisely dated to 10 Mecheir (line 33), as well as the 20th and 12th year of Diocletian and Maximian, and Constantius and Galerius. Other notable persons mentioned are procurator rei privatae Aurelius Athanasius (otherwise only mentioned in P.Oxy. 33 2665), Neratius Apollonides (magister rei privatae) and prefect Clodius Culcianus. Dating to the Diocletianic Persecution, this declaration of property may have been a reaction to the first edict of 23 February 303, stating that the former church of Chysis (τῆς ποτε ἐκλησίας κώμης Χύσεως, line 9) possessed nothing of value apart from bronze objects (initially misread as πύλην instead of ὕλην, see Rea 1979) which had already been confiscated and brought to Alexandria. The document’s author, Aurelius Ammonius son of Kopreus, identifies himself as the church lector (ἀναγνωστής); it is however an Aurelius Serenus who has signed on his behalf, since the former “cannot write” (ὑ[πὲρ] αὐτοῦ μὴ εἰ̣[δότος] γρά[μματα], line 35). This initially presumed illiteracy has been much discussed, but is now assumed to either mean that Ammonius was fluent and literate in Coptic, but not Greek, or that he could read, but not write.
The fragment P.Harr. 2 208 is dated four days after P.Oxy. 33 2673 and contains lines 22–33 near-verbatim. Its hand also seems to match Copy A. |
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