The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part 62

Handley considered the possibility that his fragments belonged to Aspis The Shield: the dialogue between Enquirer and Slave, preserved in his frr. A and B, might be a dialogue between Smikrines and Daos, and fit in the large lacuna after Aspis 468. H. J. Mette, Lustr. 25 (1983) 15, 21–3, accepted the placing, combined the fragments into continuous text, and offered some new supplements. M. Rossi, Prom. 3 (1977) 43–8, produced arguments against the attribution; W. G. Arnott, Menander I (1979) 7–10, and D. Del Corno, Scritti in onore di O. Montevecchi Writings in Honor of O. Montevecchi (1981) 125–31, are equally sceptical.

The new fragment contributes to this discussion. (i) We do not know whether Aristopeithes (3) appeared in the play; but clearly Aischron played a substantial part, and prima facie at first sight he is addressed, i.e. on stage, in 4 and 18. But no such character appears in the reasonably full cast-list that we can reconstruct for Aspis. (ii) A prostates patron/legal protector appears here (4?, 5), and in the vocative in 678. If the word here refers, as often, to the patron of a metic, that would suit the concern with property and the polemarch an Athenian magistrate mentioned in Handley's fr. C. But, as Rossi argued, although property is central to Aspis, there is no clear mention of metic property.

What happens in frr. 1 + 2 is less easy to say. We think it most likely that the general theme is an actual or potential swindle, directed to the property of an heiress who, being a metic, is in the charge of a prostates and subject to the jurisdiction of the polemarch: some undisclosed fact will make the swindle rebound on its perpetrator. The position of an heiress is (given the nature of Athenian law) a likely enough motif for a comic plot: apart from Aspis, compare LIX 3972. Another type of financial plot is implied by the title of Menander's Parakatatheke The Deposit.

1: a . . [ ] . . [
exō . . da[
Aristopei . [
Aischrōn[
5: ō prosta . [
mnasebd . [
mnasebd . [
egō pare . [
Korinthia[
10: t' argyrio[
elabes sy[
timēn k[
eilēpha p[
eblepom . [

] . phē : [[ . ]] lege :
] . . mnaideka ·
] . ouk oistha sy
]ēseu oid' hoti
5: ] . [. .]phou se chei
] . sest . . . . rōn . . [
]eras : all' ouk echeis[
]Korinthia :
]katelipe
10: ]' . . . ys parōn
]tio . . . [. .] . . . [
]eis · gō de ti
] . ion ouk ara
]ontes plēsion