COMEDY

5        the prostates legal patron/protector                   ] . [ . . ] phous? has

         seventy mnai monetary units              ] . s is Aischron . . [

         seventy mnai              ] eras? : but you do not have[

         I pare? . [                   ] Corinthian :

         Corinthian[                     ] left behind

10      the money[                     ]’ immediately present

         you took su[                   ] tio? . . . [ . . ] . . . [

         value k?[                      ] ; but I [something]

         I have taken p?[                      ] . ion? therefore not

         we were looking[                   ] ontes? nearby

15      but you to me . [                   ] nonti?, runaway slave

         at all : pa?[                   ] anonti? : obviously

         what is it anam?[                  ] . yourself at leisure

         Aischron : p?[                  ] o? the matter I have · [ ] twi? kallian? sm? . . [

         it is yours [                  ] k?[a]learned ·

20      O utter scoundrel[                   ] . i now you will fight :

         as you do not poes? . [                 ] . obviously

         of the agreed things?[             ] is? this · and just as the[

         that gep? . . eisthe?'[

We have three clues to the general reconstruction. (i) Characters. Clearly we have dialogue, but no evidence of a third speaker. One speaker will be Aischron, if he is addressed in 4 and 18; one or other might be a slave, if we assume (what is not certain) that only a slave would be addressed as drapeta runaway slave (15). (ii) Background. We have to accommodate ho prostates the patron, Korinthia Corinthian woman (if a person), katelipe he/she left behind, money and an agreement (22). One scheme would involve a Corinthian metic resident alien, an inheritance, and her Athenian patron; the polemarch an Athenian magistrate (mentioned in Handley's fr. C 1) would have jurisdiction in such cases. (iii) Action. This is an argument: the speakers proceed by taking up each other's words (3–4?, 6–7, 8–9, 15–6). In 17 Aischron is apparently exhorted to keep calm; therefore it may be he who uses the insults in 15 and 20. The other party perhaps questions his conduct, and especially what he has done with the money. Note that paragraphoi dashes used to mark changes in speaker may (or may not) be lost below lines 17 and 19.

Some of this can be confirmed from Handley's fr. A. There too there is a dialogue. One party is certainly a slave (3). There is mention of money (2), of theft (5), of making a true apographe written declaration/inventory (14) of what is 'within' and what has been loaned out (15). Prima facie At first sight it is the slave who must account for the property.

1 autes[ possible.

] .phe, the first trace is on the underfibres, and probably too far to the left to encourage ephe. Since the talk is of money, apographe (apegraphe etc) would be one possibility (cf. Handley’s fr. A 14).

:[ . . ], perhaps :[ n]. After h, apparently a dicolon in normal form, though rather faint; then a little scattered ink; then two short horizontals which also could be taken as a bold dicolon. Since the surface is relatively well-preserved, we assume that a letter was deliberately expunged; it is not clear why part of it was left (unless indeed the original dicolon was expunged with the rest, and the short horizontals were written to replace it and to fill out the gap).