4302. NEW COMEDY

2 After exō outside the top of a triangular letter appears; there is doubtful ink on shifted fibres, possibly a median horizontal; then delta; then another triangular letter, in context presumably alpha. Regarding the reading didask teach/instruct: the space, and perhaps the trace, suggest something wider than an iota. deda known would suit the second trace, if the fibres are arranged correctly: perhaps exō dedan- known outside (cf. A 15 "how much is inside, how much have I lent to some people").

] . iota, apparently not kai and (perhaps "one talent" or "70 mnai" monetary units, as in lines 6–7); possibly ]nu iota. If so, we could think of a proper name (say, "it has been lent outside; to Dexioni ten mnai, to Aristopeithei ten mnai").

"Ten mnai," Menander, Kolax The Flatterer 129.

3 Aristopeith-: the proper name seems inevitable (aristopoi- cannot be read): not attested in literature, but there is a scatter of examples in inscriptions (two from Attica, LGPN II (1994) 60).

4 Aischron or aischrōn shameful, but its recurrence (lines 6, 18) points to a proper name; and in IV 678 it is accented as such. This name too is new in Comedy, and in literary texts in general; but very common in Attic inscriptions (LGPN II (1994) 16). Here, after su you, and in line 18 after sauton yourself, it looks like a vocative.

]ēsigma: given the many repetitions, ho prostatēs the legal patron could be considered, cf. line 5.

eu oida I know well sounds like an answer to "you do not know." Then there must be a change of speaker (immediately?) after Aischron. But certainly no paragraph was written.

5 ho prostatēs: 678.5 ō prostatē. The word is used in Menander’s Perikeiromene The Girl with the Shorn Hair 279, fragment 408.2, but in very general senses. In the particular sense of a resident alien’s legal patron, it would cohere with Handley’s fragment C 1 polemarcho war-leader/magistrate: see Harrison, Law I 193 f.

] . [ . ]phous: Handley originally proposed ]trophous nurses/foster-siblings (whence syntrophous foster-brothers Mette). But tau is not certain, and nothing can now be seen of the letter before phi: so that (say) engraphous enrolled might be considered.

6–7 What money? (i) It might be the price of a Corinthian girl (lines 8–9), cf. Plautus, Persa 743 "sixty minas" (and often), Epidicus 468. (ii) It might be a capital sum, possibly an inheritance (line 9?), which has to be accounted for (by or to the legal patron).

6 Aischron: the reading is confirmed by the new context. Then, apparently, a dicolon a mark consisting of two dots used to indicate a change of speaker and epsilon or theta: e.g. egō I, echei he/she has (cf. line 5) etc.

8 pare . [, apparently an upright on the edge, e.g. parergōs incidentally, par' e . [, rather than parelthōn passing by, pareschon I provided? But the traces are slight.

Korinthia Corinthian might be an ethnic (it is the title of plays by Antiphanes and Philemon), or a proper name. But clearly the neuter Korinthia could not be excluded. katelipen left might suggest a will, and Korinthia could then refer to heirlooms. But the verb could equally mean "left behind" (of persons, Aspis 127, 292, Perikeiromene 174).

10 t'argurion the money. The crasis the contraction of two vowels into one is apparently noted in the papyrus by a long-mark.

]': e.g. all' but.

11 ]tion possible: [in the presence of witnesses], then (say) "of three? of some?"

12 ]eis ·, the stop is vestigial; not seemingly a dicolon. At the end, de ti but something or de ti.

13 ]o or ]theta. Perhaps "Did I receive something?"—"As if after all we didn’t all see it at close quarters." Or, if "not after all" should begin its clause, "ridiculous" (the stripped fibres might conceal a stop, or even a dicolon) "we did not see it correctly, those of us present." No sign of a dicolon after "nearby," although the surface is partly preserved.

15 ]nonti, 16 ]anonti: -anōn ti? or a verbal form? After "you took" and "I have taken" (lines 11, 13), the altercation might continue (say) "and you were present for me taking it, runaway?" : "In any case: you were present taking it?" : "Obviously."

16 pantōs in any case: the dicolon following is likely, although the lower dot is dim. This might be a one-word comment, as at Menander’s Epitrepontes 238; but there is no sign of a dicolon at the end of line 15, although the paragraph indicates a change of speaker at some point in the line.

"Obviously" might be a one-word utterance (Alexis 177.6, as articulated by Meineke); or a one-word clause (Aristophanes, Wasps 442). Again there is no sign of a dicolon after it.

17 "What is it? Wait and restrain yourself at your leisure?" Cf. Menander, Samia 327. The traces before "yourself" most suggest sigma; but a small disturbance of the fibres may be enough to conceal the right-hand tip of the cross-bar of epsilon.

Below the beginning, damaged fibres; a paragraph may or may not have been written.

18 f. For example: "You were present" (cf. 15–16). "I observe the matter" (Samia 153–4), "I have it. / This is your work, / just now I learned." But there are two uncertainties about the punctuation. (i) After "matter," high ink has the right shape for an apostrophe, but another spot below remains unaccounted for: was it a middle stop? or might it be taken with the high ink to form a dicolon? (ii) What follows "I have" might be a stop, or a damaged dicolon.

The decipherment of the marginal note remains doubtful. We take the squiggle as an all-purpose abbreviation mark (as often in documents), we could interpret "to Kallian..., Kallianakti" attested names, though not in Comedy; then possibly "fight"? If this is a gloss, there must have been some equivalent in the text; yet the space and the sense leave little room for manoeuvre.