The secondary series

After the �main series’ of texts described above in some detail there follow, more briefly described, a �secondary series’, also in roughly chronological order, to give additional testimony to the richness of the available material.

P.Lond. 354 (Vol. II, p. 165), line 19, 7-4 BC, deserves mention because of its early date. In a petition from two people in custody to C. Turranius, the Prefect, reference is made to what probably means a �successful battle by (our opponents’) rhetores'’.

P.Hamb. 29 (= Meyer, JP 85) item 1, AD 89 is a case before the Prefect, M. Mettius Rufus. Apollodoros, rhetor makes a plea in oratio recta on behalf of hoi synegoroumenoi hyp’emou �my clients’, whose claim is that they cannot properly reply to a charge unless they get ta biblia �the papers’ from their guardian.

P.Wisc. inv. no. 42,^[279] early second century, records pro­ceedings before a strategos. The defendant has an advocate, [...]os rhetor, later just called ho rhetor, whose remarks are given in oratio recta. The other party is referred to as ho antidikos �the opponent’, and may be appearing in person. The defendant intervenes on his own account.

P.CairoPreis. 1 (= P.Fay. 203), second century, before the iuridicus (disc. Katzoff), has one rhetor reading out certain kriseis �judgments’ as precedents; and another rhetor is Kallinikos, whom we have met before in �main series’ No. 11.

P.Giss. 84, second century: a legal wrangle with at least one rhetor involved.

PSI 1411 (Papiro Paoli), second century, sounds as if it is a speech or speeches of an advocate or advocates: �... due (ophei- lomenon) to the opponent’, �the ekdikos having said through his synegoroi “advocates” that the (female) opponent..

BGU 592, second century, records a suit before a krites who is a former gymnasiarchos.

P.CairoGoodsp. 29,^[282] mid-second century, has an advocate pleading forcefully in oratio recta on behalf of ten syne- goroumenen; he seems scornful of the alleged identity of his client’s opponent: �Well, let us grant she is Loukia the daughter of Amatios.’ In Col. Ill an advocate named Rufus^[283] intervenes after judgment to ask for an arbiter �so that our (female) opponent may restore to my client (tei synegoroumenei) the....’

P.Oxy. 2111, c. AD 135, contains three cases before the Prefect, the third involving murder. There are advocates in each.

BGU 19 (=M. Chr. 85), AD 135, has an advocate arguing, after judgment, about interim fruits.

P.Oxy. 707 verso, Col. II, c. AD 136, is a narratio in court by one Sarapion, rhetor.

SPP XXI 184, c. AD 140, is a long text about, apparently, a quarrel as to the rights of certain people to a hereditary priesthood at Soknopaiou Nesos. A petition to the strategos and the basilikos grammateus quotes previous proceedings before the same strategos, where an unnamed rhetor speaks for one side; one cannot tell whether the plea of the opponents is through a rhetor, though that is probable.

BGU 969, (probably) AD 142,^[284] heard before a former gymna­siarchos, is about a claim for exemption from corvee on the plea of ktenotrophia �animal-rearing’:^[285] two parties dispute who is entitled to the privilege. Each has an advocate, but, as so often, when the judge puts points, in this case asking the parties to choose - presumably - commissioners to adjudicate, the litigants reply in person.

P.Phil. 3, c. AD 144, records a weaver pleading before the strategos for exemption from a liturgy, two people synegorounton autoi �being advocates for him’.

P.Berl. inv. no. 692, AD 147,^[286] is a speech of Athenodoros, rhet(or), in oratio recta.

P.Oxf.

CPR VII 4, AD 156:^[287] two summaries of proceedings before the Prefect M. Sempronius Liberalis, about assumption of a gymnasiarchy. We can detect the advocate’s plea and see the judgment. The plaintiff and his advocate are both present.

P.Mich. (ix) 534, AD 156: a petition to - probably - the Prefect about failure of an adversary to appear. The petitioner says: �I petitioned before (pro) the tribunal through Ammonios, rhetor, on the 29th tou autou menos (? of last month) and my adversary was summoned.’

P.Oxy. 653 (= M. Chr. 90), AD 160-2. The issue, complicated and obscure, seems to be a dispute about the recovery of hypothecated property. A rhetor, Isidoros, speaks on behalf of his client Sempronios Orestinos and replies to observations by the Prefect. A certain Krepeinos^[288] intervenes, perhaps as advocate for the debtor.

P.Oslo 80, after AD 161, comprises extracts from reports of proceedings before an epistrategos, in which rhetores �reply’ and �stand up’ and �say...’.

SB 9329 (= P.Soknobr. 20), AD 171, has a spirited beginning: �Apollophilos, rhetor, parestos autois “acting for them” said: “Hoi pragmatikoi (? here �the bureaucrats’) are doing violence to my clients...”.’

P.Oxy. 3562, AD 178-9, from the record of an epistrategos, has advocates in a suit about distraint on a mortgage.

BGU 893, second or third century, is very fragmentary, which is a pity, because it was evidently a colourful wrangle, with numerous people, litigants and advocates, intervening.

P.Bon. 16: exactly the same can be said of this document as of the preceding.

BGU 1567, third century, contains proceedings before a strategos in a matter of beehives. There is one certain advocate, and several other interlocutors are probably so.

BGU 390, early third century, contains an altercatio between Ammonios, rhetor, speaking for (hyper) one side and Heliodoros, rhetor, for the other.

P.Paris 69 (= W. Chr. 41), AD 232, is an extract from the daily record of a strategos. In Col. Ill one Agathos Daimon, rhetor, makes a long speech; there is a man called Philammon who may be the advocate for the other party, and in line 18 a possible reference to the presence of a nomikos.

SEG XIII 625, latest-dated part AD 237, is an inscription, included to reinforce No. 25 in the �main series’, above. The inscription,^[289] from Phrygia, records a succession of battles between villages over their respective liabilities to provide animals for stretches of the government posts and commu­nications network. The battles took place before imperial procurators, the first (its date not recoverable) at a place called Anosa, the second at Prymnessos in AD 213, the third more than twenty years later, in AD 237, at Synnada. The cases on behalf of the villagers are presented^[290] by men of their respective villages. They are not described as rhetores, and are probably not professional advocates, the more probably because there occurs one significant reference to advocacy, when one of the village representatives, the procurator having given judgment, says:^[291] dia synegoro [...] �through an advocate’ [... (perhaps) �we shall appeal’]. So if they �go higher’ the villagers will - perhaps will be expected to - call upon a professional presentation.

P.Oxy. 3579, AD 325, will serve as a pleasant finale, in which the defendant’s advocate puts in a paragraphe �demurrer’ on the ground that the suit ought to lie against other defendants, and exclaims exultantly ten paragraphen epengeilamen thaumasten ousan kai ennomotaten �The demurrer I have announced is brilliant and legally absolutely spot-on’; but the judge merely

III. Advocacy in the papyri: the under-exploited source 113 says �It’s now evening, and the Lord’s Day has begun,^[292] so we must adjourn.’^[293]