عنوان

A Gift of One Eunuch and Four Slave Boys:

Number

LA118930

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

A Gift of One Eunuch and Four Slave Boys:

General Material Designation

[Article]

Other Title Information

P.Cair.Zen. I 59076 and Historical Construction

First Statement of Responsibility

Anna Krautbauer, Stephen Llewelyn, Blake Wassell, et al.

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

Leiden

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Brill

Text of Note

P.Cair.Zen. I 59076 is a letter sent by Toubias, the head of an influential Jewish family in the Transjordan, to Apollonios, an important official of the Ptolemaic king. It concerns the dispatch of a eunuch and four boys to him. The article focuses on the role of the eunuch. It critiques the accepted view that he was the boys' tutor arguing instead that he was of value in his own right as a personal attendant in an elite household. The role of eunuchs more generally is discussed to bolster the argument. If correct, there must have been a perceived demand for such persons in royal and elite households. This in turn has implications for the possible fate of the four boys, who are all prepubescent. Though the papyrus illustrates the means by which the Tobiad family was able to maintain its powerful position in the Ptolemaic territory of Coele-Syria, the article highlights two responsibilities of modern historiography, both to appreciate the great worth of the Zenon archive and to carefully remember the marginalized of antiquity. P.Cair.Zen. I 59076 is a letter sent by Toubias, the head of an influential Jewish family in the Transjordan, to Apollonios, an important official of the Ptolemaic king. It concerns the dispatch of a eunuch and four boys to him. The article focuses on the role of the eunuch. It critiques the accepted view that he was the boys' tutor arguing instead that he was of value in his own right as a personal attendant in an elite household. The role of eunuchs more generally is discussed to bolster the argument. If correct, there must have been a perceived demand for such persons in royal and elite households. This in turn has implications for the possible fate of the four boys, who are all prepubescent. Though the papyrus illustrates the means by which the Tobiad family was able to maintain its powerful position in the Ptolemaic territory of Coele-Syria, the article highlights two responsibilities of modern historiography, both to appreciate the great worth of the Zenon archive and to carefully remember the marginalized of antiquity.

Date of Publication

2014

Physical description

305-325

Title

Journal for the Study of Judaism

Volume Number

45/3

International Standard Serial Number

1570-0631

Subject Term

eunuch

Subject Term

papyrology

Subject Term

slavery

Subject Term

Tobiad family

Subject Term

Zenon

Anna Krautbauer

Blake Wassell

Stephen Llewelyn

Call Number

10.1163/15700631-12340058

Electronic name

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y