An Inscribed Hadra Hydria in the Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim

Author(s): P. J. Connor
Source: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology , 1988, Vol. 74 (1988), pp. 240-242
Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3821772

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Sage Publications, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology

This content downloaded from

151.250.139.236 on Wed, 26 May 2021 21:29:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
240 BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS JEA 74

An inscribed Hadra hydria in the Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim

Publication of Hildesheim PM 11 90, a hydria of Egyptian clay, which can be attributed to the Workshop of the
Branchless Laurel. It bears an ink inscription naming an official Philon, here styled agorastes, who is known from
texts dated to 243-233 BC.

OBJECTS relegated to museum storerooms can in time be forgotten. So, although the 1921
catalogue listed four Hadras in the Pelizaeus Museum,' two of these were not brought to the
attention of B. F. Cook during his visit, and came to light again only recently, during a more
systematic search and organization of the museum's collection. The two which were
accessible to Cook (PMi i88 and PMi I89) have recently been allocated by him to,
respectively, his Group IV (the Thunderbolt Group) and Group III (the Two-line
Group).2
It is hoped to produce soon a full publication of these Hadras, together with the remainder
of the collection of Greek vases in Hildesheim.3 In the meantime it seems appropriate to
draw attention to PM 190 (pl. XXXIV, 1-3), a Hadra with an inscription, since, in the
present state of our knowledge, it breaks new ground in several ways.
The hydria4 with, in particular, its pronouncedly ovoid body and extremely high pedestal
foot, cannot easily be paralleled in published material. It should be noted, however, that the
pale buff clay is gritty with a brown-red tinge, especially on the lip, neck, shoulders, and on
the obverse to the bottom of the principal decorative zone, whose lower boundary can be
made out just below the horizontal handles. The clay is clearly local Egyptian and so places
the hydria with that group named recently by Enklaar as from the Workshop of the
Branchless Laurel.5
Whatever the validity of the arguments of P. Callaghan that Hadras were made in Crete
and imported;6 the vases in this Workshop were certainly made in Alexandria. The hydria
Amsterdam 8723,7 itself also from the Workshop of the Branchless Laurel, is close to
PM 1I90 in some respects, such as the neck, the flattened spread of the foot, and the
lateral handles, which are round in section and strongly turned up to vertical. How-
ever, Amsterdam 8723 has a shoulder which is slightly pronounced, unlike the steady,
uninterrupted curve of the body of PM 1190 from neck to foot. PM 1190 does not have
rotellae on the vertical handle but, like Amsterdam 8723,8 it has a dropped floor.
On PM 1190, the painted decoration has almost completely disappeared. However,
beneath the lateral handles, the lower boundary of the principal decorative zone is clearly
visible: a double band which circles the pot.9 Beside the left horizontal handle can be seen

1 G. Roeder, in Mitwirkung von A. Ippel, Die Denkmaler des Pelizaeus Museum zu Hildesheim (Berlin, 1921),
178.
2 B. F. Cook, 'Some Groups of Hadra Vases', in Alessandria e il mondo ellenistico-romano. Studi in onore di
Achille Adriani (Rome, I984), 795-803. PM i 88 is p. 800, no. 50; PM 1189 is p. 798, no. 36.
3 I thank the Director, Dr A. Eggebrecht and also Dr Bettina Schmitz for their kind invitation to pursue this
study. My research was supported by grants from the Australian Research Grants Scheme.
4 Ht. 40.4 cm, d. lip 14.6 cm, d. foot I cm. A portion of the foot is reattached, some chips missing; the fabric is
cracked on the belly below and to the right of the right handle; otherwise intact. Provenience unknown
(Alexandria?). 5 A. Enklaar, BA Besch, 60 (I985), io6-46; at io8f. and 137 f.
6 For Callaghan's arguments about Cretan manufacture, see his articles
(I980), 33-47; BSA 76 (I981), 35-85; and especially now BSA 80 (I985), I-I7 (with R. E. Jones).
7 See now Enklaar, Vereniging van Vrienden Allard Pierson Museum Amsterdam, Mededelingenblad, Nr. 33
(juni I985), ioff.
8 See Enklaar, Vereniging... i I, fig. 3. The general similarities with Amsterdam 8723 are important because
normally the proportions of hydriae from this workshop are quite heavy: see Enklaar, BA Besch, 60, 137.
9 For the two usual schemes for defining the principal decorative zone, top and bottom, see Enklaar, BA
Besch, 6o, i 6, fig. 4. For the double band in the Workshop of the Branchless Laurel, see, for example, Enklaar,
op. cit. 107, fig. ib (Alexandria 8817) and Amsterdam 8723, Enklaar, Vereniging . ..

This content downloaded from

151.250.139.236 on Wed, 26 May 2021 21:29:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
I988 BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS 24I

the usual narrow vertical panel, criss-crossed by a wide net-pattern, with a long vertical
line, decending from the bottom of it across the double band to the body below. From the
middle of the vertical panel springs a fluid but simple rinceau with one volute downward,
followed by two upward.
The inscription is inked on the body, a little below the double band and slightly to the
right of the vertical panel near the left handle. It reads:

MHNIAJOC CIIN@O[APOY] HPECBEY[TOY]

AHAPCINOHC THC E[IIIIHAM[PYAIAC]
JIAPIASQNOC ArOPAC[TOY]
The first half of each of the three lines is much clearer than the second half, presenting few
problems. The last line is almost completely secure, the end of line i certain. The
patronymic, Spintharos, was suggested to me by P. M. Fraser. The second half of the second
line is particularly lacunose, but the clear indications of some letters combined with the
toponym Arsinoe (though there are several towns of that name in the Greek world) suggest
that the reference is to Arsinoe in Pamphylia, already the known birthplace of an official
visitor to Alexandria.1 The very fragmentary letters above the name of the deceased could
represent the Year 14 (as suggested by Fraser). The name of Philon, the agorastes, the official
named in the inscription is beyond doubt. Forged inscriptions are not unknown,2 but this
text, though the cursive is different from, for example, Breccia 104, appears to be genuine.
Although it is now commonly thought that no linear chronological development can be

regnal year is included, to between 243 and 233 BC.4

The inscription departs from the known pattern of those containing the name Philon, for
in them, AIA IAQNOC is normally placed first, with the exception of Braunert no. 6, where
it appears immediately after the patronymic. More importantly, Philon is here designated
agorastes, a title which was previously known securely only on the later hydriae with the
name of Theodotos, from 219 to 212 BC.5
The name of the deceased, Mtevss is found on a Delian inscription dated to mid-second
century BC.6 Spintharos, too, is recorded as an Attic name, and is also known in Ptolemaic
Egypt.7
Following the demonstration th ththe inscription on Amsterdam 8723 is not genuine, the
class of hydriae made of Egyptian clay, to which PM 1190 belongs, was the only class of

1 H. Braunert, Jdl, 65-6, 1950- , 235, no. 7. See the map in Enklaar, BA Besch, 60, 146, fig. 23.
2 See now Enklaar, Vereniging . . .
3 Cf., for example, P. Callaghan, BICS 30 (1983), 123, 125: 'A late date is particularly implied by the high
pedestal.' See also Enklaar, BA Besch, 60, 117, who approves a similar opinion of Cook, at least for his Laurel
Workshop, 'slender forms appeared suddenly in the 220's'.
4 SeeR. Pagenstecher, AJA 3 (1909), 407, nos. 13, I8-20, and p. 411 for no. 13 as the earliest mention of
Philon. See also Cook, Alessandria, . . . 796, no. 3; 797, nos. I6, I8-19; Enklaar, BA Besch, 60, 1I; Braunert,dl,
65-6, 234, nos. 5-I0; Cook, Inscribed Hadra Vases in the Metropolitan Museum (New York, 1966).
5 Cf. Braunert, Jdl, 65-6, 235, nos. 21, 23-6, and his comments on p. 238. For the office of agorastes, ibid.
231 f. esp. 238 with n. 2; Cook, IHV I9; idem, Brooklyn Museum Annual, 10 (1968), 121 and n. II, 'it is not clear
why an official so titled should be in charge of the burial of foreigners'.
6 See J. Sundwall, supplement to J. Kirchner, Prosopographica Attica (repr. 1981), 127; P. Roussel, BCH 32
(1908), 350, no. 404. See also 178/7 Meritt Agora XV 194.90, and later, SEG 17. 698, 702, 723, 731, 736(?), 737,
740 (Mivis).
7 Kirchner, Prosopographica Attica II, 266, no. i2sof.; W. Peremans and E. Van't Dack, Prosopographia
Ptolemaica vi (Leuven, I975), 15242. The genitive may possibly be t r ivOrpoa from £TTLvO'Yp (so P. M. Fraser).

This content downloaded from

151.250.139.236 on Wed, 26 May 2021 21:29:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
242 BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS JEA 74

significant in that at least one inscription is now to be found on hydriae of the Workshop of
the Branchless Laurel. Since the agorastes Sarapion was active from at least 233 BC,2 it might
be reasonable to date the Hildesheim hydria to shortly before that date, say 234 BC, in order
to bring it as close as possible to the flowering of the more slender hydriae which Enklaar
dates to the 220S.
This date, however, will be difficult to use as a reference point within the Workshop of th
Branchless Laurel, since the shape of the Hildesheim hydria is so different from the others
attributable to the Workshop. It does nevertheless fit within 260-225 BC, the years proposed
by Enklaar as the Workshop'sprincipal principal period of activity.3
P. J. CONNOR

A Latin papyrus with a recruit's request for service in the auxiliary cohorts

Publication of a papyrus from the later years of Trajan, found at Theadelphia, which preserves a draft letter in
Latin from a recruit to the Prefect of Egypt. The writer asks to be enrolled in the auxiliary cohorts, which shows
that probatio in the Roman army was for a specific branch, such as the legions, the alae, the cohorts, or the fleet.
Letters of recommendation were required, even if written by the applicant himself.

IN 1 927, at Theadelphia in the Fayyum, fellahin found a trove of papyri that were afterwards
brought to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. One of these, a Latin letter from the later years of
Trajan, is published here for the first time.4 Shown on pl. XXXVI, i in its original size, it
was once I 2 cm wide and i 9 cm high, although it is now torn in two pieces that do not fully
join. The lower left is lost, but since the writing covers only the upper half of the sheet,
the whole letter is still there.
The text, neatly written in 'Old Roman Cursive',5 can be read as follows;

M. Rutilio Lup[o] praef(ecto) Aegypti

ab C. Valerio S[a]turnino tirone.
Rogo, domine, [dig]num me
iudices ut pr[obe]s militem
in cohorte u[t po]ssim bene-
ficio tuo sub sig[ni]s imp(eratoris)
domini n(ostri) mili[tar]e, genioque
tuo gratias ag[am].

To Marcus Rutilius Lupus, Prefect of Egypt, from Gaius Valerius Saturninus, recruit. I ask
you, Sir, to judge me worthy to be enrolled in a cohort so that I may be able, by your favour, to
serve under the standards of the Emperor, our Lord, and to thank your good spirit.

M. Rutilius Lupus is Trajan's well-known Prefect of Egypt from I 13 to 117.6 C. Valerius

Saturninus, on the other hand, is new to our lists of soldiers in the Roman army of Egypt.7

1 Enklaar, BA Besch, 60, 139. 2 Ibid. 113. 3 Ibid. 139.

For help in various ways I should like to thank P. Callaghan, B. F. Cook, A. Enklaar, P. M. Fraser (who also
read a draft of this note and offered constructive criticism), M. J. Osborne, R. Coles, J. Rea, and J. Whitehorne.
S. Byrne and S. Hannan assisted me with prosopographical details.
4 P. Thead. inv. 31, Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Special Register 3049. We thank Dr Mohammed Saleh,
Director of the Museum, for the permission to publish the papyrus, and Mrs Janet Cooke for her help. The
photograph was taken by Mr Roland Zachmann, Institut fur Papyrologie der Universitait Heidelberg.
5 See the list of letters drawn by A. K. Bowman and J. D. Thomas, Vindolanda: The Latin Writing-Tablets
(London, I983), 54. 6 R. Seider, ZPE 29 (1978), 241I-5I, esp. 247.
7 R. Cavenaile, Aegyptus, 50 (1970), 213-320; N. Criniti, ibid. 53 (I973), 93-158; ibid. 59 (1979), 190-26i.

This content downloaded from

151.250.139.236 on Wed, 26 May 2021 21:29:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
PLATE XXXIV

i. Hildesheim PM 1190 2. Profile

3. Detail of inscription

AN INSCRIBEDThis content HADRA

downloaded HYDRIA
from (pp. 240-2)
151.250.139.236 on Wed, 26 May 2021 21:29:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms