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Introduction

Medical recipe (P.Oxy. LXXX 5244). The fragment (6.5x12.5 cm) contains the initial 13 lines of a recipe for a powder dental preparation against ulceration of the gums. The text is written against the fibers of the verso of a Latin military document dated to AD 244-9 ( P.Oxy. LXXXIII 5363 ). The original upper and left-hand margins are preserved to 1.6 and 0.6-1.2 cm respectively, while the current right-hand edge falls just to the left of the original margin. The formulation is explicity attributed to one Julian of Caesarea, who could be the Methodist physician, of unknown origin, who worked in Alexandria around AD 150. Several prescriptions of his are preserved. The first two ingredients correspond to an eye-salve against ulcers attributed to Nilammon by Paul. VII 16.16 (another version in Aet. VII 106). The hand is a well-executed upright cursive like that of P.Oxy. XLVII 3366 c, dated to AD 258.

(This papyrus has been digitally edited by Nicola Reggiani in the framework of the PRIN 2017 Project "Greek and Latin Literary Papyri from Graeco-Roman and Late Antique Fayum (4th BC – 7th AD): Texts, Contexts, Readers" funded by the Italian Ministry of Research (P.I. Prof. Lucio Del Corso, University of Cassino; Local Research Unit at the University of Parma, coordinator: Prof. Nicola Reggiani). The digital edition is mostly based on the previous edition (M. Hirt, P.Oxy. LXXX 5244).)

Notes

• 1.

  The initial π is slightly enlarged.