Through the eyes of a student
engaged in the study of rhetoric, unexpected information emerges on the sophistic movement
in Alexandria.1 P.Oxy. 2190 is a first-century papyrus,
possibly from Vespasian's Principate, which yields vital information on that movement in
this 'second Athens' in the East.2 The primary purpose of this
lengthy letter, written by Neilus from Alexandria to his father, Theon, in Oxyrhynchus, was
to gain parental approval for alternative educational arrangements which arose because he
had been unable to enroll in a reputable sophist's school. His other concerns, including a
misdemeanor committed in the theatre, are important for this discussion only as they relate
to his education, namely his lack of progress and the shortage of
money. He reports on the
pressing need for more of the latter, especially with a younger brother due to arrive to
'learn letters' in Alexandria. Apart from food sent by his father, Neilus' other source of
income appears to have been a slave who had worked in Alexandria to support him and who had
now escaped custody after landing himself in trouble. Neilus was further distressed by the
educational difficulties he had encountered in Alexandria. He placed the blame for these on
the ineptitude and/or the laziness of teachers, possible interference from a fellow student,
Philoxenus, and the worry his slave had caused him. (See the Appendix for the full
text.)
This
interesting letter discusses not only the problems the student encountered with his
education in Alexandria, but also important educators in the first-century sophistic
tradition, namely the 'sophist' (σοφιστής), the 'tutor' (καθηγητής) and the 'declaimer'
(ἐπιδεικνύμενος), including one specifically named Ποσειδώνιος. It also confirms the
picture that has recently emerged of first-century paideia over against the
traditional view of a more structured three-tier education
system.3 This papyrus provides important information on four
matters relating to the sophistic movement in the first century: (1) a shortage of sophists'
schools in Alexandria; (2) the hiring of a private tutor in rhetoric as an alternative
educational route for declamation practice; (3) attendance at public declamations as an
additional way of enhancing rhetorical skills; and
(4) the social status of the students of the sophists.
The shortage of sophists' schools
Surprisingly, Neilus speaks of 'a shortage of the sophists' (ἡ τῶν
σοφιστῶν ἀπορία, lines 18-19) even though other Alexandrian evidence suggests a
surplus. Philo speaks of'the crowd of sophists', Agr. 136, and Dio Chrysostom of 'the
abundance of them', Or. 32.11.4 Neilus, however, not only expresses his
3For the standard treatment of the three-tier education system, see
H. I. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, English translation (London: Sheed
and Ward, 1956), pp. 160-205; and M. L. Clarke, Higher Education in the Ancient World
(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971), pp. 11-12. For challenges based on terms such as
γραμματιστής and γραμματικός, see A. D. Booth, 'The Appearance of the Schola Grammatici',
Hermes 106 (1978), 117-25; 'Elementary and Secondary Education in the Roman Empire',
Florilegium 3 (1981), 1-20; 'Litterator', Hermes 109 (1981), 371-78; and R. A.
Raster, 'Notes on "Primary" and "Secondary" Schools in Late Antiquity', ΤΑΡΑ 113
(1983), 323-46, esp. 346. P.Oxy. 2190, although not discussed in the above, provides
a first-century example of 'adaptation' based on supply and demand at an important centre of
paideia, and supports Raster's general thesis.
4Cf. P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, 2nd edn. (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1972), vol. I,
20
own opinion, but reports that
Philoxenus also agrees with the assessment, which in fact had originated with Theon: 'When I
informed Philoxenus of your view, he began to be of the same opinion, declaring that it was
on account of this shortage of sophists…,' lines 18-19.5
Three factors
account for this shortage of sophists and places in their schools in the first century.
Firstly, recent trends in Alexandrian education played a role, as noted by a first-century
rhetorician from that city, Aelius Theon. In the preface to his Progymnasmata, Theon
contrasts students of ancient times with his contemporaries.6 The
ancients, especially those who studied under famous orators, could not commence studying
rhetoric until they had gained some knowledge of philosophy, and, more importantly, had been
inspired by it. In contrast, most young men of this Theon's day were 'far from the knowledge
of philosophy', i.e., presumably they were not interested or had not been trained in it.
They had not fully mastered the branches of primary learning. Instead, they had begun to
attempt forensic and deliberative themes, and, 'worst of all',7
did so before 'they had been trained' (ἐγγυμνασαμένοι). Theon criticised this trend of
beginning declaiming prior to undertaking any introductory training in it, and before
receiving what G. A. Kennedy calls 'a
p. 810, who argues that because
of'the absence of rhetorical studies in the Ptolemaic city [of Alexandria], among the many
Greek teachers of rhetoric at Rome, not one of those whom we know was an Alexandrian'. On
this basis G. W. Bowersock, Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1969), p. 20, observes that very few native Alexandrians seem to appear in the Second
Sophistic. Turner, 'Oxyrhynchus and Rome', 5, endorses this view with his interpretation of
Neilus' comment in P.Oxy. 2190.
5Lines 18-19: μόνην τὴν τῶν σοφιστῶν
ἀπορίαν.
6Although OCD places Theon in the second century, G. A.
Kennedy, Greek Rhetoric under Christian Emperors (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1983), pp. 56-57, defends a firstcentury date based on Quintilian's reference to one
'Theon' (III.6.48, IX.3.76), who is also an orator. The Suda notes that he is author
of Progymnasmata and that he wrote works on rhetoric and grammar. Kennedy notes
similarities with Quintilian's account of Progymnasmata. See also D. A. Russell and
N. G. Wilson, Menander Rhetor (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), p. xxvi; and R. W.
Smith, The Art of Rhetoric in Alexandria: Its Theory and Practice in the Ancient
World (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1974), p. 133, for discussion. For a general
overview of Progymnasmata, see Kennedy, Greek Rhetoric, pp. 54-73. For the
text see L. Spengel, Rhetores Graeci (Leipzig: Teubner, 1854), vol. II, xii, 145,
lines 1-11 (Θεώνος Προγυμνάσματα). R. F. Hock and Ε. Ν. O'Neil, The Chreia in Ancient
Rhetoric: The Progymnasmata (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986), vol. I, pp. 64 and 75-76,
cite a number of other scholars who accept a first-century dating, but they withhold their
own opinions.
7The phrase 'worst of all', καὶ τὸ πάντων
ἀγποικότατον, is meant to convey the worst possible action that students are taking;
ἀγροικότατος means 'most countrified' and is obviously a derogatory comment given the
division of Egypt into 'the city', i.e., Alexandria, and 'the country' for the rest of the
province.
21
liberal
education'.8 Students undertook actual declamations without the
necessary instruction in literature, even before the traditional foundation study of Homer,
and without any preliminary theoretical knowledge of the structure of a speech. Theon thus
classified and explained in his book the various exercises which one needed to gain the
requisite skills for declamation. His Progymnasmata on rhetoric represented one
attempt to help make good the deficiencies of the present trend of circumventing essential
educational foundations and engaging immediately in tertiary activities with the help of a
sophist.
This
first-century preoccupation with declamation was also the subject of comment by the Latin
orator, Quintilian.9 He refers to students' fathers 'who think
their sons are not really studying unless they are declaiming on every possible occasion',
II.8.1. He further notes the attitude of the contemporary
rhetorician who considers it his responsibility 'merely to declaim and to
give instruction in the theory and practice of declamation and confines his
activities to deliberative and judicial themes', II. 1.2. When teachers met this parental
demand, grammarians began to encroach on the field of the orators by teaching declamation.
Quintilian recognised that teachers needed to satisfy the demands of parents, and so he
developed a compromise which aimed to fulfil both the aspirations of parents and the needs
and desires of their sons: he proposed that young men should declaim occasionally, but only
after having carefully prepared their speech under supervision. This should happen so 'that
they may reap the rewards of their labours in the applause of a large audience, that most
coveted of all prizes', II.7.5.10 He further suggested that rather
than force rhetoricians to compete with grammarians, a better arrangement would be to allow
students to engage in literary education concurrently with training in
declamation.11 As teachers, both Theon and Quintilian recognised
the wisdom of responding to the current educational demands of fee-paying parents who
required instruction in literature and training in rhetoric at the same time.
8Kennedy, Greek Rhetoric, p. 57.
9Quintilian taught rhetoric in Rome for some twenty years until he
retired ca. a.d. 90. Vespasian appointed him to a paid chair of rhetoric in the capital, and
he became the tutor of
Domitian's grandnephews while writing his work on oratory. His work shows familiarity with
both ancient and contemporary Greek rhetoric from which Latin rhetoric had been hewn; see
Kennedy, The Art of Rhetoric in the Roman World (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1972), pp. 487-514.
10S. F. Bonner, Roman Declamation in the Late Republic and Early
Empire (Liverpool: University Press of Liverpool, 1949), p. 49.
11M. L. Clarke, 'Quintilian and Rhetorical Training', in
Rhetoric at Rome: A Historical Survey (London: Cohen and West, 1953), ch. 11, esp. p.
121.
22
Secondly, a
number of inducements made training in rhetoric financially attractive for those entering
the legal and teaching professions and obtaining posts in the imperial administration.
Claudius had revoked the 250-year-old law which proscribed the taking of fees by
rhetoricians from clients in court cases. He set the maximum fee at ten thousand
sesterces.12
In addition,
on 27 December, a.d. 75, Vespasian issued a rescript granting immunity from municipal levies
to grammarians and rhetoricians.13 According to Dio's Alexandrian
oration, Or. 32.60, he sought to promote 'education and rhetoric' (παιδεία καὶ
λόγος). Vespasian believed that the role of teachers was 'to train the souls of the young to
gentleness and civic virtue'.14 This financial incentive was
intended to attract more young men trained in forensic and political oratory into government
service and to recruit more teachers for literary education and rhetoric. So successful was
the concession that in a.d. 93-94 Domitian needed to issue a rescript of his own which
threatened to withdraw the privilege from those who used their slaves to engage in the
lucrative profession of teaching prospective grammarians and rhetoricians.
I have judged it necessary to curb by stringent measures the avarice of the
physicians and teachers whose profession, which ought to be transmitted only to a limited
number of freeborn young men, is being most shamelessly sold to many slave chamberlains, who
are admitted to professional training, not out of humane sentiments but in order to augment
their teachers' income. Therefore whoever shall derive pay from the instruction of slaves is
to be deprived of the immunity granted by my deified father, just as if he were practising
his profession in a foreign city.15
12Tacitus, Ann. 11.7; J. A. Crook, Legal Advocacy in the
Roman World (London: Duckworth, 1995), pp. 129-31. On the further Claudian reformation
of court procedures see Kennedy, The Art of Rhetoric, p. 437.
13On the text of this rescript as well as that of Domitian, see M.
McCrum and A. G. Woodhead, Select Documents of the Principates of the Flavian
Emperors (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961), no. 458. On the form of the
Vespasian inscription, see M. Benner, The Emperor Says: Studies in the Rhetorical Style
in Edicts of the Early Empire, Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia 23 (Göteburg: Acta
Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 1975), pp. 139-41.
14Οἱ τὰς τῶν νέων ψυχὰς πρὸς
ἡμερότητα καὶ πολιτικὴν ἀρετὴν παιδεύουσιν. Μ. St. A.
Woodside, 'Vespasian's Patronage of Education and the Arts', ΤΑΡΑ 73 (1942), 126,
suggests that the emperor saw the importance of training future administrators. See also E.
P. Parkes, The Roman Rhetorical Schools as a Preparation for the Courts under the Early
Empire, Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science 63.2
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1945), p. 104; F. Millar, The Emperor in the Roman
World (31 b.c.–a.d. 337) (London: Duckworth, 1977), pp. 491-506, and 'Empire and
City, Augustus to Julian: Obligations, Excuses
and Status', JRS 73 (1983), 81-82; and Bowersock, Greek Sophists, p. 32.
15C. A. Forbes, 'Education and Training of Slaves in Antiquity',
ΤΑΡΑ 86 (1955), 348-
23
Forbes argues that Domitian took
action because professional teachers resented 'having their ranks swollen by ill-trained and
unworthy practitioners' and that the rescript was fundamentally against freedmen, as slaves
would not be eligible for the exemption in any case. However, the rescript was intended to
penalise the owners of slaves who reaped the financial rewards of their slaves functioning
as teachers. Vespasian's considerable incentives had been enough to stimulate demand for
teachers.
Thirdly, there
was a preference for linking a student with a sophist's school, rather than allow a son to
train under an orator. If the former was a virtuoso rhetorician with his own school who
declaimed to a large public following, why would a rhetorician of lesser reputation not be
sufficient? Quintilian comments on a debate in the first century as to whether one ought to
seek the best teacher possible for one's son from the beginning of his training, or whether
the engagement of a less able rhetorician sufficed for the preliminary stages. He himself
counsels parents to seek 'the most eminent teacher' available, even if his expertise would
be lost initially on the pupil. Bad habits would develop under an inferior master which
would have to be corrected later at no insignificant cost, II.3.1.16 It is obvious that
Theon desired for his son, Neilus, the best possible instructor, namely a sophist.
P.Oxy.
2190 does not simply note a shortage of sophists per se, but of suitable schools run by them
in which students could enrol and learn to declaim. It was always possible to attend a
public declamation by a sophist, as the papyrus notes, lines 34-35. That, however, would not
satisfy parents. They wanted their sons to learn under the supervision of sophists, lines
33-34, and willingly paid the very considerable sums involved. When this letter was written
the great demand for sophists had outstripped the supply, for the reasons outlined above.
P.Oxy. 2190 thus reflects the known pressures on traditional education in this
period.
A private tutor in rhetoric as an alternative
If the
Alexandrian schools of the sophists were full, what alternative was open to Neilus? He
begins discussing the shortage of sophists with τὰ αὐτὰ μέν before
indicating an alternative, δὲ τὸν Δίδυμον. This 'Didymus', who is de-
49. The translation of the
rescript is Forbes'. For a translation of both see N. Lewis and M. Reinhold, Roman
Civilization. Sourcebook II: The Empire (New York: Columbia University Press, 1966), pp.
295-96. For evidence of a slave who taught rhetoric in this period see P.Erzherzog
Rainer, 11 (a.d. 72-3).
16Cf. also Pliny the Younger, Epistles, III.3.6.
24
scribed as a καθηγητής, 'has a
school', lines 20f. By Quintilian's time it could refer to a school of philosophy, rhetoric
or grammar. In this papyrus it seems best to find reference to a school of Didymus for two
reasons: firstly, σχολή
used with ἔχειν is attested elsewhere in connection with the running of a school
(Epictetus, III.21.11) and, secondly, Neilus notes that Philoxenus 'has persuaded others to
enrol' with Didymus, παραβαλεῖν ἔπειθεν
αὐτῷ.17 He seems to present a viable, if less than
ideal, alternative for Neilus' educational needs.
What does
'tutor' (καθηγητής), which appears six times in this papyrus,
mean?18 C. Preaux suggests that perhaps it referred to an
itinerant teacher who sought out children of rich parents,19 while
Μ. Η. Ibrahim incorrectly
concludes that it was restricted to teachers of students of the 'third' stage of
education, namely orators and sophists.20 The standard
lexicographic works overlook significant evidence, as J. Glucker
notes.21 His comprehensive survey of both literary and
non-literary sources reveals that the term refers to
17The original editor of P.Oxy. 2190 has translated
σχολὴν ἔχοντα, line 21, as 'has time to spare'. While σχολή did mean 'leisure',
by the first century B.C. εὐκαιρία had supplanted it; and J. Glucker, Antiochus and
the Late Academy, Hypomnemata 56 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1978), pp. 161-62
comments further that 'the most widespread sense of σχολή was that of 'an educational
institution' and the second connotation was that of 'an educational activity.' See Plutarch,
Moralia 846f, παρέβαλεν…τῷ ῥήτορι, 'was a pupil of the rhetor'.
For παραβάλειν the original editor suggested 'go to', line 23, and in a comment notes that
in the transitive it means 'to send someone to school' as in P.Oxy. 930, line 21. The
aorist in P.Oxy. 2190 suggests 'enrolled'. Rea, 'A Student's Letter to His Father',
83, endorses this translation.
18Compared with contemporary or near-contemporary literary and
non-literary sources only Philodemus uses this term more than P.Oxy. 2190. See lines
7-8, 15, 24, 26, 29 (the verb), and 31 contra Turner, 'Oxyrhynchus and Rome', 9, n.
26, 'holder of a chair', citing OGIS 408 (a.d. 150). This sophist did not hold a
chair but ran a school.
19C. Préaux, 'Lettres privées grecques d'Egypte relatives à
l'éducation', Revue Beige de Philologie et d'Histoire 8 (1929), 779-80. Evidence
cited in support of this conclusion is P.Oxy. 930, PSI 94, P.Lond. Inv.
1575, now H. I. Bell, Select Papyri, LCL, vol. I, no. 133. Only in P.Oxy. 930
does the term καθηγητής appear, and the fact that he 'sailed away' is not enough to support
the contention that he is an itinerant and that the term means this. There is no discussion
of P.Oxy. 2190, which was not published until 1929.
20M. H. Ibrahim, Ἡ ἑλλήνορωμαικη παιδεία ἐν
Αἰγύπτῳ (Athens: Myrtidi, 1972), pp. 265-6, Section 3: καθηγηταὶ τῆς
ἀνωτάτης παιδείας. He cites in support of his distinction between διδάσκαλος for
secondary school teachers and καθηγητής for tertiary, P.Giss. 80 (early second century
a.d.), P.Oxy. 930 (second or third century a.d.) and P.Oxy. 2190, 261-62, n.
4. However, the term διδάσκαλος does not occur in any of these texts, καθηγητής being used
on
each occasion. P.Oxy. 930 concerns a boy who still needs a παιδαγωγός and studies
Homer. As Glucker, Antiochus and the Late Academy, p. 131, n. 35 notes, Ibrahim
reaches his conclusion without evidence or argument.
21Glucker, Antiochus and the Late Academy, p. 128.
25
'personal tutors', who were 'an
extremely common species of teachers in the Hellenistic and Roman
world'.22 It could describe a 'freelance teacher of philosophy',
or 'a personal teacher'. Glucker concludes that the term means 'very strictly' a private
tutor with no official standing whatsoever.23 However, he concedes
Ν. Ε. De Witt's observation that the term was used to describe those in charge of small
groups, given the particular attitude taken by the Epicurean school to
instructors.24 De Witt's conclusion is based on Philodemus, De
Ira, XIV. 1-14, and he sees the term καθηγητής as 'a synonym of less dignity'. For De
Witt, 'It is manifest from the contexts that the term denotes teachers, though the latter
word is to be avoided as being out of harmony with the spirit of Epicureanism, the adherents
of which were not taught but led or guided', hence the appropriateness of the term
καθηγητής.
In the early
second century a.d. Pius is described as a rhetorician and the 'tutor' of Acharistus. The
term here denotes a private tutor. This is confirmed by the use of instructors for the sons
of the imperial household and great families. The inclusion of a professional designation is
testified to in Strabo's comment on Athenodorus, a Stoic philosopher and 'tutor of Augustus'
(Καίσορος καθηγήσατο), and Nestor, an Academic philosopher described as 'the tutor' of the
nephew of Augustus (ὁ Μαρκέλλου καθηγησάμενος).25 Two
inscriptions from Italy and Gaul show that the tutor in a Roman household
was a valued residential member of the familia.26
This term was
also used of relationships where some development in education had
occurred.27 Thus in the Epicurean school it described the
rela-
22They could function at various levels, 'from teaching a small
girl to read, to teaching Homer to an older boy or teaching rhetoric to a young aspirant to
political or forensic glory', ibid., p. 131. Glucker's comment is a summary of the
educational levels of students in P.Giss. 80, P.Oxy. 930 and 2190
respectively.
23. Ibid., 133.
24Ν. Ε. De Witt, Organization and Procedure in Epicurean Groups',
CP 31 (1936), 205- 11. Glucker, Antiochus and the Late Academy, p. 211, disagrees with
De Witt's ranking of the instructors in a hierarchy of σοφός, φιλόσοφοι, φιλόκογοι,
καθηγητοί, δυνηθείς and κατασκευαζόμενοι.
25OGIS I.408, 6-7. Strabo Geography, XIV.5.14-15.
Likewise Isaeus is a rhetorician who leaves the school to become the tutor of Demosthenes,
Pseudo-Plutarch, Lives, Isaeus, 340e. In Plutarch, Lives, Cicero, 26.11,
Metellus Nepos buries his καθηγητής. For further examples see Lives, Alexander, 5.7;
Moralia, De Lib. Ed. 4a-c; Prof. Virt. 85d in the discussion of Glucker,
Antiochus and the Late Academy, pp. 128-29.
26For two excellent examples from imperial Greek inscriptions on
tombstones suggesting the close relationship between the tutor and his student, and the
custom of burying one's tutor see IG 14.1751, καθηγητής ἀγαθός καὶ
ἄξιος and IG 14.2454, cited in Glucker, Antiochus and the Late Academy,
p. 128, n. 26.
27Kaster, 'Notes on "Primary" and "Secondary" Schools', 346, on the
issue of adaptability.
26
tionship between one who guides
but does not teach in the normally accepted use of the term 'teacher', and one who is guided
by the tenets of Epicurean
philosophy.28
This
pedagogical change was not restricted to the study of philosophy. What happened in Egypt,
for example, when students who came from the country to Alexandria were instructed not by a
member of the household but by an independent tutor? Feelings of familia towards the
tutor were strong enough in this situation to motivate the sending of food and warm
greetings.29 In Athens in ca. 44 b.c. Cicero sent his son, Marcus,
at the age of twenty-one, to study under orators and philosophers. He declaimed before
separate orators in Latin or Greek, whereas at the age of eleven he had declaimed under an
orator, Paeonius, who resided in his household. His relationship with Cassius, Bruttius and
Cratippus in Athens was identical to the old one with Paeonius but now reflected a more
advanced stage of education.30 These responses to educational
changes must inform our understanding of the term καθηγητής in P.Oxy. 2190, as we
seek to read it in the light of the concept's evolution from the familia setting to a
school context in this 'second Athens'. Because of Glucker's concern to demonstrate the use
of the term in the case of Ammonius, his conclusions are a little too rigid. His discussion
does not allow for nuances in educational or philosophical development such as education
conducted away from one's home or on Epicurean tenets. There is reference to Plutarch as a
private tutor but not as an Academic or Platonic philosopher.31
The term should therefore be regarded as functional rather than hierarchical, for it
describes a relationship to a student or
28Glucker, Antiochus and the Late Academy, pp. 132-33,
refers to two Epicurean καθηγηταί who 'teach' and their former student, Philonides, who sets
up his own private school in competition and is called καθηγητής. This example seems to
undermine the rigid definition Glucker adopts, which is crucial to the argument on Ammonius
and the Academy.
29For example in P.Osl. 156 (second century a.d., Fajyum) in
a letter sent to a καθηγητής, Ammonius begins 'Before all things I pray you and your family
are in good health and that you rely on me for the things you need.' There follows a list of
food being sent. While the editors suggest the tutor was paid in kind rather than cash,
there is no evidence to support this. The tone of the letter suggests a gift expressing
φιλία. The food was obviously also meant for the pupil.
See also P.Giss. 80 and also the large amount of food described in P.Oxy. 2190,
58-64.
30Cicero declaimed before Cassius in Greek and Brutus in Latin. He
studied philosophy under Cratippus, and he describes his relationship with him as that of a
son to a father and not a pupil to a teacher. Cicero is forced to dismiss Gorgias, a
distinguished rhetorician before whom he declaimed, because of his father's objection to the
bad influence he was having on his son, Letters to Friends, XVI.21.5-6.
31For a recent survey of the occurrences of καθηγητής see Glucker,
Antiochus and the Late Academy, pp. 127-33. His survey also throws important light on
its only occurrence in the NT in Matt. 23.10; see my 'The Messiah as the Tutor', 152-57.
27
students without in any way
defining the level of education being provided. 'The word can apply to teachers of quite
advanced pupils, see [P.Oxy.] 2190, and this appears to be the former letter, where
the young man is old enough to supervise and take part in business if not to manage them
[sic] quite alone.'32
Neilus, in his
comments on Didymus, explained what the tutor did. The latter had operated a school in the
country, but more recently had opened one in Alexandria, lines 21, 29. He had enrolled
pupils, one of whom was Didymus' friend, Philoxenus, who had in turn persuaded the sons of
Apollonius to enrol with him, lines 22-23. Substantial fees were charged, which Neilus
called 'useless and excessive', line 31. Didymus had promised to take proper care of his
students by providing full supervision, and, in fact, to do it better than any other sophist
in Alexandria, lines 21-22. P.Oxy. 930 is a good example of the lack of care and
concern a καθηγητής might have for his pupil. He had literally 'sailed away' to seek his
fortune, leaving his pupil at the sixth book of The Iliad after promising the mother
that he would do the best he
could for her son. She writes telling both her son and his καθηγητής to find a suitable
καθηγητής with whom he can 'enrol' (παραβάλλειν).33 The sons of
Apollonius together with Philoxenus are now looking for a better tutor than Didymus, lines
25-27. The sons of Apollonius 'are searching [present tense] for a better καθηγητής until
now', line 24. The phrase μετὰ τούτου, line 23, suggests that after enrolling with
Didymus they all realised his limited ability and sought a better
καθηγητής.34 Neilus, however, had made private arrangements with
him to gain the benefits of his tuition, but without having to pay the excessive fees
demanded of full-time students. Rather than enrol with Didymus, he will learn by himself,
but he still 'has Didymus', he informs his father, lines 31-34. In what sense would he be
able to help Neilus? 'Having' Didymus is explained by the comment that he is always ready to
spend time on him, and that Didymus will do 'everything within his capabilities'. The
sentence which follows shows that Neilus will learn by listening to those who
32J. Rea, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri (London: Egyptian
Exploration Society, 1988), vol. LV, p. 189, points out in a discussion of the recently
published papyrus P.Oxy. 3808 (first or second century a.d.).
33Lines 20-21.
34The original editor ignored the phrase μετὰ τούτου and has
translated the text to mean that following the death of Philologus until they found Didymus
they had been searching for a better καθηγητής. But the text suggests that the sons of
Apollonius are not happy in their present situation, having enrolled in the school of
Didymus, line 24. This comment would support the
view that Neilus is seeking to make an ad hoc arrangement with Didymus which is preferable
to joining the others in enrolling full-time in his school.
28
declaim. Given the student's
frequent use of καί it is possible that the text could read 'I have Didymus…and by
listening to those who declaim…I shall, with the help of the gods, do well. 'As
Epictetus' evidence shows, listening to orators and declaiming oneself were two separate
activities. The next statement, 'I shall do well with the help of the gods', implies that
Neilus has made the best possible arrangements under the circumstances, i.e., this ad hoc
arrangement with Didymus and listening to public declamations by
others.35 It makes provision for Didymus to help him by
criticising his own speeches. Epictetus observes the dichotomy of 'attending lectures of the
orators and declaiming yourself (τῶν ῥητόρων ἤκουες καὶ
αὐτὸς ἐμελέτας), III.9.8.36 Thus he will combine tutorial assistance from
this teacher of rhetoric with attendance at public declamations. Presumably this arrangement
would assist his own financial situation while also commending itself to his father as a
sound educational arrangement. Quintilian observes that fathers do not regard their sons as
learning anything unless they are actually declaiming themselves and not simply listening to
professional declamations.37 The word 'tutor' (καθηγητής) is thus
used here to denote a private tutor in rhetoric who was paid to assist, on an ad hoc basis,
an individual not enrolled in his school. P.Oxy. 2190 shows that this arrangement was
one which would have made Didymus his καθηγητής, although he does not use the term
specifically of him. In lines 7-8 he refers to 'Philologus' (in lines 24-25 this deceased
person was a καθηγητής), 'Chaeremon ὁ καθηγητής' and
'Didymus'.38
In the light
of the above investigation into the meaning of καθηγητής, J. Rea's rendering of it as
'teacher' is rejected, as is his translation of φιλόλογος in lines 7 and 25 as 'tutor'. He
offers no evidence to support these renderings. Certainly, φιλόλογος does not convey the
duties understood in the first century of a tutor whose ad hoc role is explained in part of
the letter itself. Rea helpfully points to evidence that φιλόλογος was a term used in
funerary inscriptions for brilliant young men who died before they fulfilled their
potential, and could be used of members of the Alexandrian
Museum.39 His view
35The editors reconstruct the end of line 34 as ἔτι δέ. This
would require five letters, and the space is insufficient, as the microscopic examination of
the traces of ink marks shows. The original editor translated the phrase as 'moreover', and
Rea has 'still'.
36For the reliability of Epictetus' evidence alongside that of
Plutarch and Dio Chrysostom see F. Millar, 'Epictetus and the Imperial Court', JRS 55
(1965), 147-48.
37II.8.1. Marcus Cicero had declaimed before two separate teachers
on a regular basis; see n. 30.
38However, no inference should be drawn from the term's absence
because in lines 25-27 he says, 'As for myself, if only I had found a tutor worthy of the
name.'
39Rea, 'A Student's Letter to His Father', 80.
29
that the word is not a personal
name 'Philologos' as suggested by the original editor is accepted but not his translation.
The word would be best rendered 'scholar', i.e., 'For now in my search for a scholar', line
7, and 'since the scholar whose classes they used to attend has died', line 25. The student
is clearly searching for a person whom he can emulate and would see a sophist as such, but
has been unable to secure entry into a school run by one. It is misleading to render
καθηγητής as 'teacher' and φιλόλογος as 'tutor'.
In
P.Oxy. 2190, then, the term 'tutor' (καθηγητής) is applied to a person qualified to
assist a student in the art of declamation. In Didymus' case he may not have had a
sufficient reputation or following to attract an audienceto a public performance, for he had
only recently arrived from 'the country'. He may well have called himself a sophist, for his
synkrisis must have been with sufficiently qualified orators to warrant the claim
that he would care for his pupils better than any other sophist in Alexandria. It seems then
that he was a teacher of rhetoric who called himself a σοφιστής and was also ὁ
καθηγητής of Neilus. As such he would instruct this student in much the same way that
private tutors in the households of the rich had done at a lower level of education. This
would be done on an ad hoc basis for the purpose of improving his declamation skills. In
P.Oxy. 2190, line 8, Didymus is designated the son of Aristocles. If he was the son
of the forensic orator Aristocles, mentioned in P.Oxy. 37 (49 a.d.), then he would
have followed generally in his father's footsteps. Indeed, he may well have changed from a
career in forensic rhetoric to that of a teacher, for the Vespasian exemption provided
sufficient financial reward for so doing.40
The public declaimers
Part of Neilus' plan, following
his failure to gain entry into a sophist's school of his choice, was 'to listen to the
orators declaiming, of whom one was Poseidonius', lines 34-36. ἀκροώμενος can mean
either 'becoming a pupil' or 'listening to' a lecturer. Neilus is referring to the latter
because he has already told his father he will not enrol in a school but depend upon
himself, lines 31- 32, and will be listening to a number of sophists declaim and not any
single one in his lecture room.41 His proposal is illuminating for
a number of rea-
40See pp. 23-24.
41Philostratus illustrates both meanings. In Lives of the Sophists
it is used of a pupil of Zeno of Athens, of Favorinus and Aristocles, all in the aorist,
527, 576, 615, and also to attend lectures, 604-5, or to listen to declamations, 540.
30
sons. Firstly, it shows that an
education was available outside the sophist's classroom, namely listening to those who
declaim. He could do this by attending a public display speech for an entrance
fee.42
Secondly,
Neilus refers to those who engage in a 'declamation'. Ἐπίδειξις was a practice speech,
originally a school exercise. It might be argued that 'those who declaim' could have been
involved in philosophical discourse, epideictic rhetoric, lectures on grammatical topics
rather than controversia and suasoria. The help Didymus gives is related to
Neilus' need to learn how to declaim, and it is unlikely that there is anything but
controversia or suasoria in his mind.43 It intended
to train students in controversia for careers as forensic orators, or in
suasoria for deliberative rhetoric.44 Forensic practice
speeches normally dealt with fictitious legal cases. On the Roman side we possess both
summaries and full-length forensic declamations from the first
century,45 while on the Greek side topics for suasoria are
extant, as are controversia. Sources include both
literary46 and non-literary
42On the scale of fees charged for public declamations as against
those levied for enrolment in schools see the differences in costs, G. B. Kerferd, The
Sophistic Movement (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 27-28, where they
vary greatly between the single declamation or a series and that charged for a pupil of a
sophist.
43Turner, 'Oxyrhynchus and Rome', 7, n. 17, rejects the
reconstruction by J. Zuisderduijn at the beginning of line 6, σοφιστῶν ἄξιον, on
the grounds that 'it involves sailing down to Alexandria to some centre in search of tutors,
and his claim to have succeeded is intelligible only if understood ironically'.
44For the most recent treatment on declamations on the Greek side,
making good the long-felt need for such a treatment since work on the Roman phenomenon by S.
F. Bonner, Roman Declamation, see D. A. Russell's Gray Lectures, 1981, published as
Greek Declamation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), especially his
excellent ch. 4 on 'Performers and Occasions' and his survey of 'Evidence, Definitions,
Origins', ch. 1. Kennedy, The Art of Rhetoric, pp. 312-37, concentrates on the Roman
side.
45Both collections are attributed to Quintilian. On the nineteen
declamations, most of which are full-length pieces, see J. Taylor, The Declamations of
Quintilian, Being an Exercitation
or Praxis upon His XII Books, Concerning the Institution of the Orator (London, 1686).
It covers 474 pages and deals with imaginary cases, e.g., defending a blind youth accused by
his stepmother of her own crime &mdas; killing his father. The cases are somewhat
exotic and run counter to Quintilian's dictum that the subject chosen for themes should be
'as true to life as possible', II.10.4. There are also the 'minor' declamations of
'Quintilian' of which 145 are extant out of 358. In these declamations the rhetorician gave
the class a case and in some instances the law involved, and the theme would then be
developed. These are either extracts or full declamations. See M. Winterbottom, The Minor
Declamations Ascribed to Quintilian (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1984) and Roman
Declamations: Extracts with Commentary (Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1980) on
Quintilian and others.
46On the Greek side Philostratus notes some forty-five subjects for
declamation, thirty-one of which deal with historical subjects, e.g., 'The Lacedaemonians
debate whether they
31
texts.47 Dio Chrysostom's Trojan Oration, Or.
11, well illustrates the skill with which a trained orator could declaim on an impossible
proposition, namely that 'Troy was not captured' and the corollary that Homer deliberately
aimed to mislead his readers.48 A number of extant first-century
papyri contain not public declamations but classroom exercises. P.Oxy. 156 (late
first century b.c. or early first century a.d.) is a suasoria originating possibly
from an Alexandrian school. 'The language shows some departure from the classical Attic
standard; it is mostly devoid of periods, being composed of short questions and clauses
strung together with the minimum of connecting particles.' It is part of a reply by an
'Athenian orator' who argues that a threatening letter, possibly from Philip of Macedon,
should be ignored because the city of Athens gives commands and does not receive
them.49 P.Lond. 254 (verso) contains three examples of
controversia, the
first dealing with the question of legitimacy, the second with a charge and
counter-charge of dishonesty, and the third on the wrongful assumption of
citizenship.50 P.Lit.Lond. 138 contains two or three
forensic speeches with many corrections which, together with the absence of any names, lead
to the conclusion that it probably comes from a school of
rhetoric.51 P. Vindob. 26747, 29749 likewise recall a
classroom setting with its labored writing and orthographic
mistakes.52 P.Yale 105 is an important first-century-a.d.
declamation in which the orator accuses an admiral of neglecting
should fortify themselves
by building a wall', Lives of the Sophists, 514. At least four of the themes are
judicial. The linguistic distinction observed by the Romans between the two types of
declamations was not as clear-cut for the Greeks although the genres were. See G. A.
Kennedy, 'The Sophists as Declaimers', in G. W. Bowersock (ed.), Approaches to the Second
Sophistic (University Park, Penn.: American Philological Association, 1974), pp. 19-20.
47We have fewer declamations from the early empire than the late,
although a number are found in Aristides in the mid-second century; Russell, Greek
Declamation, pp. 8-9.
48J. L. Moles, 'The Career and Conversion of Dio Chrysostom',
JHS 68 (1978), 90; Kennedy, The Art of Rhetoric, pp. 571-72.
49On the style of this papyrus see W. M. Edwards, 'ΔΙΑΛΟΓΟΣ,
ΔΙΑΤΡΙΒΗ ΜΕΛΕΤΗ', in J. Ν. Powell and F. A. Barber (eds.), New Chapters in the History of
Greek Literature, Second Series (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929), p. 119.
50Smith, The Art of Rhetoric in Alexandria, p. 116, gives
the impression that only one case is involved. There are extracts of three speeches. The
second provides an example of a forensic case. One person gives another a talent which is
hidden in a mutually known place. The former, however, digs it up and when the latter finds
out he takes it back, accusing the former person of theft.
51R. A. Pack, The Greek and Latin Literary Texts from
Greco-Roman Egypt, 2nd edn. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1972), no. 2515;
for such texts covering the period of Pack's collections see nos. 2495-2559.
52Smith, The Art of Rhetoric in Alexandria, p. 117.
32
to pick up or care for his
wounded men following a battle (possibly Arginusae, 406 b.c., or a similar one). Its vigorous
style is more sophisticated than those usually emanating from the classroom, but numerous
corrections and abbreviations suggest that it too is the product of a
student.53 If that is the case, he was obviously advanced in his
studies. These papyri reflect the type of work Neilus would have undertaken.
Thirdly, the
movement of this original exercise from the classroom to the public lecture and indeed the
lecture tour provided Neilus with an opportunity to learn not only from one declaimer but
several.54 Clarke suggests that the evolution began with the
teacher himself declaiming before his students to provide them with a model presentation or
a general outline of arguments which could be developed. The students would then write out
their own declamation for presentation and criticism by the class and the teacher. He cites
Quintilian II.4-6, X.2.39 and postulates that parents were allowed to visit the class and
hear their sons or indeed teachers declaiming. The teacher aimed to impress upon the parents
that their continued patronage of him was a justified expense. He set aside special days and
on those occasions declaimed before 'large and cultivated' audiences. This led to lecture
tours with enthusiastic paying audiences as an extension of the custom prevailing in their
own city. One of these, Poseidonius, may have been known to Theon, the father of Neilus, for
he mentions his name without comment.55 If he was the Posei-
53Ibid., pp. 117-18, citing D. M. Samuel, 'Rhetorical Papyrus in
the Yale Collection', Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University (1964), p. 135. See also
discussion of P.Yale, 105 by S. A. Stephens, Yale Papyri in the Beinecke Rare Book
and Manuscript Library II, American Studies in Papyrology 24 (Chico: Scholars Press,
1985), p. 55 and Russell, Greek Declamation, p. 4, n. 4.
54Clarke, Higher Education, pp. 215-16. In his Rhetoric
at Rome, p. 85, he argues that the 'institution of declamation grew up with the end of
the republic and the need to steer clear of contemporary subjects'. He believes oratory
survived the decay of the Greek city-state, as it also survived the Roman Republic, but took
this new form of declamation. However, it needs to be noted that at least for the East,
city-states did not lose their forum, and while Clarke's observations about Rome are
correct, they do not apply with equal force to the East. See Kennedy, The Art of
Rhetoric, pp. 430, 553-56.
55While Rea, Ά Student's Letter to His Father', 84, suggests that
no contemporary rhetorician is known by this name, the Poseidonius mentioned by Neilus may
well be the sophist and historian of Olbiopolis, the author of a work on the Dniester
region. A. H. McDonald, OCD, states that he has been identified with a contemporary
of Perseus of Macedon, 179-168 b.c., who was noted by Plutarch, Lives, Aemilius
Paulus, 19.7, but feels this is uncertain. F. Jacoby, Fragmente der griechischen
Historiker, no. 279 (1940-43), places the same sophist and historian in the second
century a.d., and his dating is cited with approval by H. J. Mette, P.W., no. 6,
Poseidonios. He is not to be confused with the second-century-b.c. Alexandrian grammarian of
the same name. If the Poseidonius of Olbiopolis is that mentioned in P.Oxy. 2190, he
may well have been visiting Alexandria and of such reputation to have been known by Neilus'
father. He
33
donius of Olbiopolis, a city on
the joint estuary of the Bug and the Dnieper, he may have been in Alexandria on a lecture
tour.56 It could well be that in keeping with sophistic
conventions he had come to the city and established himself as a public
declaimer.57 If this is so, then Neilus would have been exposed
not only to local sophists but to one of international repute. He maybe name-dropping to
impress his father.
Neilus
believes that if he listens to orators or sophists declaiming publicly, especially
Poseidonius, and makes use of Didymus as an ad hoc tutor to help him in his own
declamations, then he will succeed. The original editor, C. H. Roberts, rearranged the
sentence to read: 'Moreover, with any luck, I shall do well for myself by hearing the
lectures', but ἐπιδεικνύμενοι refers to 'those who declaim'. Neilus is presenting a
'package' to his father which involves listening to declaimers in a public context and he
cites one in particular. He mentions help from Didymus, lines 32-34, listening to public
declamations, lines 34-36, and then adds literally that 'with the help of the gods' he
expected to do well.58 It is significant that such an alternative
existed for an advanced student of rhetoric. It demonstrates both the central role
declamations played in paideia in first-century Alexandria, and the prominence that
teachers of rhetoric and sophists had secured for themselves through them.
The status of students of the sophists
What light, if any, does P.Oxy. 2190 throw upon the first-century rank of the
sophists and the social status of their students?59 G. W.
Bowersock has ar-
was of sufficient reputation for
Neilus to have given no further details to his father. Elsewhere in his letter he cites
further details of persons mentioned in his letter not known to his father, e.g., Didymus,
son of Aristocles, line 8. P.W., in citing eleven men with this name, does not
attempt to identify P.Oxy. 2190 with any of their entries.
56
Aristides was an example of a rhetorician who visited Egypt and made his debut as an orator
there, Or. 36.1, 91.
57. For the coming of a sophist, see pp. 143-47.
58τάχα θεῶν θελόντων καλῶς πράξομαι. J. L. White,
'Epistolary Formulas and Cliches in Greek Papyrus Letters', SBL Seminar Papers 2
(1978), 295, rightly considers phrases such as this cliches.
59E. A. Judge, Rank and Status in the World of Caesars and St
Paul (Christchurch: University of Canterbury Publications, 1982), p. 9, has drawn a
helpful distinction reflected in nonliterary sources between these two terms. By 'rank' he
means 'any formally defined position in society', while 'status' refers to 'positions of
influence'. See also J. D. Court, 'Some Aspects of Rank and Status in Epictetus: Development
of a Methodology', M.A. dissertation, Macquarie University (1986).
34
gued, 'The social eminence of
the sophists in their cities and provinces brought their families swiftly and inevitably
into the Roman upper class.'60 E. L. Bowie has examined the social
origins of sophists and shown that they came from families of high rank who 'had long
furnished their cities with magistrates, benefactors and
diplomats'.61 He has further argued that membership in that class
was the true key to their success; oratory was not the ladder on which Greek intellectuals
scaled the heights of Roman society as Bowersock suggested.62
There was no swift and inevitable means for advancement. Furthermore, we find in Domitian's
rescript the attempt to restrict social climbing with his insistence that instruction 'ought
to be transmitted only to a limited number of free-born young
men'.63 In the first century, entry into the Greek aristocracy in
the East, and even into positions of rank in one's home city, was through birth; and perhaps
just as importantly, it was often only the high-born who could gain access to persons of
rank.64
We thus can
locate Neilus' place on the social ladder if we attend to his access to the powerful.
Because of an incident in the theatre in Alexandria, he appears to have sought the help of
distinguished officials, lines 4-6.65 Theon ap-
60Bowersock, Greek Sophists, p. 28. For the long and
sometimes uncertain route of free men selling themselves into slavery as stewards of Roman
households and on manumission securing Roman citizenship see my 'Social Mobility', in
Seek the Welfare of the City: Christians as Benefactors and Citizens, First-Century
Christians in the Graeco-World (Grand Rapids and Carlisle: Eerdmans and Paternoster,
1994), ch. 8, esp. pp. 154-59.
61E. L. Bowie, 'The Importance of the Sophists', Yale Classical
Studies 27 (1982), 53, calls them 'a species of the genus Greek aristocrat'. For his
survey of origins see 54-59 and his careful analysis of the alleged 'low or middle-class
origins' of three sophists in Philostratus, where he shows they were not outside the curial
class of the Greek aristocrat. He observes Bowersock's own statement that 'sophists almost
always emerged from the notable and wealthy families of their cities', Bowersock, Greek
Sophists, pp. 21-23. Philostratus' bias in showing the achievements of sophists to
support his favourable estimation of their influence must not be overlooked in the way he
presents his evidence; see C. P. Jones, 'The Reliability of Philostratus', in Bowersock
(ed.), Approaches to the Second Sophistic, p. 11.
62Bowie, 'Greeks and Their Past in the Second Sophistic', Past
and Present 46 (1970), 23, contra Bowersock, Greek Sophists, 28.
63For a citation of the rescript see p. 23.
64For an example see the discussion by Epictetus of the
possibilities for the subsequent appointment to positions of rank for a student of rhetoric,
and for the use of the term 'wellborn', pp. 116-18 and 190-92.
65The original editor of the text has drawn the conclusion that the
things which happened in the theatre, line 4, relate to the broken chariots, lines 10-11.
The reconstruction of Rea rejects any reference to an accident with chariots. Neilus has
certainly been involved in an incident, and he says he has already written to his father
'the day before yesterday', presumably about the theatre incident. Dio's speech bears
eloquent testimony to the proverbial misbehavior of citizens in the theatre, Or.
32.4. For the seriousness Dio attaches to this well-known Al-
35
pears to have been unperturbed
by this incident, which was obviously a relief to Neilus, lines 3-4. However, in a
subsequent letter to his father, he again mentions the matter because Heraclas, the slave of
Neilus, has felt 'no shame in gleefully spreading reports in the city about the incident in
the theatre and telling lies such as would not come even from the mouth of an accuser',
lines 45- 47. If Neilus' behaviour in the theatre was such as to provide his slave,
Heraclas, with the opportunity to denounce him, lines 45-47, then it must have been a matter
of some consequence. Neilus has written to a fellow student, Philoxenus, and his friends,
telling them to leave this matter in the hands of a person of distinction, line 12. Given
the proverbial behaviour of the Alexandrians in the theatre, described by Dio as 'uproar,
buffoonery and scurrility',66 it must have been the rumour
mongering of his slave that worried Neilus most. This sent him back to Alexandria, 'to the
esteemed […]' where he believed himself to have achieved 'something that repaid my
eagerness', line 6. Neilus had written to his friend Philoxenus and others 'telling them
that they too must leave the matter in the hands of the esteemed […]', lines
12-14.
Another sign
that Neilus came from a wealthy background was his possession of his own slave, Heraclas,
who was not the person designated to accompany him to school (i.e., his παιδαγωγός) but who
worked in Alexandria 'to contribute some obols daily' towards the cost of his master's
living expenses, lines 41-42.67 Neilus expected Heraclas to earn
two drachmas a day working under a carpenter, and this money would now need to be remitted
to him by his father, lines 50-51. It was apparently the arrangement that Heraclas would
provide some income for Neilus, and his father would send provisions to his son.68 When
Heraclas was involved in some misdemeanours, he, unlike his master, was summarily
apprehended. Lacking his master's
exandrian trait, see Or. 32.73. The distinguished persons of line 5 (plural) appear
to be different from the person of lines 13-14, but the text is broken and therefore in
neither case are their names known, lines 6-14. The reason for asserting that the theatre
incident happened in Alexandria is based on lines 45-46, τὰ περὶ τοῦ
θεάτρου ἐν τῇ πόλει. It was customary to refer to Alexandria as 'the city'. For
its possible connection to a riot see my 'The Messiah as Tutor', 153.
66Or. 32.4. See Ε. Κ. Borthwick, 'Dio Chrysostom on the Mob
at Alexandria', CR 22 (1972), 1-3; Smith, The Art of Rhetoric in Alexandria,
pp. 24-28; and W. D. Barry, 'Aristocrats, Orators and the Mob: Dio Chrysostom and the World
of the Alexandrians', Historia 42 (1993), 82-103.
67Neilus was too old for a παιδαγωγός. Ε. A. Judge, 'Cultural
Conformity and Innovation in Paul: Some Clues from Contemporary Documents', Tyn.B. 35
(1984), 13 calls him 'a university student'.
68Lines 58-64 indicate that in addition to 126 lb. of salted meat,
his father sent lentils and vinegar, as well as thirty baked loaves. The sending of food to
students and teachers is attested above, p. 27, n. 29 and examples cited.
36
access to men of influence, his
solution was to escape the jurisdiction of Alexandria and return to Oxyrhynchus and the
security of Theon's household.
Neilus'
attitude towards Didymus also reveals a sense of superiority bred by status. He expresses
his disgust to his father because, although not competent enough to teach his students
properly, Didymus has claimed superiority to all other teachers in Alexandria, lines 21-22.
Forbes overlooks the content of the synkrisis of Didymus with his Alexandrian
counterparts in P.Oxy. 2190, lines 21-22, citing only lines 23-29. He comments,
'Clearly, part of the unfortunate Didymus' advertising took the form of comparing himself
with other teachers, and in Neilus's "humble opinion", he simply didn't measure up.' It was,
however, Didymus' promise of better care than anyone else in Alexandria in order to attract
pupils that angered Neilus, lines 21-22. This was particularly aggravating when he
apparently could not fulfil his promise. This was not only Neilus' opinion, for Philoxenus
and the sons of Apollonius seem to have reached the same
conclusion.69 What annoyed Neilus most was not that Didymus dared
to involve himself in synkrisis with other sophists, but, he adds emphatically,
οὗτος ὅς ('he is') 'a country one' at that! (lines 27-29). This is very much a
pejorative comment.70
Although
nothing more can be learned concerning Neilus' status from P.Oxy. 2190, the sons of
Apollonius mentioned in line 22 may illuminate it further. In P.Oxy. 1153 (dated to
the first century) a father, Apollonius, writes, from Oxyrhynchus, to his son of the same
name, who attends school in Alexandria along with Nicanor, who is apparently his brother. If
these are the same students mentioned in P.Oxy. 2190, their father reflects the
status-consciousness of Greek citizens.71 Another brother,
Pausanias, has sent two
69On the use of synkrisis in rhetoric see the helpful survey
of C. Forbes, 'Comparison, Self-praise and Irony: Paul's Boasting and Conventions of
Hellenistic Rhetoric', NTS 32 (1986), 7, and its application to the synkrisis
of Paul's opponents in 2 Cor. 10.12 and the present discussion. Judge, 'Cultural
Conformity', 13, comments that Didymus is 'despised for aspiring to the competition'. The
fact is that Didymus advertised his superiority on the grounds that he could offer better
supervision to his pupils.
70Aelius Theon uses 'country' to express his disgust with recent
developments in education — τὸ πάντων ἀγροικότατον ('worst of all'),
Rhetores Graeci, II, 146. Philostratus, Lives of the Sophists, 529, likewise
notes that Polemo asks his pupils, 'Why do you look to the rustic?', ὁ
ἄγροικος, a highly derogatory remark about Marcus, the sophist from Byzantium.
71Cf. also Neilus' attitude to the country rhetorician although he
himself is obviously from the country and not 'the city'. This letter also mentions a
Heraclas as a boatman, line 7, and a Diogas, line 21, the same names as Neilus' slave and
his young brother. It may be sheer coincidence that P.Oxy. 1153 mentions the sons of
Apollonius, Heraclas and Diogas, for they were common names in Oxyrhynchus, and it could be
argued that it has nothing to do with P.Oxy. 2190. However, the possible connection
cannot be dismissed.
37
variegated wrist bands, one
scarlet and the other purple, and the letter later mentions cloth made from 'local purple',
lines 15-17, 26.72 Purple was certainly a status symbol in that
day, and parents encouraged their sons to wear it. The use of this colour as a 'status
display' was at its highest intensity in the ancient world in the second century. Apollonius
was very keen to have the coat made for his son: Ά pattern of the colour of the dress that
is being made is enclosed in this letter, give it to Nicanor to look at, in order that, if
he likes it he may write to us, for it has not yet been given out. We are going to use local
purple'.73
Conclusion
Can we regard Neilus as a
credible witness? It would seem that he accurately reflects the Alexandrian situation, for
his father already knows of the difficulties pertaining to entry into the sophists' schools.
This view is further confirmed by the references to a fellow student, Philoxenus, whom Theon
knows. Too much knowledge is simply assumed throughout the correspondence for it to be based
on a false representation. Although Neilus betrays his immaturity in the theatre incident, a
certain degree of initiative and self-preservation shows through in crises created by his
educational needs, his misdemeanor and his slave's rumours. Glucker, over-generously,
assesses the character of Neilus positively — 'the style and manner of the letter
betray a mature and intelligent young man, living on his own in the great city'. However,
there is certainly no reason to doubt the accuracy of Neilus' comments on the educational
situation in Alexandria, apart from his pejorative comments on the professional ability of
Alexandrian teachers, which may reflect more on his shortage of money for his
education — a shortage which may have been caused by his hedonistic
life.74 P.Oxy. 2190 is a valuable witness to the
sophis-
72Apollonius mentions the expense to which Pausanias has gone. M.
Reinhold, The History of Purple as a Status Symbol in Antiquity, Collection Latomus
116 (Brussels: Revue d'etudes latines, 1970), p. 51, citing P.Oxy. 1153, notes the
use of 'local' purple as a private display of status and an increasing phenomenon. For a
more recent survey of epigraphic evidence see G. H. R. Horsley, 'The Purple Trade and the
Status of Lydia of Thyatira', New Docs. 2 (1982), 25-32.
73Reinhold, The History of Purple as a Status Symbol in
Antiquity, p. 72. P.Oxy. 1153, lines 22-27.
74Glucker, Antiochus and the Late Academy, p. 131. Rather
his behaviour is hubristic; see P. Marshall's discussion of this in Enmity in Corinth:
Social Conventions in Paul's Relations with the Corinthians (Tübingen: ]. C. B.
Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1987), pp. 182-94, although he makes no reference to P.Oxy.
2190.
38
tic movement in this major
educational centre, and constitutes an important perspective for exploring paideia
and the problems it created in first-century Alexandria, where Philo lived.
This
non-literary source has provided a window on the first-century sophistic movement in
Alexandria as it touched the life of an advanced student of paideia. The sophists
emerge from P.Oxy. 2190 as an important group in the Alexandrian education system. In
an age when declamation was deemed the best method for advanced education, the sophists were
in great demand. The acute shortage of such teachers in the city expressed not their
unimportance, but that demand outpaced supply.75
The exorbitant
costs further reflect a seller's market; Neilus' complaint that fees are so high is more
than an exaggeration by a financially strapped young man. The sophists had always charged
fees, which distinguished them from the philosophers.76 It
mattered little that philosophers denigrated their professional ability: parents who paid
substantial amounts to sophists were acknowledging their primacy in paideia.
Furthermore,
the papyrus demonstrates the high priority placed upon declaiming by students and possibly
parents, a preoccupation also noted by Aelius Theon and Quintilian in the first century. The
activity of orators who were not recognised by the public as sophists is also reflected in
P.Oxy. 2190. The competitive desire for such recognition is shown in the
synkrisis of Didymus, the country orator, who, with his own school and his activity
as a tutor (καθηγητής) within an ad hoc tutorial system, shows that this level in the
educational system was able to adapt to the needs of students. Finally, the tone of the
letter with its reference to men of rank in Alexandria shows the circles in which the pupils
of the orators and sophists at least hoped to secure influence in times of personal
trouble.
75The papyrus notes the acute shortage in the country as well as
the city, i.e., Alexandria; a well-attested fact that both Neilus' father, Theon, and
Philoxenus have noted, lines 16-19.
76For discussion see pp. 49-50.
39