P.CtYBR inv. 4000, owned by Yale University's Beinecke Library, is a fragmentary papyrus codex that comprises parts of six bifolia (24 pages) and contains Greek elegiac epigrams. Of the approximately 60 epigrams that are partially extant, two were previously known from the Greek Anthology, but the others survive nowhere else and appear here for the first time in a modern edition. In spite of the fact that there is no explicit declaration of authorship in the remaining portions of the codex, all signs point to a single author that can be identified with confidence as Palladas of Alexandria, who is known from approximately 150 epigrams preserved in the Greek Anthology. Because both the manuscript itself and the poetry that it contains are demonstrably from the early fourth century A.D., it is now virtually certain that this poet was active, not around the turn of the fifth century, as has often been assumed in modern scholarship, but almost a hundred years earlier. Palladas has a distinctive poetic voice - highly personal and topical, with a tendency towards bitterly pessimistic observation on the world around him. Despite the lacunose state of the codex, these traits are clearly on display in the new poems. Among other points of interest, there is a satire of the victory titles claimed by the emperors Diocletian and Galerius, a lament on the destruction of Alexandria, a curious mention of the sufferings of the Egyptian goddess Triphis, and lampoons of men from Hermopolis. This editio princeps contains a substantial introduction (codicological reconstruction, paleography, orthography, contents, metrics, authorship and date, and historical notes), diplomatic transcription and edited Greek text on facing pages, commentary, indexes, and photographic plates. It will be of particular interest to papyrologists, specialists in Greek epigram, and scholars of late antique history and literature.

The Yale papyrus codex has significantly enriched our knowledge of ancient Greek epigram, while it also sparked a lively debate around its date, authorship, and the interpretation of individual poems. This book offers the first collection of essays into this fascinating and elusive text.

This volume collects studies exploring the relationship of Christians and Muslims in everyday life in Early Islamic Egypt (642–10th c.) focusing mainly, but not exclusively on administrative and social history. The contributions concentrate on the papyrological documentation preserved in Greek, Coptic, and Arabic. By doing so, this book transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries and offers results based on a holistic view of the documentary material. The articles of this volume discuss various aspects of change and continuity from Byzantine to Islamic Egypt and offer also the (re)edition of 23 papyrus documents in Greek, Coptic, and Arabic. The authors provide a showcase of recent papyrological research on this under-studied, but dynamically evolving field. After an introduction by the editor of the volume that outlines the most important trends and developments of the period, the first two essays shed light on Egypt as part of the Caliphate. The following six articles, the bulk of the volume, deal with the interaction and involvement of the Egyptian population with the new Muslim administrative apparatus. The last three studies of the volume focus on naming practices and language change.