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Document Details :

Title: Petitions to the Centurion
Subtitle: A Question of Locality?
Author(s): WHITEHORNE, John
Journal: Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists
Volume: 41    Date: 2004   
Pages: 155-169
DOI: 10.2143/BASP.41.0.3275421

Abstract :
A review of the geographical spread of petitions sent to centurions and other military personnel rather than to the strategus shows that the great majority of them come from the Fayum. Very few are attested from other regions such as the Oxyrhynchite, which we might expect to be equally well represented. Several explanations may be suggested for this imbalance: the status of the Fayum as a 'frontier area'; a greater military presence in the region than elsewhere; or the greater administrative workload placed on the strategi of the Arsinoite, which led petitioners to send their complaints to local military officers rather than to the civil authorities. A full table of petitions addressed to centurions, decurions and beneficiarii is appended.

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