Zenon of Kaunos | |
|---|---|
Ζήνων | |
| Born | |
| Nationality | Greek |
| Other names | Zeno |
| Occupation(s) | Financial private secretary and scribe |
| Era | Hellenistic period |
| Employer | Apollonius |
| Organization | Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt |
| Known for | Zenon Papyri |
| Father | Agreophon |
Zenon orZeno (Greek:Ζήνων; 3rd century BC), son of Agreophon, was a public official inPtolemaic Egypt around the 250s–230s BC. He is known from a cache of hispapyrus documents which was discovered by archaeologists in theNile Valley in 1914.
Zeno was a native of the Greek town ofKaunos inCaria in southwesternAsia Minor. He moved to the town ofPhiladelphia inEgypt, a busy market town that had been founded on the edge of theFaiyum byPtolemy II Philadelphus in honour of his sisterArsinoe II. From the 3rd century BC until the 5th century CE, Philadelphia was a thriving settlement that relied on agriculture for its economic success.[1][2] At Philadelphia, Zeno became a private secretary toApollonius, the finance minister to Ptolemy II Philadelphus andPtolemy III Euergetes.[3]
Drimylus and Dionysius, two Greek employees under Zeno, were reported to him for selling women as sex-slaves.[4]
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During the winter of 1914–1915, Egyptian peasants were digging near the modern settlement ofKom el-Kharaba forsebakh (decayedmudbricks that were often plundered from ancient sites as they could be used asfertiliser). There they uncovered a cache of over 2,000papyrus documents. Upon examination byEgyptologists, they were found to be records written by Zeno inGreek andDemotic, and the site (whose precise location is now unknown) was identified as the location of the ancient town of Philadelphia.[2] Most of the papyri, now referred to as the Zenon Archive or the Zenon Papyri,[5] were edited and published by the BritishpapyrologistsCampbell Cowan Edgar andArthur Surridge Hunt.[6][7][8]
The Zenon Archive has since been divided among several museum collections and academic institutions around the world, and papyri are now held in the collections of theUniversity of Michigan,Columbia University, the Società Italiana per la Ricerca dei Papiri Greci e Latini in Egitto, theBritish Museum in London and theEgyptian Museum in Cairo.[9] A substantial part of the Zenon Papyri are now online and grammatically tagged at thePerseus Project hosted atTufts University.[10]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| International | |
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