The Contribution of Papyri to the Prosopography of the Ancient World: Evaluation and Prospects
Some are familiar with the dictum often attributed to Mommsen at the end of the nineteenth century, according to which papyrology was destined to become the leading discipline of ancient history in succession to epigraphy, which had previously been dominant. During the century in which this new branch of knowledge of antiquity has been in existence, the contribution of papyri and ostraca to the documentation of ancient societies has justified the hopes thus placed in it. It is all the more surprising, then, to note that among historians there persists a certain failure to appreciate this contribution and a reluctance to exploit it. The truth is that papyri share the same fragmentary, random and lacunose character that is a feature of the majority of documentary sources available to us for the study of the ancient world.