Original Arrian

[pamm]

Where is the oldest copy of Arrian? I was curious because of the little missing part - made me wonder how old and where is the oldest copy of Arrian. Anybody know or have any idea how to find out? Thanks for the help.
Pam

[Paralus]

G'day PammI suspect we'll never know. The piece is missing in every version I have seen. I'd dearly love to read it!It's a bit like the rest that we have lost: Theopompus, the "Oxyryhncus" historian (can't remember the spelling), Cleitarchus and - probably most important - Ephorus and his son (who continued his work). Probably all lost in the conflagration that consumed the storerooms of the "Library" of Alexandria.As Dr Smith from "Lost in Space" would have said: "The pain, the pain".Paralus

[Efstathios]

Yeap.Some people dont know it but we only have 2% of the ancient greek literature in our hands.The rest 98% had gone with the library in Alexandria (which was burned 3 times) and the destructions of some other libraries. Imagine only if we had the rest 98%...I am curious about the oxyrynchus scrolls.They are supposed to cover around 20-30% of the lost literature,but i havent seen any knews on the progress of the reconstructions.

[Paralus]

Oh yes Efstathios, yes. Imagine! Laying hands on just 50% of the missing material! That's the stuff of archaeolgical w*t dreams!Now, back in control, Oxyrrynchus scrolls.I've not heard any progress nor seen anything liable to be published. It seems a bit like the "Dead Sea" scrolls: if you're not part of "sainted" academia, no access??I know we're looking at fragments, but surely a book or series of papers covering what we know would be good? There are apparently parts that point up some of the relatively unassailable Thucydides' errors of commission/omission.I've been patient and suppose I'll continue to be.Be nice to find Ephorus as well.Paralus.

[abm]

the oldest extant copy of Arrian's Anabasis is a manuscript of about A.D. 1200 kept in Vienna and of course the missing parts are also missing from that codex.The way to find this out is simply to look at the introdcution of any decent edition, which always provides information on the establishment of the text (see e.g. Brunt's Loeb edition or the Teubner text of Roos and Wirth). You can also check the Leuven Database of Ancient Books (LDAB) at http://ldab.arts.kuleuven.be/. This database contains information on all preserved books or parts of books up to the 8th century and also includes the latest papyrus finds (if published). Apparently there are no papyrus fragments of Arrian's Anabasis, however.Last year's sensational news on the Oxyrynchus texts unfortunately was seriously overexaggerated. There was no spectacular evolution and it seems like the most important texts have all been published now.regards,abm