This volume includes fragments from three Christian texts, two lost classical works, prose texts and utilitarian literature.
5128 combines biblical excerpts within a larger text, perhaps a hymn. 5129 represents the first text of Justin Martyr to appear among the papyri. 5127 is a miniature parchment copy of Psalm CIX, a favourite text for amulets.
5130, an excerpt from Alcidamas, the once famous sophist and rival of Isocrates, proves that he wrote, or was thought to have written, a paradoxical ‘Praise of Poverty’. 5131 provides a central scene of Greek Tragedy, with a corpse borne onto the stage in the presence of Athamas.
5132 adds an early witness to the tradition of Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae. 5133–5147, from speeches of Isocrates, exemplify various dates, formats and levels of production. 5148–5152 contain fragments of speeches of the Demosthenic corpus rarely represented in papyri. 5153–5158 contain works from Plutarch’s Moralia.
5159 is a rare example of a metrical handbook. 5160 presents a commentary, learned and detailed notes on an Old Comedy. 5161–5163 belong to another uncommon type, glossaries for Greek-speakers learning Latin.
Documentary texts 5164–5172 date from the earliest years of Roman rule in Egypt, when the new régime set out to increase revenue. 5178 and 5179 are letters sent to officials dating to the second century. Other items touch everyday crises including the employment a wet nurse for a foundling from the dung-hill and an under-age girl working as a servant, against a loan made to her father and brothers.