A Letter of Avidius Cassius?

Abstract

SUMMARY To major suggestions have been advanced about the text of SB 10295. First, that the letter is not complete; the text now extant constitutes the end of a letter written in a single column containing not more than two or three lines above the present remains. Second, that the addressee, Apolinarios, is identical with the addressee of P. Oxy. 933, who was a bouleutes of Antinoopolis and a and that the title should be restored in SB 10295. Possibly he is also identical with a known president of the boule of Antinoopolis in the later second century. It has been suggested that Apolinarios went on an embassy to Alexandria in the spring of an unspecified year in connection with the accession of a new emperor. As a corollary to these hypotheses, it has been argued that the emperor concerned is in fact Avidius Cassius. Nothing in the text precludes this, and three references support it very strongly: namely, the distinction between ‘election’ and ‘accession to the close ties with Alexandria and the fact that Avidius Cassius' father was a prefect of Egypt, and finally the date. Objections which have been raised against previous theories do not hold for this one, and there is no reason (palaeographical or other) why SB 10295 should not date to A.D. 175.