PSI 6.570 revised: a letter of introduction by Hierokles (with an analysis on Hierokles' handwritting style)

Abstract

The Zenon archive contains approximately 1145 letters ranging from ca 263 to 229 BCE. Even though this is one of the largest and better-preserved archives from Antiquity – and hence one of the best-known to modern scholarship – the authorship of some of these letters still remains unknown to us, due to the fragmentary state in which many of these documents have survived. Based on an analysis that combines the paleography and layout of the text with both the linguistic style and the function and purpose of the letter, it is suggested that the author of one of these 'anonymous' letters – namely PSI 6.570 – should be identified as Hierokles (TM Per 2071; Pros.Ptol. 4.11452 = 6.17146), one of Zenon’s friends and keeper of a palestra in Alexandria.