Stoicismo a Ossirinco

Abstract · Stoicism at Oxyrhynchus · This paper is devoted to POxy. lxxxv 5483, a 3rd-century AD fragment of a scroll containing some lines of text on Stoic lekta. The edition of the fragment, which appeared in 2020, is characterized by the removal of an important reference to the division of predicates into simple and non-simple. In the present study, this reference will be restored and explained in the light of both a set of hypotheses regarding the authorship (the favored hypothesis being that POxy. lxxxv 5483 contains a work by Lucius Annaeus Cornutus) and the broader doctrinal context of the imperial age, in which this division – unattested in sources relating to Stoicism of the Hellenistic age – finds its justification. In conclusion, some general considerations will be made on the presence of an interest in logical and ontological Stoicism at Oxyrhynchus during the imperial age, with reference also to other Oxyrhynchus papyri from the same period (POxy. lii 3649, POxy. xlii 3008, and POxy. lii 3658) and written in the same handwriting (Severe Style).