IFAO

The point of departure of this paper is a fragmentary ostracon from Krokodilo, a letter addressed by a curator praesidii to an §pãrxƒ ˆro]u ka‹ fid€ƒ §pãrxƒ. This document raises a discussion of the rare use of the possessive pronoun in connection with military grades of which I list the occurrences, of the use of ‡dio! in the prescript of letters, and more generally of the progressively mounting use of possessive pronouns, ‡dio! or the like, in the epistolary prescript. This must be due to Latin influence. In Egypt ‡dio! with the name of the addressee is used specifically for «agent» or «employee», as if Greek writers, unlike Latin ones, were unwilling to use a possessive pronoun with a personal name, when no real possession was involved. Similarly ı §mÒ!, etc. + name in the papyri is used about slaves but not about friends or family as it is the case in Greek literature, mostly of the imperial period (probably by an imitation of Latin).