21 February 2019 15.00: Bernhard Palme (Universität Wien), A deed of surety and the emperor Heraclius; 16.45: Amphilochios Papathomas (Kapodistrian University of Athens), Late antique and early medieval Greek private and business letters on papyrus

A fragmentary papyrus with a deed of surety addressed to the well-known Arsinoite aristocrat and large landowner Flavius Strategius Paneuphemos, which I have published some years ago as CPR XXIV 24, has important implications for the chronology of the revolt of the two Heraclii against the ruling emperor Phocas in 608–610. The rigid framework of the Corpus edition in CPR did not allow more than a short commentary, but in my lecture I intend to fully explore the historical dimensions of the document. The papyrus indicates a quite different picture of the events than the one suggested by the numismatic and historiographic evidence, but it confirms the more detailed, though somewhat confused and confusing narratio of the events in the Chronicle of John of Nikiou.