Homologia

Transmission of Information

A homologia is an agreement or acknowledgement with some form of ὁμολογῶ as its main verb. It can be drawn up by the scribe in an objective or subjective formulation, and can therefore be found under more than one category. This description concerns the subjective homologia as a variation of the sub-type [statement] in the category Transmission of Information (TI). Another variant can be found under [homologia (EE)]. Objectively styled homologiai may be found under [syngraphe].

There are only two secure examples of a homologia (TI) before 300 CE, [78603 196 CE, Oxyrhynchus], the substitution of another person to take care of a tax matter, and [17553 215-216 CE, Panopolis], the provision of a surety for a fisherman. From the IV CE there are more than 40 examples of this type of document, the majority of them concerning sureties.

The homologia (TI) differs from the homologia (EE) in that its opening is in the form of a hypomnema: [to name <dat.>][from παρά name <gen.>][ὁμολογῶ + infinitive]. In the document of substitution the infinitive is συνεστακέναι [78603 l.18-19], and for the surety ἐνγυᾶσθαι [17553 l.5]. The [date@end] follows.

As with the documents under [homologia (EE)] these few examples indicate the documents were written in pagina format along horizontal fibres.

The text is written as a single block; there is a line separating the main text from the subscription in [78603].