10-31-2006, 12:46 AM
From the Papyri Rylands 2, 141 Document 76, from Euhemeria, Egypt, AD 37 the following is abstracted:
Petrmuthis son of Heracleus, a public tax collector, files a complaint with Gaius Trebius Justus, Centurion. Permuthis throws a fit because two of the Euhemeria local home boys beat him up and take 30 drachma he got from the sale of opium. He further states the state will suffer unless something is done about this.
Apart from the learning that a public official is dealing drugs, and that this is not a strictly modern phenomia, the context implies the practice was quite open and not "possession with intent to distribute" as it is here and now. Permuthis has no problem with going to the local Centurion about this. One presumes the use was medicinal, but also probably recreational.
I have some questionable pre-Roman references to Minoan priestesses wearing opium poppy head dresses, and the Sherden(?) adorning their helmets with the flower pod, and speculation that these mercenary troops were getting all wiped out on opium before wiping out whoever got on Pharaoh's nerves.
Besides wondering about what kind of music these people listened to, does anyone have anything more on the Roman drug trade?
Gaius Decius Aquilius
(Ralph Izard)
who does not advocate the use of any drug and who's posting is purely academic
Petrmuthis son of Heracleus, a public tax collector, files a complaint with Gaius Trebius Justus, Centurion. Permuthis throws a fit because two of the Euhemeria local home boys beat him up and take 30 drachma he got from the sale of opium. He further states the state will suffer unless something is done about this.
Apart from the learning that a public official is dealing drugs, and that this is not a strictly modern phenomia, the context implies the practice was quite open and not "possession with intent to distribute" as it is here and now. Permuthis has no problem with going to the local Centurion about this. One presumes the use was medicinal, but also probably recreational.
I have some questionable pre-Roman references to Minoan priestesses wearing opium poppy head dresses, and the Sherden(?) adorning their helmets with the flower pod, and speculation that these mercenary troops were getting all wiped out on opium before wiping out whoever got on Pharaoh's nerves.
Besides wondering about what kind of music these people listened to, does anyone have anything more on the Roman drug trade?
Gaius Decius Aquilius
(Ralph Izard)
who does not advocate the use of any drug and who's posting is purely academic
