Nota sul tariffario di Abydos (498 oppure 500)

This article re-analyses the text of the so-called ‘Abydos tariπ’ in the edition given by Durliat and Guillou in 1984. It argues for a new dating to 498 or 500 and a new punctuation of the expression ὑπὲρ πρόβας (l. 27). These proposals, if accepted, entail two consequences : (1) that the edict was put back into force twenty-two years after its first publication by referring to the copper follis, which had changed from being a coin of account worth ½ of a carat (in 476/478), to a real coin worth 40 nummi (in 498/500) ; (2) the required gratuities ὑπὲρ πρόβας refer only to Cilician wine merchants and grain carriers, not to the other nauklēroi who traded in non-Cilician wine, oil, legumes and lard. From a broader historical perspective, the analysis proposed in the article tends to deny that the Abydos tariπ refers exclusively to goods transported to Constantinople as part of the navicularia functio