585 THE FIGURE OF A BLIND MAN interesting series of letters of a certain Gemellus (known also as Horion) who in 197 AD complains that he is mistreated because of his weak eyes (P.Mich. VI 422,30-31: thn perı thn ocin moy asueneian ; P.Mich. VI ù ùù¶ ߥ 423 dupl, 4-5 thv perı thn ocin moy asueneıav — he was about 26 at ˜ ùù¶ ¥ that time). One year later Gemellus already writes about himself: “for I have only one eye and I do not see with it although it appears to have sight ” (P.Mich. VI 425) and in 199/200 AD he writes that he is “afflicted with weak vision” and “...not only am I one-eyed, but also I do not see with the eye that supposedly remains, because a cataract has appeared in its pupil and my sight is impaired” (P.Mich. VI 426,3.18-22). Because of that, and his Antinoite origin he demands that his right to exemption from compulsory “liturgical” (it means public) service be confirmed. Does it mean that only the totally blind could be called so? Or was this man just hesitating to use this term (not accepting his fate) while others referred to him as such? Although we cannot negate the occasional use of tyflov in ¥ the “broader sense”, the narrow usage can be considered to be prevailing. In the case mentioned, if Gemellus called himself “blind”, he could expect even more sympathy which he does try to arouse 10. 2. Anonymity and social exclusion The first striking characteristic of most of the blind person in the Bible is their anonymity, preserved throughout the whole story. Anony- mous characters are of course not unusual in the Bible — we also don’t know the name of most of the healed women and men in the gospels and Acts 11. But there are also exceptions: Bartimaeus (Mark 10,46), Lazarus (John 11) and Mary Magdalene (Mark 16,9; Luke 8,2). Others are desig- nated by their place of origin (Matt 15,22; Mark 7,26), nationality (John 4), background (John 4,46), appointment (Acts 8,27) or just by their il- lness. luscitiosus for a partially blind person (or night-blind), cf. Digesta seu Pandac- tae 21.1.10. For the use of the image of blind people for arousing sympathy cf. 10 P.Cair.Masp. I 67020 (Aphrodito, 6th century AD), where a lord (despota) is ¥ asked to release a prisoner while his parents are called tyflwn kaı eysplagx- ˜ ù¶ noi dothrev, ına mh tƒ lim√ anagxwntai ta auliwtata aytwn tekna (“ the ˜ ™ ù ߥ ùß ¥ ߘ ¥ compassionate givers of blind, so that their sorely tested children may not suf- fer from hunger”). Similarly also, other healed persons occur in the ancient literature anony- 11 mously : those healed by Vespasian (Dio Cassius, Historia Romana 66.2 ; Taci- tus, Historiae 4.81; Suetonius, Vespasian 7.2-3) or Iarchas and Apollonius (Phi- lostratus, Vita Apollonii Tyanensis 3.38-40; 4.45; 6.43).