588 DOMINIK OPATRNY ´ they are passive in Matt 12,22; 15,30, Mark 8,22 and John 9. So what is typical and what is an exception? It is clear that blind persons didn’t stand in the centre of the attention of society. The degree of their exclusion can be estimated from the fact that the word blind (tyflov) occurs in the published papyri just 36 times ¥ including 13 occurrences with the meaning “blind street” or similar (see above) 17. Those who had grown-up children expected that they would take care of them (such attention to parents was not only seen as a duty, but it also could be used as an argument during a law-suit concerning inher- itance as can be seen in an example of P.Lond. V 1708). The others had to make a significant effort if they wanted to survive. We cannot expect to learn anything from papyri about those who resigned. But in a few cases we see an admirable effort and drive. We can find the first example again in Gemellus, who, while losing his sight, writes his letters of complaint (four of them in seven exemplars survived). Before the above mentioned controversy of compulsory “liturgical” service, records of different argu- ments came down to us. Gemellus complains that: Iulius and Sotas, both sons of Eudas, wrongfully, with violence and arrogance, entered my fields after I had sown them and hindered me therein through the power which they exercise in the locality, con- temptuous of me on account of my weak vision. In the next letter, he describes further controversies and his own active attitude: Then Sotas died and his brother Iulius, also acting with the violence characteristic of them, entered the fields that I had sown and carried away a substantial quantity of hay; (...). When I came there at the time of the harvest, I learned that he had committed these trans- gressions. ( . . .) When this happened, I went to Iulius in the company of officials, in order that these matters might be witnessed. Again, in the same manner, they threw the same brephos toward me, intending to hem me in also with malice, (...) Iulius, after he had gathered in the remaining crops from the fields, took the brephos away to his house. These acts I made matters of public record through the same officials and the collectors of grain taxes of the same village. We don’t know the outcome of this controversy. The prefect forwards Gemellus to Epistrategus and Epistrategus postpones the solution to his visit to Karanis (P.Mich. VI 425). But Gemallus For comparison, the word “Roman” ( Rwmaıov) occurs in 76 texts, ˜ 17 “ priest ” (ıereyv) and its derivations in 352 texts, “Athenian” (ÃAuhnaıov) Ω ¥ ˜ again in 76 texts.