589 THE FIGURE OF A BLIND MAN seems to be as persistent as the widow in Jesus’ parable (Luke 18,1-8). Another distinct example of an active attitude of a blind man is the letter of a certain Mark to his mother Antonia (3rd century AD, P.Ross.Georg. III 1, unknown provenance, maybe Alexandria) 18. Mark writes: And Apollonius the blind came to me and told me: “Serapiakos relinquished fields to your mother”. If he really relinquished them and if you know the character of this blind Apollonios, that he is sensible, farm out them to him, if he didn’t (relinquish them) to you, try (to persuade him) giving the grain. In this case the blind Apollonios seems to be leased a field, whose owners were not able to guard it against the flocks of neigh- bours. Therefore he visits Mark (without knowing him), who dwelt as a soldier away from his home, reveals the situation at home to him and probably suggests that he rent the field and relieve Mark and his mother of the worries. Is this scenery possible at all? We will see in the following ex- amples that it is 19. The intent of this part was to show the way, how in ancient times a blind person could face life actively, resist those who wanted to abuse them because of their handicap and try to supply themselves with a form of sustainability to make ends meet. Even a lame man, though assisted by his family or friends, had to beg actively (cf. Acts 3,2). 4. Low social status: a beggar According to modern current opinion, blind people in Antiqui- ty were either poor or beggars. In this sense some commentators This text is more known because it describes the way how scrolls were 18 maintained — the author asks his mother to shake out his medical books, which are stored in a niche; cf. M.-H.M. MÉLARD, “La médicine dans l’Égypte ro- maine ”, ANRW II, 37 (ed. W. HAASE) (Berlin 1995) 2728; O. BOUQUIAUX- SIMON, Les livres dans le monde gréco-romain (Cahiers du CeDoPaL 2; Liège 2004) 44; M.-H. MARGANNE, Le livre médical dans le monde gréco-romain (Cahiers du CeDoPaL 3; Liège 2004) 83. How the blind people travelled we can learn from the Greek literature — 19 Teiresius is said to be able to walk with his cane as good as seeing while others used the service of a guide (mainly a relative, but never an animal) — cf. ES- SER, Das Antlitz der Blindheit in der Antike, 81-84.