591 THE FIGURE OF A BLIND MAN taxes. These various records indicate that in old records we cannot expect any coherent approach to the question, whether and to what extent one should support these underprivileged groups by tax exemption 23. So far we have been concerned with tax lists, which were pre- served in a great numbers, but which bear witness to the conditions of the blind only indirectly. We have learned that these people were in some cases (at least one) able to secure their livelihood without begging, but now we want to know how it was possible 24. A man who gained considerable resources before he lost his sight 25 could manage his house and business through his servants 26. Thus business records involving blind persons were preserved. The author of CPR VIII 49 paid Ation the blind man an unrecorded number of nomismatia (coins). Yet another blind person whose name we don’t know is mentioned in the list of those who paid 140 drachmae (O.Mich. I 104). The men around the blind Diodoros (probably according to his instructions) bought a vine-vat, as was stated in the already mentioned business message (P.Koeln IV 198). The business activities of the blind Apollonius (P.Ross.Georg III 1) were discussed in the previous part and in the only parchment in our selection a certain blind Markrina confirms to Foibammon a delivery of wine (Stud.Pal. VIII 1101 — Arsinoites, seventh century AD). It is interesting that we encounter no blind persons among busi- ness partners in treatments containing physical description, al- though these descriptions often mention eye defects 27. Obviously Marcus Furius Camillus (446-365 BC) even taxed orphans, who were hi- 23 therto tax-exempted (Plutarch, Life of Camillus 2). ESSER, Das Antlitz der Blindheit in der Antike, 96-111, enumerates in ad- 24 dition to begging also other occupations which blind persons performed: musi- cian, poet, seer and prophet, teacher, philosopher, usurer and spy. Moreover blind women were able to fulfil their household duties. Acquired blindness was not so limited to an old age (e.g. cataract) as it is 25 now. Most often the lost of sight was caused by trachoma, as it continues to be to these days. Cf. R. GARLAND, The Eye of the Beholder. Deformity and Disa- bility in the Graeco-Roman World (Ithaca, NY 1995) 112; World Health Organi- sation, Strategies for the prevention of blindness in national programmes. A Primary Health Care Approach (Geneva 1997) 40. ESSER, Das Antlitz der Blindheit in der Antike, 95, adds also the fact that 26 money supplied “Erleichtungen und Hilfe”. In these texts, expressions such as “of infirm eyes” or something alike 27