These papyri provide the first secure information, in concrete detail, on the purposes and the effects of the imperial tax reform under Diocletian at the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th. They also throw much new light on the 4th-century practice of "public liturgy"—the administrative device of making up the lack of money in the state treasury by compulsory labor service. An introduction, apparatus criticus, and translation accompany each text. A comprehensive index completes the volume.

The University of Michigan Near East Research Expedition has been engaged since 1924–25 in the excavation of the site of ancient Karanis, now known as Kom Aushim or Kom Washim, on the northern border of the Fayyum to the east of Birket Qarun. Kom Aushim was selected as the target site in October 1924, because the ruins there were in a better state of preservation than at other Greco-Roman sites.

This campaign focused on the temple of Pnepheros and Petesouchos, or the South Temple, down to the lowest foundation levels.

In Manpower Shortage and the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West, Arthur E. R. Boak, applying to population trends in antiquity the methods worked out by modern demographers, shows that there was a real and general decline in both rural and town population of the Roman Empire in the West from the middle of the second century on; that the Late Empire was from its beginnings faced with a marked deficiency in human resources; and that this manpower shortage was the cause—not, as has been held, the consequence—of much that has been considered authoritarian in the administration of Late Rome. This analysis throws new light on the economic and social legislation of Diocletian, Constantine I, and their successors. As the first detailed picture of the population policies of the Western Empire, and their effects on its government service, the study concerns economists and sociologists as well as historians and classicists.

The papyri that appear in this volume form a part of the collection of documents from the grapheion or records office of Tebtunis. These texts have been selected because they present an interesting picture of the operation of the grapheion of Tebtunis.

A change in archaeological venue from prior excavations at Karanis to nearby Soknopaiou Nesos resulted in useful comparable data. Evidence has proven that both sites flourished in the same period, from the first century BCE to the third century CE.

This study of the Master of the Offices is an attempt to throw more light upon the intricate administrative system obtaining in the Later Roman and Byzantine Empires through a detailed treatment of the history and scope of one particular office. It is a development of work done in connection with a doctoral thesis on the Roman Magistri, some of the results of which are incorporated in the first chapter.