Customer Reviews
City of the Sharp Nosed Fish - By: M. Burton, 08 Aug 2008 
I give this book one star because I found it incredibly hard & incredibly pointless to read. You reallly have to have a mind for constant facts & no plot.
When I first selected this book I thought it was going to be a non fiction story that would engross me. After reading the first page I discover its based on true facts & those true facts are just placed together in order of family or emperor or religion & dont reallly make much sense. If you have the mind to read alll those long greek names & can concentrate reallly hard then this book is for you. Otherwise don't bother. It's not a book for leisure its a book I would recommend you read only if you had to for education.
Inspiring picture of Oxyrhynchos and life in the first centuries AD - By: Louise Amkaer, 06 May 2008 
In the spot of the ancient city of Oxyrhynchos, only a lonesome column still exists to symbolize the city's former glory. That is until the marvellous find of a garbage heap full of papyri & scraps hereof that give an extraordinary view into the ordinary life of Oxyrhynchite in the 1st to the 5th century AD. Through the "trash" springs evidence of government, business, family & social affairs, religion, & the private sphere in the Greek-Egyptian city under Roman influence.
Peter Parsons' book is a thorough & well-rounded depiction of life in Oxyrhynchos, which I would recommend to scholars & laypersons alike. For a layperson, "City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish" is truly inspiring. The picture of the city & its inhabitants is so vivid that it fuels the need for more knowledge on various subjects: Greek Egypt in the first centuries AD, the Oxyrhynchos papyri, & for me letter-writing as well.
Louise.
Fascinating glimpse into the past - By: Caroline Lawrence, 30 Oct 2007 A fascinating glimpse into the lives of Greeks living in Egypt in the Roman period (1st - 5th centuries AD). The evidence is provided by scraps of papyrus - letters, documents & literature - preserved in the the famous rubbish tip of Oxyrhynchus, the 'city of the sharp-nosed fish'. Here's one of my favourite samples:
'I was greatly delighted reading through your letter, in which I saw that you were in the best of health, my lord father... I at once thought it could be an oracle from god & I am alll the more remarkably healthy. Receive from Petechon, who is also bringing this letter, a pair of sandals worth 4 drachmas... Year 8 of Vespasian, Mecheir 2' [28 January AD 76]
