Alcestis Barcinonensis

158ab, 159ab, 160ab and 161a) dated to the second half of the fourth century on account of the handwriting, an early half-uncial with cursive elements, and inserted into a codex mixtus at some later point in time.

The editio princeps has been published by the Catalan priest and papyrologist Ramon Roca-Puig on 18 October 1982.

The papyrus leaves are now in the possession of the foundation Sant Lluc Evangelista founded by Roca-Puig and located in Barcelona (in Latin: Barcino, hence the specifying adjective).

The Alcestis Barcinonensis belongs to the late Latin genre of poetical exercises in verified mythological ethopoeia.

Comparable pieces of this kind of late Latin poetry connected to the imperial court are the mythological exercises of Dracontius such as Hylas and in particular Claudian’s mythological epic De raptu Proserpinae.