Techniques d’élevage et soins réservés aux chevaux dans les archives de Zénon (IIIe siècle av. J.-C.)

Live-stock and farm animals take up a significant place among the 1837 documents (mostly administrative papers) from the archive of Zenon, private secretary to Apollonius, finance minister to Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 BC). Using the fifty or so papyri that mention horses, and comparing them to other contemporary papyrological documents, this paper examines the descriptions of this rather rare and luxurious animal, as well as the farming and care techniques applied to it, while highlighting the contribution of these texts to the history of ancient hippiatrics.