Les références à la maladie et à son traitement dans les archives de Zénon

Amongst the 1837 papyri from the archive of Zenon, the private secretary to Apollonius, finance minister to Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 BC), about twenty private Greek letters refer to ailments suffered either by the sender or the recipient of the letter, or by a third party. How do these letters, which were not written by medical professionals, designate and describe diseases, their evolution and their outcome? This paper attempts to answer this question, while highlighting the contribution of these documents to the history of health and illness in Ptolemaic Egypt.