Abba Ammonathas and his miracle: Taxation, diplomacy and holiness in Byzantine Egypt

When ordered by an imperial official to pay taxes called epikephalaia, monks in Pelusium (in the province of Augustamnica) decided to send a delegation to the emperor in order to ask for exemption. An otherwise unattested monk called Abba Ammonathas entreated them to fast in their cells for two weeks, and promised to solve the problem in his own way. On the 15 th day, he showed them a sakra (imperial letter), and told them how, within a single night, he had it signed and sealed by the emperor and then countersigned in Alexandria. This allusion to the procedure of countersignature, which is entirely unexpected in a literary text, seems to betray some knowledge of Justinian's Novel 152 (534 CE), and tbis provides us with a terminus post quern. Some remarks on the use of the Latin term sacra as a loan word in Greek are included.