Since its publication just over a decade ago, this book has played a large role in discussions of ancient demography, both in renewed debate about old problems and in the introduction of new topics. To do justice to this literature and see how far it might modify the views we set forth in the first edition of this book would mean rewriting its entire text. We do not judge that the time is ripe for such a wholesale reconsideration. This reprint edition does, however, offer the opportunity to make available to readers in convenient form the results of papyrological work over this decade.

The list of census declarations from Roman Egypt in the first edition of this book had been brought up to date as of 1 November 1993. This Supplement includes material known to us published after that date and before 31 July 2005, with the exception of the 63 households from the census register from an Upper Egyptian city published by us, with full presentation and analysis of the data, in P.Oxy.Census (Roger S. Bagnall, Bruce W. Frier, and Ian C. Rutherford, The Census Register P.Oxy. 984: The Reverse of Pindar's Paeans [Pap.Brux. 29, Brussels 1997]).